February 19, 2016

Nested Workspaces: Summary of Workshop

An online workshop entitled "Nested Workspaces" was conducted on January 27th, 2016.

Throughout the 60 minutes presentation, we introduced our first major feature release of the year and demonstrated it’s powerful and flexible capabilities.

What are Nested Workspaces?

Nested Workspaces are FTP Today’s solution for integrating a traditional FTP server folder hierarchy with FTP Today's third generation (2010) folder hierarchy.

What's the difference?

Traditional FTP folder hierarchy - RIGID
1. A user's home directory can lie anywhere beneath a main FTP folder and
2. A user can be jailed to their home directory and
3. Two users can have the same home directory,
  but, there are to following restrictions:
4. A user can not have access to multiple folders with different permissions, and
5. Two users can not have separate permissions within the same folder.
FTP Today's 2010 folder hierarchy - FLEXIBLE
1. Each user can have a home directory and
2. Each user can also be assigned access to other folders (private or shared) and
3. Each user can have separate permissions within every assigned folder,
  but, there are to following restrictions:
4. Permissions are controlled by Workspaces (folders in the FTP site root) and
5. Sub-folders inherit the permissions (per user) of that workspace.

As our client base expanded since 2010, we realized that our third generation (2010) folder hierarchy wasn't perfect for everyone. This was found to be especially true for clients switching from another FTP provider or from an in-house solution who wanted to keep their existing folder hierarchy after migrating to FTP Today.

How Do Nested Workspaces Work?

To meet the needs of those clients wanting specific folder hierarchies, we worked to create a solution to give them the ability to completely customize the configuration of all their folders and user permissions in any way they see fit, yet still maintain our advantage over the traditional systems used by our competition. That solution is now here:

FTP Today's 2016 folder hierarchy - THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
Traditional Advantages:
1. A user's home directory can lie anywhere beneath a main FTP folder and
2. A user can be jailed to their home directory and
3. Two users can have the same home directory and
FTP Today 2010 Advantages:
1. Each user can also be assigned access to other folders (private or shared) and
2. Each user can have separate permissions within every assigned folder and
3. Folders anywhere in the directory tree can be assigned users and
4. Any sub-folders can either inherit the permissions of its parent folder
  or sub-folders can have their own permissions (per user).

With Nested Workspaces, there is no longer any limit to assigning access to folders at any level of the directory tree. If desired, administrators can even assign a user access to multiple folders located in completely different branches of the directory tree without authorizing permission to the entire FTP server.

Other features released with the Nested Workspace update include:

Workspaces (i.e. folders with specific user access permissions) can be created at any point in directory tree.
Entire directory branches can be created on the fly when creating a Workspace at the lowest level of the branch.
Subfolders can be converted into Workspaces, and Workspaces can be converted back into standard Subfolders.
All content not assigned to the user will be completely masked, even if such content is located along the navigation route to a user’s assigned Workspace(s).

Nested Workspaces give the ultimate flexibility in how you design your folders and how you allow your users to access your folders at any level.

Later this year, folders and users will be even easier to create manage after the WebApp update comes out. This update will merge the administrator system into the software so that creating folders, managing and authorizing users, and creating Nested Workspaces is even more efficient and simple.