4 Administration

This chapter describes the configuration and administration of the WebShare File Server.

Launch a browser and enter the WebShare WebObjects Server address, using port 2009, e.g.:
http://<yourhostname>.company.com:2009

In order to have WebShare administrative privileges, a user must log in as "root" (UNIX based servers) or "Administrator" (Windows based servers), or be a member of either the "WSAdm" or the "SysAdm" group. Members of the "SysAdm" group have administrative privileges for HELIOS Admin and WebShare. Members of the "WSAdm" group have administrative privileges for WebShare only.

The password must be a valid host user password, which has been assigned using HELIOS Admin or "HELIOSDIR/bin/authutil".

Important: After the first time installation of a HELIOS product the "root" and "demouser" passwords are empty and must be assigned!

HELIOS Admin is used to set the "root" and "demouser" passwords as described in "Setting passwords" in the Base manual. You can then set additional WebShare host user passwords (see 4.1 "Server Preferences", below), and assign administrators to the "WSAdm" or "SysAdm" groups. Alternatively, the HELIOS utility program "authutil" can be used to set passwords (see "authutil" in the Base manual). In the event that HELIOS Admin is not available, the server's system level utilities must be used to create the "WSAdm" or "SysAdm" groups, and add users to them.

Complete details on how to access and log in to HELIOS Admin can be found in "Starting HELIOS Admin" and "Logging on to the HELIOS Admin server" in the Base manual.

HELIOS Admin can also be accessed via WebShare, as an administrative user, in the "HELIOS Applications" sharepoint:

From a Mac client, click on "MacOS", and select and download the "HELIOS Admin.app". For other platforms click on Java, select "HELIOS Admin.jar", and download.

After a successful login, the "Home" window appears, allowing quick access to the defined sharepoints (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5: WebShare "Home" window

Click on the Administration button. From within the "Administration" section, select the desired item (Fig. 6).

4.1 Server Preferences

The "Server Preferences" window (Fig. 7) allows specifying default values for the WebShare File Server.

Fig. 7: "Server Preferences" window

WebShare keeps image preview files, which have already been displayed, in a cache on the WebShare File Server, so they will open quite quickly the next time they are requested. The Cache Size in MB and the path to the Cache Directory are specified in the respective fields. If the Cache Directory is changed, the new directory must already exist, and have full rwx (read-write-execute) privileges for all.

The number of files in the cache is only limited by the assigned cache size. When the cache is full, WebShare starts to delete old files in the cache in order to store newer files. If the Remove All Cache Files checkbox is ticked, WebShare deletes all cache files upon clicking the Save Preferences button.

The Remove All Cache Files operation should be done without any users connected, to avoid login time-outs during the removing. Alternatively, the WebShare File Server can be stopped with the srvutil stop websharesrv command and the content of the cache directory subsequently deleted with rm -r cachedir/*.

Note: The default value for CacheSize is 30 (MB), due to the usually limited disk space in "HELIOSDIR/var". If you change the CacheDir preference to another path, it is recommended to set CacheSize to a value of at least 300 (MB).

WebShare acts as an SMTP client, and can send e-mail notifications via an SMTP server running on the same host, or via an external SMTP server.

Note: The server settings SMTPHost and SMTPSender must be set up correctly for e-mail notification to work (see SMTP in "Server Settings" in the Base manual).

By use of the Enable E-Mail Message for Users option, the administrator can determine whether the Mail functionality (see Edit > in 5.3 "Work in a sharepoint") is available to WebShare users.

Enable WebShare for Host Users and Enable WebShare for Virtual Users determine which type of users can connect to WebShare. Host Users are those users who are listed in the HELIOS password file "var/conf/passwd" or who are provided via AD/PDC or LDAP. Virtual Users are user names who have been set up as WebShare users only, but are mapped to a host user name (compare 4.2 "User Administration"). If Enable WebShare for Host Users is not checked, then individual Host Users can still be enabled by entering them as Virtual Users. If neither checkbox is marked, only "root" (or Virtual Users mapped to the user "root") can log in.

Important: Host users must have an entry in the HELIOS password file "var/conf/passwd". Otherwise they will not be accepted as valid users and hence cannot log on to the WebShare File Server.

The Directory Listing Date Format can be customized, e.g. according to American or European date format preferences. For details go to:

The two pop-up menus Default Windows Encoding and Default Mac OS Encoding specify the default download encoding for the used client platform. The setting determined here is applied when OS Default in the Download Encoding pop-up menu (see 5.6 "My User Preferences") is selected.

The Preview Resolutions (pixel or dpi) field is used to specify custom preview resolutions for the remote file preview option (requires ImageServer). Preview pages include four "zoom icons", which are set to fixed values of 256, 512, 768, and 1024 pixels. In addition, there is a pop-up menu, which can be used to offer custom preview resolutions. This makes sense if preview resolutions or sizes are frequently required which differ from the default. The custom pop-up menu dpi and pixel values can be specified in the Preview Resolutions (pixel or dpi) field, as a comma-separated list. Note that images will not be scaled up from their original resolution (i.e., if the image is 512 pixels, and the user selects 768 pixels, the preview will be only 512 pixels). The preview resolution default pop-up list values are: 36, 72, 96, 144 dpi and 256, 512, 768, 1024 pixel.

The setting of the checkboxes Enable Register User Option and Enable Forgot Password Option determines whether the Register as a New User and Forgot Password? links become available in the login window.

Note: These options enable the "wsregnewuser.pl" and "wsforgotpw.pl" WebShare utility programs (see 7.2 "WebShare utility programs"). These two sample scripts do not really register a new user, or generate/send a new password, until they have been customized to do so.

With the checkbox Enforce RSA Crypted Passwords checked, only encrypted user logins are permitted. For this purpose, JavaScript must be active in the web browser.

If the checkbox Allow URL Share Access is ticked, direct access to a specified WebShare sharepoint or to a document preview is possible. See 4.9 "WebShare URL share access" for a description on how WebShare link sharing works and what attributes can be set.

The pop-up menu Default Branding allows pre-selecting a global branding for all users on the WebShare File Server. This setting can be overridden by the setting of the Branding pop-up menu in the "User Administration" window (see 4.2 "User Administration").

Click on the Save Preferences button to save modifications. Otherwise the changes will not be saved and will be lost.

4.2 User Administration

The "User Administration" window (Fig. 8) has basically the same features as the "My User Preferences" window (5.6 "My User Preferences"). Authorized users, e.g. system administrators, can create and delete WebShare virtual users, and assign them preset values for Download Encoding, Zip Streaming Format and Branding. In addition, it offers the Privileged Transfer option which reserves a higher transfer bandwidth for the corresponding user. For all other users, file transfers will then (and only then!) be restricted to modem speed (5 kB/s).

Fig. 8: WebShare "User Administration" window

Windows local users as well as AD/PDC user names, groups and passwords are automatically supported by WebShare. Host user password changes must be done with the respective tools within Windows. Changing the host user password is not supported within WebShare.

Virtual users are created and managed within WebShare. A virtual name, e.g. CustomerA or CustomerB does not exist as a host user. However, each virtual user must be assigned to a valid host user account, e.g. "webtransfer", using the WebShare Run as Host User setting. In this case, the host user "webtransfer" must exist with a valid password on the host and the identical user and password must be created in the "var\conf\passwd" file using the HELIOS "authutil" command.

An identical host user and password must be created via the HELIOS "authutil" tool in the HELIOS password file:

WebShare virtual users can change their WebShare password within WebShare in Administration > My User Preferences.

Note: Only the virtual user password is changed. The password for the corresponding host user remains unchanged.

Like the HELIOS Admin administrative groups "SysAdm", "PrnAdm", "QueueAdm", the administrative group "WSAdm" must be created via Windows to allow control of administrative rights within HELIOS Admin.

In the User Name field enter an arbitrary name. This user name need not exist on the host. You may also enter the name of an existing HELIOS user on that host. Then assign a password to the user in the Password field.

Note: It is compulsory for a WebShare Virtual User to have a password assigned. A Host User need not have a WebShare password, but it is highly recommended for security reasons. See Change WebShare password in 5.6 "My User Preferences".

With the Cannot change Password checkbox ticked, users are prevented from modifying their password.

If the user specified in the User Name field is not a host user, then the entered name must be mapped to a HELIOS host user name in the Run as Host User field. (Note that the specified host user must already exist on the host.)

If an E-Mail Address is specified, it appears in the individual user settings (see 5.6 "My User Preferences"). This e-mail address is used as the "From:" e-mail address if that user uses the mail feature. If this is left blank, then that user cannot send e-mail using WebShare. The next two fields are optional and need not be filled out: Comment serves as a means to provide additional information on the WebShare user, e.g. to which company or department they belong (see Fig. 8). An expiry date may be specified in the Expires field. The syntax must match that from the example next to the field.

Download Encoding specifies the default download encoding for the user client platform. The setting determined here is applied as the default in the Download Encoding pop-up menu (see 5.6 "My User Preferences"). With the Zip Streaming Format checkbox ticked, the file download uses Zip streaming, which allows file compression on-the-fly, without creating any temporary files.

After creating a WebShare user, or configuring existing users, click on the Save Changes button before proceeding to other tasks. Otherwise the entries will not be saved. To clear all data entry fields and set the Download Encoding and Zip Streaming Format back to the default values, click on the Clear Form button.

Important: Do not click on Save Changes at this point because the data entry fields still contain the user information, and hence the user will be re-created!

For a correct table display you may need to update the window by clicking on the Refresh button at the top of the window. The table listing the WebShare users can be sorted by clicking on the desired column header.

Note: Deleting users removes only virtual users, and host user (WebShare) passwords.

In the event that a system administrator needs to drop a user connection, there are three primary methods:

Using WebShare, go to "Administration > Java Server Statistics", and under "WebShare User Statistics", click "Session Details. Show".
Terminate the desired session.

Using HELIOS Admin (Lists > Active Users), show the connections, and use either the "Delete" key or the "trash can" icon to terminate the selected connection.

Or use the swho -c command (see Base manual) to list active users and the corresponding process ID (pid). Then kill -TERM pid can be used to terminate that process.

4.3 Organize sharepoints

WebShare sharepoints can be organized to suit the required demands, for example, of a production site. The diagram below shows an example where a HELIOS EtherShare or PCShare volume is published via WebShare. At Customer C's site only the CEO is allowed to have full read and write access to the volume. However, the sharepoint is configured to the effect that the staff at Customer C's site is only allowed download access. Each user is only able to see their own projects. It is possible to share the same projects for different users with individual permissions.

A WebShare sharepoint can have different task and action rights for different users or groups:

4.4 Sharepoint Administration

With the "Sharepoint Administration" window (Fig. 9) WebShare sharepoints can be created, configured or deleted.

Fig. 9: WebShare "Sharepoint Administration" window

The sharepoint "WebShare Public" is created under the path "HELIOSDIR/public/WebShare" during the installation. By default, it has no write access.
In addition, the volume "HELIOS Applications"/"HELIOS APPS" is created for the user "root". It has no write access either.

In the Sharepoint Name field enter the name you want to assign to the sharepoint, and then specify the Sharepoint Path. (Note that the specified path must already exist with adequate access rights on the host.)

In the (optional) E-Mail on Access field enter an e-mail address for notification mails after a user has downloaded, uploaded, deleted, or just previewed a file. (The e-mail is sent as soon as the user has logged off.) Make sure that the complete recipient e-mail address is specified, e.g. webshare@mycompany.com

The optional Comment field allows entering additional information about the sharepoint. The comments are displayed in the "Home" window (see Fig. 5).

With the Publish checkbox at the top of the window you can specify if the sharepoint is available at all.

The following options determine whether the buttons in the sharepoint toolbar are enabled:

Allow Preview
Allows the previewing of text documents. ImageServer is required to preview image files, and QuarkXPress and InDesign documents. ImageServer and PDF HandShake are needed to preview PDF documents (see 7.4 "Image and document previews" for complete details).

Allow Download
Allows the download of marked files and folders from the respective sharepoint.

Allow Upload
Allows the upload of files and folders (with or without Zip compression) to this sharepoint.

Allow Copy
Allows copying, moving, duplicating and pasting marked files and folders. Also allows creating directories by use of the Create Dir option in the File > pop-up menu.

Allow Rename
Allows renaming a marked file or folder by use of the Rename option in the File > pop-up menu.

Note: Changing permissions is only allowed if also Allow Rename is allowed.

Download Layouts Only
Specifies that only files inside layout folders in the sharepoint can be downloaded. Layout files are low-resolution proxy files created by ImageServer, for use in OPI aware page layout applications.

Note: The Download Layouts Only function requires that Allow Download is also active. Otherwise no download action will be possible at all.

Always Allow Reading
Allows file and folder read access for all WebShare users, regardless of their host file and folder permissions. This option only affects the downloading or previewing of files.

Always Allow Read/Write
Allows file and folder read/write access for all WebShare users, regardless of their host file and folder permissions. This option only affects the uploading, downloading, or previewing of files, NOT other file management options (e.g. copy/move/paste).

Note: The Always Allow Reading and Always Allow Read/Write options will only be available if enabled by a preference key setting. See AllowAllReadWrite in 7.5 "Preference keys".

The Allowed Users and Allowed Groups fields serve as a means of access control for the sharepoint:

If there are no entries in either of the fields, all WebShare users can access the sharepoint. Entries in the Allowed Users field allow only those particular users to access the sharepoint. Likewise, entries in Allowed Groups allow only members of those groups to access the sharepoint. Users who are not allowed access to a sharepoint will not even see it, it will be hidden from them.

Note: Valid names in the Allowed Users field may be WebShare user names or host user names. The Allowed Groups field accepts valid host group names. Each entry must be in a separate line.

After creating a WebShare sharepoint, or configuring existing sharepoints, click on the Save Changes button before proceeding to other tasks. Otherwise the entries would not be saved and get lost. To clear the data entry fields click on the Clear Form button.

To set up different access rights for the same UNIX directory on the WebShare File Server you can create multiple sharepoints, with the same path but each with a unique name and different access rights (Allowed Users, Allowed Groups).

Likewise, it is possible to set up different file management and previewing options for the same UNIX directory on the WebShare File Server by creating two sharepoints, with the same path but different allowances (Allow Preview, Allow Download, Allow Upload, Allow Copy, Allow Delete, Allow Rename, Always Allow Reading, Always Allow Read/Write and Download Layouts Only).

After creating a sharepoint you may wish to view the file permissions corresponding to the sharepoint content:

Click on the Home button, and then on the desired sharepoint. Use File > Set View > Extended to view the "Permissions". If you need to change the permissions, refer to File > in 5.3 "Work in a sharepoint" for details.

These permissions will be inherited by any files uploaded via WebShare, and hence determine which users will be able to view files, and change file permissions. Likewise, you may wish to change the file permissions for any existing files in the sharepoint, to enable the desired access for users.

Select a sharepoint from the table and click on the Delete Sharepoint button. For a correct table display you may need to update the window by clicking on the Refresh button in the toolbar. The table listing the sharepoints can be sorted by clicking on the respective column header.

In general, every WebShare sharepoint should also be the same as, or a subset of, a HELIOS volume, to ensure that files with Mac resource forks, or Windows file streams, get handled properly. Use HELIOS Admin ("Volumes" in the Base manual) to define a volume (it need not be published) on each unique top level share. Lower level shares must NOT have their own (nested) volume definition. In the case that neither EtherShare nor PCShare is installed, HELIOS Admin can still be used to define volumes.

4.5 Accounting

The "Accounting" window (Fig. 10) lists all user actions on the WebShare File Server. The default view displays User, Action, Time, Sharepoint, Path and Entry per action.

Fig. 10: WebShare "Accounting" window

By means of the pop-up menu you can choose which accounting file is displayed in the "Accounting" window. The content is taken from the files "webshare.acct" (today) to "webshare.acct.6" (seven days ago), which are stored in "HELIOSDIR/var/adm".

By use of the toolbar item Set View you can change the design of the list: Default (as seen in Fig. 10), Extended (includes "Path", "user agent" (browser), "OS" and "platform" information, and states the date in the "Time" column), and Small. A click on column headers changes the sort order. An entry can appear with a yellow or red background. Red is used to highlight security warnings (e.g. login errors). Yellow is used for informational warnings (e.g. download errors).

Detailed accounting information (Fig. 11) for uploaded and downloaded archives is available when clicking on the (Details) link.

Fig. 11: "Accounting Details" window

Note: Downloads from a WebShare sharepoint are always archives. Therefore every download action features the (Details) link.

4.6 Branding Editor

WebShare now features the Branding Editor, which allows defining brandings for each WebShare user, i.e. adjusting the GUI on a per client basis (Fig. 12). Clients can thus bring their corporate design into WebShare, which has the following advantages:

4.6.1 Create and configure brandings

All branding components are stored on the WebShare File Server in the folder "WebShare/Brandings/<branding>" in the "Settings" volume. You may copy images to this folder, they will then be available in the Branding Editor pop-up menus.

Note: Whenever the Branding Editor is invoked for the first time after the start of the WebShare WebObjects Server, the brandings are synchronized between the WebShare File Server and the WebShare WebObjects Server. Therefore it can take some seconds until the "Branding Editor" window opens.

In the "default" branding line click on the Duplicate link, enter a name for the new branding and click on the Save Branding button.

Note: Use only ASCII characters A-Z, numbers 0-9, minus ("-"), and underscore ("_") for the branding names.

The duplicate branding (in the example named "HELIOS") is now listed in the "Branding Name" column. See Fig. 13.

Fig. 13: "Branding Editor" window

Due to the duplication, the new branding initially comes with the same settings and configuration as the "default" branding. The branding can now be customized:

This section (Fig. 14) shows the login URL (which includes the branding name). It offers a pop-up menu to choose the login image, a comment field, and a field to enter a name under which the branding appears in the "Bonjour" network environment, e.g. in Apple's Safari browser (note the arrow in Fig. 15).

Click on the View link to open a preview of the chosen login image in a new window.

The login URL (Fig. 14) can be provided to users who should see and use this branding. Those users must also be assigned this same branding via the "User Administration" page (4.2 "User Administration"). Using the branding login URL ensures that the user is shown the branding login image (Fig. 14) and login page corresponding to that branding, even though the user has not yet logged in. Once the user logs in, the branding that has been assigned for that user via the "User Administration" page will be used.

If users navigate to the WebShare server without using their branding login URL, they will see the login image and login page which has been set via the Default pre-Login Branding pop-up menu (Fig. 13). If a user was not assigned a branding, once they log in, they will see the default branding defined on the "Server Preferences" page (4.1 "Server Preferences").

Each page in WebShare is generated as an HTML page. This section allows defining colors, background images, font family, sizes, etc. (Fig. 16).

Fig. 16: "Body" section

Next to each color definition field is a preview of the specified color. If you click on this square a color picker opens allowing you to pick a color. The color picker supports three modes (Fig. 16):

All color definitions can be entered in the corresponding fields either with their name according to the HTML standard ("red", "black", "green", etc.), in their hexadecimal value (e.g. #000000 for "black"), or as RGB values. You may enter "transparent" into a color definition field, or leave the field empty, to assign transparency. The following table lists possible color definitions according to the CSS2 specification:

Value	Example	Description
HTML color	maroon	-
#rrggbb	#CC0066	Hex 6 digits
#rgb	#C06	Hex 3 digits
rgb(rrr, ggg, bbb)	rgb(204, 0, 102)	Decimal RGB
rgb(rrr%, ggg%, bbb%)	rgb(80%, 0%, 40%)	Decimal RGB in percentage notation
Enter "transparent" or leave empty	transparent	Transparency

Note: RGB values, e.g. of corporate spot colors, can be determined by using color meters (e.g. Photoshop Eyedropper tool) and reading out the values from the color picker. These can then be entered in the color value text field, or "reproduced" with the color sliders of the color picker.

The "Vertical Toolbar Padding" setting only addresses IE 6 users. It allows specifying the padding between the button strings and the toolbar background. Of course, this setting only applies if the toolbar alignment is set to vertical.

In this section the background colors for even and odd table rows can be defined (Fig. 17). It is advisable to specify background colors that contrast with each other, in order to enhance the readability of rows in larger table listings.

Fig. 17: "Tables" section

This section allows specifying the appearance of the WebShare toolbar (Fig. 18). The toolbar can be aligned horizontally (Fig. 19) or vertically, and a background color and a background image can be assigned to it:

Fig. 18: "Toolbar" section

Select from the pop-up menu whether the toolbar background image should be repeated vertically (repeat-y), horizontally (repeat-x), or in both directions (repeat-xy). If no-repeat is selected, the background image is not repeated at all, i.e. it only appears once.

If the Show Disabled Buttons checkbox is not active, disabled buttons and menu items are hidden.

This section allows specifying the appearance of the WebShare toolbar buttons (Fig. 20):

Important: The configuration of the toolbar buttons must not be confused with the toolbar configuration!

Some configurable items in this section were already described above in other sections.

If the Show Button Icon checkbox is not active, icons are hidden and only the button caption is visible.

If the Show Button Caption checkbox is not active, captions are hidden and only the button is visible.

Note: If the Show Button Icon checkbox is switched off, Show Button Caption is automatically activated.

You may define a welcome message (Fig. 21) for the WebShare "Login" window (Fig. 22). All HTML tags are allowed to format the text.

Fig. 21: "Welcome Message" section

4.6.2 Import brandings

You may also import WebShare brandings, which have previously been created with the Branding Editor, from the "Settings" volume:

Note: Make sure the branding you want to import is available in "var/settings/WebShare/Brandings".

Click on the Import Brandings from WebShare File Server link on top of the Branding Editor.

Note: While importing brandings, the WebShare WebObjects Server synchronizes with the WebShare File Server. Therefore it can take some seconds until the imported branding(s) appear(s) in the list.

All brandings in "var/settings/WebShare/Brandings" will be imported into the Branding Editor and are listed in the "Branding Name" column (Fig. 23; compare with Fig. 13).

Fig. 23: Imported brandings

4.6.3 Brandings and the "style" file

Each branding folder contains the file "style" which stores all branding settings. However, to make backups of a branding you should save the whole branding folder.

4.6.4 Add custom file icons

4.6.5 Add custom banner images

Mount the "Settings" volume (or define it as a WebShare sharepoint) and copy the image that you want to use as banner image into the brandings folder ("WebShare/Brandings/<branding>").

In the "Branding Editor" window click the Import Brandings from WebShare File Server. link to make your changes active.

In the "Body" section select from the pop-up menu Head Banner Image (or Foot Banner Image) the desired image file and confirm with the Save button.

4.6.6 Banner image URL mapping

You may define URL mappings for the head banner image and the foot banner image. The following attributes are allowed with the <area> tag:

Open "head.map" and replace the default content with the <area> tag and the desired attributes.

Note: You may define various URL mappings. For this, arrange the <area> tags one after the other.

In the "Branding Editor" window click the Import Brandings from WebShare File Server. link to make your changes active.

4.6.7 Add custom banner text

It is easy to add custom banner text to be included above the file listing in a WebShare file browser view. Simply save a text file named ".wsbanner" into the desired directory, and WebShare will add that text to the view of that directory. If the ".wsbanner" file is saved into the root directory of a sharepoint, it will apply to the entire directory tree. Simple HTML tags can be used to format the text.

4.6.8 Customize brandings via CSS

If it exists, the file "additional.css" in the branding folder "var/settings/WebShare/Brandings/<branding>" will automatically be included in every WebShare server response for the corresponding branding.
By default the file "additional_sample.css" is copied into "var/settings/WebShare/Brandings/<branding>" during the WebShare installation.

You may use this file as a template for defining additional styles within your custom WebShare branding:

Make a copy of this file and save it as "additional.css" or rename this file accordingly.

Remove all style definitions from this file except for those that you want to use.

In the WebShare "Branding Editor" window click on the Import Brandings from WebShare File Server. link.

Changes become visible for all sessions that use the modified branding immediately after the import.

4.6.9 Custom toolbar icons

It is possible to replace the toolbar icons that are shipped with WebShare with your custom icons:

Create your custom icon files in one or more of the sizes, specified in the Icon Size pop-up menu in the "Toolbar Buttons" section (compare Fig. 20), and save them in the PNG, GIF or JPEG format. Make sure that the icon files have the extension .png, .gif, .jpeg or .jpg.
The custom icon files must have the same name as the icons that you wish to replace, e.g. to replace the toolbar icon "copy.png" your custom icon must also be named "copy". Please do not forget to also replace the corresponding rollover icons which always have "_active" appended to their name, e.g. "copy_active.png". However, as already mentioned above, it is not required that the image format be also PNG but corresponding icons must have the same file format.
The icons shipped with WebShare are stored in "var/settings/WebShare/Brandings/default/icons".

Note: It is OK if your custom icons are smaller in size than the original icons. If your custom icon files are larger in size they will be clipped.

Copy the icons into the "icons" subfolder of "var/settings/WebShare/Brandings/<branding>".

In the WebShare "Branding Editor" window click on the Import Brandings from WebShare File Server. link.

The custom toolbar icons should now have replaced the corresponding icons that were selected in the "Toolbar Buttons" section.

4.6.10 Custom actions icons

It is also possible to add custom icons, which must be of the PNG format, to those action scripts that are available in the toolbar Actions > menu (see Actions > in 5.3.1 "The WebShare toolbar"):

Copy the icon into the "actions" subfolder (create if necessary) of "var/settings/WebShare/Brandings/<branding>". The custom icon file must have the same name as the action script that you wish to assign the icon to, e.g. name the icon "wssendmsg.png" if you want to assign this icon to the script "wssendmsg.pl".

In the WebShare "Branding Editor" window click on the Import Brandings from WebShare File Server. link. The actions in the Actions > menu should now have a leading icon.

4.7 Java Server Statistics

The "Java Server Statistics" window (Fig. 24) is organized in three sections: WebShare Server Information, WebShare Java Information, and WebShare User Statistics.

Fig. 24: WebShare "Java Server Statistics" window

4.7.1 WebShare Server Information

General information about the WebShare WebObjects host like the host name, the server start time, the uptime, the number of HTTP transactions and the average time per HTTP transaction, i.e. the elapsed time between HTTP request and response. In addition, the total amounts of uploaded, downloaded and preview data are displayed.

4.7.2 WebShare Java Information

Provides information on the hardware vendor, the OS, the Java version, the number of active Java threads as well as the assigned and available memory. Clicking on the Free memory link frees allocated memory that is currently unused.

4.7.3 WebShare User Statistics

Information about currently active users and peak active users is provided in this section. You can view session details by clicking on the Session details: Show link. In addition, all sessions, except for the user's own sessions, can be terminated by clicking on the Terminate link (Fig. 25). A click on the Session details: Hide link closes the session details view.

Fig. 25: WebShare session details

4.8 HELIOS Icon Collector

HELIOS Icon Collector collects all Windows or Mac file icons to make them available to the WebShare File Server for use in the directory listing.

4.8.1 Icon Collector (Windows)

Map the "HELIOS_APPS" network drive and open the "Windows" > "WebShare Tools" folder. Double-click the "HELIOS Icon Collector.exe" program icon.

Note: On Windows document types and programs are detected by the Registry.

4.8.2 Icon Collector (Mac OS X)

Mount the "HELIOS Applications" volume and open the "MacOS" > "WebShare Tools" folder. Double-click the "HELIOS Icon Collector" program icon.

Note: In the Search icons in: field the path to the location where the icons should be searched must be specified. This is usually "/Applications".

4.8.3 Usage

In the Save Icons in: field specify the path to the destination folder, where the icons are stored in the HELIOS native ".wsr" format, or select it using the Browse button (Fig. 26).

Important: The destination directory (folder) must already exist!

The process is complete when the progress bar has reached the end. Now all available file icons are stored in the ".wsr" format in the destination folder (Fig. 28).

The collecting of file icons can be repeated whenever new icons are added to the source workstation.

To display a ".wsr" file you can drag it in the HELIOS Icon Collector program window.

Now copy all files to "WebShare/Icons" in the "Settings" volume on the WebShare File Server.

Custom icons can also be copied to the destination folder. They must have the size 32x32, 48x48, or 64x64 and be in the PNG format.

Flash Player icon of the size 32x32 with type "APPL" and extension "SWF2":
type&creator32x32-4150504c-53574632.png

4.9 WebShare URL share access

WebShare URL share access can be used for customer convenience, to offer direct access to relevant content. Or, it can be used as part of a variable data or personalized URL system. WebShare URL share access offers a very powerful technique to integrate WebShare features or content into third party or custom applications.

This feature allows sharing document previews or directory listings from within any text document, e-mail or web application. Single images can be referenced from HTML in the src attribute of an <img> tag or the data attribute of an <object> tag.

4.9.1 Required parameters

4.9.2 Path parameter

4.9.3 Image parameters

If the path parameter is set and points to an image file, the following parameters can be appended:

Specify h or horizontal for flipping the image horizontally, v or vertical for flipping the image vertically. hv or vh or both flips the image horizontally and vertically. Omit this parameter or specify none for not flipping the image at all.

Specify 90, 180, or 270 to rotate the image by the specified degrees. Omit this parameter or specify none or 0 for not rotating the image.

You may also specify comma separated values, which are taken as x/y pixels, e.g:
zoom=512,512

If the path parameter is set and points to an multi-page document the following parameters can additionally be specified:

4.9.4 Response parameter

If the path parameter is set and points to an image file, you may want to fetch the image only. The following parameter can be used to embed images in an HTML page, e.g.:
<img src="[LINK_SHARE_URL]>"/>

Specify true or 1 to generate a response that does just contain the requested image. Omit this parameter or specify any other value to get a complete WebShare session, e.g.:
image-only=1

4.9.5 Image only parameters

Optional parameters if image-only is set to true or 1:

Specify either jpg or png or tiff or pdf or jp2 to convert the requested image to an other file type, e.g.:
image-type=pdf

Specify the name of the ICC profile that should be applied to the image. Omit this parameter to receive the original image or specify the string none to have the sRGB profile applied, e.g.:
profile=MatchPrintS%201.0%20UCR-370

If image-only is set to true or 1, and the profile parameter is set to a valid ICC profile name, you may define proof color options:

Specify a comma separated list of indices of each ink color that should be visible. For details refer to FilterInks option of the "layout" command (see ImageServer manual), e.g.:
filter-inks=2,3,4

4.9.6 Preview page parameters

Optional parameters if image-only is set to false or 0:

Specify the number of columns that should be used for the document preview (ignored if image-only is set to true or 1), e.g.:
cols=2

Specify the number of rows that should be used for the document preview (ignored if image-only is set to true or 1), e.g.:
rows=4

Specify true or 1 to enable facing pages mode. Omit this parameter or provide any other value for disabling this mode (ignored if image-only is set to true or 1), e.g.:
facing-pages=1

Note: All parameters must be properly escaped (e.g. "%20" for escaping the space character).

4.9.7 Examples

Logged in as user "heliosuser" (password: "demo") and previewing page 3 of the file "Layout.xpv" in the subdirectory "xpv_images" of the sharepoint "Sample Images", in the size 256 pixel, with the file rotated 90 CW and arranged in 2 rows and 2 columns while the pages are facing:

Logged in as user "heliosuser" (password: "demo") and accessing the "default" directory in the sharepoint "Brandings":

Logged in as user "heliosuser" (password: "demo") the response to the request will only be the image "Cafeteria-RGB.tif". This allows embedding an image in a web page:

In addition, an ICC profile may be applied to the image, and the image format can be converted to PDF:

4.9.8 URL Share Access Helper

"URL Share Access Helper" is a convenient tool to generate URL share access links without having to specify each desired parameter in the web browser's URL address bar.

Map the network drive "HELIOS_APPS" (Windows) or mount the "HELIOS Applications" volume (Mac) and open from the "Documentation" folder the HTML file "UrlShareAccessHelper.html" in a web browser.

Fill in the form fields according to your needs and finally click on Generate Link.

The generated link can be clicked in order to log in to WebShare with the specified paramters.

4.9.9 Security considerations

You should give some thoughts about the security when using WebShare URL share access:

4.10 Troubleshooting

The WebShare WebObjects Server needs Java 1.4.1 or newer. Older versions produce some "Class not found" errors, which do not identify the problem.

Please make sure that Java is found when "start-helios" is issued. A symbolic link from your Java runtime to "/usr/bin/java" could be a solution. The Java version can be verified via the command line:

Our testing with the WebShare WebObjects Server revealed that Java runs out of memory on Linux Kernel 2.4.18.

Many browsers only support the data fork for the upload. This means that additional information like a custom icon, the correct Type & Creator, etc. gets lost during the upload.

Create a Zip archive using Mac OS X Finder Zip archives, which will include all meta data and WebShare will correctly unpack it on the server. A second benefit is that Zip archives are smaller.

Note: Custom icon support requires EtherShare or PCShare.

Uploading file names with special characters contain wrong file names after the upload

All major browsers support UTF-8 web pages, unfortunately some fail to accept/preserve file names in upload forms with umlauts, special characters, etc.

Create a Zip archive and upload the archive. Mac OS X Finder Zip and Windows Zip include correct file names which will be unpacked correctly on the server by WebShare.

Files are displayed with a generic icon instead of the application or document icon in the sharepoint window.

First, verify that the sharepoint corresponds to, or is contained within a HELIOS volume. See 4.4 "Sharepoint Administration".
Then use the HELIOS Icon Collector (4.8 "HELIOS Icon Collector") to collect and save icons to the WebShare server.

For remote file preview the HELIOS ImageServer software must be installed with either a final or demo license.

If a long directory listing is requested (e.g. more than 4000 files) and no response is received by the client, check the "websharewoa.log" file in "HELIOSDIR/var/adm" for a message like the following WebObjects error message:

[2007-11-07 09:00:14 CET] <WorkerThread3> <WOWorkerThread id=3 socket=null> Throwable occurred: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError

prefvalue -k Programs/websharewoa/JavaOptions -t strlist -- "-Xms[MIN_SIZE_IN_MB]m,-Xmx[MAX_SIZE_IN_MB]m"

MIN_SIZE_IN_MB specifies the initial size of the Java memory allocation pool, while MAX_SIZE_IN_MB specifies the maximum size of the Java memory allocation pool.

MIN_SIZE_IN_MB must be greater than 1 MB, MAX_SIZE_IN_MB must be greater than 2 MB, e.g.:

prefvalue -k Programs/websharewoa/JavaOptions -t strlist -- "-Xms32m,-Xmx512m"

4.10.1 Limitations

Due to internal limits, WebShare cannot select more than 4096 items, e.g. for deleting, downloading, etc.


WebShare UB⁺ User manual

WebShare UB+ User manual