Not too long after releasing the first Jungle Disk 3.1 beta, we realized that the public file sharing functionality really needed a few changes to make it the powerful tool customers ultimately wanted. We went back to the drawing board in some respects and we’re happy to announce that we’re releasing another beta that dramatically improves the public file sharing functionality.
The beta can be downloaded from the software downloads page under the specific product and OS areas. Please submit any feedback via our support forum here: http://support.jungledisk.com/forums/192792-jungle-disk-3-1-beta-forum
Here are the major changes to the first 3.1 beta:
Initially, customers indicated that they wanted to store ‘shared’ files separately from their ‘private’ files, however, we received a lot of feedback after the beta launched that it was critical to have the ability to share files on existing online disks. So, to minimize confusion and simplify things, we’re dropping the concept of public vs. private online disks. Customers can still create unique online disks for the purpose of isolating shared data from private data if they choose, it’s just not a requirement for file sharing any longer.
Now that customers can share files on existing online disks, we’re able to support three simple and convenient ways to share files. First, a share can be created via web access by right-clicking on any file and choosing the ‘Share’ option. Second, a file can also be shared by right-clicking on any file within a Jungle Disk Network Drive, eliminating the need to log in to web access.
Lastly, the feature we are REALLY excited about…sharing files that are not stored on Jungle Disk! After choosing a default ‘target’ online disk in the configuration, local files can be shared by right-clicking on ANY file on the computer and selecting the ‘Share with Jungle Disk’ option. Behind the scenes, Jungle Disk will first upload the file to a default location on the selected online disk and then generate a sharing URL. Way cool!
We wanted to support a lot of flexibility and control over how customers share their files so we created a ‘Share Management’ page to manage share URL expiration dates, maximum number of downloads, and a few other parameters. For the beta, only a few of these features are exposed but we will be sure to have all of the options available for the final release.
(1) For the Workgroup Edition product, master account holders will determine if an assigned online disk will permit public file sharing. Therefore, any sub-account that has access to an online disk with file sharing enabled will be able to share files on and via that disk.
(2) A system restart may be required for some customers in order to share via right-clicking within the OS.
(3) If you have a Personal Amazon S3 account you will need to enable web access to use file sharing by providing your Amazon S3 account credentials here: https://www.jungledisk.com/secure/account/awsaccounts.aspx
(4) Public file sharing is not intended to be a CDN service, so all individual file shares are limited to a maximum of 50 downloads. We will review and evaluate this limit at the end of beta 2.
(5) As with the all of the other features of the Jungle Disk products, customers are responsible for any applicable bandwidth fees for downloaded files. Since customers have a choice of two locations when creating an online disk, Rackspace Cloud Files or Amazon S3, please consider using Cloud Files as there are no charges for bandwidth with that storage option!
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