The network file system window shows a server file system depending on the used protocol and operating system. The figure shows a typical FTP file system. The figure shows the window components file system overview (1), directory overview (2), tool bar (3), context menu (4), status bar (5), and sessions (6).
The navigation is intuitive by double-clicking the directories (aka folders) with the mouse. To jump a directory level back you can double-click the first list entry with the two dots "..". By selecting folders and/or files you can deploy the functions either via the context menu directly on the file list (right mouse button) or with the tool bar icons. These include well-known functions such as cut, copy, paste, delete, rename, and find.
Files and directories may be easily exchanged between the file system window, the network file system window and other docking windows. Here you can configure which drag & drop actions are allowed. Currently the Battery Manager supports dragging files from the file system and network file system window. If the drag & drop turns out to be not useful for your daily work you may disable drag & drop completely within the preferences.
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Please keep in mind that the network functionality is not supported by the Personal Edition. |
This overview is shown on the left side of the network file system window while the area width can be adjusted by dragging the separator between the two areas. This setting is saved automatically and restored the next time the software is started. The tree shows the entries of the computer's file system as passed to the Java environment by the operating system (in this case Windows 7). You can see the drives and the network environment. By double-clicking the folders or by clicking the plus symbols in front of the folders you may expand the subdirectories. The file system overview shows only directories and no files, these will be displayed by the directory overview on the right side when overview folders are selected. The details for the current selection such as selection type (file or directory) as well as the full path and the selection size (in bytes) you can find in the status bar at the bottom of the network file system window.
Above the file system overview the tool bar is located which is part of the network file system window and must not be confused with the tool bar of the Battery Manager software (larger symbols). The tool bar icons provides you with known functions such as cut, copy, paste, delete, rename, and find.
This overview is located on the right side of the display area. The table shows the files and directories for the selection in the file system overview where only one single entry may be selected, otherwise the directory overview is empty. As the figure shows, all entries are listed alphabetically with additional information. Along with the name of the entry in the first column the table shows the permissions in the drwx column (d=directory, r=read permission, w=write permission, x=execute permission). This detail is especially helpful for UNIX/Linux systems where usually more restrictive permissions are configured as for Windows.
The Size column shows the length/size of the entry in abbreviated form (e.g. kilobytes), the Type column lists the type of entry (file, directory, digest file etc.). This information is provided directly by the underlying operating system so that the shown types may vary. This is the case also for the icons in the first column Name. The Modified column finally shows the date and time of last modification in ISO notation (YYYY-MM-DD).
Within the directory overview you can also select any entries and activate the context menu (right mouse button) or click the buttons of the window tool bar. In the preferences you can configure how file symbols and types should be determined by the program. Here, you can choose either to show default icons (faster) or to show symbols and types of your computer (costly, since temporary files have to be created).
The tool bar of the network file system window contains many functions for fast navigation and for the work with files and directories. The following list shows the functions of the tool bar:
The button with the up arrow symbol moves to the next directory level (Parent Directory). The house symbol navigates into the home directory of the current user (User's Home), for example /home/axel under Linux. The next icon with the closed folder (Reset Folders) causes all expanded directories within the file system overview to collapse so that it shows the initial state. This is useful when many directories are opened and the window contents are confusing.
The button with the play icon (Open) opens the selected entry. This function is only available for files, for selected directories it is deactivated. A click on the icon starts the default programs based on the file extension. Please note, that this strongly depends on the operating system and possibly clicking does not show any response. Similarly, the next button with the editor icon let's the operating system start the default editor (Edit). On Windows operating systems for example, the program WordPad may be opened if this is configured as an editor for the selected file.
The Battery Manager software supports opening and editing some specific file types (e.g. .jpg, .png, .gif and .xml). Such files may be directly displayed by the document window. For all other file types the action is delegated to the underlying operating system. For the file types supported by Battery Manager you have the choice to open the files either by the application or the operating system (see preferences in section "Main Menu and Components"). The next button with the dots and strokes (Hexedit) opens a file with the integrated hex editor of the Battery Manager software. This function may be called for any file as long as the program is able to access it.
The next icon with the plus symbol on the folder (Create Directory) may be used to create new folders in the selected directory. This function is only activated when you selected a directory within the file system overview. To create a new directory, a dialog will be shown prompting the user for the name of the new folder. After successful creation of the new folder it is shown by the file system window components. You may create new entpy files with the next button showing the plus symbol on the document (Create File). The icon with the red X (Delete) can be used to delete files or directories including subdirectories.
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Directories and files deleted with the delete function cannot be restored programmatically, so please backup your data first. Before entries are deleted a security dialog is displayed which draws attention to this fact and where the user explicitly has to confirm the deletion. |
Clicking the icon with the pen (Rename) allows you to rename the selected entry while both files and directories can be renamed. As for the creation of a directory, a special dialog is displayed which prompts you to enter a new name. The icon with the magnifying glass (Search) can be used to find entries starting from the selected directory. When you click on this icon, an input field on top of the file system overview is shown where you can enter a search pattern. The search window is shown automatically which is normally positioned on the right side of the docking window. There you can configure the search, for instance the search may be case sensitive or can be based on regular expressions. The search is currently limited on the names of files and directories, file contents cannot be searched currently.
Many of the features presented here are also available in the tool bar and can be activated also with the associated entries in the menu bar of the Battery Manager software. For example, you can also delete files/directories by first selecting the desired entries and then clicking the DELETE button or alternatively by activating the Edit -> Delete menu. Where possible, the functions of the main window menu and tool bar are configured by the docking windows. Whether these functions are available or not is controlled by the active docking window.
Above the directory overview you can see the Path input field. Here, an absolute path or an URL can be specified, the corresponding entry is then displayed by the other components of the network file system window (commit with ENTER). If the clipboard contains a valid path for example then you can insert this entry and make it visible by clicking the icon to the right of the input field. Alternatively you can commit your editing with ENTER. The path input field stores the previous entries automatically as a history list so that it is available the next time the software is started. You can delete the entries of this history list by activating the Clear History item from the context menu of the input field (right mouse button).
Of course even the network file system window - like many other applications - provides support for the context menu which can be opened directly on the selection. You can select entries in the file system overview or directory overview and activate the menu with the right mouse button (see illustration). Here you can find all of the above described functions of the tool bar. In addition to the editing functions such as cut/copy/paste you can open or edit the selection here (if applicable), create new directories, delete entries, and rename entries. Also file searches can directly be started from here. Besides these standard features, the context menu provides support for additional functions specific for the Battery Manager software.
The status bar at the bottom of the network file system window shows pieces of information for the selected files/directories. For single selections the absolute path of the entry and the exact size in bytes are being displayed. For multiple selections or directories the status bar shows the number of entries as well as the total size of the selection. If a path is displayed it may be copied with the context menu (right mouse button) into the clipboard to be used by other applications. Path URLs are always copied into clipboard without username/password for security reasons since also other programs may access the data. If listing the current directory e.g. for slow ISDN dial-up connections takes a long time then the status bar component displays a progress bar or indicator on the right side.
For each of the connections the window displays a separate tab showing the connection name. The tabs may be closed using the red X button, active connections are then disconnected. You should wait for all tasks to be properly finished to avoid data loss. New sessions may be created either with the Network menu in the main menu, using the tool bar, or the network connection management.
Within the preferences you can configure if sessions should be created automatically on program start. You have the choice here to start with no connections or to restore the previous connections.