Uploading & moving multiple files

Uploading Multiple Files

(this applies to Plone documents as well as Files)

Perhaps the most useful task which Enfold Desktop can perform is uploading several files all at once. This can be useful even if you do most of your edits with Kupu. If your HTML page is linking to a lot of files, then you could locally create a simple HTML file locally with images in the directory (or a separate directory) and upload everything all at once.   

You can manage content items in the same way you would manage your local files - for example, you may:

• Double-click on a file to edit it.
• Right-click on the item, to view or change properties on the file or folder.
• Drag and drop the object (either between Plone folders, or between Plone and your file-system.)
• Use Cut/Copy/Paste commands (either between Plone folders, or between Plone and your file-system.)
• You can create new content by selecting File > New (or right-clicking in a folder) and selecting the type of file you wish to create from the menu.
• Click Control A and Control C to copy multiple files/pages into a Plone folder.

This works for a simple move action in addition to copy actions. 

Using drag-and-drop to reorganize your site

Although the Plone web interface lets you copy/move content items with the clipboard function on the Actions dropdown list, Enfold Desktop lets you take full  advantage of this capability.  This is especially useful when trying to import legacy content into your Plone site. It also helps if you want to reorganize the hierarchical structure of the site itself.

Other  Questions

Where did the files go? On the file system?

Publishing static HTML content is straightforward enough. You use  FTP to upload  content into remote directories on a web server.  Enfold Desktop simulates this experience somewhat by providing the view of the Plone site as a series of folders. In fact,  the machine hosting a Plone site doesn't have directories and files corresponding to specific web pages (all that is saved in the ZODB). This may be an efficient solution from a database point of view, but  it involves a different mental model than the folder/file metaphor which people are familar with. Enfold Desktop partially restores this mental model for the end user.  It is true that some Plone tools and products let you upload directly to the file system (and this certainly makes sense if you are uploading large multimedia files).

What does the Local Folder do?

At the root of Enfold Desktop is a Local folder. This is simply a single place where you can see all the files or pages which you have locked for editing (regardless of which Plone directory they are found in).

Do  Files  have workflows?

When you add or edit items into Plone folders using Enfold Desktop, they are either Plone Documents or files (usually). (Read more about content types).

If you edit Plone document with Enfold Desktop, you need to perform two steps after editing:

1. Check it in (see Checking in a Plone Document).
2. Change the Plone document's state (either from Private-->Publish or Private-->Submit for Publication).

This is completely differently from the default behavior for Files. By default the File content type does not have publication states (i.e., workflows). Editing (i.e., uploading) files involves a different process.

1. Check it in.

Important: Publication of a File is automatic. In other words, after you upload a file, it automatically is public -- even if the containing folder is private.

Here are some other unique characteristics about Files and how they are handled in Enfold Desktop.

• The right-click menu for the file still gives you the option to view in browser. That will actually send you to a web page containing a link to the file. (It will have no other content to speak of on that page).
• By default, the Plone site will not keep different versions of this file (this contrasts with Plone documents, which allow this; read more about versioning web pages). Your system admin can change the default so that Files are versioned too. (see Enabling Versioning & Workflow for Files).
• you can still view/access the properties of a File by right-clicking it and choosing properties. However, enable comments won't apply to it.