With the Filr desktop client 2.0 Net Folders became accessible even if synchronization to the desktop is not configured by the Filr administrator for such folders. This a welcome new feature especially for big projects where downloading to the local drive is not wanted or simply impossible.
However, when working on Net Folders not set up for synchronization or with not sufficient rights on the OES file server the user is still able to modify or create files or folders locally. These data will never get synced to the Filr server, of course, and are marked with a red cross. An error message appears on the Filr console which will most likely be ignored.
The user experience in such a situation is completely different as compared to the direct access to a share set up as read-only via NCP or CIFS. Here the OS is aware that the folder is read-only, and the user will get an error message by the file manager or the application that the operation to create a file or to save a modified one is not allowed.
In my understanding the Filr folder as created upon installation of the desktop client consists of two parts with an overlay: the local folder which is accessible even without a network connection and the remote part which presents the data structure on the Filr server. My suggestion is to modify the access rights on the ocal part: Make the local folder for Net Folders read-only by default. Only the folders which are set up for synchronization on the server and where the user has sufficient rights (WECM on NSS) should be given write-access locally. In such a setup the user will be hindered from creating "stale" files that can't be uploaded to the Filr server. The user experience will be much improved.
by: Günther S. | over a year ago | Desktop Client
Comments
Great idea for read only files and/or folders.
Noted!