News

An XML Soap interface is now available. With this interface, a developer could write their own client to directly manipulate the benwillies file server by remotely calling the File Server methods for querying and updating the database. As you will see, it is nothing more than what you can do yourself in the Files section of this site, with the one exception of not being able to change the default access privileges of a folder (limited access for any visitor to the site to view and download any file in the folder). One really nice use of this web service is the ability to upload an entire folder of pictures all at once. So if you are a developer, I have written a couple of client scripts using PHP to help get you started.Continued...

In anticipation of perhaps migrating the database to another server, I moved the password encryption functions from the database layer to the controller layer to avoid ever sending a password in plain text over any network, even my local network. I also changed the basic encryption algorithm and since passwords cannot be decrypted and I have no other record of them other than in encrypted form, all registered users must reset their password in order to apply the new algorithm. You will not be able to login again until you reset your password, which will assign an arbitrary password to your account that will be emailed to you. Then just login using the assigned password and edit your account to change it to any password of your choice, even back to your old password. Please note that all passwords are case-sensitive. If you have changed your email address since your account was registered or if you experience any other problems, please contact Technical Support for assistance.

Entering something into the Description/Comments box on the Edit Folder page could now result in something interesting happening. Instead of a somewhat private note mainly to yourself about the purpose of a folder, under a particular circumstance, you could be publishing your commentary to the world, or at least helping casual visitors find their way around in your subfolders. From now on, whenever a folder is selected that is empty of files, any comments you've entered will be displayed instead of the standard "Nothing found" message. To see how it works, go to the Files module and open the Benwillies folder located in The Public Domain. Also new is a tiny counter that will appear next to any input box on any form page that accepts long text messages so you know how many more characters you can fit into box.

When viewing a list of results, you could always click on a column heading to sort the list in either ascending or descending order, depending on which field was selected. For most fields that would be ascending order, but very often, dollars, counts and ID numbers would default to descending order since most of the time, the largest or latest items are of the most interest. A new feature has been added where if you click the heading again on the already sorted column, it will reorder the list in reverse, so that a list in ascending order will then be in descending order and vice versa. In other words, the column heading is now a toggle for sorting a list alternately in ascending/descending order. (Contributed by Axel Shalson)

A new module that provides the basic functionality of managing a catalog of products, presumably for sale, has been completed. Although it has not been activated in this site, you can see how it works in the special demonstration site. A shopping cart and the ability to accept credit card payments will be added in the near future.

Folders can no longer be changed, moved or deleted by anyone other than the creator and the Administrator of the Group where the folder is located, even if it has been setup with Group access privileges, which allow any member of that Group the ability to create subfolders and to upload, download, rename, delete and copy any file in that folder. Before this change, these Group folders were just too exposed, resulting in some of them simply disappearing. But please note that if a folder with Group access privileges is in a Group that is open to the public, then anyone can view and therefore download any file in that folder, even though they still will not be able to upload, change or delete files unless they belong to the Group. Unless that is, that Group is "The Public Domain"! So yes, assigning Group access privileges to a folder in "The Public Domain" will no longer result in the destruction of that folder, it will still grant just about every file access privilege to everyone on the planet and you can bet that anything in that folder will get trashed sooner rather than later since we are currently allowing anyone to register an account. And this is precisely why the default privileges when creating any folder is "Limited Access" which only allows everyone to view and download the files in that folder and nothing else. Please be very mindful when changing the permissions on a folder.