You can open the explorer via the quick launch menu. It is one of the standard apps in the quick launch menu.
The explorer app allows browsing of the VFS. It provides several options to gather information about resources or to alter resources. These options include:
- editing, renaming, moving, copying
- locking
- publishing
- permission editing
- comparison of historic resource versions
- and much more
If you only want to browse and edit resources and do not need the various "special features" available via the explorer view, you may prefer mounting the VFS instead of accessing it via the explorer view.
The following screenshot provides a good overview on the options you have in the explorer. The explorer's tool bar provides additional functionality.
The explorer supports the most common shortcuts and also has drag & drop support to move or copy resources.
In the sections below, we briefly describe several options of the explorer and explain various symbols.
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Opens the publish dialog
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Opens the explorer's context menu.
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The folder tree displays all folders starting from the chosen site. E.g., from "/" in the root site or from "/sites/default/" in the default preconfigured site. It allows you to easily browse through the VFS folder structure.
Furthermore, resources are highlighted to indicate their status.
Highlighting that indicates the resource state
The current folder's content is displayed with several details. The details shown can be adjusted via the little gear-wheel that appears in the upper-right corner of the "Current folder's content" view (see "Adjust shown columns" in the screenshot). Interesting and not self-explanatory are
- the state highlighting
- the context menu options for a resource.
Klicking on the name of a resource triggers the default action. The action depends on the type (and name suffix) of the resource. It typically is Display or Edit (in the most suitable editor). In the context menu, the default action is displayed in bold.
The only exception are folders. Here, the default action is to open the folder. It is not listed in the context menu.
Since OpenCms 10.5 the explorer reflects if a page is shown in the sitemap (in the navigation). Title and Navigation properties are printed bold if the page is shown in the navigation.
The state of a resource wrt. the online and offline versions is displayed as in the folder tree, but the view of the current folder's content provides more status information on the resources. In particular you get:
- State indicators (colors as in the folder tree, but also lock and project state, as described in the respective subsections)
- Resource type specific icons
- Much more meta-information (what is displayed is configurable via the little gear-wheel in the upper-right corner of the "current folder's content" view)
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No lock is shown, if the resource is not locked at all.New text.
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An exclusive lock on single files and folders. You locked the resource
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An inherited lock. If a folder is locked, all resources inside the folder are locked. Possibly exclusive locks on the resources are replaced by inherited locks. You locked the folder.
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For resources with siblings, the resource that is worked on gets an exclusive lock, all other siblings get a shared lock to prevent concurrent manipulation of the siblings.
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The lock indicates that the resource is locked by another user.
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There is no symbol if the resource is not manipulated in any project
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The flag indicates that the resource has changed in the currently selected project.
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The flag indicates that the resource was changed in a project other than the currently selected.
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The resource is about to be published. It is already added to the publish queue, but publishing is not finished yet.
By right-clicking on a resource in the "current folder's content"-view, you get a context menu, exposing all functions available to change or explore the data of the resource. Depending on the VFS version you're working in, the options are different. Online you have much fewer options than offline since you can't change any resource online. Options also differ for different resource types. For example, you can edit XML content via the content editor, but for a text file you can edit only the source code and for folders there is no content to edit at all.
Below, we give you an overview of (most of) the menu options, grouped by different kinds of options and highlight at which resources these options can be performed. We assume you have administrator rights. Otherwise some options may not be available.
Show options
- Display (XML contents only)
Display the XML content - works only if a detail page is configured for the content.
Edit options
- Edit (XML contents)
Edit the content in the form-based content editor.
Resource operations
- Copy
Copy the resource. A dialog is shown where you select the folder, where the resource should be copied. Furthermore, you specify the copy behavior. Note that drag & drop of resources is also possible to open the dialog.
- Move
Move the resource. A dialog is shown where you select the folder, where the resource should be moved. Note that drag & drop of resources is also possible to open the dialog.
- Delete
Delete the resource. Note that the resource is still availabe online until the deleted resource is published. Therefore, deleted resources are only struck out and not removed in the explorer view of the offline project until they are published.
Advanced options
- Touch
Touch the resource - for folder also resources inside the folder - and optionally rewrite the content. The touch operation can write a configurable last modified date.
- Availability
Set, change or reset release and expiration date. Optionally enable and configure notifications.
- Secure/Export
Configure the export behavior of the resource and select if it should be served when requested - and if so, if only via a secured connection.
- Edit controlcode (for XML contents)
Edit the content's source code directly - not via the form-based content editor.