Have no clue how to start using this

Set your base directory on the File Away settings page (the parentmost directory). Create directories on the server for your users. I recommend creating the directories based on their user ID, because that doesn’t change, but you have several options, as discussed in the tutorials, for dynamic paths.

Let’s say your Base 1 directory is set to: www/whatever/wp-content/uploads/userfiles

Then inside userfiles you create a directory for each user, based on their user id number.

Assuming your users aren’t administrators, you can do this:

[fileaway base=1 showto="administrator" makedir="true" manager="true"][fileup base=1 showto="administrator" matchdrawer="true"][fileaway hidefrom="administrator" base=1 sub="fa-userid" makedir="true" directories="true"]

The first two shortcodes are for your (administrator) eyes only. It will allow you to create all the necessary directories from the page, and navigate between them. It will then allow you to upload files into whatever directory you’ve currently navigated to on the table. The makedir=”true” attribute will create the parent directory (what we set as base 1 on the settings page) the first time you hit the page.

The third shortcode is hidden from you, but visible to all other logged-in users, and it will take them directly to their own personal folder, which serves to them as their topmost directory. They won’t even see that’s it’s named for their user id number. They’ll just be inside it. From there, they can navigate to any subdirectories you may have created. If you haven’t created their directory yet when they first hit the page, the makedir=”true” attribute in their shortcode will create it for them.

Holy Cow!!!

That’s the real deal. What an awesome piece of work.

Thank you Thom. I have spent over 4 hours trying to learn this from the shortcodes that you sent and relating them to how it works. And I am happy to say that I think I have a somewhat handle on it.

Though I must say that I am not sure how the whole “table” thing works as the grid is automatically created when I use the shortcodes.

But can you please help me with one other thing…??

https://i.imgur.com/DAMStWp.jpg

The link shows a snapshot of how the grid is displaying for both Admin as well as user. I tried putting stylesheet in “header all the time” but that did not change anything and they continue to be bunched up and not spaced correctly. I am using theme twenty-sixteen with no CSS alterations. Any ideas..??

Just FYI, this is what I have as far as shortcodes go. I want users to upload their files and download files the Admin has placed in their directory. A user can see ONLY his files and not the files of others.

[fileaway base=1 showto="administrator" makedir="true" manager="true"]

[fileup base=1 showto="administrator" matchdrawer="true"]

[fileaway hidefrom="administrator" base=1 sub="fa-userid" makedir="true" directories="true"]

[fileup hidefrom="administrator" sub="fa-userid" makedir="true" matchdrawer="true" fixedlocation="true"]

Thanks as always.

Yeah, that css issue is annoying. I would have to take a look at the page to figure out which line in your theme’s stylesheet is the offending one, but I’ve seen this a couple of times in the past.

If I can’t get a look at the page (or you can’t make a temporary public page with a temporary file away table on it), the best way to figure it out is to right click on the table header, and inspect element. Then in the element inspector, click on the table element, look at the css, and disable/reenable one line of css at a time until you find the offending line. Work your way inward from the table element, to the tr, to the td. But it’s probably the table element itself, if memory serves.

One other thing. I would remove all line breaks and spaces between the shortcodes, from your example above. The regular users can’t see your administrator table, but they will see the two line breaks you have in your code before you get to their shortcodes. If you put them all snug next to each other like I did way above, they won’t have that blank space above their table.

Hi Thom.

Appreciate the advice.

I have traced it to this line of CSS:
table {table-layout:fixed;}

So, should I just delete it from the CSS…??

One follow-up question: As per your suggestion I am using “sub=fa-userid” to segment each user’s information from the rest of the users. But on the actual front end page it shows up as the number, e.g. 2.

Is there any way to have “prettier” values for the parent directory…?? When the user logs in on the front end, they see a number as the root directory instead of their first name or something similar.

Any help will be appreciated.

Add this to you custom css:

table#ssfa-table {table-layout:auto!important;}

Besides fa-userid you can also do fa-username and/or fa-firstlast, but the latter can change. As long as you don’t have a plugin that allows the changing of usernames, fa-username may be your solution.

Hi Thom.

That code was not making a difference for some reason.

Then I used this:
table {table-layout:auto;}
and that worked.

I hope this will not mess up if I use tables in other parts of the site..???…[:0(

Also, do you have any idea why all of a sudden, when logged in as an Admin, I can no longer see the files…?? If I log in as a user, I can see the segmented files just fine.

I tried clearing all cookies and different browsers but the only thing that shows up on the page for an Admin are “Add Files” and “File Up” links. The filed and folder are missing. Happened out of the blue.

Here again are the four lines of code I am using:

[fileaway base=1 showto="administrator" makedir="true" manager="true"]

[fileup base=1 showto="administrator" matchdrawer="true"]

[fileaway hidefrom="administrator" base=1 sub="fa-userid" makedir="true" directories="true" manager="true"]

[fileup hidefrom="administrator" sub="fa-userid" matchdrawer="true" fixedlocation="true" makedir="true"]

Appreciate all your help and I promise I won’t bug you for at least a couple of days.

The CSS I gave you wasn’t working because I gave you the wrong selector. Sorry.

It needs to be:

table[id^=”ssfa-table”] {table-layout:auto!important;}

No, I don’t have any idea why you would stop seeing the files, but my bet is something happened to your directory structure, or a change was made to your server or something. If you didn’t change the shortcode, then File Away didn’t change what it was doing. The only thing that could have changed is on the directory side of things.

Hi Thom.

Not sure why that plugin stopped displaying on the page.

I just copied the shortcodes to a new page and they showed up fine.

Weird that these problems are cropping up on a basic twenty-sixteen theme.

Thank you for your time and patience.

This seems to be a problem that is occurring more frequently for people, but it has nothing to do with File Away. It’s some post-editor plugin or WordPress itself that seems to be corrupting shortcodes when updating a post, sporadically. It’s not just [fileaway] shortcodes. I’ve heard people say other shortcodes have stopped working to upon updating a page.

hi, thom.

please help as i think i will lose my mind – if that hasn’t happen allready ??

For weeks now i am trying to achieve what i believe is basically the same thing as discussed above. i have read your tutorials and most of the treads, i tested almost every file management plugin known to men and i am affraid my head will explode – you know, to much information ??
and after every single plugin i have teste i come back to fileaway in hope that this time i will be able to get it done…but no…

the problem is that i have no coding skills and i just can’t get behind of it of how i could get it to do what i need it to do – from all the reading the only thing i know is it can be done with your plugin.

So what i would like to do is this:
i want to build a webpage where every client that registers gets a profile. on this profile page there are four tabs – each for a different category. i managed to do that.
now – for each tab(category) i would like to be able to upload files(mostly pdf’s) that belong only to a specific client/user and that only this user can see them. and i as admin of course.
then i would like those files to be listed in this specific tab. – i know that for each tab i will need a different shortcode in it, but the codes would be almost the same, the only difference would be in the category – meaning in the tab itself.
for one tab i would like to have an option for users to upload files by themselves.

the question is how do i achieve this and how do i specify the user for whom i am uploading a file for?

beacuse of my nonexisting coding skills i would really need a step by step guide on how to that so i would finally understand the process…

i am very sorry that this post got so looooong but i really don’t know what to do and who to ask for help anymore.

thank you for this amazing plugin and your time.