NAME CGI::FileManager - Managing a directory structure on an HTTP server Synopsis Enable authenticated users to do full file management on a subdirectory somewhere with a web server installed. After installing the module you have to create a file with usernames and passwords in it. For this we supply cfm-passwd.pl which should have been installed in your PATH. Type: > cfm-passwd.pl /home/user/mypwfile add someuser It will ask for password and the home directory that the use is supposed to be able to manage. Then in nearby CGI script: #!/usr/bin/perl -wT use strict; use CGI::FileManager; my $fm = CGI::FileManager->new( PARAMS => { AUTH => { PASSWD_FILE => "/home/user/mypwfile", } } ); $fm->run; Now point your browser to the newly created CGI file and start managing your files. WARNING This is Software is in Alpha version. Its interface, both human and programatic *will* change. If you are using it, please make sure you always read the Changes section in the documentation. Version Version 0.02_03 Description Methods DESCRIPTION Enables one to do basic file management operations on a filesystem under an HTTP server. The actions on the file system provide hooks that let you implement custom behavior on each such event. It can be used as a base class for a simple web application that mainly manipulates files. DEFAULT To get the default behavior you can write the following code. The module will use the built in templates to create the pages. #!/usr/bin/perl -wT use strict; use CGI::FileManager; my $fm = CGI::FileManager->new( PARAMS => { AUTH => { PASSWD_FILE => "/home/user/mypwfile", } } ); $fm->run; new(OPTIONS) authenticate Called without parameter. Returns an objects that is capable to authenticate a user. By default it returns a CGI::FileManager::Auth object. It is planned that this method will be overriden by the user to be able to replace the authentication back-end. Currently the requirements from the returned object is to have these methods: $a->verify(username, password) returns true/false $a->home(username) return the full path to the home directory of the given user WARNING: this interface might change in the future, before we reach version 1.00 Check the Changes. META-DATA Theoretically we could manage some meta-data about each file in some database that can be either outside our virtual file system or can be a special file in each directory. Limitations The user running the web server has to have read/write access on the relevant part of the file system in order to carry out all the functions. USE CASES Virtual web hosting with no ftp access for one user A single user needs authentication and full access to one directory tree. This does not work yet. #!/usr/bin/perl -T use CGI::FileManager; my $fm = CGI::FileManager->new({ ROOT => "/home/gabor/web/client1", AUTH => ["george", "WE#$%^DFRE"], # the latter is the crypt-ed password we expect }); $fm->run; Virtual web hosting with no ftp access for a number of users A number of users need authentication and full access to one directory tree per user. #!/usr/bin/perl -T use CGI::FileManager; my $fm = CGI::FileManager->new( PARAMS => { AUTH => { PASSWD_FILE => "/home/user/mypwfile", } } ); $fm->run; The mypwfile file looks similar to an /etc/passwd file: username:password:uid:gid:geco:homedir:shell gid and shell are currently not used homedir is the directory the user has rights for password is encrypted by crypt uid is just a unique number Changes v0.01 2004 June 27 Initial release v0.02_01 Move file/directory Unzip file (.zip) v0.02_02 Separate CGI::FileManager::Templates add cfm-install.pl install script Use CGI::Application::Plugin::Session remove catching the warning of CA and require higher version of CA add a test that test a particular warning some subs were called as functions, now they are called as methods allowing better subclassing TODO - install the module as regular CPAN module and add a script that will generate the templates and hard-code their location in the script. - Replace the Unix::ConfigFile with my own implementation Test the module on Windows and find out what need to be done to pass the windows tests ? Especially look at Unix::ConfigFile Show most of the error messages on the directory listing page Support for filenames with funny characters (eg. space) Test all the functions, look for security issues ! Show the current directory (the virtual path) Separate footer/header Enable external templates Security issues: can I be sure that unzipping a file will open files only under the current directory ? What should I do in case a file that comes from an unzip operation already exists ? ZIP: currently the path to unzip is hard coded. It probably should be replaced by Archive::Zip More fancy things: Create file Copy file/directory Unzip file (tar/gz/zip) Edit file (simple editor) look at CGI::Explorer and check what is the relationsip to it ? Author Gabor Szabo, "" Bugs Please report any bugs or feature requests to "bug-cgi-filemanager@rt.cpan.org", or through the web interface at . I will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as I make changes. Copyright & License Copyright 2004 Gabor Szabo, All Rights Reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. See also CGI::Upload, WWW::FileManager, CGI::Uploader