The iProject server stores uploaded data on a harddrive located on the machine it's installed on. The files you access on the iProject are files located somewhere on the server machine itself. Shared directories, however, are directories that exist on another machine that the iProject server machine has access to. Mapping Shared Directories in the iProject allows users to access specific and pre-determined files and folders on machines they might not otherwise have access to. This prevents having to upload data from a machine to the iProject and also limits duplication of data for heavily used file sets.
Mapping a shared directory is done through the use of a wizard as described below. Only directories that your iProject System Administrator has specified may be mapped as shared directories. If there is a directory you would like to have shared within a project, you'll need to speak with your iProject System Administrator. To start the Map Shared Directory wizard, click on the Map a Shared Directory button in the iExplorer. This is the icon that looks like a folde with a hand holding it from underneath.
The first step in the wizard is a welcome screen. It tells you that you've opened the Map Shared Directory wizard and give a brief description of the steps you'll be going through to map a Shared Directory in this project. Clicking the Continue button will take you to the next step.
In the next step is where you choose the directory you'd like to map as a Shared Directory. In the Select Shared Directory section, you'll see a list of the paths that the iProject Administrator has designated as "mappable." Selecting a folder will populate the boxes below, specifically: name, description and path. The Name is the name of the mapped directory on the server. The Description is a brief summary that the iProject Server Administrator has given to the mapped folder to describe what it is and what it may contain. The Path shows the path name as the server machine would recognize it.
Always try to select the most specific ddirectory you can when mapping a new Shared Directory. Mapping an entire drive on another machine or an incredibly complex directory structure may allow too much access for users of the project, and if the directory structure is too large or complex, or there are a lot of files, opening the project will take a lot oc unnecessary extra time to load as the iProject reads through all of those directories and files. Once you've chosen the specific folder you want to map as a Shared Directory, click the Continue button to move on to the next step.
The next step is simply choosing the place where you'd like the Shared Directory to appear within the project. When you click a directory here so that it's highlighted, you will be choosing the place your Shared Directory will appear when you complete the wizard. Click Continue to go to the next step.
Next, we'll choose a display name and a description for the share. The display name is the name that will appear in the folder list in the iExporer and File Transfer areas. The display name should be descriptive, but not overly so. The description is where you should put extra details about where the folder is, what it contains, what sort of data should and should not be stored here, and other important information about the directory. Click Continue to move on to the next step.
Role Creation is the next step. Here you can choose whether or not to create directory-specific roles for allowing different levels of access to this Shared Directory. Anyone with access to the parent directory that the Shared Folder will be contained in will automatically inherit permission to view the shared directory, so creating these roles is more geared towards granting access to people that may not have permission to view the folder this Shared Directory will be created in. For instance, if someone had permission to view and access the Documentation folder of a project but not the Engineering folder, and the Shared Directory was to be placed under the Engineering folder, creating this role would make it easy to give that person access to only the Shared Directory and not the entire Engineering folder and its contents.
The last step is the Confirmation step. Here you'll review all of the information you've entered throughout the wizard pertaining to the new Shared Directory you're about to create. Review this information carefully, and if everything is in order, clicking the Continue button will create your Shared Directory. If anything is amiss, you can use the Back button to go back and fix the mistake.
You shared directory should appear in the folder you chose as its destination, and this folder should work like any other folder in the iProject. The only difference is that you may not delete files from within a shared folder. The ability to delete files and directories in a Shared Directory has been purposefully disabled in the iProject for safety and security reasons. If you click delete on the root of the shared folder, the entire Shared Directory will be unmapped, but no data will be deleted.
 |
 |
 |