1.9 Filr Issues

1.9.1 OpenID Authentication via Google and Yahoo Is Being Deprecated

Prior to Filr 1.1, users could log in to the Filr site with their Google or Yahoo account. This functionality is no longer available to new Filr users in Filr 1.1.

Users whose Filr accounts were created by logging in to Filr with their Google or Yahoo accounts prior to Filr 1.1 are able to continue accessing Filr via their Google or Yahoo accounts in Filr 1.1. However, because the OpenID authentication service that this functionality is based on is being deprecated by Google, Filr will be moving to other, more relevant authentication mechanisms in the future. Filr versions later than 1.1 will not support any OpenID authentication for new or existing users.

1.9.2 Reporting Issues

Email Report Is Missing Items from the Last Day of the Report

When running an email report (as described in Email Report in the Novell Filr 1.1 Administration Guide), emails are not displayed for the last day of your report date range.

For example, if you are running an email report between February 3 and April 26, the email report does not show emails from April 26.

License Report Issues

The License Report currently counts Administrator, Guest, and three internal users (_emailPostingAgent, _jobProcessingAgent, and _synchronizationAgent) as local users. The Administrator counts as an active user, but the other four local users do not count against your Filr license usage.

For information about how to generate a license report, see License Report in the Novell Filr 1.1 Administration Guide.

1.9.3 My Files Storage Directory Is Displayed in Search

When Personal Storage is disabled and Home folders have not been configured, users can find a directory called My Files Storage when clicking in the global Search field and pressing the Spacebar. This is normally a hidden directory, but can it be displayed under these special circumstances.

When you click My Files Storage, it can take you to either your My Files area or to the profile of another user (depending on where you are when you do the search).

1.9.4 Sharing Issues

Editing an .rtf File Results in an Editing Conflict Error

After editing an .rtf file from Filr in a text editor (such as Microsoft Word), saving the file results in a message indicating that the file has been changed by another author. In this case, select the option to combine your changes with the other author’s changes, then click OK.

Changes that you make to the file are saved to Filr as expected.

For more information about editing files in Filr using Edit-in-Place functionality, see Editing Files with Edit-in-Place in the Novell Filr 1.1 Web Application User Guide.

1.9.5 External Users Cannot Browse to a Folder When Moving or Copying a File from a Shared Folder

External users who have Contributor rights in a folder that has been shared with them are not able to browse to a destination folder when moving or copying a file. Instead, external users must specify the name of the folder where they want to move or copy the file in the Destination Folder field, as described in Moving Files and Copying Files in the Novell Filr 1.1 Web Application User Guide.

1.9.6 LDAP Synchronization Issues

Issues When Deleting Users through LDAP

Novell recommends that you never select the option to delete users that are not in LDAP when configuring your LDAP synchronization. This feature will either be enhanced or removed in future Filr releases. User accounts that are deleted cannot be recovered. As a best practice, select the option to disable the account rather than deleting it.

Issues with Initial Synchronization of Filr Users

The LDAP value of the attribute you specify for the LDAP configuration setting LDAP attribute for the Filr account name must be unique throughout your LDAP directory. For example, if you specify cn, all users in the LDAP directory might not have a unique value.

To resolve this issue, use an attribute whose value is always unique across all containers, such as emailAddress.

Sub-Groups Are Not Included in Group Membership during the Initial Synchronization

When synchronizing groups that contain sub-groups to the Filr site from an LDAP directory, the sub-groups are not included in their parent group’s membership during the initial synchronization.

Perform an additional LDAP synchronization to ensure that group membership contains all expected sub-groups.

Default Groups and Containers in Active Directory Are Not Synchronized to Filr through LDAP

Membership of groups that are located in the Default Users OU (such as the Domain Users group) in Active Directory are not synchronized to Filr through LDAP.

Issues with Renaming and Moving Users in Your LDAP Directory

In order to rename or move users in your LDAP directory, ensure that you have specified a value for the setting LDAP attribute that uniquely identifies a user or group, as described in Configuring User Synchronization Options in the Novell Filr 1.1 Administration Guide. If a value is not specified for this setting, renaming or moving users in your LDAP directory might result in new users being created in Filr or in the existing user account being deleted.

Users Cannot Log in to the Filr Mobile App or Desktop Application with New Name or Password after Changed in LDAP

After a user is renamed in the LDAP directory or after a user’s password is changed in the LDAP directory, the user must use the old user name or password when logging in to the Filr mobile app or the Filr desktop application until one of the following occurs:

  • An LDAP synchronization is run

  • The user logs in to the web client using the new user name or password

A user can use the old or new user name or password when logging in to Filr from the web client.

Active Directory Cross Forest Trust Relationship Is Not Supported

Cross Forest Trust relationships in Active Directory are not supported in Filr.

1.9.7 Password-Protected Files Cannot Be Viewed

Files that have been password-protected in the application where they were created cannot be viewed on the Novell Filr site. This is working as designed.

1.9.8 Folder Nesting Issue

Because of database restrictions, the maximum number of nested folders that Filr allows is 45. For example, you can create a folder within a folder, and then create a folder within that folder, and so forth, until the folder structure is 45 levels deep. You cannot exceed 45 levels in the folder structure.

1.9.9 Email Issues

Cannot Communicate with an External Outbound Mail System

If you cannot get your Filr site to communicate with an external outbound mail system (such as Novell GroupWise), you might need to configure the Filr outbound email server with TLS over SMTP. If your email application requires this type of configuration, you can configure Filr with TLS over SMTP by using STARTTLS, as described in Configuring Outbound Email with TLS over SMTP in Managing Email Configuration in the Novell Filr 1.1 Administration Guide.

Test Connection Fails without User Name and Password Even When Authentication Is Not Required

When configuring Filr to use an external outbound mail system (such as Novell GroupWise), the Test Connection button fails when no user name and password is specified, even when the Authentication required option is not selected.

For information about how to configure Filr to use an external outbound mail system, see Changing Outbound Email Configuration Settings in the Novell Filr 1.1 Administration Guide.

1.9.10 Cannot Upload Documents Created with Apple iWork (Pages, Keynote, etc.) or .app Documents to the Filr Web Client

When uploading a document that was created with one of the following types of files, you get an error indicating that the file or folder cannot be uploaded when attempting to upload to the Filr web client:

  • iWork document (such as a Pages, Keynote, or Numbers document)

  • Mac application file (a document with the .app extension)

The Filr web client is not able to upload these types of documents because the document architecture for these documents more closely resembles a folder, and you cannot upload folders using the Filr web client.

You can upload these types of documents to the Filr site by using the Filr desktop application or the Filr mobile app.

For information about how to upload documents using the desktop application or mobile app, see the Novell Filr Desktop Application for Windows Quick Start, the Novell Filr Desktop Application for Mac Quick Start, and the Novell Filr Mobile App Quick Start.

1.9.11 Cannot Drag and Drop Files into a Folder When Using Safari on Windows

You cannot drag and drop files into a folder (as described in Adding Files to a Folder in the Novell Filr 1.1 Web Application User Guide) when using Safari on Windows.

This is because the drag-and-drop window for adding files to folders in Filr uses HTML 5 functionality, which is not currently supported with Safari on Windows.

1.9.12 File Name Should Not Be More Than about 200 Characters

The exact maximum file name length depends on the configuration of the Filr server, but generally it is about 200 characters. If file names are too long, files cannot be added to Filr.

1.9.13 WebDAV Issues

Cannot Edit a File through WebDAV (Edit-in-Place) When the User Password Contains a Space

If you try to edit a file through WebDAV (as described in Editing Files with Edit-in-Place in the Novell Filr 1.1 Web Application User Guide) when your user password contains a space, the authentication fails.

To edit files through WebDAV, ensure that your user password does not contain a space.

Cannot Rename a File When Editing through WebDAV (Edit-in-Place)

When using Edit-in-Place functionality to edit a file (as described in Editing Files with Edit-in-Place in the Novell Filr 1.1 Web Application User Guide), you cannot click Save As and rename the file. Doing so results in an upload error, and changes to the file are not synchronized to Filr.

WebDAV Limitations on Windows

Windows Update for WebDAV Functionality for Windows Vista and Windows XP

IMPORTANT:Install this update only on Windows Vista and Windows XP. Do not install this update on Windows 7.

In order to use the Novell Filr Edit-in-Place feature in your browser on Windows Vista and Windows XP, you must install the following Windows WebDAV update:

Software Update for Web Folders (KB907306).

This Windows update enables OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office to interact correctly with the Filr Edit-in-Place feature.

WebDAV/Edit-in-Place Issues with Microsoft Windows Vista and Microsoft Office

Microsoft Windows Vista has some issues with WebDAV access that affect all WebDAV interactions. In addition, a Vista-specific issue with applets can prevent the Novell Filr Edit-in-Place feature from working properly. Ensure that you are running the latest version of Vista. Ensure that you have installed the Windows WebDAV update described in Windows Update for WebDAV Functionality for Windows Vista and Windows XP.

Windows Vista users who are using Internet Explorer might see a Java warning when they try to use Edit-in-Place. (Firefox users do not see this error.)

To configure Internet Explorer to support the Filr Edit-in-Place feature:

  1. In Internet Explorer, click Tools > Internet Options.

  2. Click Security, select Trusted Sites, then click Sites.

  3. In the Add this website to the zone field, specify the URL of your Filr server, then click Add.

  4. Select or deselect Require server verification (https:) for all sites in this zone, as appropriate for your Filr server.

  5. Click Close, then click OK to save the security settings.

To configure Windows Vista to support the Filr Edit-in-Place feature in Microsoft Office, you must add new keys to the Windows registry for each Microsoft Office application.

  1. In Windows Explorer, navigate to Program Files/Microsoft Office/Office12.

  2. Scroll down to each Microsoft Office .exe in turn:

    excel.exe
    powerpnt.exe
    winword.exe
    ...
    
  3. Right-click each executable, then click Properties.

  4. Click Compatibility.

  5. Select Run this program in compatibility mode for, then select Windows XP (Service Pack 2) from the drop-down list.

  6. Reboot the computer.

You should now be able to use the Filr Edit-in-Place feature with Microsoft Office files.

NOTE:Although these steps enable Edit-in-Place for Filr, they do not fix Vista’s inability to attach via WebDAV in Filr.

For additional information on applets, view the following Sun bulletins:

WebDAV Limitations on Mac

When you use WebDAV functionality in a Mac environment, you encounter the following limitations:

Limitations When Editing Files on Mac through WebDAV

Edit-in-Place functionality is not supported on a Mac when you use Microsoft Office as your document editor. To use Edit-in-Place functionality on a Mac, you must use OpenOffice or LibreOffice as your document editor.

Cannot Edit a File through WebDAV (Edit-in-Place) When Using LibreOffice on a Mac

If you are accessing Filr from a Mac and using LibreOffice as your document editor, you cannot edit files through WebDAV using Edit-in-Place functionality (as described in Editing Files with Edit-in-Place in the Novell Filr 1.1 Web Application User Guide).

If you are using Apache to front the Filr system, users are able to edit files through WebDAV when accessing Filr from a Mac and using LibreOffice as the document editor.

Using WebDAV to Access the Filr folder (via Mac Finder) Is Read Only

When using WebDAV to access the Filr desktop application Filr folder via Mac Finder, access is Read Only.

Cannot Edit a File through WebDAV (Edit-in-Place) When Using Safari 7.x with OS X 10.9.x

When accessing Filr with Safari 7.x and OS X 10.9.x, using Edit-in-Place functionality to edit a file (as described in Editing Files with Edit-in-Place in the Novell Filr 1.1 Web Application User Guide) results in an error and you are not able to edit the file.

To configure Safari 7.x and OS X 10.9.x to support the Filr Edit-in-Place feature and to support adding files to folders when using a browser that does not support HTML 5:

  1. With the Filr site open, in Safari, click Menu > Preferences.

  2. Click the Security tab, then click Manage Website Settings.

  3. Select Java, then click the drop-down arrow next to the Filr site URL and select Run in Unsafe Mode.

  4. Click Done.

1.9.14 Viewing a Filr Folder through Windows Explorer Displays an Additional Folder on Windows XP

On Windows XP, when you view a Filr folder through Windows Explorer, an additional sub-folder with the same name as the parent folder might be displayed.

To resolve this problem:

  1. Launch a web browser.

  2. Navigate to the Microsoft Download Center and install the Software Update for Web Folders (KB907306) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=17C36612-632E-4C04-9382-987622ED1D64&displaylang=en.

  3. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the software update.

1.9.15 Cannot Log in to Web Client with Long User ID or Password

Users cannot log in to the Filr web client if the user ID exceeds 128 characters or the password exceeds 64 characters.

1.9.16 Display Issues Due to Third-Party Software

Scroll Bars That Serve No Purpose Are Sometimes Displayed

Scroll bars that serve no purpose are sometimes displayed in certain folders and collection views. This issue is only occasionally seen and is not harmful.

Filr Is Not Displayed Correctly When the Ask Toolbar Is Installed on Chrome

When the Ask toolbar is installed on a Chrome browser, it inhibits users from being able to view all of the Filr masthead. The Ask toolbar is not a Chrome-sanctioned toolbar and should not be installed on a Chrome browser.

1.9.17 Cannot View ODP and ODG Files That Contain Charts, Graphs, and Tables When Viewing in HTML Format

ODP and ODG files that contain charts, graphs, or tables are not displayed when viewing files by using the HTML view, as described in the following situations:

1.9.18 User Home Directories Are Not Synchronized until Trustee Cache Information is Updated

When you add a user to your LDAP directory, the user’s Home directory in Filr is not displayed immediately after running the LDAP synchronization.

You must wait for the trustee cache information to be refreshed on the file system before Home directory information is displayed in Filr. (The default rights cache refresh interval is every 5 minutes. You can modify this interval as described in Setting Global Net Folder Configuration Options in the Novell Filr 1.1 Administration Guide.)

1.9.19 Filr Does Not Support Aliases That Have Been Configured in the LDAP Directory

If your users have aliases associated with their user account in the LDAP directory, the alias is not synchronized to Filr during the LDAP synchronization. This means that users are not able to log in to the Filr site with their alias.

1.9.20 Cannot Use Text Editors Such as Notepad or Wordpad as a Document Editor

Filr allows you to change the default application that is used for editing files (as described in Changing the Default Editor Settings for a Single File Type in the Novell Filr 1.1 Web Application User Guide). However, you cannot use text editors such as Notepad or Wordpad as the default document editor for editing files because these applications do not support WebDAV.

1.9.21 Edit-in-Place and Other Applets No Longer Work on Chrome

The ability to edit documents in place (as described in Editing Files with Edit-in-Place in the Novell Filr 1.1 Web Application User Guide) and other Filr applets no longer works on Chrome version 35 and later.

Other Filr applets include the dragging and dropping of files in the following circumstances:

  • When clicking Add Files in older browsers that do not support HTML 5

  • When pressing the Ctrl key when clicking Add Files in any browser (this invokes the file upload applet rather than leveraging HTML 5 to do the upload)

1.9.22 Must Restart Filr System after Network Failure with Microsoft SQL

If your Filr system is leveraging a Microsoft SQL database and you experience a network failure, you must restart all appliances in the Filr system in order for Net Folders to become fully operational.

1.9.23 Must Restart the FAMT Service after Running “Test Connection” during Net Folder Configuration

After testing the connection of a Net Folder that is referencing an OES Volume, and when Microsoft Windows is selected in the Server type drop-down list, you must restart the FAMT service.

After the FAMT service is restarted, ensure that Novell Open Enterprise Server is selected in the Server type drop-down list before re-testing the connection to the OES Volume.

For information about how to restart the FAMT service, see Changing System Services Configuration in the Novell Filr 1.1 Administration Guide.