SMEStorage Wiki

What is SMEStorage ? SMEStorage is a data access provider that works over many different cloud and providing best of breed Web 2.0 integrations and clients to access your data.

We provide a gateway in which we sync your file meta-data but all files continue to reside on your storage platform. In this way we are able to offer value added services and clients to your existing storage provider, and provide a single cloud file system which enables you to manage all you files in one file tree.

One of the key principles of SMEStorage is that of data unification. When we first started building SMEStorage we found that we, like others, had data in a more than a few different providers. Once we started adding colleagues to the mix it was obvious that people spread their online data out over many places. To combat this we decided early on to support many different cloud data providers. That list right now means we support:

- Amazon S3
- RackSpace Cloud Files
- Box.net
- MobileMe
- Microsoft SkyDrive
- Microsoft Live Mesh
- Evernote (import only)
- Google Docs (currently import only)
- Email-as-a-Cloud (the ability to use any email account as a storage cloud)
- GMail-as-a-Cloud (the ability to use Google mail as a storage cloud)
- FTP-as-a-Cloud (the ability to use FTP as a storage cloud)
- WebDav (any WebDav enabled cloud)

It is possible to use all of these providers with SMEStorage and it is possible to view all your files in one virtual cloud file system, as well as importing / exporting data from one cloud storage provider to another.

SMEStorage Web File Manager integrates with:

Zoho Office: Enables you to edit your office files directly from the web
PicniK: Enables you to edit your images directly from the web
Scribd: Enables you to view PDF documents inline. ScribD also supports read only office files viewing
Twitter: Send your file links to Twitter and also be notified via Twitter if someone shares a file with you
Yahoo Media Player: Stream your audio files directly from your browser

When you first sign up for a SMEStorage account, the first thing you will be required to do is synchronise your files. The only exception to this is if you are using a free SMEStorage Amazon S3 250MB account, or if you are using a paid SMEStorage Amazon S3 Hosting account. For these accounts the only way to access your files is via SMEStorage so there is no need to synchronise.

If you are using any of the other services you will need to enter your authentication details for the service. You can choose for these to be stored on SMEStorage, in which case they are encrypted and stored securely in a database, or you can enter these on a per session basis.

A detailed walk through of setting up SMEStorage for Amazon S3 can be found here.

Note: To use client tools, such as the Windows, Firefox, iPhone tooling etc, the cloud provider authentication details need to be stored.

When you have entered your authentication details, and decided whether to save your your authentication information for your cloud storage provider, you will be asked whether to start synchronisation or to start "synchronisation in the background". The difference between the two is that the former will run in the browser and the latter will run as a background task. 

If you choose to run the sync in the background you can check the status of the sync from the sidebar by choosing My Account -> Cloud Sync Tasks. You can access the File Manager at any point but if the sync is still in progress you will need to choose the refresh icon to see new cloud files as they continue to be synchronised.

Once the sync is completed all your files will be accessible via the SMEStorage web platform and client tools. Note that we don't actually move your files anywhere. They still reside on your original cloud storage provider. We just sync information about your files which enables SMEStorage to show you a 'view' of your files and enables you to access them via the SMEStorage platform and tools.

If you have synchronised a lot of files when you launch the Cloud FIle Manager you will be asked if you want to filter your files. The filter enables you to filter you files in the following ways:

- Alpha Index
- Range
- String

Alpha Index enables you filter by the first letter of the file. If you pick 'A' for example on files and folders that begin with 'A' will be lsted.
Range enables you to set the number of files that will be displayed, from 1 to some arbitrary number you choose.
String enables you to input a string. Only files / folders  that have the string within their filename or within their tag will then be displayed.

You can filter on General files, 'Email backups', and My 'Syncs' 'individually' or against all of these.

Note - if you upload a file that does not satisfy the criteria of a filter you will not see it in the file tree as it will be hidden. This is the case whichever client you are in.

You can always change the filter at any time by clicking on the filter icon within the File Manager, Firefox Plug-In, or Windows Tools.

SMEStorage does not actually store your files. We store meta-data about your files which then enables us to let you access these files through our service. This also enables us to add additional services, over and above what you get from your cloud storage provider, such as encryption and large file chunking, and also add additional meta-data, such as the GEO location of where the files was uploaded from.

When you first sign up for a package, after you have entered your authentication details for the cloud provider, you will be asked to do either a foreground (in the browser) sync or a background sync. This first-time sync finds out all the meta-data about your  files and records it in the SMEStorage repository. Your files don't move anywhere.

If you only use SMEStorage to manage your cloud files then the files on your Storage Provider and the information about them in our repository will always be in sync. However if you use other tools and services to manage these files then they can be out of sync. This can manifest itself by clicking on a file and the file not being found, or files you expect to see in your account not being there. To solve this, you can re-sync your account at any time by going to the side bar once logged in and clicking 'My Account' -> 'Provider's and the 'Settings' link for the Cloud Provider in question. From within the Cloud Provider settings you clicking "Do re-synchonisation'. This will resync all file meta-data and when complete will tell you which files were not found in your provider and which new files were found.

You can set this type of synchronisation as a scheduled task to occur every hour, or every day to ensure that your files are always in sync or you can just choose to do it manually as described above.

Note that you do not need to do an initial sync or resync the SMEStorage Amazon account types (including free) as these will always be in sync ,as you cannot upload / manage files outside of our service

SMEStorage can support file chunking against all Cloud Providers, although it is not turned on for all. File chunking, or file splitting,serves one main purpose, which is to split files into a chunk of certain sizes so that large files can be uploaded to a storage medium that has restrictions on individual file sizes, such as GMail, Email Providers, Microsoft SkyDrive etc.

The basic principle behind splitting files with chunking is that after supplying a filename and extension  file chunking produces a set of output files with a base name and increasing sequential extensions.

If you click on any extension you can choose to download the full file or a chunk (although there should never a need for you to download a chunk only).

There are many place that file chunking can be amended and there is actually a file chunking hierarchy within our platform. This hierarchy is:

- Global  (System)
- Package (System)
- User account  (user controlled from within the "My Account-> Providers" page)
- Cloud Provider (user controlled from within the settings of each cloud provider)

in which the the each setting as you move down the hierarchy over-rides the prior.

For example:

Global is set to 100MB. 
Package is set to 30MB 
User account chunk size is set at '0' (which means use Global)
Povider1 chunksize is 0  (which means use Global)
Provider2 chunksize is 20MB
 
In this scenario Provider2 has a chunksize of 20MB  and Provider1 has chunksize 30MB

The main thing to remember is that a user can alter Chunk Size in two ways, firstly changing chunking for all cloud providers from the My Accounts -> Providers page, and secondly over-riding this on a per Provider basis by altering the chunk size from the individual Provider settings.

If you are using a SMEStorage multi-cloud account you will see a files system view of your files across different clouds. You will always know where your files are stored when using SMEStorage as you will see an icon representing where they are stored.
Remember if you delete your files on SMEStorage you are actually deleting them on the storage provider where they are actually located, but also note that they will not be deleted until you empty the trash.

The Key Icon visually tells you when a file is encrypted. If you click this file you will be prompted to enter a password before you can download it. If you share this file the user who you share it with will be prompted to enter a password before they can download it.

When you first login, you will see the SMEStorage home page. Here you will find  a list of common options that you can choose to act upon, and if you are in a hurry you can choose to quick upload file which will be stored in a folder called "My quick uploads" on your default cloud storage provider.

You will also notice you are told the time you  last logged in and you are given the IP address of the last location you logged in from. This is an additional security feature for your account.

Hovering over the Space user icon in the Cloud File Manager shows more information on the space used for each Storage cloud you have mapped via SMEStorage.

Files can be easily uploaded to various storage clouds by clicking the upload icon on the Cloud File Manager Toolbar.  You can choose to enter the File Name the file description, any Tags by which you want to remember the file, and if you have setup multiple cloud providers you can choose which cloud provider you wish to send the file to.

If you have a multi-cloud account then depending which provider folder you are in when you make the upload request, your upload provider will be set to to the upload provider for the cloud provider folder structure that you are in i.e. if you are browsing your box.net files and click to upload then the provider will automatically be set to box.net. 

You can choose to encrypt the file if it is sensitive (see encrypting files) and you can also choose to upload more than one file.

Once the file is uploading you will be visually shown progress and file transfer speed.

Note: If you upload the same file to the same folder then it will be versioned. For example if the file 'myfile.txt' is uploaded to 'myfolder' and then you, or a colleague, again upload 'myfile.txt' to this folder, the file will automatically be versioned and will be names as 'myfile_<date-timestamp>.txt. This enables you to handle file revisions very easily.

File that are uploaded via SMEStorage are to your storage provider are name as following on your storage Provider <filename><user><folder>.<file extension>

You may wish to add additional security to certain files. When you upload files via the File Manager you have the option to  choose for the file to be encrypted. This means that you enter a password that only you know that is used to encrypt the file. This  password is not stored on the SMEStorage servers so if you forget it you will also not be able to access the file !

Also if you share the file you will also need to share the password for users to be able to view it.

You can easily tell if a file is encrypted in the file manager as the file has a key next to it which indicated the file is secure.

Whenever you try an download or access a file that is encrypted you will be brought to a screen that asks you to enter the file password. On successfully entering this password you will be able to download the file.

If you click on a filename from within the Cloud File Manager and chose the File Information link you will see more detailed information about the file. This includes, for any files uploaded via SMEStorage after the 8th January 2010 GEO location information about the file, which includes the IP address and also the city and Country the File was uploaded from and the Latitude and Longitude.

One of the many things that SMEStorage does is overlay a file system on all the storage clouds it supports, even where the underlying storage platform does not have a cloud files system, such as Amazon S3 and RackSpace CloudFiles.

Refresh View: Reloads folders and files

Files Filter: Enables you to filter your files or Folders, either by Keyword, Range, or alphanumerically. You can change filters at any time and apply filters to just normal files or  shared files and email backups.

Create New Folder: Creates a new Folder at the point where you are in the folder tree.

Rename Folder: Rename an existing folder - note if you have the folder shared, this will break the share

Delete Folder: Delete's a folder and any subfolders and files

Share Folder: Shares the current folder with any groups that you have setup

Upload Files: Enables you to upload multiple files from the web platform

Create new File: enables you to create a blank Word, Excel or text document, after which you can edit with Zoho Docs. In this way you can create new office documents entirely from your web browser

Add to Clipboard: Enables multiple files to be added to the Clipboard to be used for file sharing. This is useful if you want to share more than one file link

View Clipboard: Shows the current contents of the Clipboard. 

The Email Backup options are not visible unless you have navigated to 'Email Backup' in the file Manager tree. If you have not clicked on this in the File Manager you will not see the Email Backup options in the icon bar.

Add new Email Backup: Create a new email backup set by entering your email details.

Edit Existing Email Backup: Edit the details of any existing email backup

Delete Email Account: Delete the details of an existing email backup

Backup Email Account: Choose to run an email backup either in real-time, or in the background.  If you choose to run in real-time you will have to wait until the backup is finished and this can take a long time. If you choose to run it in the background you can check the status of it in the "Background link from the sidebar.

Restore Email Account: Restore Data back to an email account

Contacts have their own node in the File Explorer tree.  You can create  Contact Groups and Contact sub-groups of groups. See the next section 'Contact Bar' on how you can do this.

When you click on Contacts two new icons appear in the action bar. The first icon enables you to import contacts. The second icon allows you to create contact groups and sub groups. If you are on the root node of contacts then contact groups can be created. If a contact group is highlighted then contact sub groups will be created.

You can drag contacts into these groups just like you can other files by clicking on the icon to the very left of the contact and dragging to the contact group you wish to move the contact to. If you wish to move multiple contacts you select them first by clicking the checkbox next to the contact and then drag them to the folder you wish to move them to.

Once you click on the contact node and then on the left contact icon to begin the process of importing contacts there will be a slight delay whilst the contact providers we support are loaded. There are over 50 from email providers to social media providers. You will them be prompted to select which provider you would like to import contacts from and asked to authenticate. We do not store any username or password information. It is only used for the session.

Once imported the contacts are stored in VCard format. If duplicate contacts from contacts you have already imported are detected then you will be asked how you would like to handle this, allow duplicates or delete. Right now there is no merge function although we are considering this for a revised release of this feature.

If you wish to import / backup Outlook contacts you can do this from the free windows tooling.

Once contacts are imported and groups created, contacts and contact groups that exist can be used implicitly from within the site. If you are sharing an file over email you only need to type the first letter or two and the contacts and contact groups that are available will pop up for you to choose.

The same principle applies wherever contacts can be used in the SMEStorage site.

The Trash icons on the File Manager are visible when  you navigate to the Trash icon in the folder tree. If you have not clicked on the Trash icon you  will not see the Trash options in the File Manager.

Trash Restore: Restore Folder from Trash
Trash Delete: Delete Files to Trash.
Restore Folder: Restore Folder from Trash
Delete Folder: Delete Folder from Trash

 You can think of a business group as workspaces where you can share content with colleagues and friends. Whenever you add new files to a business group, they get shared to all the members of the group members automatically. There is no need for you to share each file again to a set of email addresses. 

If a new member joins your work team just add him/her to your business group and he/she can see all the files that are there. You are able to set different permissions for each of the members in your workspace which enables them just to view files or to be able collaborate and upload files You can also share folders as well as files with your business group. How can I edit my documents? 

Group Actions

Refresh - Refresh the group view

Create new Group - Create a new business Group. A business group is  name for a group of people whom you invite to share content. You can enable user to only view content or upload their own content. You can also choose whether users can see each other or not when you create the business group. When any content is shared with the group all users receive an email telling them about the new files that have been shared with the group.

Edit Group - Enables you to edit an existing business group.

Delete Group - Deletes an existing business group and all its users.

Invite user - Invite a user to be a member of a business group. The user will receive an email asking them to be come a member of your name business group.

Unsubscribe User - Unsubscribes a current user from a business group.

Repeat Invitation - Send a repeat invitation to a business group member (if they have not accepted the prior invitation you may want to use this)

Edit user permissions - Edit the user permissions for the business group of which they are a member.

Request a file - Enables a group admin to request a file from a user. An email is generated asking a user to send a specific file to the group

Add auto-sharing rule - Auto-sharing rules are rules that can be applied to directories. The directory location is taken from the directory that you have highlighted, or are in, before moving to Groups->Add Auto-Sharing rule. 

An auto-sharing rule tracks changes to files the directory you nominate (and sub directories if you nominate this) based on a  number of different conditions that you choose. The conditions are file extension, file name or file description. If you chose .doc for example and a new file of type doc is added you will recieve an email letting you know this. If you choose a specific file name and a revision is done to this file you will receive an email letting you know etc.

Show auto-sharing rules: Show any auto-sharing rules that already exist and enables you to edit them.

Tags - Tags are like keywords that you assign to your file when uploading. You can assign more than one Tag to any file. Clicking on the Tag presents a list of files to which you have assigned that Tag. Tagging is an easy way to group and then find your files.

Tags can be sorted, the number of tags visible can be changed, and recent tags only can be show.

When you are uploading a file, after you pause when you are typing characters, any known tags will popup for you to choose, or you can click the "+" icon to be taken straight to the tag explorer to choose tags.

You can move files simply by dragging the file. When you put your cursor over a files icon it wil change to a cursor and you can drag it to another location. If you want to move more than one file click the file box and then drag and move.

If you have multi-cloud account then moving a file(s) from one cloud provider folder to another will actually move the file not between folders within SMEStorage but it will also physically moving the file between cloud providers

Note that on some operating systems the cursor icon will actually be a hand as the browser uses the Operating default icons.

You can change the sharing status of files by clicking the sharing icon to the very right of the file. This will bring up a popup box that lets you change the status of the files to public or or lets you share it with any business collaboration groups that you have set, or it enables you to set an auto-sharing rule.

Changing the status to public means that it can be found on your Public files page, or shared on Facebook and WordPress.

Sharing with a business Group results in the members of the business group receiving an email telling them that a new file has been shared with them

To share a file over email, you click on the email icon to the right of the file. This will bring up a popup box, that required the following information:

Time to Expire: This is the number of days you want the file link to be active. Set it to '0' if you wish the link never to expire

Friend Email: The email of the person you wish to share the file with

Your Name: The name that you want  your friend to see who shared the file in the subject line of the email

Text: Any other notes you want to add that will be entered into the email

You can get two types of URL for a file. A URL is a unique link for your file that you can choose to share by any number of means, such as email, on your blog, over social networks etc.

The first type is a SMEStorage.com url that is relatively long, and the second is provided by a service called TinyURL. TinyURL is a web service that provides short aliases for redirection of long URLs, so if you need a shorter URL this is the URL you should use.

Note: As TinyURL redirects the file link, some Operating Systems firewall services block the link. You should be aware of this if sharing files. You can always use the longer SMEStorage link if you are concerned about this.

If you have enabled Twitter integration, which can be done i the Menu 'App Integrations' in your sidebar, then you will be able to share file links directly over Twitter with a message. 

Once you have made a file Public then it will be available to be shared using a public file URL that is based on your username. 

For example if your username is 'Acme' then your public files link would be http://www.smestorage.com/users/Acme. 

Your public file page can be found in your sidebar once you have logged in, just click on "My Public Files".

Any public files can also be shared over RSS. You can get the link for this by right clicking on the RSS icon and choosing to copy link. RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication". It is a way to easily distribute a list of content. You could choose for example to have a link to your RSS file content on the footer of your email or on a blog.

On the Public files page you will also see an iPhone icon. If you click on these your public files will be created as an iPhone application. This can be useful to share for other iPhone users, particularly if the content are office files or PDF's as the iPhone can download and read this content on the device.

If you click on the iPhone icon from your Public Files Page the iPhone application will be generated and you will get a unique url. This url can be shared or you can choose to shorten it if you require with url shortening services.

Any file that has been made public can also be shared on Facebook after you install the Facebook Widget. Any file can be shared with other Facebook users who also use SMEStorage.

To setup Facebook for file sharing, first register for a SMEStorage Account, and then install the SMEStorage Facebook Widget. Once you have set your Facebook widget password details with your SMEStorage user logon and password, all your public files will be available to any other Facebook users who are using SMEStorage. All their public files will also be available to you if they are using SMEStorage.

When a folder is shared with a business collaboration group it is starred with a small planet so you can instantly see that the folder is shared.

You can edit HTML, text or code files directly within the browser by clicking on the fllename and choosing "Edit as document" or "Edit as Source" 

Choosing to edit as a document brings up the WYSIWYG editor where you can make changes and save back to SMEStorage.

Choosing Edit as Source enables you to edit the document at a code level. You can also choose the type of document so that you get the correct highlighting etc.

SMEStorage is integrated with the Zoho Office service so when you click on the name of a file that is either a word, excel, or Powerpoint document you will see an option to open the file with Zoho online office. In the case of word or excel you will be able to edit the file and save the changes back to SMEStorage. Currently Powerpoint files can only be viewed.

You will also an option for iPaper. This can also be used as a viewer for files in which the data are converted into a flash type format and are browsable. This is very useful if you want to give someone a web view of your document without uploading it to the Scribd iPaper service, as you can copy the link from the resultant iPaper view of your file and share it.

When you click on the filename of a PDF document you can choose the 'view file with iPaper'  link to view PDF documents inline without leaving the browser.

This will open a new page and load the document so that you can scroll through and read it. The initial conversion of the document to be read in the browser can take a few seconds or longer if the PDF is a large document, but after the first read subsequent reads are much faster.

You can choose to view and edit image files from your Cloud Provider in the service Picnik as we have integrated directly with this service. After you have edited the image you can choose to save the image back to SMEStorage.

The resultant image will be stored on your default storage cloud and it will be renamed so that you still have the original image. The filename will be <imagename>_<Data & TimeStamp>.<file extension>.

If you just want to view an image file 

You can choose to upload the images that you have on your storage cloud directly to Flickr by clicking on the filename and then clicking on the 'upload to Flickr' link. You will be taken to the Yahoo authentication page to authenticate after which your image file will be uploaded.

To backup your email to your Cloud Storage Provider, click the 'My Backups' node which will reveal the 'Add' button in the File Manager task bar. Clicking on this will bring a popup box so that you can fill in your email provider information for the backup.

You have a choice of using IMAP or POP-3 email settings, and also can choose to use SSL or note. Note also that you n

The Cloud Import / Export Exchange enables you to transfer files from one Cloud Storage Provider to another. Please note that this is a point in time transfer.

This is different to mapping your storage cloud to SMEStorage when you setup an individual or multi-cloud account. When you do this you the cloud is sync'd and can be kept in Sync by either manually re-syncing or adding a regular cloud sync task.

Why might you want to do a cloud import /export ? You may have signed up for a SMEStorage hosted account and want to transfer your files from your existing storage cloud. You may want to back up all the file attachments from your GMail or Email Account. Alternatively you may want to move commercial cloud storage providers because of price, or merely want to transfer files to a friend. There are many reasons why this may be useful.

My Account is available from the 'My Account' option in the menu bar to the right of the file manager. Here you can update your email address, password and personal details.

Within the My Account screen there is a tab for unsubscribing from SMEStorage. This will delete your SMEStorage Account

Any files that you store with us via the SMEStorage Provider will be deleted if you do this. Any files that you store on other clouds will be fine, only the meta-data about your files that exist on SMEStorage will be deleted.

The Options screen is where you can decide what you want the first thing to be after you log into SMEStorage. This can be either:

- The Welcome Page
- The Favourites Page
- The RIch File Manager client
- The HTML File Manager client

The Providers tab is where you manage all your Cloud Providers. If you have a multi-Cloud paid account, either as an individual user or as an Organisation Admin user, you can add up to 10 cloud Providers here. Note that these can all be different or they can be multiple instances of the same provider. For example if you have 10 Amazon S3 accounts you could have 10 Amazon S3 providers, or if you wanted to accumulate 250GB of free storage by adding 10 SkyDrive accounts, you could do this also.

You can also see, at a glance, how many files are stored in each provider from this screen, and also the Cloud Provider role i.e. is it a Primary  storage provider or is it a cloud backup. 

You can also see from this page which is the 'default' storage provider. The default storage provider. is the one that is used,by default, when uploading new files i.e. this is the storage provider where files are actually located by default on upload. You can alway override this in the provider drop down box when you are uploading.

There are some other options here relating to Chunking. For a more detailed explanation of chunking please refer to the 'Chunking' section within the Wiki. 

The options for Chunking here either turn 'on' or 'off' chunking for all providers in the account ("File Chunking allowed by default") and they also enable you to set a default file chunk size for all Providers in the account. This setting will override the default global setting of 100MB.

There are more detailed settings for each cloud Provider by clicking on the  'settings' link next to each cloud provider.

Each of the Cloud Providers have a settings page. This page has some settings that are ubiquitous to all providers and others that are pertinent only to the cloud storage provider in question.

All Providers will have a summary section at the top of this page which tells you the number of files, the total size, and whether the storage has a  limit set to it.

Other options that apply to all Prooviders on this page are:

Synchronisation: Clicking the "Do re-synchronisation link" re-sync;s the file meta-data held in SMEStorage against the files that are held at the actual Storage location, This can be useful if the Storage Cloud is updated with file information outside of SMEStorage. A re-sync can be scheduled as a Cloud Sync task but can also always be done manually here.

Default Provider:  This options enables you to set the storage provider to be the default provider for uploads.

Master Source: When doing a sync or re-sync with Cloud Storage data and the SMEStorage platform, one source has to be the master and one has to be the slave. You would almost always have the Provider to be the Master copy and SMEStorage to be a slave unless you have a special reason not to.

Size Limit:  You can set a size limit on the storage provider. This will stop you uploading data once the number of files that are held in the storage cloud reach a certain point. This can be useful if you pay for the underlying storage and want to set a limit  to prevent you from going past a certain size. It can also be useful if you are sharing an account and want to implement a size check.

Chunking allowed: This should nearly always be set to "use global". "Use Global" enables file chunking to be applied if the settings for the user package allow it. The default file chunk settings of 100MB can be overridden by changing the chunk size setting (below):

Chunk Size: Entering a chunk size for a Provider overrides the default settings of 100MB chunk size  for files. For example as SKyDrive only supports up to 50MB file sizes you may wish to have chunk size for SkyDrive files that is 48MB. You could set that here.

Please see the 'Chunking' section of the Wiki to understand more about File Chunking.

Remove Provider: Clicking the remove provider link removes the provider from the account. All file meta-data will be deleted from SMEStorage. If you wish you can add the storage provider back to the account or indeed any other supported storage provider

Other settings are Provider specfiic.

Amazon S3:

This has extra settings that enable you to:

- Set your default bucket
- Add additional buckets  to Amazon S3
- Add additional buckets from Amazon S3 to your SMEStorage account

RackSpace Cloud Files:

This has extra settings to enable you to:

- Set your default container
- Add additional containers  to Cloud Files
- Add additional containers from Cloud Files to your SMEStorage account

The Organisation Cloud adds more features to the SMEStorage platform for small businesses. The same platform and tools are used but extra features are added that are not available to normal users. Features of the Organisation Cloud are:


    * Store files on any Cloud — Amazon S3, RackSpace Cloud Files, Microsoft SkyDrive, MobileMe + many more. We do not “lock you in”.

    * Product combines Storage / Intranet / Collaboration — The Organisation cloud provides a unique workspace that is not just a storage service but uses data as a means to collaborate and integrate with other services.

    * Advanced “File Safe” features — you can choose to have your data stored in a nominated Primary Cloud and have it automatically backed up to a Backup Cloud to ensure your data is always available when you need it. If the Primary is down, we will get your data from the backup.

    * Never send another file in an email attachment — we provide advanced file sharing features which include sharing files over email, Twitter and RSS. Each file also has its own unique URL. File shares can also be set to expire after a number of days for safety.

    * Secure your Files — All files can be made secure using encryption, even if the underlying storage cloud does not support encryption. Only the user who assigned the key knows it. It is not stored on our service. Any shared files that are encrypted will need to have a key entered for file access.

    * Use more than one cloud — You are not restricted to using just one storage cloud. You can use several and even multiple instances of the same service if you have more than one account. All data is seen in a unique single view. Of course if you do not have any storage services we can provide one for you!

    * Gain access to your files when you need them — We provide an “always on” web client and also other ways to interact with our service. These include a sophisticated suite of Windows tools that integrate with the windows shell, provide a virtual drive, a dedicated application explorer, sync tools and also integrate with Microsoft Office and Open Office. We also provide integration with iGoogle, Facebook, Firefox and the Iphone. From January 2010 we will also have a Mac client and offer integration with other phones.

    * Best of Breed Online Integrations — As well as offering desktop integration with Microsoft Office and Open Office we also integrate best of breed online services with SMEStorage. Have a word or spreadsheet document in your file browser? Well click on it and choose to edit with Zoho and we will load it into a fully featured online editor and save the document back when you are finished. Want to view a Powerpoint, PDF within the web browser? No problem. Want to edit an image? Again you can do all of this with your data all from within the service through our best of breed integrations. For please if you have any MP3 files stored on the service we will even stream them to you as you work!

    * Fax Integration — We integrate with the Interfax service which enables you to send documents as faxes directly from our service. An Interfax account is needed (end of Feb 2010 integration release)

    * Email Backup — We offer an email backup service that is easy to use and also integrates with Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Outlook Express. The emails are sorted by date and month and stored as filesthat can be searched and accessed from your File Manager.

    * Intuitive File Manage Interface — We provide an interface you already use too, namely a windows file manager style management directly from within your browser. It even has the concept of Trash before a file is finally deleted !

    * Contact Backup — Backup contacts from over 30 email and social sites including Facebook and LinkedIn. We also provide Outlook integration with our windows tooling so that Outlook contacts can be backed up. This provides a great way to have a centralised contact list for small businesses. In the early part of 2010 we will also be integrating with Windows Active Directory also.

    * Collaboration Groups — Each user has the ability create collaboration groups in which users can be invited to share content. Each member can, if required, be given permission to share content with the group and the group can be configured for all members to see each other, or not. When new files are uploaded to the group all member get an automated email informing them of the new content. It is a great way to deal with partner networks, or geographically distributed working groups.

    * Data Workflow rules — Rules can be set on data so that you get emailed if new files are uploaded to a specific folder, or file versions changes. You can filter on certain types of file extensions or set all file extensions.

    * Built in Messaging — Messaging is built into the platform so you can send each other messages directly from the web or windows platforms.

    * Built in Adminstration functionality — Each Organisation Cloud has an Administrator for that cloud. The Administrator assign users for the cloud Organisation space and is responsible for setting up and maintaining Cloud Providers, Organisation folders and Organisation contacts. They can also broadcast global messages and have access to logs of all files uploaded as well as other administration features.

    * SMS direct — From February 2010 we will be supporting direct SMS’ing from the platform via integration with the BulkSMS service.

    * Organisation Folders — The Organisation folders feature enables special folders to be set that all users in the Organisation will see and access the content of these folders. This is a great way to store common organization data and ensure that all users have access to company content such as Marketing, HR literature etc.

    * Document Upload Location — For some companies, where they were when their data was stored is important. To this end from January 2010 we will be enabling a GEO Location features for all document uploads.

    * Create your own Private Cloud — We have enabled FTP & WebDav Servers to be plugged right into The Organisation Cloud. This means you can store files on a local server and access the from anywhere. You can also automate the backing up of these files to a public cloud service.

When an Organisation Cloud is created the user creates a name for the Organisation Cloud. This is normally your company name. All users invited to the Organisation Cloud become <username>@<Organisation name>.

The Organisation Administrator controls who is invited to the Organisation Cloud as they have some extra options in the sidebar, one of which is 'User's. From this menu the can choose to add new users to the Organisation.

The Adminstrator also controls:

- Which Cloud Providers are used
- Whether files are forced to be encrypted or not
- Organisation Contacts creation and contacts import

The Org Cloud Adminstrator also had access to Organisatio Cloud logs which lists all files uploaded, all folders created, and all files deleted, for all users.

The Org Cloud Members creen lists all Organisation Cloud members and enables the adminstrator to send indvidual or global messages to Organisation Cloud users, which they receive next time they login.

Organisation Admins can choose to create special folders by checking  the "is Organization folder" checkbox. A special folder is created that is denoted by a briefcase. In the example above we have created an Organisation folder called 'Marketing' that is stored on Amazon S3.

When an Organisation folder is created all members of the Organisation Cloud automatically view this folder, and any content, in their file tree when they login. It is a great way to keep users updated on company information.

Organisation users can also upload to these folders.

The SMEStorage FIrefox Plug-In is one of the Providers that are supported by a Plug-In called FireUploader by Rahul Jonna. 

The SMEStorage Plug-In Client allows you to use a sophisticated Firefox plug-in as your control mechanism for SMEStorage. Firstly you need Firefox and secondly you need to download and install the plug-in. This should be done using the Firefox browser. If you try and download it using another browser the plug-in can have its default extension changed from .xpi to .zip which will make it impossible for you to install in Firefox.

To install the Plug-In visit the SMEStorage Tools page and click on the Plug-In installation file. It should automatically install. If it does not and you are  prompted to save the file, save it to a location and then choose File->Open from Firefox, locate the file and choose it. This will then enable the file to be installed. Note that Firefox will require a restart.

After Firefox re-launches you will need to authenticate your SMEStorage account within the Plug-In. To do this:

1. Select SMEStorage from the button to the left of Options (highlighted in a red box in the above graphic)
2. Choose 'Manage Accounts' and enter your SMEStorage account details
3. Choose 'Save'

Note that you can have multiple SMEStorage accounts using the PLug-In and change between them using the username drop-down.

You should now see your file system on the left hand side and your SMEStorage file system on the right hand side. You can drag single/multiple files/directories (or shift select files and click the arrows) from one to the other and they will be transferred. You can see their progress in the 'Regular Transfer' tab.

You can filter your files using the file filter from the menu bar in the top right hand side. Filter allows you to filter your files down using Alphanumeric, String or Range filters.

If your content is filters your will see in your Cloud Storage Path Bar that "your content is filtered".

Filtering is useful if you have hundreds of thousands of files and can speed up loading. 

Remember if you upload files and cannot see them it could because you have a filter set that ignores them !

The new Provider Option lets you change the Cloud Provider that will be used for upload if you have a lifetime Cloud or Multi-Cloud Account with SMEStorage.com. , Clicking the DataBase type icon on the right hand side of the menu-bar drops down the current providers you have available. A green tick is against your default primary provider. You can choose another provider at anytime. , Remember that if you change providers this will become you default provider for uploads unless you change it back.

Special type of folders in your Storage clouds are marked as such:

Folder with red square around it - means that you have shared the folder

Folder with 'O' next to it - means this is an Organisation Folder

Any business Groups that you have created can also be navigated from the Firefox plug-in.

At the bottom of the screen, when you click on a file, there are two tabs. The first tab show you the status of the file transfers. The second Tab lets you edit Tag or Description information, or share a file with any business groups that you have setup.

Create a Folder does exactly what is says on the tin  i.e. creates a folder in your Cloud Storage environment.  If you are an Organisation Cloud user you get the option to Create an Organisation Folder which will appear in all your Organisation users accounts also. If you are not an Organisation User this options will be grayed out.

There are a number of right click options if you click on your cloud files. These are:

(1) Download

(2) Rename

(3) Send To - Send a file link via email

(4) Send to Twitter - if you have Twitter setup in your SMEStorage Account you will be able to share file links over Twitter

(5) Get Tiny URL - This gives you a Tiny URL Link for you Cloud file that you can use on Blogs or elsewhere.

(6) Delete