NetFile

NetFile enables remote access and operation of file systems that reside within the corporate intranet in a secure manner.

NetFile uses standard protocols such as NFS, jCIFS, and FTP to connect to any of the UNIX or Windows file systems that are permissible for the user to access. NetFile enables most file operations that are typical to file manager applications.

Components

To provide access to various file systems, NetFile has three components:

• NetFile Java 1 Applet. Has an AWT-based user interface. For use with older browsers that cannot support Java 2.

• NetFile Java 2 Applet. Has a Swing-based user interface. For use with browsers that support Java plug-ins.

• NetFile servlet(s). Two NetFile servlets are present in the web container, one for each kind of NetFile applet. The servlets are responsible for connecting to different types of file systems, carrying out the operations that NetFile is configured to handle, and sending the information back to the applets for display.

NetFile is internationalized and provides access to file systems irrespective of their locale (character encoding).

NetFile uses Access Manager to store its own profile, as well as user settings and preferences. You administer NetFile through the Portal Server administration console.

Initialization

When a user selects a NetFile link in the Portal Server Desktop, the NetFile servlet checks if the user has a valid SSO token and permission to execute NetFile. If so, the applet is rendered to the browser. The NetFile applet connects back to the servlet to get its own configuration such as size, locale, resource bundle, as well as user settings and preferences. NetFile obtains the locale information and other user information (such as user name, mail ID, and mail server) using the user’s SSO token. The user settings include any settings that the user has inherited from an organization or role, settings that are customized by the user, and settings that the user has stored upon exit from a previous NetFile session.

Validating Credentials

NetFile uses the credentials supplied by users to authenticate users before granting access to the file systems.

The credentials include a user name, password, and Windows or Novell domain (wherever applicable). Each share can have an independent password, therefore, users need to enter their credentials for every share (except for common hosts) that you add.

NetFile uses UNIX Authentication from the Access Manager to grant access to NFS file systems. For file systems that are accessed over FTP and jCIFs protocols, NetFile uses the methods provided by the protocol itself to validate the credentials.

Access Control

NetFile provides various means of file system access control. You can deny access to users to a particular file system based on the protocol. For example, you can deny a particular user, role, or organization access to file systems that are accessible only over NFS.

You can configure NetFile to allow or deny access to file systems at any level, from organization, to suborganization, to user. You can also allow or deny access to specific servers. Access can be allowed or denied to file systems for users depending on the type of host, including Windows, FTP, NFS, and FTP over NetWare. For example, you can deny access for Windows hosts to all users of an organization. You can also specify a set of common hosts at an organization or role level, so that all users in that organization or role can access the common hosts without having to add them for each and every member of the organization or role.

As part of the NetFile service, you can configure the Allowed URLs or Denied URLs lists to allow or deny access to servers at the organization, role, or user level. The Denied URLs list takes precedence over the Allowed URLs. The Allowed URLs and Denied URLs lists can contain the * wildcard to allow or deny access to a set of servers under a single domain or subdomain.

Security

When you use NetFile with Secure Remote Access configured for SSL, all connections made from NetFile applets to the underlying file system happen over the SSL connection established between the Gateway and the browser. Because you typically install the Gateway in a DMZ, and open a limited number of ports (usually only one) in the second firewall, you do not compromise security while providing access to the file systems.

Special Operations

NetFile is much like a typical file manager application with a set of features that are appropriate for a remote file manager application. NetFile enables users to upload and download files between the local and remote file systems (shares). You can limit the size of the upload file (from the local to the remote file system) through the Portal Server administration console.

NetFile also enables users to select multiple files and compress them by using GZIP and ZIP compression. Users can select multiple files and send them in a single email as multiple attachments. NetFile also uses the SSO token of Access Manager to access the user’s email settings (such as IMAP server, user name, password, and reply-to address) for sending email.

Double-clicking a file in the NetFile window launches the application corresponding to the MIME type and opens the file. NetFile provides a default MIME types configuration file that has mappings for most popular file types (extensions) and MIME-types that you can edit for adding new mappings.

You can search for files and display the list in a separate window using NetFile. The results of each search are displayed in a new window while maintaining the previous search result windows. The type of character encoding to be used for a particular share is user configurable, and is part of the share’s setting. If no character encoding is specified, NetFile uses ISO-8859-1 while working with the shares. The ISO-8859-1 encoding is capable of handling most common languages. ISO-8859-1 encoding gives NetFile the capability to list files in any language and to transferring files in any language without damaging the file contents.

NetFile creates temporary files only when mailing files (in both NetFile Java 1 and Java 2). Temporary files are not created during uploading and downloading files between Windows file systems and the local file systems over the jCIFS protocol.

NetFile supports deletion of directories and remote files. All the contents of remote directories are deleted recursively.

NetFile and Multithreading

NetFile uses multithreading to provide the flexibility of running multiple operations simultaneously. For example, users can launch a search operation, start uploading files, then send files by using email. NetFile performs all three operations simultaneously and still permit the user to browse through the file listing.