Pydio Quick Start

Pydio

Pydio is a powerful file sharing web app. It supports multiple users, per-user permissions, easy link sharing, and more. It can be used to share files privately with colleagues or clients, collaborate on projects with coworkers, or replace the functionality of an FTP site.

There is also a mobile app available in the Apple and Android app stores.

The full documentation for Pydio is at http://pyd.io and the Pydio channel on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNEMnabbk64csjA_qolXvPA has several how-to videos.

This article contains just a few tips on getting started and doing some common tasks. Please see the above resources for more detailed information.

Create New Users

After the initial setup, your Pydio install will have one user defined, the admin. Log in as admin and create a user for yourself and anyone else who needs access. It's better to have individual users and passwords than to share a single login.

• Log in as the admin user
• In the upper right corner there is a pulldown menu, select Settings
• On the left click Users & Groups, then click New User
• Enter the username and password. Be sure to write down the password so you can give it to the person who needs it. Click the little right-arrow icon to go to the next screen.
• On this screen you can enter the user's name, email address, etc. For now leave the Role and Profile settings at their defaults. When finished, click the Save button in the upper right corner to save these settings.
• Along the top of the screen are "tabs" which correspond to the parts of the settings you have visited. Right now you should see a tab for "Users & Groups" and another for the user you just created. Click "Users & Groups" to get back to the user list. From here, you can click New User to add another if needed.

Change Application Title

The default site name is "File Store" and you may want to change this. For example you might prefer, "Bob's File Dump" or "ABC Co. File Repository", etc.

There are two places the name appears where you must change it. Start by logging in as the admin user and go to Settings, then:

• Click Application Core, select Pydio Main Options, click the Edit button. Change the Application Title on that screen, then click the Save button in the upper right.
• Now click Feature plugins on the left, then select Graphical User Interface (this item appears in two places -- either click the one on the left, or double-click the one on the right). Then select Client Plugin and click the Edit button. On this screen edit the Welcome Message field to your liking and then click the Save button in the upper right.

Reset a user's password

• Log in as admin and go to Settings > Users & Groups
• Select the user, then click the Edit button.
• If you want to assign a new password, click the Changed Password button
• If you want the user to be forced to pick a new password, click the Force Password Change button. (There's no visual feedback when you do this -- but the next time the user logs in they will have to pick a new password. They will need their old password in order to get in to do this.)
• By the way, if you need a secure way to send users their passwords, https://burnlink.swcp.com is a good way to do this. (This is not part of Pydio -- it's a general purpose tool that is made for this type of situation).

Upload a file and share it

This is how to share a file with someone outside Pydio. I.e. you can give this link to anybody, and they do not need a login to your Pydio to access it.

When you log in as a regular user, you will see the "My Files" workspace. Enter that workspace, which will be empty except for the recycle bin. To upload a file, you can either click the Upload button in the upper right, or (on most systems) you can drag-and-drop a file from your desktop onto the workspace and it will be uploaded.

If you want to share a file, select the file in the workspace, then click the green Share button on the right. On this screen:

• Description: if you need to describe the file, put a short note here
• Link Handle: If you enter a word here, it will be used in the address of the link to the file. If you leave it blank, the system will generate a random handle. For example, with a handle it might be http://yoursite.com/data/public/q3numbers vs. http://yoursite.com/data/public/802381
• Security: Here you can set several things:
  • Password: a password that people will have to enter to retrieve the file.
  • Expire in Days: If you want the file to be shared only for a limited time, enter the number of days here.
  • Allowed Downloads: If you want the file to be downloadable only a certain number of times, enter a number here. After the limit is reached, someone who tries to access the link will be told it is gone.
  • Access Rights: "Download" should always be checked here. You might or might not want "Preview" to be allowed. If the files is a picture (JPG or PNG for instance) and Preview is checked, then anyone accessing that link will be able to see the picture without actually downloading it. Sometimes that is fine, but if you wanted to limit the number of downloads, you should uncheck Preview, so that the only way to see the picture is to download it. That way everyone who sees the picture will count against the total number of allowed downloads you specified.
• Generate Link: get the link. You can cut-n-paste the link and send it to anyone you like. There is also an "Invite" button which will have Pydio email the link for you.

Later if you need to change any of the sharing settings (stop sharing, allow more time or more downloads, etc.) just select that file in the workspace and click the Edit Share button.

Usage Tip

In Pydio, the "right-click" action will bring up a context menu for quick access to various actions. E.g. when you right-click in a workspace, you can create a new folder (and other options). When you right-click on a file, you can download it, edit the share paramaters, etc.

Create a shared workspace

In the section above we shared a file with someone out in the world. Here we will create a shared workspace where multiple users (each with their own Pydio login) can share a set of files.

The default My Files workspace is private -- only you can see it. To create a shared workspace, first create a folder inside My Files. Then select that folder and click the Share button.

Some of the items on this screen will be familiar from the process for sharing a file. The biggest difference is the option at the top to share this as a public link or a workspace. Select "As a workspace".

In the Share With section, you can select from the list of users in your Pydio installation. For each user you select, you can grant them Read access, Write access, or both.

One very interesting thing you can do here is type the name or email of a NEW user in the Share With section. This will create a new user on the fly, who will have access only to this workspace. Pydio refers to this as a "minisite". This new user will not have access to a My Files workspace like a normal user created by the admin. Note that if you cancel the sharing of this workspace, the user you added here will not really be functional. It will still be in the system but when you log in as that user you won't be able to access anything at all. (Unless some other workspace gets shared with this user of course).

Scenario: multi-party sharing with editors/curators

In this scenario, you want to create separate directories for each of several people/companies to be able to upload files for you. You want the different parties to be isolated from each other, but you and your staff should be able to access ALL of the directories.

Here are the specifics for an example:

• Your company staff members:
  • Jennifer
  • George

• Your collaborators:
  • William
  • Kathy
  • Mary
  • ABCCorp
  • Johnny

1. Create accounts

Start by creating accounts for the company staff members (Jennifer and George in this example). Log in as administrator and create the 2 accounts. Pick one staff person who will manage these shared directories (aka workspaces). For our example, Jennifer will be in charge. When a new workspace is needed, she will create it.

2. Create workspaces

Log in as Jennifer. Now you'll create the 5 workspaces. Let's go through one of them in detail:

• Go into the My Files workspace, select the "+Create" button in the upper right. Enter a folder name, say "William Files" in the dialog box.
• Now single-click on the "William Files" folder to select it, then click the green "Share" button on the right.
• In the dialog box and comes up:
  • Select the "As a workspace" option
  • Add a short description in the DESCRIPTION field if you wish.
  • In the "Share with..." section there is a text box that says, "Existing or new user". Type in the name of the new user you want to share this folder with, in this case "William". Right below this you'll see a button labelled, "William (create user)". Click it.
• In the next dialog box:
  • You can either enter the a password for William yourself, or click the little turning-arrows button to the right to have it make one up for you. Click the button again to get a new one until you see one you like.
  • You can have the system send an email to William with the password, or not, as you choose.
  • Enter William's email address in the Email field.
  • Click the green arrow button at the bottom to accept the new user settings.
• This takes you back to the previous dialog box.
  • Next to William's name, there are 3 checkboxes for Read, Write, and Watch. You need Read for them to be able to see the files in the folder. Select Write if you also want them to be able to upload new files or delete existing files. If you select Watch, then William will get an email every time this workspace is accessed. Select the checkboxes you want, usually just Read and Write.
  • If you want other users to be able to access this folder, type their name in the box and select them. In our example here, you would want to add George as well.
• Now click the green arrow at the bottom of this screen to accept the new workspace settings.
• And now you are done. Click the "x" in the upper right corner of the Share dialog to make it go away.

3. Repeat as needed

That's it! Just repeat that process to add workspaces for each user or group of users. When William logs in with the password you assigned, he will see the "William Files" workspace and any files he adds will be visible to Jennifer via the "William Files" folder in her own workspace.

See Also

• http://pyd.io - Main site with complete documentation
• http://youtube.com - find Pydio videos here