Contents   Introduction   Concepts   User Help   Modeler Help   Browser Help
Administrator Help   Developer Help    Utility Help   Visio   Graphical Modeler

Working with Directories

The Archie2Directory property type enables you to expose the contents of file system directories through the EVA Netmodeler browser interface. Although this feature can be very useful, it should be used with caution as any user who has access to items containing a valid directory property will be able to view and download the contents of that directory. This section covers the following topics:

• Creating a directory property
• Creating and using a Directory Item
• Using a Directory Item

Creating a directory property

To create a directory property you must define or reuse a property of the property type Archi2Directory, and add it to a type definition. For example, we could create a new property called MyDirectory of the type Archi2Directory. We would then create a new Type, called MyType, and add the MyDirectory property to the new type. We would then have a definition similar to the one below:

Creating and using a Directory Item

We can now create items of this type in the normal manner, and assign values to the new directory property. The directory must be specified in a format from the perspective of the server. For example, the directory "E:\MyDir\" would only be valid if that is the actual drive name from the server's perspective.

In edit and create mode, a normal text input box is provided where the value may be entered. The directory must be entered together with its ending directory terminator character: e.g. "C:\MyDir\" instead of "C:\MyDir".

If only the directory is specified, the value displayed as a hyperlink will be the directory name. Should you wish to display a different string from the directory name as the hyperlink, you may specify the display part of the name after the directory name, delimited by a pipe character (i.e. "|"). So, if you enter a value like this: "C:\MyDir\|Click here to see my backup directory", the part after the pipe character will be displayed to the user, but the part before the pipe character will be used as the directory to be browsed.

You may also use a setting value for the directory part of the string. For example, you may wish the directory indicated by the "SystemImagePath" setting to be browsed from this property display. If this is the case the value should be entered as follows: "SETTING:SystemimageURL|Click here to browse files in the system image directory". Refer to the Systems Settings section for more information on system settings that relate to server directories.

In display mode, the display part of the value will be shown as a hyperlink, clicking on this link will cause the Directory Maintenance screen to pop up as a new window. This screen will be focused on the directory specified by the value of this property as illustrated below.

Maximum length of the value is 256 characters.

Using a Directory Item

EVA Netmodeler will display a directory hyperlink to the directory whenever an item with a directory property type is displayed.

 Clicking on the directory hyperlink will open a window showing the GIDE interface with a hyperlink to the directory displayed in the left hand pane. Clicking the hyperlink will display the directory content in the right hand pane as illustrated here:

Each item in the directory is displayed as a hyperlink. When you click one of the hyperlinks EVA Netmodeler will copy the contents of the related file to a directory on the web server that is accessible to web browsers, and open a window containing a hyperlink to the file.

Clicking on this link will send the file to the browser. The way the browser processes the file depends on the browser configuration and features. Note that this may include blocking the content via a pop-up blocker or sending it to a special "downloads" directory in the client machine, so be sure to investigate these browser features if the file fails to download.

The screen shot below shows the contents of an HTML file type displayed in the browser window.

See the EVA Netmodeler Directory data type for further information.