DOcument eXchange (DOX)
Overview
DOX
offers web based document exchange with versioning, syncing and user
management.
DOX is designed as a modern replacement of ftp with rsync features.
DOX must be enabled by the fexmaster,
it is a configuration option and not activated per default.
DOX consists of folders (toplevel directories) with
their specific configuration (users, access, etc), stored on the F*EX
server.
A folder can contain any number of document files or subdirectories.
As with F*EX archive sharing DOX documents do not
have an expiration date. They stay online, until you delete them.
DOX is not suitable for backup purposes, because it does not convey
file attributes like permissions, ownerships or ACLs and it cannot handle
hard links correctly.
Better use archive sharing for this task.
DOX has an integrated web gallery generator for files of type JPG GIF PNG PBM and TIF
(Example).
Usage
You can use DOX with any webbrowser with javascript
support.
With the CLI client
fexdox
from the
fextools
package you can synchronize a local directory with DOX, either for upload or
for download.
Owner and users
DOX has two different views: owner or user
- For owner view you must be logged in as owner,
using your regular F*EX login.
It offers you an overview of all your folders and backup versions.
Entering a folder or backup version shows its content.
An owner can create any number of folders and upload files in a folder.
Example screenshots (click for full size):
Files and directories with a "#" prefix are private:
they are blocked for user access, only the owner can read them.
Files and directories which start with a "." in their name are
automatic private, e.g. ".fexdox" or ".preview"
- For user view you need a DOX URL from the owner, e.g.
https://fex.rus.uni-stuttgart.de/dox/framstag@rus.uni-stuttgart.de/test/
It offers you read access only to this folder (and
subdirectories).
A user can read or download files or directories.
A user cannot see or read blocked files or directories.
For upload he needs a special user account, see below.
Example screenshot (click for full size):
Both, owner and user, can use the CLI client
fexdox
for file syncing and a webbrowser to download or upload documents.
Some document types like GIF PNG JPG PDF HTML TXT can be viewed directly
with a webbrowser.
Folders and configuration
The owner can create a folder either with his webbrowser, or with the CLI client
fexdox
A folder on the fexserver has the same name as your local directory.
Allowed characters for the folder name are A-Z a-z 0-9 @ ~ ^ . , + -
All other characters will be substituted with "_" (underscore).
A /FOLDER/.fexdox/ configuration subdirectory will be
automatically created.
/FOLDER/.fexdox/config contains the configuration:
backups=NUMBER
| # how many backup versions fexdox automatically creates and keeps (default: 1) |
useraccess=no
| # no access for other users |
useraccess=yes
| # access for other users listed in the users file (default) |
useraccess=anonymous
| # anonymous read access for everybody |
charset=NAME
| # character set name for files (default: utf-8) |
showdelete=all
| # show [delete] button for folders and backups (default) |
showdelete=backup
| # show [delete] button for backups |
showdelete=no
| # show no [delete] button |
In /FOLDER/.fexdox/users you can write your users with passwords:
USER1:PASSWORD1
USER2:PASSWORD2
USER3:PASSWORD3
...
User and password can be any string (without spaces and colons).
If the user string is an email address, this user can send files
to the owner via [send file] button.
You can further restrict user access to specific ips or ip ranges via
configuration file /FOLDER/.fexdox/access with the content:
IP1
IP2-IP3
...
User access to specific files and directories can be blocked via
/FOLDER/.fexdox/private with the content:
FILE1
FILE2
DIR1/FILE3
...
You can use the well known shell meta characters (wild cards)
"*" "?" "[...]" in the file and directory names.
Files and directories with names beginning with
"." or "#" or ending with "~" are implicitly blocked.
No user will see or can download blocked files.
User upload
To allow user upload the owner has to create an upload directory for
him.
This can be done in /FOLDER/.upload via
[Create] an upload directory for user ...
Below you can set a "!publish" flag.
Only users with this flag are able to move their uploads to the regular
folder.
Without this flag you (the owner) have to do this manually.
Otherwise the uploaded files stay in the upload directory, invisable for
other users.
Extras
In .#.html or #.html you can put
HTML code which will be displayed above the directory listing, e.g:
<h1>This directory contains great stuff about hotchpotch</h1>
Versioning
The owner can create or delete a backup version of a folder via
webbrowser.
A backup version is represented as DATE_TIME string.
Backup versions are not accessible by users.
The owner can restore single files or directories or the whole backup
version.
The client
fexdox
automatically creates a new backup and keeps only that number of
backups specified in /FOLDER/.fexdox/config,
older backups will be deleted!
Folder actions
| [backup] | create backup version |
| [restore] | restore backup version |
| [delete] | delete backup version |
| [DELETE] | delete the folder with all backups |
Directory actions
| [list it] | list all files in all directories on one page |
| [zip it] | make a zip archive and offer a download link |
| [fex it] | fex the files to your email address |
| [sync it] | start fexsync for download |
| [stream it] | start _CENSORED_send for download
(preferred download method for BIG folders) |
| [browse it] | browse through the images in this directory |
| [gallery] | show a preview gallery of the images in this directory |
| [reload] | reload the page |
File actions
| [zip it] | make a zip archive of the the selected files and offer download link |
| [fex it] | fex the selected files to your email address |
| [copy] | copy the selected files to another folder |
| [move] | move the selected files to another directory |
| [rename] | rename the selected files (you will be prompted for new names) |
| [publish] | move the selected files from the upload area to the regular folder directory |
| [delete] | delete the selected files |
| [list] | list the content of the zip archive |
| [extract] | extract the zip archive |
Other actions
| [mirror] | mirror (download to server directory) an URL |
Public
A folder named public is automatically created which
is open for anonymous access similar to anonymous ftp.
If you upload a zip archive to /public/gallery/ it will be
automatically extracted. See
Example.
The
F*EX client fexdoxgal creates automatically a public
gallery.
You can also (de)select any file in any folder for public access.
There is a corresponding button on every DOX directory page.
Restrictions
- a folder name must consist of characters [A-Za-z0-9@_.+-]
- DOX cannot handle files or directories with newline character in their names
- with a webbrowser one can only upload a single file, to upload several
files or directories one has to
put them in a local zip archive
- hard links will be broken between partial updates
- transfers of more than 4 GB with a webbrowser are volatile, better use
client fexdox
| archive sharing | document exchange |
| storage unit | share | folder |
| storage subunit | archive set | directory (nested) |
| storage object | archive | file |
| file synchronization | no | yes |
| file attributes preservation | yes | modification time only |
| annotations | yes | directory only |
| versioning level | archive | folder |
| cooperative administration | yes | no |
| expiration/autodelete | no | no |
| transfer size | unlimited | unlimited |
| resuming of interrupted transfers | yes | yes |
| users managed by owner | yes | yes |
| user upload | yes | yes |
| users may delete objects | yes | no |
| anonymous usage | optional | optional |
| web interface | yes | yes |
| CLI | yes | yes |
| notification of new uploads | optional | optional |
Names in UPPERCASE in this document are placeholders, you have to
substitute them with real values!
