Title: Inspecting and Managing Files via the File Details View

From any article view where attachments or Article Share Files/Folders are listed at the bottom, you can access a detailed view of any file's or folder's properties by clicking on the file details icon which always appears to the left of a file's or folder's file icon. This link launches the File Details view for the file or folder. Here is a sample file details view:



The DAV logo in the upper right corner of a File Details view tells us that this file is WebDAV enabled.

The File Details view presents the following information for the most recent version of a file:



Managing Files with the File Details View



The File Details view also supports several file manipulation functions. The set of operations supported depends upon whether the file is under WebDAV and version control. The general operations are rename, delete, update description, and replace file contents.

Rename and Delete



These basic operations are self-explanatory: to rename a file, type a new name in the file name text box



and click the "rename" button. Likewise, to delete a file, click the "delete" button. The File Details view does not support the rename and delete operations for attachments unless you are a server administrator.

Renaming and Deleting Attachments



Caution: The names of attachments to Traction articles, as well as shared files, are stored in the journal. This is done to support fast link generation from Traction views without requiring folder lookups. However, this means that if an attachment's filename is changed, all links and cross-references to that attachment will break, including the link to the file from the portlet at the bottom of the article that it is atttached to! In the case of shared files and folders, portlet links will not be broken, but all other links will break! For this reason, only server administrators are permitted to rename and delete attachments and shared files/folders using the File Details view.

Since attachment links cannot be modified to use a revised file name, server administrators should not rename attachments. If a user attaches a file and realizes that the name of the attachment needs to be changed, the correct course of action is to use the Instant Publisher or HTML Edit form to remove the attachment and post a new copy with the correct name, then change any articles that link to the old attachment to link to the new one.

Updating File Description



The description can be updated by typing a new description in the larger text area, and clicking the "update description" button below it. If a file is under version control, updating the description will create a new version.

Replacing File Contents



The File Details view allows you to replace the contents of any file, even if it is not under WebDAV control. To clarify, this operation maintains the name of the existing file on the TeamPage server, but replaces the existing contents. This is as easy as using this interface to browse for the file that contains the content to use, and pressing the "replace" button:



To see how this operation can be combined with the version control features for WebDAV controlled files, please see the sections on Locking Files and Checkout Checkin.

Advanced Operations



The additional operations that the File Details view supports for WebDAV and version controlled files are covered in their own sections. These are Editing Microsoft Office Files from Windows with IE, manual Locking Files, Putting a File Under Version Control (version control cannot be deactivated), Checkout Checkin, cancel check out, and check in (with or without comment).



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Article: Doc138 (permalink)
Date: March 22, 2008; 4:04:44 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Author Name: Documentation Importer
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