GUI utilities - uploading files

Overview

The file uploader provides a simple web-based user interface for uploading new files to the system, and for sharing them across the different communities.

Currently the main uses for file sharing in Infinit.e are:

• Uploading widgets to the system (this is actually better done via the widget uploader, which performs a number of uploads in a single step)
• Uploading JARs to the system to be used as MapReduce plugins.
• Storing sources before they are published to the system (this is all managed by the source builder GUI tool).

But the share interface is completely generic, and widgets can be developed that allow communities of users to share app-specific binary and text files between them. In addition, roadmap items to both the core platform and visualization framework include query sharing and per-user/community synonym handling that will use the share interface.

Logging In

The widget uploader can be accessed from <ROOT_URL>/manager/fileUploader.jsp (eg http://infinite.ikanow.com/manager/fileUploader.jsp). It can also be reached from the home page of the Manager webapp (itself linked from the main visualization GUI).

The following URL parameters are supported:

• In order to login with admin privileges (for admins only!), append "?sudo"or "?sudo=true" to the URL (eg http://infinite.ikanow.com/manager/fileUploader.jsp?sudo).
  
  • If you are not logged-in with admin privileges you will only be able to edit your own files, though you will still be able to share files with any communities of which you are a member - this is different to both source management and widget uploading, where you must be a community moderator/owner.
• You can filter to only certain types of file, using "?ext=<type>", where <type> is either "jar" or a MIME type (eg "pdf" for "application/pdf"). The GUI also provides a drop down for performing this from the set of available source or MIME types, so it should not normally be necessary to filter manually this way.
  
  • Practical examples of filtering are described below.

This brings up username and password fields and a login button. (Unless already logged in, eg into the manager or main GUI - in which case skip to the next section).

Note that:

• The file uploader shares its cookie with the main GUI, the widget uploader, the source builder, and the person manager - logging into any of them will log into all of them.

Uploading a new file

The above figure shows the tool shortly after log-in.

To upload the file, simply fill in the fields, select the file from your hard drive and network drives, and select "Submit". Note that at present all uploaded files are treated as binary not JSON.

Note that you can select either a single or multiple (CTRL+click) communities. You can share files with any available community. If you upload to only your personal community, only you (and system administrators) will have access to the file.

The system will automatically detect the MIME type and store this - this will be used both in filtering (see below) and for the content-type for when that file is served from the REST API.

Editing existing shares

After log-in, all files you own can be seen from the top drop-down menu (initially called "Upload New File"). If you are a community owner or moderator, all files in your communities can be seen in addition. If you an administrator, all files in the system can be seen. 

The "?ext=<type>" URL parameter can be used to filter on file type (or use the filter drop down menu). For example, in the above screen capture, both the SWF and JPEG files corresponding to the listed widgets are shown.

Compare with the following screen capture:

Here we have filtered to only show files with MIME type "x-shockwave-application", and only the SWFs are shown. Conversely, using "ext=gif" would have restricted the drop down to show only the icon files.

Currently, the most common usage will be "ext=jar" ("jar" is a special string defined for this tool), to view Hadoop plugins.

Once a file has been chosen, it can be modified by changing the fields (and/or choosing a different file), and then selecting the "Submit" button.

At present there are some restrictions on how an existing file can be updated:

• If a new file is uploaded, the entirety of the share can be modified (title, description, communities, and of course file).
• If a new file is not uploaded, ie "No file chosen" is displayed next to file, only the communities can be updated.
• (This restriction will be removed in a future version of the tool).

Deleting files

Log in and choose a file as above, then select the "Delete" button.