Uploading documents
BSCW lets you upload a local file to a folder on the BSCW server.
If you use a Web browser with integrated file uploading functionality (e.g. Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer or Apple’s Safari), you need no additional software to upload documents. If you work with a Web browser that does not support file upload to the server, you have to use one of the available BSCW upload helpers:
• the JUploader applet,
• the drag & drop uploader or
• the BSCW Desktop client.
These uploaders offer several advantages over simple browser upload. For details see 9.4 BSCW upload helpers.
For uploading files via your browser, select to display the ‘Add Document’ form.
The form lets you select a file from your local file system, using the usual ‘Open file’ dialog. The directory path and the name of the file you select are automatically copied into the form. The name will be used by BSCW as the document name unless you enter a different name in the ‘Document name’ field. Choose a telling document name, so the other members of the workspace will know what the document is about.
Special characters in the document name like accents or umlauts should be avoided when you plan to cooperate across different platforms, e.g. Windows and Macintosh. The file extension used to indicate the file type on some platforms should be kept in the document name, because it facilitates the recognition of the file type when the document is downloaded again by other members of the workspace: the BSCW document name is the default local file name!
In the ‘Description’ field you may enter a description of
the document’s contents or instructions for its use. You may also add a
description or edit an existing description later on, using 
in the action menu.
In the ‘Rating’ group of radio buttons you may provide an
assessment of the document’s quality. You may also rate the document
or change your rating later on using .
BSCW shows all ratings in the document’s info page; the median of all ratings is
shown as an icon in the ‘Rating’ column of the document entry (with only two
ratings, the average rating is taken).
In addition, the ‘Add
Document’ form lets you specify the MIME type of the document
(standardized designation of a file type on the Internet). In general, Web
browsers and BSCW uploaders will detect the correct MIME type and attach it
to the document automatically. Sometimes, however, it may be necessary to
select the correct MIME type explicitly. Similarly, a possible encoding applied
to the file is detected correctly in most cases. Occasionally you may need to
specify the encoding in the respective field. You may change MIME type and
encoding later on, using
in the action menu of the document.
You may enter further metadata attributes classifying the document by clicking on [More attributes].
After uploading, an additional PDF presentation of the new document may be generated if conversion to PDF has been configured for the document’s MIME type on your BSCW server.
•
Select
in the action menu of the document.
• Check the check box ‘Generate a PDF presentation for the document’ and confirm with [OK].
The PDF representation of a document is maintained along
with the original document within BSCW. Whenever you click on the document name
in a folder listing, this PDF representation is shown. When you, however, use
or
in the action menu of the document, you get the original document in the
appropriate application or for download. The PDF representation may be
revoked by unchecking the respective check box in the ‘Change Type’
action form.
Attention: If you upload a document to a folder, that already contains a document with the same name and the same MIME type, the existing document is replaced by the uploaded document. To prevent overwriting of a document
•
select
in the action menu of the document to set a
(removable) lock.
If a document is under version control it cannot be overwritten by uploading a document with the same name and MIME type; instead, a new version of the document is created.
Note: When you upload documents to a shared workspace that you do not own, the uploaded documents will belong to the owner of the workspace and not to you, the creator. The disk space used by these documents is added to the disk quota of the workspace owner. When disk space control (‘quota system’) has been activated for your BSCW server, the upload of large documents by members of a workspace may lead to problems for the owner (violation of the disk space limit). Because workspace owners are in general also workspace managers, they can of course destroy large documents, should problems arise. If disk space control is activated for your BSCW server, select in the top menu of your home folder to inspect the disk space used by all objects that you own.