Web File Explorer, Uploads & Remote URL Fetch

📌 Purpose & Quick Summary

The User File Manager provides a desktop-class, high-performance web explorer to manage your website files, media assets, scripts, and directories directly in the browser. Engineered with intuitive drag-and-drop support, breadcrumb navigation, high-speed chunked uploading, remote URL downloading, and archive extraction, it eliminates the need for external FTP clients for day-to-day website maintenance.

Figure 6: BoostonCP Web File Manager interface showing directory navigation, toolbar actions, and file ledger.

🖥️ Interface Tour & Elements

1. Interactive Breadcrumb Bar: Shows your current absolute directory path (e.g. /home/user/public_html/wp-content). Clicking any segment navigates directly to that folder.
2. Action Toolbar: Top-level operation buttons:
   • New File: Create an empty script or text file.
   • New Folder: Create a new subfolder with proper directory permissions (0755).
   • Upload: Open the chunked multi-file upload dialog.
   • Remote Fetch: Download external files or archives directly to your server via HTTP/HTTPS URL.
   • Archive (Compress): Package selected files and folders into .zip or .tar.gz archives.
   • Extract: Unpack compressed archives into the current directory in seconds.
   • Permissions (Chmod): Open the visual octal permission calculator.
   • Recycle Bin: Access deleted files for recovery or permanent purging.
3. File Ledger Table: Displays file/folder icon, Name, File Size, Last Modified timestamp, Octal Permissions (0644), and contextual menu actions.

🛠️ Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Uploading Files to Your Website

1. In the sidebar, click File Manager (icon: fa-folder-open).
2. Navigate to your website's document root (typically public_html).
3. Click the Upload button in the toolbar.
4. Drag and drop files from your computer into the upload dropzone, or click Browse Files.
5. The progress bar displays real-time transfer speed. Once 100% complete, close the modal and the file list refreshes automatically.

Step 2: Fetching Remote Files via URL (Remote Download)

1. In the File Manager toolbar, click Remote Fetch (cloud download icon).
2. In the modal, paste the direct download URL of the file (e.g. https://wordpress.org/latest.zip).
3. Specify the destination filename or leave blank to keep original filename.
4. Click Fetch File. The server downloads the file directly to your directory over high-speed backbone network in seconds.

Step 3: Compressing & Extracting Archives

1. To Extract an Archive:
   • Right-click (or select) any .zip, .tar, or .tar.gz file.
   • Click Extract in the toolbar or context menu.
   • Confirm the target directory path and click Extract Archive.
2. To Create an Archive:
   • Check the boxes next to the files/folders you wish to package.
   • Click Archive in the toolbar.
   • Select format (ZIP or TAR.GZ), enter the archive name (e.g. backup-site.zip), and click Compress.

⚙️ Complete Field & Parameter Reference Table

❓ Troubleshooting & Common Errors

1. Upload Fails with "Payload Too Large / 413 Request Entity"

• Cause: Uploading a single archive larger than the maximum PHP/Nginx user upload limit.
• Solution: The File Manager uses chunked uploads to bypass normal limits. Ensure your network connection is stable, or use Remote Fetch to download large archives directly to the server.

2. Extracted Files Have Broken Permissions

• Cause: Archiving files from a Windows machine can sometimes embed non-standard permissions.
• Solution: Select the extracted folder, click Permissions (Chmod), set folders to 0755 and files to 0644, and check Apply Recursively.