Files
From TUTOS
Contents |
Introduction
One of the many features TUTOS has is its ability to do some document management as well. It is very easy to store files and retrieve them later, find out information about them, etc. You can even choose if you would like to use a revision control system for the files so you can easily administer a files history. The files are all stored outside of the database you are using so they are easily retrievable if you would ever want to. If your system administrator has installed the 'wv' program on the server it is even possible to look into Microsoft Word documents online and decide if you want to download it to your own workstation to do some more work on it. In the next section we will discuss and show you how it's all done.
Create
The menu option to add a file should be visible whenever you see an address details screen like the ones you see in the next pictures or when you see a project details screen.
The contact details screen
The address details screen
The project details screen
As you can see there is an option 'Add Document' visible in the upper left part of the menu on all screens. For our examples we will stick with the company for now but there really is no difference between them. When you click on this menu option a new screen will be shown much like the one you see in the next picture.
The add document screen
There are some options visible which I think are worth explaining before we go any further.
- Document name: This mandatory field should be used to enter a good and descriptive text about the file.
- Version: enter here the applicable version number (or leave empty. Personally I don't care what you do :-)
- Author: Default this is your name but this can be changed.
- Original name: Click on the 'Choose' button and locate and click on the file on your workstation that you would like to store.
- Versioning system: here you select a specific versioning system. Please note that you can not change this in a later stage. You can choose from the following options:
- none: Don't use a versioning system. Consecutive uploads to this file will simply overwrite the old one.
- TUTOS: Have TUTOS keep track of the different versions.
- RCS: Use the old but well established RCS system to do the versioning. More on this subject in a later section of this chapter.
- Locking: should the document be unlocked so everybody that has access to this document can do stuff with it or should it be locked for exclusive use by the person who stored it in the first place?
When all is okay you can click on the 'Enter' button to have youyr browser upload the file to the TUTOS server (did I mention before that TUTOS is a client-server oriented system and thus completely buzzword compliant?)
As an example I will fill in the form with some appropriate information and upload a file into the TUTOS system. Although I don't use MS-Word myself I hear that a lot of people do so I'll just use that to show you some nice features. The next picture shows the data I entered into the screen.
The filled in new document screen
After clicking on the 'Enter' button we are presented with the following screen.
The document detail screen
This screen is always shown when we click on a document somewhere in the TUTOS system and we want to know more about it. But more about this subject in the next section.
Display
Every time you want to see more information about a document and click on it you will be presented with the document detail screen. One such screen is shown in the next picture. As you can see the screens show a remarkable amount of additional information like title, author and keywords. [1] There are also a number of menu items worth mentioning here.
- Search: Start a search for another document.
- Show document: Try to display the contents of this file in the browser. If we try that with this doc file we get a screen similar to the one in the next picture.
As you can see, this looks very readable and in fact it is a very good representation of the original file.(2)
- Download: clicking on this link will download the file to your workstation where you can continue working on it. A window will pop up in your browser asking you what it should do with the file it is receiving (see next picture).
- Modify: Modify is obviously to modify the file (more on that in a later section)
- Delete: Delete is obviously to delete the file (more on that in a later section)
Notes [1] This is possible when the 'wv' tools are installed on the TUTOS server. [2] Currently, only the text is displayed in more or less the original layout. Maybe in future versions it will even be displayed in the correct font and with included graphics as well!
Modify
Modifying a file is something else than what you normally do when you change a file. In this case you change something about the storage of a file. Remember we stored the first version of this document with the TUTOS revision system? Now let's modify this document and upload a newer version of the same file. We click on the 'Modify ' option and will see a screen similar to the one in the next picture.
As you can see, there is now a clearly documented option to choose from. One is to simply overwrite the current document (called 'some document') with the new file. Or we can 'save the current document as version 1.0' and upload a new version while we change the version number. We must not forget to select the newer file with the 'choose' button otherwise no file will be uploaded. After have done so and clicking on the 'Enter' button a screen is shown similar to the one in the next picture.
As you can see there is also mention of an older version of the file. Clicking on this one will start the download of the file.
Delete
Deleting a file is the same as with other TUTOS entities. Go to the document details page and click on the 'Delete' option in the upper left part of the menu. You should see a message window asking for confirmation like the one in the next picture. Clicking on 'OK' will get the job done.
