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TECHNICAL GUIDE

ShareBrowser v.6.0.0 Partner Release

Matt Ratkowski
  • Updated

Welcome to ShareBrowser 6.0!

This version, also known as the "Partner Release," is the initial phase of a complete rewrite of the ShareBrowser Desktop application.

It is the first in a series of updates that will be rolling out over the coming months.

This initial release is not a feature-for-feature replacement of v.5.x; it is being provided to select customers for the specific purpose of enabling archive and restore functionality with Storage DNA.

This version of ShareBrowser includes three different clients:

ShareBrowser Web App: Installed on your EVO. Can be accessed by a web browser. Can manipulate tags/comments/custom metadata and display archived files.

ShareBrowser: The all new ShareBrowser interface which has some desktop features and all of the new Archive capabilities.

Legacy Desktop Client: The Desktop version of ShareBrowser with all of the previous features and no archive capabilities.

Note: Some common ShareBrowser functionality, such as file deletion and ingest, should still be done in the legacy Desktop Client bundled with ShareBrowser 6.0.

To set up an SDNA server for Archiving and Restoring with ShareBrowser:

  1. Purchase or attain a Fabric API key from your SDNA representative.
  2. Mount all EVO shares from which you intend to archive on the SDNA server.
  3. Create an API archive.

To use the archiving features of ShareBrowser:

  1. Open Advanced Preferences.

    advpref.png
  2. Check the box to "Enable StorageDNA Integegration".

    sdnaform.png
  3. Fill out the "Archive Name" as defined by your StorageDNA device.
  4. Fill out the ServerIP for the Fabric API running on a StorageDNA server. The port is typically 5000.
  5. Fill out the StorageDNA Fabric Authorization Key.
 
Once this is complete you can right-click any file or folder from within ShareBrowser and choose Archive.
This is also available via multi-select, meaning, you can select multiple files and/or multiple folders and submit them all in one archive request.

context.png
Note: This is only available in ShareBrowser 6.0, not in the Legacy Desktop Client or the ShareBrowser Web App.
 
The EVO share on which the file is located must be mounted on the client machine as well as the SDNA server. While the file transfer itself will be server to server, this will verify the file exists prior to requesting its transfer.
 
Once ShareBrowser confirms that StorageDNA has created a ticket to archive a file, that file is marked with a cassette icon as archived.
 
Note: ShareBrowser will immediately mark the file as archived, however, when the file is actually archived will depend on your StorageDNA configuration.
 
The user that sent the file to the archive and a timestamp of when it was requested are stored in ShareBrowser metadata.

After Storage DNA finishes archiving the file, and the user has confirmed the archive's integrity, the file can safely be removed from the EVO share via the legacy Desktop Client or Finder/Explorer.
 
The file's metadata, including tags, comments, and custom metadata will still be available in ShareBrowser and the file's thumbnail will become opaque.
 
This shows that the file is no longer available in the online storage, however its metadata is still searchable and a preview, if applicable, will still be available.
 
 
opaque.png
 
Important things to keep in mind:
  • Archiving from ShareBrowser was designed for files that are no longer being updated.
  • Archiving can only be done a single time per file.
  • Subsequent calls to archive a file will fail.
  • Once marked as archived, this can only be changed via calls to the ShareBrowser API.
  • Folders do not get marked as archived, only their contents. Folders will be recreated as necessary.
  • ShareBrowser will NOT keep track of a file's current status on a storageDNA system, only whether it was requested to be archived.
  • Restores can be called as needed.

 

To Restore Files or Folders:
  • Right-click and choose restore.
  • Files will only restore to their original location.
  • If folder's have been deleted in the file tree, they will be recreated.
  • The volume to which the files are restoring must be mounted on the SDNA server.
 

Note: You should not replace files that have been archived with files of the same name, the new files could be replaced on restore, and the metadata can get mismatched.

 

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