In Version 12.0 for Cerberus FTP, there are some enhancements that don’t fit neatly into a theme or aren’t big enough to feature in their own blog post. Instead, here is a list of UI improvements, fixes, and features in the Web Client available in our Enterprise Edition that we think will improve your general experience.

  • Only show ‘do not save zip file on server’ option if user has ‘upload’ permission
  • Hide User Account Settings for anonymous accounts (this is also a configuration option)
  • Remove ‘Add Folders’ button if a directory does not have ‘create folders’ permission
  • Display checksum for a file, MD-5, SHA-1, SHA-128, SHA-512
  • Show the date passwords expire on web-client account page and user profile details
  • Added “Open File In New Browser Tab” web-client configuration

Do Not Save Zip File on Server

Web Admins have the option to disallow zip file creation on the server.  This isn’t a zip permission on folders – this is an automatic clicking and removal of the checkbox on the zip selected item dialog.  This will help on maintenance of orphan files on your file server.  This feature is set via a checkbox on individual listeners, to affect any users logged in.

The "Do not store created zip fiels on the server" option for HTTP/S Listeners
The “Do not store created zip files on the server” option for HTTP/S Listeners

Normally, web client users have an option to either create a zip file in their current directory and then begin downloading it, or to only create and download a temporary zip file. With the “Do not store created zip files on server” setting disabled, Cerberus presents web client users the first dialog below.

Web Client Zip Dialog with optional zip settings
Web Client Zip Dialog with optional zip settings

This gives them the option to download the zipped files and keep the resulting zip archive on the server to download again later by not checking their checkbox.  Users aren’t given the option to save the zip file with this setting set, shown in the second dialog below without the user checkbox. 

Web Client Zip Dialog without optional zip storage settings
Web Client Zip Dialog without optional zip storage settings

Hide User Account Setting for Anonymous Accounts

As seen in the “Listener 1” screenshot above left, a new feature titled “Hide User Account Settings” removes the account page for end users on selected listeners.  We’ve realized that this is a good feature to have automatically set for only anonymous users – people who should never have access to account settings. Independent of that feature, Anonymous Web-client end users will no longer have access to the account page.

Checksum Files Feature

The Version 12.0 web client adds the ability to calculate checksums of your files on the file server. This feature will allow you to verify if an upload was completed successfully or if the version of the file on the system is the same as what’s on your computer, except while in FIPS mode which disallows MD-5 checksums. Cerberus FTP can calculate MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, and SHA-512 hashes of any of your files. Clicking the clipboard button copies the resulting hash to your clipboard and you can compare hash strings. However, this feature is also disabled for anonymous accounts, as it has the potential for a DOS from these untrusted users.

New Checksum option for Web Client Files
New Checksum option for Web Client Files

Removing “Add Folder” button

If a web client user’s folder doesn’t have the “Create Folder” permission, Cerberus FTP Server’s UI will no longer have the option to add a folder during their uploads. This removes the impossible action instead of creating user frustration.

Password Expires notification

On a user’s account details page, there is now a line specifying when a user’s password will expire. This UI improvement is added to both the administrator’s User account profile page, and the end user’s web client account page. There is no functionality changed with this expanded information text.

The new Password Expires message on the Account page of the Web Client
The new Password Expires message on the Account page of the Web Client

Open File In New Tab

New file options on the Account page of the Web Client
New file options on the Account page of the Web Client

In addition to the auto upload options covered in another poist, a new web-client configuration option is controlling whether clicking on a file in the web client results in opening the file in the current window or opening a new tab to display the information. This is equivalent to a browser’s “Open link in new tab” being selected as the default click action for files in Cerberus FTP Server’s web client.

Availability

These are just some of the new features that are now available in Web Client in Cerberus FTP Server 12.0 Enterprise edition.  To learn more about all of the new features in Cerberus FTP Server 12.0, check out our release notes here.