Frequently Asked Questions

Installation Issues

• Where should the uploads folder be created?
  You should per default just create the uploads folder as a subdirectory of the Upload Module directory. This would be $nuke_root/modules/Upload/uploads.
  If you want or need another location for the uploads directory, you need to specify this in variable $files_basedir in the index.php.
  So that the users can only download the files through the module itself, you should create an suitable .htaccess (for apache, else something similar), to protect the files in the directory of being downloaded directly (from version 0.4.2 onwards such a .htaccess is included in the distribution).
• Where to adjust the maximum file size?
  Currently you can only adjust the maximum size of uploaded files in the php.ini of the webserver. Quota support will be first included in version 0.5.
  
  

Administration Issues

• How to use the Folder Administration?
  To create a new folder, simply enter a folder name for the new folder, a directory name on the server (this should not be the same than the folder name) and an initial username for the owner of the new folder. Then you can adjust the permissions for the owner, registered users and the group of the folder. Next, you can set a quota for the folder. Last, you should activate the folder. Submit your changes with the change button. You are also able to delete the complete folder, but be careful, because all files contained in the folder will be deleted.
  
  
• How to use the Group Administration?
  Group Administration is simple to use. To add a new group, simply fill in its name and the name of the first user in the appropiate fields (but be carefull, names are case-sensitive). To add another user to an existing group you may also fill in the name of the user to be added in the field before the Add-Button and choose Add or simply click on the username in the list. For each group a small table is presented, with all known users, that are not already part of the group with an link to add such a user, the users real name and its email. All other users have a delete action to remove them from the current group, and also a quota manipulation field. A value of 0 indicates no quota. If you set a quota for the user, this change will be global for the user. You may also set a quota for a whole group.
  
  
• What about quotas_enabled?
  If set, quotas are enabled, but what are quotas? Currently their exits only a size quota for three different levels: user quota, group quota and folder quota. The quotas are checked in the following order: folder > user > group, e.g. if a folder quota is set, then it is not allowed to be exceeded in the folder, if more over a user quota is set, the user is not allowed to upload more than his quota allows him and same for group quota. Only an admin ist always allowed to upload.
  
  
• What about strict_quota?
  If set, also the file just beeing upload and exceeding the quota, will be rejected.
  
  
• What about strictGroupAccess?
  If not set, users can add a file to a group, without themself being a member of the group. So, if set, the users can only set a permissions for their file to a group, if they are a member of this group.
  
  
• What about strictFolderAccess?
  If strictFolderAccess is set, then to read a file, you must also have read access to the folder the file is contained in, and if you want to write or modify a file, you must also have write access to the folder.
  
  

Usage Issues

• How should the user upload files?
  The user should simply select a folder to upload to. After that the user has to choose the file to upload and optional add a small comment for the file. Now there are some options, which influence the permissions to access the file. First, should the owner be able to modify the file in future? As the upload itself will become the owner of the file, the uploader will normally choose full rights for himself. Second, the user should choose the rights for all registered users. Third, the user is able to choose a group, for which it is also possible to set an individual permission value. Last, the user is able to enable the download possiblity for all (and really all) users who know a direct link to the file.
  
  
• How to view the files?
  Normally the viewer user will go to the module, select an folder to browse and download a file. Direct links are the same as the links, that are used to download in the browse list of a folder.
  
  
• How to modify file attributes?
  Simply choose the option Modify in column Action of the browse list of a folder to go to the file modification page (this option only is visible, if the current user is allowed to do so). There you can adjust the same attributes of the file as during the upload sequence of the file itself.
  
  

Specials

• What to do, if I want to let all (so, especially non-registered) users browse some folders?
  You should create a group maybe named Anon and then add the Anonymous user to this group. After that, you can specify Anon as the group for a folder. Now you simply need to give the group also read (or maybe also write) access in this folder and all users may browse this folder.
  
  What you must have in mind is, that the uploader needs also to adjust the file permissions correctly. If the uploader refuses group access to the file, the file will still be invisble to all users except the uploader and the admin.
  
  That does also mean, that all uploaders that should be allowed to upload "anon" files needs to be a member of the Anon group, so that the uploader can select the Anon as group for the files.
  
  

Common Errors

• The most common error I noticed, was the error of corrupt files. It's not the Upload module itself, that corrupts the files, but the envirnoment which corrupts the downloaded binary. It was quite hard for me to find, because my installations worked everytime.
  So what? Some parts of the environment (lets say the theme or something similar) are executed before the upload module becomes loaded and executed. If somewhere a echo or a print is executed, a blank line will be pushed to the returned binary stream (that will be sent back to the client browser). Under normal circumstances, this will not harm, because in an html page a blank line really does not hurt. But in a binary file the blank line does hurt.