Under the hood of FILEman

22 November 2011

One of the most requested features of DOCman 2.0 is the ability to upload files in multiple folders. Currently, DOCman 1.x only allows uploading files in one folder.

Joomla’s media manager can manage files across different folders but is a hermetically sealed black box which has been around since the Mambo days. It neither allows extending it, nor can it be easily re-used by other extensions.

For DOCman 2.0 we needed a file manager that is more flexible, modern and extendable. Over the past months we re-built the media manager from the ground up. We took out the aging iframe techniques and static structure and replaced it with a brand new component. Meet FILEman.

User Feedback

FILEman was built to solve the following feature requests from DOCman users :

1. Manage files across multiple folders and subfolders
2. Drag and drop upload
3. Upload progress information

In addition, the first beta of FILEman also includes on the fly thumbnail generation, and has the same security features as the Joomla media manager.

Key Features

1. AJAXified for speed

The FILEman user interface is built with AJAX, HTML5 and CSS3 technologies. These include file uploads, deletes, and file listings. You can easily drag and drop files for upload. There is no page reload necessary.

2. Thumbnail generation

Before FILEman, it was almost impossible to browse folders because of the huge number of images loaded. We are now generating thumbnails from images and loading them all at once. This saves a lot of bandwidth and computing power and makes user experience a lot more responsive.

3. Multiple and remote file uploads

FILEman has an uploader that lets you upload multiple files at once. It shows upload progress information and also allows you to transfer files from a remote location. You only need to specify the URL and FILEman does the rest for you.

FILEman will be released as a separate component. A first beta version will be made available to Joomlatools customers through our Member Center before the end of the year.

You can already try FILEman on our Joomla 1.7 demo site. Let us know how you like it!

Casper

Will it support content plugins .. Specifically for ratings and reviews?
http://johan.janssens.me Johan Janssens

Hi Casper, could you be more specific what you mean with content plugin support for ratings and reviews ? Maybe an example would help.
Casper Voogt

we need users (visitors to the site) to be able to rate a file 1 to 5 stars, or give a rating of 1-10, and/or leave a comment or review about a particular file. This is a current need for one of our projects. Ideally we would be able to have a 1-10 rating plus a comment/review option, but a 1-5 star rating would be fine too. We’d be happy to have a 1-5 star rating only, or a comment/review option only, but having both would be fantastic. My understanding is that with older releases of DocMan it was possible to use Joomla content plugins to add such features … which is why I mentioned content plugins.
http://johan.janssens.me Johan Janssens

If it’s more ratings and comments that you need then content plugins are not really ideal.

The good news is that both DOCman 2.0 and FILEman 1.0 have their own plugin system under the hood that allows to easily hook in extra features.

Once we have the first basic versions of both out we will start working on those. Ratings and comments are high on our list.
Tyler Heibeck

Is this accessible through the front end? It might be handy for some users to have access to file upload to specific folders and not have access to the Joomla back end.
http://johan.janssens.me Johan Janssens

Hi Tyler, the first version of FILEman comes with a very handy file listing and picture gallery layout on the frontend. This is being worked on right now.

Frontend file uploads are also on the list of features we want to add but will probably not be in the 1.0 version.
http://blog.joomlatools.eu/2011/12/an-early-christmas-present.html An Early Christmas Present | Joomlatools Blog

[...] FILEman is our lightweight, simple, speedy and vamped up version of the Joomla media manager featuring multiple and remote file uploads, automatic thumbnail generation and easy file linking. [...]
Xleves

Dear Johan Janssens
I am changing my files to joomla 1.7 and I am about to purchase the 1.6 DOCMAN but wonder if there is any plugin pair downlads control, limiting by date or number of downloads. Thank you. Eves Santa Cruz – Brazil
http://johan.janssens.me Johan Janssens

Dear Eves, we don’t have such a plugin for DOCman 1.6 yet. It could be developed though, DOCman has a complete plugin architecture that allows for it.
http://blog.joomlatools.eu/2012/01/more-fileman-features.html More FILEman Features | Joomlatools Blog

[...] FILEman Features End of November last year we introduced FILEman the latest from the Joomlatools product line. FILEman is our lightweight, simple, speedy and vamped [...]

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