Document Depot application includes a recycle bin feature, which works similar to the way Recycle Bin does in Windows on your computer: a file deleted by a user is not removed from the system but is instead moved to the “Recycle Bin” folder. Files contained in Recycle Bin can be deleted permanently or restored again.

Access to Recycle Bin
Document Depot Recycle Bin is accessed by clicking Document -> Service. Recycle Bin page displays all the files deleted by every user of the system along with file details (file owner, by whom it was deleted, date, size, etc.). A user can remove selected files permanently or restore them, by placing them in a selected folder. It is therefore recommended that an access to Recycle Bin is given to a user with account administrative privileges or a user with access to all Document Depot folders in the system.

The picture below shows deleted files listed in Recycle Bin:

Deleting files with version history
If you are deleting a file that has a version history (see post from February 22, 2007 describing version control feature), only latest (currently displayed in a folder) version will be available in Recycle Bin. However, if you would like to restore the deleted file, its version history will be restored as well.

Please note, that a file version deleted from the history list will not be placed in Recycle Bin – it will be permanently removed from Document Depot.

Total number of files in Document Depot
Recycle Bin is just another folder in Document Depot, therefore files stored in it are counted into the total of files, stored in Document Depot. The Account Information page in John’s account shows that there are total of 44 files stored in the account, the number of files in all existing folders, including files in the Recycle Bin:

After John removes 4 files permanently from the Recycle Bin, the total number of files in the system will be 40, which will be displayed in the Account Information page:

File versions from history lists are not counted into the total of files in the system. Therefore, deleting a file with version history permanently from Recycle Bin will decrease the file total by one.
 

Our latest upgrade is an enhancement of Issue Tracker application. The main Issue Tracker window now displays issue list for the last selected task for an indicated project. The picture below lists issues for the “Marketing Flyer” task of the “Marketing Project”:

You can now select another project from the list to work with (e.g. “Financial Project”). After switching back to “Marketing Project”, “Marketing Flyer” task will still be selected in the task window and its issues listed in the issue window.

This is an improvement from the previous version, in which the task selection for a project was not remembered while switching from one project to another; i.e. after switching back to “Marketing Project” from “Financial Project”, all task issues were listed in the issue window and appeared in the task window.

Version control is one of the Document Depot tools that facilitate sharing files and managing documents collaboratively. In the blog from February 2, 2007 we described Checking Files In/Out feature and how it allows multiple users of the system modifying the same file simultaneously, without interfering with each other’s editing work.

In addition to Checking File In/Out feature, Document Depot also allows you to store file version history. With file version history available, users can trace changes that were introduced to a file and access older versions. Every available file version can be viewed or downloaded by a user who has “Read” access to it.    

Information on a file version
Version history for a file is displayed on the “File Properties” page; it lists all the file versions that were added into the system (whether by means of checking out/in or simply replaced). Along the version number and file size, each version carries the following information:

• name of the user who performed uploading/checking in
• date of the version upload
• changes that were added to this version of the file (if entered by the user during checking in)

The picture below shows the version history for “Presentation Notes.doc”, also used in the example described in Checking File In/Out blog post:

Here is what the picture above tells us: Version #2 of “Presentation Notes.doc” is the latest stored in Document Depot. It was uploaded by Jeff, who had also specified that comparing to the previous version he had “added last slide”. The previous version (#1) was placed in the system by John Smith; he didn’t provide any information on the changes made to “Presentation Notes.doc” at that time.

Later on the file was checked out by other users and checked back in once they performed required modifications. The version history page displays all the information on all the previous and current versions:

Putting a limit on number of older versions
With enabled version control, you can indicate maximum number of a file’s old versions that should be kept in Document Depot (unlimited by default):

Be careful when you put a limit on allowed number of versions: if a newly uploaded file version exceeds the maximum number of version allowed, the oldest version will be removed from Document Depot. If number of older versions for “Presentation Notes.doc” was limited to 5, version #7 will be uploaded; however version #1 will be removed and not accessible.

WebAsyst offers you a choice of three themes and two main menu layouts, referred to as look & feel, which you can use to modify the look of your WebAsyst windows. Each theme represents combination of colors and shades and is named correspondingly:

• Office – conventional white and gray colors that give your WebAsyst interface a conservative “office” look
• Beach – an alternative to standard WebAsyst look, adding softer shades of peach and blue to display interface elements
• Garden – an eye-pleasing palette of shades of green

You can combine any of the three themes with one of the following menu layouts:

• main WebAsyst menu on the top of the window
• main WebAsyst menu on the left of the window

Select your look & feel by clicking My WebAsyst -> Look and Feel from the main WebAsyst window. Clicking on a theme and menu items will display a preview of your WebAsyst window. Here are some of the possible setups:

Garden theme with main menu on the top:

Office theme with main menu on the top:

Beach theme with main menu on the left:

Modifying themes in WebAsyst installed on your server
If you are using WebAsyst, which you have installed on your web server, you should have an access to the theme files located in published/common/html/cssbased/themes/ folder. This folder is located in the directory where WebAsyst is installed on your server. Corresponding theme files are stored in office/, beach/, and garden/ folders. In order to modify or add new themes, styles and images, you need to edit “.CSS” files in a corresponding folder. Knowledge of HTML and CSS is required to do necessary modifications.

We have recently published a blog post in “Ideas for use” category describing how you can send emails directly from Document Depot. In addition to this, Document Depot includes another email customization tool, which lets you specify name and email address to be used as a sender in outgoing messages.

A user can select his/her name and email address, the way they are saved in Contact Manager database, to be used when sending out emails from Document Depot. Another option is to enter a different name and/or email. Click Document -> Service and then open Email tab to see the name and email address that are used currently as sender’s details in Document Depot. Click Change if you would like to change it and indicate your choice:

For example, user Ann Lowell, whose email address is saved in contact database as annlowell@none.none, needs to send her boss the expense report stored in Document Depot. She is currently logged in the system, so she clicks on “Use the name and email of the user who sends a message”. Her recipient will see email from Ann in his/her mailbox:

Later on Ann wants to share her latest vacation photos with friends, which are stored in one of her personal Document Depot folders. She usually prefers to use her home email address for personal matters and she can still easily do it without logging in to the mail client that she uses at home. Ann can click on “Use the same Name and Email for all messages” and enter the name and email, which she wants her friends to see in their mailboxes when they receive her photos:

Learn more about this and other Document Depot features: www.webasyst.net/document-depot.htm

Though most email users associate bulk emailing with spam, sending out mail to multiple users is a common practice in many business and personal communications:

• sharing personal news with family and friends
• distributing newsletters
• e-mail marketing campaign
• sharing company information with colleagues

WebAsyst provides several ways to create mailing lists in Contact Manager and use them to send out bulk emails in Mail Master.

Creating a list in Contact Manager is a straight forward operation, performed directly from Contact Manager main window by clicking List -> Add List. This opens up “Create Contact List” form where you can give your new list a name:

You can choose any or all of the following options to populate your newly created mailing list:

i. Adding contact folders to your mailing list
Click on Folders tab, and select contact folders that you’d like to include in the list. If you are looking to create a mailing list of your current and potential clients to send out announcements, greetings, etc., this option offers you a quick and efficient way to do so. Select “Customers” and “Subscribers” folders to be added to your list to ensure that each and every contact included in the folders will receive the email. If later on you add a new contact to “Customers” folder, you don’t need to update “My List” manually – Contact Manager will dynamically add a new entry to all the lists that contain “Customers” folder:

ii. Adding contacts to your mailing list
Click on Contacts tab. Email addresses of all the contacts stored in your database will be displayed. You can add contacts one by one to the list of your email recipients. This is a lengthy process to create a mailing list with large number of recipients, but a good way to create private communication lists – you can manually control which recipients are in the list and quickly add/delete a contact if needed.

iii. Adding user groups to your mailing list
Click on Groups tab to add one or more user groups to your list. You can use this option if you would like to create a mailing list that contains employees of your company departments, who are users of the system. For example, you can add “Financial Dept” user group to your mailing list; this way each user of “Financial Dept” group will be included in “My List”. When a new user is added to “Financial Dept” group, he/she will be automatically added to “My List”:

Sending out bulk emails to recipients of a mailing list
Now that you have created your mailing list “My List”, you can go to Mail Master to create and send your email. When indicating recipients for you outgoing message, “My List” will be among other mailing lists that can be added to your email. Go ahead! Add “My List” and your email will be sent to each recipient included in “My List”:

Visit www.webasyst.net/contact-manager.htm and www.webasyst.net/mail-master.htm to learn more about Contact Manager and Mail Master applications!
 

The latest WebAsyst upgrade allows you to require authorization for a book published in Quick Pages. While specifying your book publication settings, you can indicate whether it requires user authorization:

In case “User authorization required” checkbox is selected, access to a Quick Pages book published online will require entering login and password. Only after an authorization has been performed, a user will be able to access the book in a browser; whereas before the upgrade access to a published book was open to anyone who clicks the corresponding URL.

There is no need to assign any additional access rights for a user who requires access to a published book. As long as he/she is an active WebAsyst user with working login and password, he/she will be able to access the book that requires user authorization.

You can still allow an open access to a published book by disabling “User authorization required” option in the publication setup page for your book.

I’m glad to announce that we have successfully passed the certification process with PayPal!

All Shop-Script modules for integrating with PayPal have passed the certification tests: PayPal Website Payments Pro - Express Checkout and Direct Payment, Website Payments Standard, Payflow Link and Payflow Pro.

Shop-Script online store software is now listed in PayPal Solutions Directory.

One of the features included in Document Depot application is “Send Mail” option that allows you to send file attachments directly from Document Depot. Sending files directly from your Document Depot online repository is a quicker alternative to sending the same files from your mail client. If you are working with a large number of documents and their versions, it is easier and faster to select the documents you need to email and click “Send Email” button, than opening your mail client and selecting the documents to attach from another application. You are also minimizing the chance of mailing the wrong file, since in Document Depot you are skipping the step of browsing thru the folders to look for the correct file to attach.

How it works
The picture below shows selected files that user Ann wants to send as an attachment. There’s a “Send Email” menu item, clickable directly from Document Depot main window.

Ann is almost done. All she needs to do now is to select recipients from her contact list and fill out fields of a standard email form; i.e. select priority and type subject and message body:

Send attachments as an archive
If you are attaching more than one file, you might choose to compress files and send one archived file. If you haven’t compressed selected files into an archive before opening “Send Email” form, you don’t need to leave the form and start the process from the beginning (compressing files, selecting an archive and clicking “Send Email”). On the “Send Email” form there’s an option to compress attached files and send them as an archive.

This case is shown on the picture below. Since Ann is sending 3 files (“Report Monday.doc”, “Report Tuesday.doc” and “Report Friday.doc”), it makes sense for her to compress them all into one archive. She enabled “Compress attached files” option on the form and typed “Weekly Report” as the archive name.

All left to do is to click Send and Ann’s recipients will receive an email that will include one attachment: Weekly Report.zip. It is as simple as it sounds!

Learn more about this and other Document Depot features: www.webasyst.net/document-depot.htm

WebAsyst lets you easily implement a direct access feature that allows users to bypass login screen and access an application screen directly by clicking a corresponding URL. This feature comes in handy when you need to place a link on your website to allow site visitors unauthorized access to pages, that otherwise require authorization (login and password).

For example, if you would like to provide access to documents stored in your Document Depot folders to non-WebAsyst users, you can easily create a link that will take them directly to Document Depot main window.

In order to do this, you can create a special user “Direct User” to allow direct access to his account. Your next step would be turning “direct access” feature ON, and enabling applications (e.g. Document Depot) which can be accessed. You also need to turn ON “Email login instruction to user” option to receive URL for an application direct access:

In “System Settings” window set a no-expiration time interval for this account so that others can see the pages for as long as they need to:

Link to Document Depot will be created and sent to Direct User email address. To make sure it will be YOU who receives the direct access link, indicate YOUR email when entering Direct User’s details in contact entry form. If Document Depot was selected as one of the applications in Direct User’s account to be accessed directly, the following link will be created:

http://demoengwork.webasyst.net/login.php?DBKEY=DEMOENGWORK&
UID=USER&PASSWORD=81dc9bdb52d04dc20036dbd8313ed055&PAGE=DD/CT

You can place this link on your website or blog, and make your file folders available for open access. If your site visitor clicks on the link above, he/she will not be asked for his/her login and password, but rather will be taken directly to the following page in Direct User’s account:

In order to eliminate any chance of unauthorized file corruption or deletion, you can always assign read-only access rights to the folders in Document Depot for the account, to which direct access is provided. This is done on the same page where you enable “direct access” for a user, as well as turning on access to applications and their features. If, besides Document Depot folders, Direct User was given “direct access” to Contact Manager application he will be provided the following link to Contact Manager screen:

http://demoengwork.webasyst.net/login.php?DBKEY=DEMOENGWORK&
UID=USER&PASSWORD=81dc9bdb52d04dc20036dbd8313ed055&PAGE=CM/UC

Now anyone who clicks this link will have access to the contacts and their details stored in Direct User’s account, however he/she will not be able to modify or delete them.

Visit http://www.webasyst.net/ to learn more about using “direct access” and other valuable features!