Help

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Setup

Before using FileZoomer you need an Amazon S3 account. If you don’t have one get it here.

When using FileZoomer you will need to enter your Amazon S3 accessKey and secretKey. Although FileZoomer will remember them (very helpful, because they are long and cryptic!) they are only stored on your local machine.

Specific steps to get to your S3 Credentials:

  • Go here first:  http://aws.amazon.com/s3/
  • Then click (top right) sign in to the AWS management console
  • Then click “account” (you may have to log in)
  • From the account page click “Security Credentials”
  • From there click “Access Credentials”
  • You should see the Access key there and there is a link to “Show” your secret key.
  • You will need to copy and paste both into the FileZoomer Login screen.

When pasting into the login fields use control-C (PC) or command-C (Mac). if “Remember Me” is checked you won’t have to enter credentials each time you login. The credentials are only saved on your computer (and of course sent to AWS for authentication).

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Buckets

If you have no S3 “Buckets” defined when you first login with FileZoomer, you will be prompted to create one.

An S3 “Bucket” (Amazon allows you to have up to 100) is a bit like a main folder, under which you have more folders and subfolders. You can set up a Bucket (and its contents) to be hosted at the AWS location of your choice, which allows you to get your files geographically closer to where you need them. FileZoomer allows you to move and copy folders and files from one bucket to another.

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FileZoomer Uses Java Web Start

FileZoomer was developed using Java so it can run on Macs and PCs, and uses a method called “Web Launch” so you never have to worry about installing or updating the program. By clicking a link to the program it is automatically downloaded, installed, and launched. The next time you click the link or the desktop shortcut that was created Java will “call home” to our server to see if you need an updated version of the App. Usually you won’t, so it just opens up from the saved copy on your PC.

If there is a newer version of the program available, the “call home” will automatically cause the updated version to be downloaded and run. The result? You always get the latest and best version of the App.

If the Desktop App will not launch, or you are asked by your system how to open a “jnlp file” your java needs updating.

Visit the Java website to get the latest version of Java

Based on your operating system it will tell what to do (if Mac OSX it will tell you to do a software update, if PC it will provide the link right there).

You may also need to enable JNLP file (Java Web Launch) support.

Windows: Look for Java in the Control Panel. In later versions of Windows it will be under programs.

Mac OSX: Look in Applications…Utilities for Java Preferences.

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Buttons & Menus

The most frequently used features of the Desktop App have a button. Less-frequently used features can be accessed via right-clicking a file or folder, or by using the File or Edit menus.

Upload

Use “Upload” to copy files and folders from your computer to your S3 account. The copied items will upload into the current folder.

Download

Use “Download” to copy files and folders from your S3 account to your computer. A “chooser dialog” will let you choose where on your computer to download the items.

View

Use “View” when you want to view or read a document without saving it on your computer.

New Folder

Use “New Folder” make a new folder. The new folder will be created in the current folder.

Delete

Use “Delete” to remove files and folders from your S3 account. All selected folders and files, plus any subfolders, will be deleted.

Share

Use “Share” to create a public URL for a file in your S3 account. You will have the option of making the file available permanently (until you delete it) or for a specified number of hours.

New Bucket

Use “New Bucket” to create a new S3 Bucket. An S3 bucket must have a name that is unique to ALL buckets in ALL of Amazon S3, must not contain blanks, and should be all lower case.

Copy/Move to Bucket or Folders

To move folders or files between buckets just take following steps:

  1. Highlight the folder(s) or file(s) to be moved or copied
  2. In the FileZoomer menu choose Edit…Copy (or Move) to Other S3 Folder
  3. Change the current Bucket to the destination bucket you want to move/copy the files to
  4. Navigate to the destination folder within that bucket
  5. In the FileZoomer menu choose Edit…Paste

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File Compression

To turn on automatic file compression for uploads, downloads, and S3 storage, check “Zip Compressible Files” in the “Preferences” menu. Files larger than 5KB that can benefit from compression will be automatically compressed during upload/download and while stored in S3, to reduce bandwidth and storage cost, and to speed uploads and downloads.

Files that are already compressed, such as jpegs, mp3s, and others, will not be compressed.

S3 “metadata” is used to mark the files as “Zipped by FileZoomer”, and all zipped files can be accessed, downloaded, and unzipped using other S3 download tools and standard zip utilities.

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Advanced Features and Options

FileZoomer supports advanced S3 features, including:

For more information on these features, see the detailed FileZoomer Blog articles.

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Credits and Acknowledgements

This product includes software developed by Amazon Technologies, Inc (http://www.amazon.com/). AWS SDK for Java copyright 2010 Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.

This product includes software developed at The Apache Software Foundation (http://www.apache.org/).

This software includes third party software subject to the following copyrights:  XML parsing and utility functions from JetS3t – Copyright 2006-2009 James Murty.

Flamingo Library BreadCrumb support copyright (c) 2005-2010 Flamingo Kirill Grouchnikov. All RightsReserved.

JCalendar Java date chooser. (c) Kai Toedter 1999 – 2011. All Rights Reserved.

Amazon Simple Storage Service, AWS, and Amazon S3 are trademarks of Amazon Web Services, LLC.

{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }

Joshua Aldrich March 31, 2011 at 6:03 pm

i dont get a full listing of all the directories in the bucket

Reply

administrator April 5, 2011 at 2:16 pm

Is it possible that some of the directories are sub-directories?

Is there any kind of a break point or are some just randomly not showing?

Reply

Steve April 8, 2011 at 3:46 pm

It turns out there was a problem in our code that has been fixed. Please try it again and let us know if you see the problem again. Thanks for reporting it.

Reply

Marek September 21, 2011 at 7:30 am

How to send a link to make a bucket or a bucket with sub-buckets accessible?

Reply

Steve November 2, 2011 at 11:23 am

FileZoomer won’t allow links to specific buckets. It only provides links to individual files. Do you see value in being able to send a sharing link to an entire bucket?

Reply

DDelage September 5, 2012 at 5:10 pm

What do your sharing links look like, as in in what convention are they formatted? Randomly? Full file-names included? Can you create a function that creates permanent links in bulk based on folder and export the generated list to a file?

thx

Reply

bob March 7, 2012 at 12:38 am

Hi Guys
Just downloaded Filezoomer works great, my question is if I want to use Amazon S3 to backup automatically files from my computer to my bucket can FileZoomer do this or do I have to do it manually? If not do you have or know a program that can do that please?

Thanks Bob

Reply

DDelage September 5, 2012 at 5:06 pm

I would be interested in additional functionality in regards to generating links in bulk based on a naming convention, or using the file-name in the link it’s self. Is this a feasible request? The scenario I am imagining is one where I could upload 30K pdf files to a directory and not have to manually create sharing links one at a time. Then using code on a front end server located somewhere else, dynamically generate pages that can link to the files, IDEALLY based on a naming convention as opposed to random generation.

thx

Reply

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