Public and Private folder concept in Helical Insight and how to access public folder content.

We have a different type of folders like public and private folder.

Private Folder: These are the folders which we create from front-end, by right-clicking in the file browser inside the browser, and the reports which are present in this folder can only be viewed by the current user. Also if it has to be shared with someone it has to be shared manually.

Public Folder: These are the folders which we create from back-end directly at the server level and the files (reports, dashboards, metadata, etc) which are present in this folder is automatically visible to all the users.

Path to create a public folder in the application: “..\Helical Insight\hi\hi-repository”

After creating the public folder in the application, we can see the folder from the front end with folder name. For example, in my case, I have created a folder named “Public Folder” at the backend server level and when I access it from Helical Insight application file browser it will be accessible by the same name “Public Folder”.

Default permission levels in public folder:

By default permission level of public folder is read-only, hence if we are creating anything from frontend Helical Insight we will not be able to save it from the browser (since it is read-only access and we would be needing to write permission).

If you would like to change the default permission level of public folder please follow the below steps. For instance, if you make it “Read Write” you will be able to save the content created from Helical Insight frontend also directly into this public folder.

Open setting.xml which is present at “../hi-repository/System/Admin” folder. Find “publicResourceAccessLevel” in setting.xml file and change from 2 to 3. i.e read and write permissions.

To know the Permission level for files and directories in helical insight please go through the below article: Permission Levels of Files & Folders

Putting Content in Public Folder:

In case if the permission level is “Read Only” then how can you save content in public folder? In order to put content in public folder, you can copy the reports/metadata/dashboard files from another folder to this public folder.

• Report: After copying the report, open the report file and remove the highlighted security tag from the back-end.


After changing the permission level restart the server.

In the report file there is a reference to the metadata path, please change that path also in case if you have changed the metadata location.

• Metadata: In a similar way, you can also copy the metadata file into the public folder. Also, open the metadata file in notepad++ and remove the security tag as explained in the case of the report.

Note: Since we have changed the location of the metadata the reports which have already been created will not work. In those cases open those specific files and change the metadata path as explained above.

• Dashboard: In a similar way you can also copy the dashboard files(.efw, .efwdd, .html) into public folder. Also, open the .efw and .efwdd files in notepad++ and remove the security tag as explained in the case of the report.

How to Convert Public Folder to Private Folder

If you have created a folder from the backend, it will appear as a Public folder which will be visible to all users.

In order to convert Public folder to Private Folder, create a file named index.efwfolder inside the Public Folder. The content of the file should be as shown in the image below.

Here,

• title tag contains the name by which the folder should appear in the File Browser.
• createdBy tag contains the ID of the user who has admin rights to this folder. The organization of the user can also be mentioned. This user can share the folder with the necessary permissions to other users, as necessary.

The folder is now a private folder.

For more info, contact us at support@helicalinsight.com