4 Administration

This chapter describes the configuration and administration of the WebShare File Server via the WebShare Administration web page. All WebShare administration can also be performed via HELIOS Admin, with the exception of the Branding Editor, and Java Server Statistics. Refer to 5 “HELIOS Admin” for details.

: Launch a browser and enter the WebShare Web Server address, using port 2009, e.g.: http://hostname.company.com:2009

The WebShare Web Server port number can be changed by means of the WOPort preference (7.6 “Preferences”).

: Log on to the WebShare File Server according to the instructions in 6.1 “WebShare File Server login”.

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.

Important:: After the first time installation of a HELIOS product the “root” and “demouser” passwords are empty and should be assigned as soon as possible!

HELIOS Admin is used to set the “root” and “demouser” passwords as described in “Setting passwords” in the HELIOS 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.

There you will also find a detailed description on how to access and log in to HELIOS Admin.

Note:

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”. From a Windows client, click on “Windows”, and select and download the “HELIOS Admin.exe”. For other platforms click on Java, select “HELIOS Admin.jar”, and download.

After a successful login to WebShare, the “Home” page appears, allowing quick access to the defined sharepoints (Fig. 4.1).

Fig. 4.1: WebShare “Home” page

: Click on the Administration button. From within the “Administration” section, select the desired item (Fig. 4.2).

Fig. 4.2: WebShare “Administration” page

4.1 Server Preferences

The “Server Preferences” page (Fig. 4.3) allows specifying default values for the WebShare File Server.

Cache

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 Clear on Save checkbox is ticked, WebShare deletes all cache files upon clicking the Save Preferences button.

Fig. 4.3: “Server Preferences” page

Clearing the cache should be done without any users connected, to avoid login time-outs during the removal. 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>/*. The WebShare File Server is restarted via srvutil start websharesrv.

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

E-Mail

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.

The server settings SMTPHost and SMTPSender must be set up correctly for e-mail notification to work (see SMTP in “HELIOS Admin > Server Settings” in the HELIOS Base manual).

By use of the Enable E-Mail Message for Users option, the administrator can determine whether the Mail functionality (see Edit > in 6.3 “Work in a sharepoint”) is available to WebShare users.

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 4.3 “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!

Date format

The Directory Listing Date Format can be customized, e.g. according to American or European date format preferences. For details go to:
docs.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html

Download encoding

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 6.7 “My User Preferences”) is selected.

Gallery Resolution

The Max. Gallery Resolution (pixel) field allows specifying the maximum resolution for image previews which can be selected by use of the slider in the WebShare gallery view. If set to 0 the gallery view is disabled. The corresponding button (File > Set View > Gallery) will be disabled or hidden depending on the Show Disabled Buttons setting of the used branding. The minimum value allowed (beside 0) is 32.
See 4.7 “Branding Editor” for further details on how the initial and possible gallery resolution values are determined.

Preview options

The Preview Resolutions (pixel or dpi) field is used to specify custom resolutions and percentage sizes for remote file previews and proofs. Preview and proof pages include four “zoom icons” for which the resolutions can be defined per branding, in the Branding Editor, by use of the “Preview Resolutions 1-4” preference (see Toolbar Buttons). In addition, there is a pop-up menu, which can be used to offer custom resolutions. This makes sense if preview or proof resolutions or sizes are frequently required which differ from the default. The custom pop-up menu dpi, pixel, and percentage 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 not exceed 512 pixels). The default values in the pop-up list for previews and proofs are: 36, 72, 96, 144 dpi and 256, 512, 768, 1024 pixel.

Proof profiles

The Proof Simulation Profiles field allows specifying profiles, which should be available in the ICC Proof Simulation pop-up menu in the WebShare proof window. You can specify any profile that is stored in the “ICC-Profiles” volume.

Note:: For this feature the “WebShare Public” sharepoint needs to be published.

If the Allow ICC Profiles per User option is enabled, WebShare users are allowed to upload and administer their own monitor and printer ICC profiles on the “My User Preferences” administration page. These profiles will be selectable in the Monitor ICC Profile and Printer ICC Profile pop-up menus of the WebShare proof window, in addition to any globally defined profiles. To benefit from this feature, HELIOS ImageServer is required.

Custom preview types

In the Custom Preview Types field you may enter suffixes for custom file types that are to be previewed in WebShare. For this to work, the files must be processed first (according to the rules given in the “wspreview.pl” script). For example, doc,xls,ppt (no blanks!) can be specified for Microsoft Office documents which, if required, are processed by Tool Server with the “OfficeReader” script. “OfficeReader” details can be found in the HELIOS Tool Server manual.

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 8.3 “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.

URL Share Access

If the checkbox Allow URL Share Access is checked, direct access to a specified WebShare sharepoint or to a document preview is possible. See 4.10 “WebShare URL Share Access” for a description on how WebShare link sharing works and what attributes can be set.

Quickshares

Check the checkbox Allow Quickshares to allow Quickshares on the WebShare server. While creating a Quickshare, a user can select the desired remote user from the User pop-up menu in the “Quickshare” section of the sharepoint file browser. If the Quickshare Users Are Global checkbox is checked, all Quickshare users are available in this pop-up menu. If not checked, only those Quickshare users who were created by the logged-in user are available. Skip Login With Empty Quickshare Passwords can be checked if the remote user should be allowed to open the Quickshare links by just clicking on them, without a prior login on the WebShare server (then the password must remain empty).

Branding

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 for individual users by the setting of the Branding pop-up menu on the “User Administration” page (see 4.3 “User Administration”).

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

4.2 Quickshare Administration

The “Quickshare Administration” page allows users to activate/deactivate existing Quickshares, delete them, or edit their corresponding comments, expiry dates, and permissions (Preview, Download, Upload). In addition, single Quickshares can be re-assigned to a different user. Non-administrators will see only the Quickshares that they have created, as discussed in 6.6.2 “Manage your own Quickshares”. WebShare administrators will have an additional option, Show All Quickshares, which lists all existing Quickshares.

However, the fields Quickshare ID, URL, Sharepoint, Path, and Files are provided for informational purposes and cannot be edited.

Note:

The E-Mail on Access function will be available in a future version of WebShare:

When the user who was provided with the Quickshare link accesses the WebShare server, the creator of the Quickshare can optionally be notified.

Delete Quickshares

: Select a Quickshare from the table and click on the Delete Quickshare button. Then confirm the deletion.

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

The “Select” column allows selecting/deselecting all displayed Quickshares at a time.

Fig. 4.4: WebShare “Quickshare Administration” page

4.3 User Administration

The “User Administration” page (Fig. 4.5) allows WebShare administrators to specify settings for users. Here WebShare virtual users can be created and deleted, and WebShare-only passwords specified for host users. Users can be assigned preset values for Download Encoding, Zip Streaming Format, and Branding. Some of these settings can be changed by the users themselves on their “My User Preferences” administration page (6.7 “My User Preferences”).

In addition, there is 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 a limited speed (5 to 80 kB/s, depending on the currently used Internet connection).

Fig. 4.5: WebShare “User Administration” page

The URL Share Access feature allows sharing documents without letting the user navigate out of the document preview. If the URL Document Preview only checkbox is activated the user (except a user with administrative WebShare privileges!) can only access WebShare by a URL Share Access link that points directly to a document. The user will not be able to leave the document preview then. See 4.10 “WebShare URL Share Access” for further information.

If the Quickshare User checkbox is checked the user can only access the defined Quickshare(s). If no Quickshare is defined, the user cannot login at all. The Quickshare status of a user can be seen in the “QS User” column of the user table (see Fig. 4.5).

Normally, new Quickshare users are created by authorized users when they create a new Quickshare and select the Create new user option (see 6.6.1 “Create Quickshares”). This has the advantage that a WebShare administrator is not needed to create each Quickshare user or designate files to share. In addition, the file permissions (and WebShare branding) of the user creating the Quickshare are enforced for the new Quickshare user. The sharepoint settings Allowed Users/Groups and Allow Quickshares control who can create Quickshares, and for which sharepoints (see 4.5 “Sharepoint Administration”).

Important:: With the Quickshare User checkbox checked, Quickshare users can only log in on the WebShare server if at least one Quickshare has been assigned to them. In addition, they only see their Quickshares!

Notes for WebShare on Windows

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. Customer A 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 using the HELIOS “authutil” command.

Example:

The Windows host user name and password are:

User: webtransfer 
Password: secret

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

# authutil passwd -n webtransfer -p secret

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.

Create users

To create a WebShare user take the following steps:

: In the User Name field enter an arbitrary name which need not exist on the host, and can have up to 64 characters. Of course, 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:: Although a WebShare virtual user can have an empty password assigned by the administrator, they cannot delete their password by themselves. A host user need not have a WebShare password, but it is highly recommended for security reasons. See Change WebShare Password in 6.7 “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 that new user will be a virtual user. That virtual user 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).

Note:: It is important to note that “Run as Host User” means that the virtual user will have the file access permissions of that host user. In addition, the virtual user will see in the “User” pop-up list (when creating or modifying a Quickshare) any Quickshare users created by that host user, or by other virtual users mapped to that host user. Likewise, host users that have virtual users mapped to them, will be able to see any Quickshare users created by those virtual users.

If an E-Mail Address is specified, it appears in the individual user settings (see 6.7 “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. 4.5). An expiry date, after which the user cannot log in anymore, 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 6.7 “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.

Delete users

: Select a user from the table, click on Delete User and confirm the deletion.

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 in the WebShare toolbar. 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.

Disconnect users

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 delete one of them.

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

4.4 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:

4.5 Sharepoint Administration

Fig. 4.6: WebShare “Sharepoint Administration” page

With the “Sharepoint Administration” page (Fig. 4.6) WebShare sharepoints can be created, configured or deleted.

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” is created for the user “root”. It has no write access either.

Create sharepoints

: 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, or added an annotation. If an annotation has been added to a preview or proof document, the notification e-mail contains a URL share access link which leads directly to the annotation table (the e-mail is sent as soon as the user has logged off or changed the sharepoint). 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 on the “Home” page (see Fig. 4.1).

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 (or visible, depending on the “Show Disabled Buttons” setting; see Fig. 4.16):

Allow Preview
Allows previews of documents and image files (see 6.4 “Image and document previews” for complete details). Please note that this checkbox must also be activated to allow viewing documents in proof mode.

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

Allow Upload
Allows the upload of files and folders to this sharepoint. If desired, Zip archives are automatically extracted.

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.

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

Allow Delete
Allows the deletion of files and folders.

Allow Rename
Allows renaming a file or folder.

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

Allow Annotations
Allows attaching annotations to a document in this sharepoint.

Allow Quickshares
Allows creating WebShare Quickshares on this sharepoint.

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 8.5 “Preferences”.

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.

Sync list

The Document Hub Sync List link (see Fig. 4.6) allows you to define files or folders in a sharepoint that should be synchronized with the mobile device via the HELIOS Document Hub solution:

: Click on the link and specify the desired files and folders in the text field, or select them by clicking on the Add Files & Folders link that opens a new window in which you can select the desired files and folders.

After clicking on Add Selection and Append to Sync List the selected objects are added to the text field and will be synchronized with the mobile device on request.

A click on the Show Disk Usage link in the “Sync List” column opens a new window which gives information on the sync list disk usage (see Fig. 4.7).

Fig. 4.7: Sync list disk usage

: 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 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 directory on the WebShare File Server by creating two sharepoints, with the same path but different allowances.

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 6.3 “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.

Delete sharepoints

: Select a sharepoint from the table and click on the Delete Sharepoint button. Then confirm the deletion.

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

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.

Define as HELIOS volume

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, and in order to enable Spotlight searches within that sharepoint. 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.

4.6 Accounting

The “Accounting” page (Fig. 4.8) lists all user actions on the WebShare File Server. The default view displays User, Action, Time, Sharepoint, Path and Entry per action.

The exact WebShare status codes are detailed in C.1 “WebShare log file structure”.

Fig. 4.8: WebShare “Accounting” page

By means of the pop-up menu you can choose which accounting file is displayed on the “Accounting” page. 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. 4.8), 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. 4.9) for uploaded and downloaded archives is available when clicking on the (Details) link.

Fig. 4.9: WebShare “Accounting Details” page

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

4.7 Branding Editor

WebShare features a so-called “Branding Editor”, which allows adjusting the GUI on a per client basis (Fig. 4.10). Clients can thus bring their corporate design into WebShare, which has the following advantages:

Easy GUI customizing without programming
Use of corporate designs
Enhanced customer retention
Hosting content for different clients on the same server
Icon families of different skin, color, and size included

Fig. 4.10: WebShare brandings

4.7.1 Create and configure brandings

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

The WebShare “default” branding can be used as a template for custom brandings:

: Log on to the WebShare File Server.

: Click on the Administration button and select the Branding Editor link.

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

: 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 the characters A-Z, a-z, numbers 0-9, minus (“-”), and underscore (“_”) for the branding names.

The duplicated branding (in the example named “HELIOS”) is now listed in the “Branding Name” column. See Fig. 4.11.

Fig. 4.11: “Branding Editor” page

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:

: Click on the branding name link (in this case “HELIOS”) to open the editor.

Branding

This section (Fig. 4.12) shows the login URL, which includes the branding name and the default for the window title (if this field is left empty, the value “HELIOS WebShare” is assumed). If a window title is specified in the Branding Editor, the Powered by HELIOS WebShare link is not displayed anymore for this branding on the WebShare start page, and when logging off from WebShare, the string “Thank you for using HELIOS WebShare.” is replaced with your window title value (“Thank you for using <your_value>”). In addition, this section offers a pop-up menu to choose a 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 (see arrow in Fig. 4.13).

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

Fig. 4.12: “Branding” section

Fig. 4.13: Bonjour listing in Safari

The login URL (Fig. 4.12) 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 (4.3 “User Administration”). Using the branding login URL ensures that the user is shown the branding login image (Fig. 4.12) 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. 4.11). 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”).

Body

Each page in WebShare is generated as an HTML page. This section allows defining colors, background images, font family, sizes, etc. (Fig. 4.14).

Fig. 4.14: “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. 4.14):

216 web-safe RGB colors
142 defined named colors
RGB color slider
(Click on preview field to apply the selected color)

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 name	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 Internet Explorer 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.

Tables

In this section the background colors for even and odd table rows can be defined (Fig. 4.15). 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. 4.15: “Tables” section

Toolbar

This section allows specifying the appearance of the WebShare toolbar (Fig. 4.16). The toolbar can be aligned horizontally or vertically, and a background color and a background image can be assigned to it:

Fig. 4.16: “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 active disabled buttons and menu items appear grayed-out, else they are hidden.

Toolbar Buttons

This section allows specifying the appearance of the WebShare toolbar buttons (Fig. 4.17):

Fig. 4.17: “Toolbar Buttons” section

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

Icon styles and sizes can be selected from the corresponding pop-up menu.

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.

The values specified in Preview Resolutions 1-4 are used in the 4 zoom buttons (numbered 1-4) for file previews and proofs. Default values are: “256,512,768,1024”.

The Gallery Resolutions preference is a comma-separated list of pixel resolutions for the slider control in the gallery view. If only one value is defined the slider control will not be displayed in the gallery view. If the value 0 is defined the gallery view will be disabled for this branding.
This property is limited by the server preference Max. Gallery Resolution (4.1 “Server Preferences”) which defines the maximum allowed resolution for gallery previews. Values larger than Max. Gallery Resolution can be defined, but the slider control will only allow resolutions up to the value defined in Max. Gallery Resolution. The initial resolution of the gallery view is the nearest defined value smaller than or equal to 128 pixels or to the value defined in Max. Gallery Resolution if it is less than 128 pixels. Default values are: “32,64,96,128,256,384”.

The Print Resolutions preference allows you to specify print resolution values, which are available in the Resolution pop-up menu of the print and proof print settings menu. The first four values specified for this preference appear as Draft, Good, Excellent, and Super Fine. All other values, starting with the fifth specified value, are displayed as Custom 1, Custom 2, etc. (see also 6.4.7 “Preview/proof print settings”).

Welcome Message

You may define a welcome message (Fig. 4.18) for the WebShare “Login” page (Fig. 4.19). HTML tags are allowed to format the text.

You may also include an image (in the example below the HELIOS logo) in the login window. See #loginImage in 4.7.8 “Customize brandings via CSS” for details.

Fig. 4.18: “Welcome Message” section

Fig. 4.19: “Welcome Message” at login

4.7.2 Import brandings

You may also import WebShare brandings, which have previously been created, e.g. with the Branding Editor on another WebShare server.

: Copy the branding to “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 Web 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” column (Fig. 4.20; compare with Fig. 4.11).

Fig. 4.20: Imported brandings

4.7.3 Brandings and the “style” file

Each branding folder contains the file “style” which stores all branding settings. However, to back up a branding you should save the whole branding folder.

4.7.4 Add custom file icons

For a description of how to add custom file icons to WebShare see Custom icons in 4.9 “HELIOS Icon Collector”.

4.7.5 Add custom banner images

WebShare allows having custom head and foot banners per branding (see Fig. 4.14).

: Copy the image that you want to use as banner image into the brandings folder (“WebShare > Brandings > <branding name>”).

: On the “Branding Editor” page click the “Import Brandings from WebShare File Server.” link.

: 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.

4.7.6 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:

shape="rect|circle|poly|point" 
coords="x1,y1,x2,y2"
href="URL"
alt="Alternative text"*
title="Tooltip text"
target="_blank|_parent|_self|_top"**

*	This attribute is compulsory
**	Only `"_blank"` makes sense

For further information on URL image mapping see:
www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/objects.html#h-13.6

: In the “<branding name>” folder, open “head.map” and “foot.map” respectively and replace the default content with the <area> tag and the desired attributes.

Example:

<area 
shape="rect" 
coords="0,0,68,68" 
href="http://www.helios.de/" 
alt="HELIOS Homepage" 
title="HELIOS Homepage" 
target="_blank">

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

: On the “Branding Editor” page click the “Import Brandings from WebShare File Server.” link to make your changes active.

4.7.7 Add custom banner text

You may also add custom banner text which will be included above the WebShare file browser view.

: Save your custom banner text to a file named “.wsbanner” in the desired directory, and WebShare will add this text to the file browser view.

If the “.wsbanner” file is saved to the root directory of a sharepoint, it will apply to the entire directory tree. Simple HTML tags can be used to format the text.

4.7.8 Customize brandings via CSS

If existing, the file “additional.css” in the branding folder “var/settings/WebShare/Brandings/<branding name>” will automatically be included in every WebShare server response for the corresponding branding.

As a starting point, you can use the example file “additional_samples.css”. By default, it is copied to “var/settings/WebShare/Brandings/default” during the WebShare installation. It lists ID and class names for GUI components, e.g. buttons and tables used in WebShare, and some CSS examples for customizing a branding.

Do the following to customize a branding:

: Copy “additional_samples.css” to the desired branding subfolder and edit it, or create a new UTF-8 encoded text file. In any way, save it as “additional.css”.

: Add custom style definitions to this file.

: On the WebShare “Branding Editor” page click on the “Import Brandings from WebShare File Server.” link.

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

Examples

Use mouse over effect (table row background color) in the file browser:

   .fbTable tr:hover td {
       background-color: #CDF;
   }

Hide the border of file items in gallery view and show it on mouse over:

   .fbGalleryView .fileItem {
       border: 1px solid transparent;
   }
   .fbGalleryView .fileItem:hover {
       border: 1px solid #AAA;
   }

Align images vertically centered in gallery view:

   .fbGalleryView .imageCell {
       vertical-align: middle;
       display: table-cell !important;
   }

Add a black border and a checkerboard background to the image in proof mode (the PNG image must be available in the respective branding folder):

   #screenProofImage {
       border: 1px solid #000;
       background: url(checkerboard.png) repeat;
   }

Hide the Administration toolbar button (Important: This does NOT disable the administration, only the accessibility from the toolbar!):

   #tbBAdministration {
       display: none;
   }

Apply red and bolded text style to the Logout toolbar button caption:

   #tbBLogout span {
       font-weight: bold;
       color: red;
   }

Include an image to the login page, as seen in Fig. 4.19:

   #loginImage {
       background: transparent url(helios.png) no-repeat scroll 50%;
       height: 130px;
       width: 100%;
   }

For more examples and detailed information about used CSS IDs and class names in WebShare, see the file “additonal_samples.css” in the respective branding folder. For further information about Cascading Style Sheets refer to: www.w3.org/Style/CSS/.

4.7.9 Customize brandings via JavaScript

If existing, the file “additional.js” in the branding folder “var/settings/WebShare/Brandings/<branding name>” will automatically be included in every WebShare server response for the corresponding branding.

As a starting point, you can use the example file “additional_samples.js”. By default, it is copied to “var/settings/WebShare/Brandings/default” during the WebShare installation. It contains information and examples about using JavaScript to customize the behavior and adding custom functionalities to a WebShare branding.

Do the following to customize a branding via JavaScript:

: Copy “additional_samples.js” to the desired branding subfolder and edit it, or create a new UTF-8 encoded text file and add custom JavaScript code to this file. In any way, save it as or rename it to “additional.js”.

: On the WebShare “Branding Editor” page click on the “Import Brandings from WebShare File Server.” link.

The script becomes active immediately after the import, for all sessions that use the modified branding.

4.7.10 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. 4.17), and save them in 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 base name as the icons that you wish to replace, e.g. to replace the toolbar icon “copy.png” your custom icon must be named “copy.png”, “copy.gif” or “copy.jpg”. Please do not forget to also replace the corresponding rollover icons which always have “_active” appended to their name, e.g. “copy_active.png”.
The icons shipped with WebShare are stored in “var/settings/WebShare/Brandings/default/icons”.

Note:: Custom icons can be smaller than the original icons. Larger custom icon files will be clipped.

: Copy the icons into the “icons” subfolder of “var/settings/WebShare/Brandings/<branding name>”.

: On the WebShare “Branding Editor” page 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.

4.7.11 Custom actions icons

It is also possible to add custom icons to those action scripts that are available in the toolbar Actions > menu (see Actions > in 6.3.1 “The WebShare toolbar”). These icons must be of the PNG format:

: Copy the icon into the “actions” subfolder (create if necessary) of “var/settings/WebShare/Brandings/<branding name>”. The custom icon 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”.

: On the WebShare “Branding Editor” page click on the “Import Brandings from WebShare File Server.” link. The action in the Actions > menu should now have an associated icon.

4.8 Java Server Statistics

The “Java Server Statistics” page (Fig. 4.21) is organized in three sections: WebShare Server Information, WebShare Java Information, and WebShare User Statistics.

Fig. 4.21: WebShare “Java Server Statistics” page

4.8.1 WebShare Server Information

This section contains general information about the WebShare Web Server, such as 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 previewed data are displayed.

4.8.2 WebShare Java Information

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

4.8.3 WebShare User Statistics

Provides information about currently active and peak active users. You can view session details by clicking on the Session details: Show link. In addition, all sessions, except for the user’s own session, can be terminated by clicking on the Terminate link (Fig. 4.22). A click on the Session details: Hide link closes the session details view.

Fig. 4.22: WebShare session details

4.9 HELIOS Icon Collector

HELIOS Icon Collector collects all file icons from a Windows or Mac client, to make them available to the WebShare File Server for use in the file browser.

4.9.1 Icon Collector (Windows)

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

The HELIOS Icon Collector is available on the “HELIOS Applications” volume:

: Mount the “HELIOS Applications” volume and open the “Windows > WebShare Tools” folder. Double-click the “HELIOS Icon Collector.exe” program icon.

4.9.2 Icon Collector (OS X)

On Mac, file and program icons are usually located in an Application bundle in the “Applications” folder.

The HELIOS Icon Collector is available in the “HELIOS Applications” volume:

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

: If desired, change the icon search path using the Search icons in: field.

4.9.3 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. 4.23).

Important:: The destination folder must already exist!

Fig. 4.23: HELIOS Icon Collector – select destination folder

: Click the Start button.

The progress is shown in the window (Fig. 4.24).

Fig. 4.24: HELIOS Icon Collector – viewing process status

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. 4.25).

Fig. 4.25: HELIOS Icon Collector – destination folder content

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

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.

Icon names must follow a certain syntax:

Icon by file extension
```
ext<size>-<extension>
```

Icon by file type & creator

type&creator<size>-<type(hex)>-<creator(hex)>

Icon by type
```
type<size>-<type(hex)>
```

Examples:

Sound file icon of the size 64x64 with extension “.wav”:

ext64x64-wav.png

Flash Player icon of the size 32x32 with type “APPL” and extension “SWF2”:

type&creator32x32-4150504c-53574632.png

JPEG file icon of the size 48x48 with type “JPEG”:

type48x48-4a504547.png

4.10 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 technology to integrate WebShare features or content into third-party or custom applications.

It 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.

The URL Share Access feature also allows sharing documents without permitting the user to navigate out of the document preview. If the URL Document Preview only checkbox is activated in the user configuration, the user can only access WebShare by a URL Share Access link that points to a particular document. This allows presenting PDFs and images quickly and easily without any session setup. Further customization can be done by use of additional banners. A much simpler toolbar menu will be presented in this view. Whenever possible, a Close button is additionally displayed (see Fig. 4.26 below).

Fig. 4.26: Document opened via URL Share Access link – document preview only

4.10.1 Required parameter

server

The file server you wish to connect to, e.g.:
server=localhost

4.10.2 Login parameters

user

The user name you wish to log in with, e.g.:
user=webshareuser

password

The password for the user to log in with. If the password is omitted the user will be prompted to enter the password.
password=websharepassword

Note:

To specify the password parameter, the user parameter must also be specified.

The po (preview only for URL Share Access) flag can be specified in the user configuration file (see 8.1 “User configuration file”) to limit a user to URL access only. This avoids that this particular user can be abused for interactive logins.

4.10.3 Path parameters

The sharepoint name, e.g.:
share=SampleImages

path

The path to a file or folder, e.g.:
path=template-images%25%30/TIFF

4.10.4 Image parameters

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

flip

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.

rotate

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.

zoom

Specify any dpi or pixel value, e.g.: zoom=512pixel or zoom=72dpi

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 a multiple-page document the following parameters can additionally be specified:

page

Specify the desired page number of the document, e.g.: page=3

4.10.5 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]>"/>

Image-only

Specify true or 1 to generate a response that does just contain the requested image. Omit this parameter to get a complete WebShare session.

Important:: If the image-only option is used PrintPreview needs to be installed on the host. Otherwise an error message is issued (“501 – Not implemented”)!

4.10.6 Image only parameters

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

Image-type

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

profile

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

Any profile listed in the Default Simulation Profile pop-up menu (see Fig. 6.26), or available in the HELIOS “ICC-Profiles” volume can be used as a profile name.

monitor-profile

Specify the name of a monitor profile that should be applied to the image. As a profile name any profile listed in the Default Monitor Profile pop-up (see Fig. 6.26) can be used, e.g.: monitor-profile=iMac%20Calibrated.icc

If the profile parameter is set to a valid ICC profile name, you may define proof color options:

filter-inks

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 HELIOS ImageServer manual), e.g.: filter-inks=2,3,4

4.10.7 Preview page parameters

Optional parameters if image-only is set to false or 0 and the path parameter points to a multiple-page document:

cols

Specify the number of columns that should be used for the document preview, e.g.: cols=2

rows

Specify the number of rows that should be used for the document preview, e.g.: rows=4

facing-pages

Specify true or 1 to enable facing pages mode. Omit this parameter or set it to false if you do not wish facing pages.

no-page-breaks

Specify true, if page breaks should be hidden. Omit this parameter or set it to false if page breaks should be displayed.

4.10.8 Examples

All parameters must be properly escaped (e.g. “%20” for escaping the space character).

Example 1:

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”. The size is 256 pixel, rotated 90° clockwise and arranged in 2 rows and 2 columns while the pages are facing, with page breaks hidden:

http://ankh.helios.de:2009/app/webshare.woa/wa/linkShare? 
server=localhost 
&user=heliosuser 
&password=demo 
&share=Sample%20Images
&path=xpv_images/Layout.xpv 
&rotate=90 
&cols=2 
&rows=2 
&facing-pages=true 
&zoom=256pixel 
&page=3
&no-page-breaks=true

Example 2:

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

http://ankh.helios.de:2009/app/webshare.woa/wa/linkShare? 
server=localhost 
&user=heliosuser 
&password=demo 
&share=Brandings 
&path=default

Example 3:

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:

http://ankh.helios.de:2009/app/webshare.woa/wa/linkShare? 
server=localhost 
&user=heliosuser 
&password=demo 
&share=Demo 
&path=SampleImages/TIFF/Cafeteria-RGB.tif 
&image-only=1

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

http://ankh.helios.de:2009/app/webshare.woa/wa/linkShare? 
server=localhost 
&user=heliosuser 
&password=demo 
&share=Demo 
&path=SampleImages/TIFF/Cafeteria-RGB.tif 
&image-only=1 
&profile=MatchPrintS%201.0%20UCR-370 
&image-type=pdf

4.10.9 URL Share Access Helper

“URL Share Access Helper” is a convenient tool to generate URL Share Access links without the need to specify each desired parameter in the web browser’s URL address bar.

: Mount the “HELIOS Applications” volume and open the HTML file “UrlShareAccessHelper.html” from the “Documentation” folder 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 parameters.

4.10.10 Security considerations

You should give some thoughts about the security when using WebShare URL Share Access:

Access data (user name and password) are stated in cleartext in the browser address bar
The option image-only=1 can be deleted from the browser address bar in order to receive a complete session

You can do the following to reduce the security risk:

Establish a special user who is used for URL Share Access only
Use a user who has document preview-only access (URL Document Preview only option)
Only allow that user to access specific sharepoints. Set all other sharepoints to deny that user access (Allowed Users, Allowed Groups in the “Sharepoint Administration” dialog).
Establish read-only permissions for the sharepoint

4.11 WebShare catalog presentation

The WebShare catalog presentation allows presenting a multiple-page PDF document, to be displayed in a web browser with a simplified user interface. WebShare options such as Login, Sharepoints, Administration are invisible and therefore unavailable for the user. Depending on the permissions, the user can view a PDF document in multiple zooming steps, switch between pages, print the current document view, and download the document. This makes it very easy to provide versions of a PDF catalog. Remote users simply click on a given URL, which then opens the catalog presentation.

The WebShare catalog presentation uses the URL Share Access feature (see 4.10 “WebShare URL Share Access”). “UrlShareAccessHelper.html”, an HTML page, which is available in the “HELIOS Applications” volume, helps generate a static URL that can be used for remote users to access the catalog presentation. The remote user is in a kind of sandbox and does not see other WebShare options, only the PDF file will be presented.

Fig. 4.27: WebShare catalog presentation sample

The catalog presentation interface can also be customized by using a custom branding. Additional HTML banner and trailer files allow placing some additional text information on the top and bottom of the PDF document, e.g. advertisements and other important information.

Steps to set up the WebShare catalog presentation:

Step 1 – WebShare User Administration

: Create a new user or use an existing one that should be the user which runs for all catalog clients. Check the URL Document Preview only option for this user. This means that the user cannot login interactively, this user is forced to run the simplified presentation mode only.

Step 2 – Create the URL for the catalog presentation

: Open the “UrlShareAccessHelper.html” file in a browser. Specify the server, username, file path, etc. settings (check 4.10 “WebShare URL Share Access” for details).

Optional steps

: Customize a branding and assign this branding to the user you created in “Step1” (see 4.3 “User Administration”).

: Add an HTML banner and trailer file. These HTML files must be in the same directory where the PDF file is stored. The HTML banner uses the document name with the suffix “.banner”, e.g. “Document1.pdf.banner”, the trailer HTML uses the suffix “.trailer”, e.g. “Document1.pdf.trailer”.

Distribute the generated URL to remote users who should be allowed access to this document. Depending on the access rights, they may also download the document. It is very easy for remote catalog users because they do not need any user credentials, nor do they see any other WebShare data.

This feature allows making this print catalog quickly available to remote users, reducing printing and making intermediate versions available via WebShare catalog presentations only.

4.12 Troubleshooting

Wrong Java version on WebShare Web Server

The WebShare Web Server needs Java 6 or newer (64-bit). Older versions produce some “Class not found” errors, which do not identify the problem.

Solution:

Install a newer Java version for your WebShare Web Server.

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 with the command:

# java -version
java version "1.6.0_38"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_38-b05)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 20.13-b02, mixed mode, sharing)

Custom file icons do not appear after an upload

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.

Solution:

Create a Zip archive using the OS X Finder Zip utilities, which will include all metadata 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, etc.

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

No icons after file upload in WebShare sharepoint window

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

Solution:

First, verify that the sharepoint corresponds to or is contained within a HELIOS volume. See 4.5 “Sharepoint Administration”.

Then use the HELIOS Icon Collector (4.9 “HELIOS Icon Collector”) to collect the icons on a client and copy them to the WebShare server.

Missing response for long directory listings

If a long directory listing is requested (e.g. more than 4000 files) and no response is received by the client this can be caused by a memory bottleneck. 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

Solution:

Allocate more memory to the “websharewoa” process by using the preference:

# 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"

Default for MIN_SIZE_IN_MB: “32m”; for MAX_SIZE_IN_MB: “128m”.

WebShare login with “WebShare File Server” set to “localhost” can fail

If an error message like: Cannot connect to server: java.io.IOException: Socket connect to localhost failed, error: Connection refused is returned, the server is set up to use IPv6.

Solution:

Instead of using “localhost” you can use either the IPv4 number of “localhost” (127.0.0.1), the real host name of the server (e.g. “mywebshareserver”) or with its DNS name (e.g. “mywebshareserver.mycompany.com”).

Another option would be to specify “WSHostName” for the WebShareWOA server, so that the “WebShare File Server” field contains that name by default, instead of “localhost”.

You can set this preference by means of the “prefvalue” command:

# cd /usr/local/helios 
# bin/prefvalue -k 'Programs/websharewoa/WSHostName' -t str 
  "mywebshareserver"

Thereafter, a stop/start of “websharewoa” is required to activate that change:

# bin/srvutil stop  websharewoa 
# bin/srvutil start websharewoa

Another option could be to specify a Java preference so that the Java engine does prefer the IPv4 stack:

# bin/prefvalue -k 
  'Programs/websharewoa/java.net.preferIPv4Stack' -t bool TRUE

Again, a stop/start of “websharewoa” is required to activate that change.

4.12.1 Limitations

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

Solution A:: Select a parent folder.

Solution B:: Select smaller chunks.

HELIOS Manuals September 29, 2020