Introduction to Zextras Drive

A replacement for the outdated “Briefcase” component, Zextras Drive is a Zimbra component that offers both a full-featured file storage system connected with the Zimbra WebClient.

Frontend features include file upload, management, and download
Files should be arranged in navigable directories.
viewing files
Designate “preferred” files for easy access.
Specify your own file notes (descriptions)
distributing data to internal users
Transmit files to outside users (NYI)
Syncing with Zimbra Docs
File lookup
Navigation based on folders
quickly navigable “stateful”

Option on the backend to store files on specific Zimbra volumes

drive zxsuite CLI

Differences between a drive and a briefcase

When it comes to file storage, navigation, sharing, and item deletion, Zextras Drive deviates from standard mailbox-driven behaviour. For a further explanation of the distinctions and of the characteristics themselves, go to the paragraph that is specifically dedicated to each feature.

Installation of Zimlets

The “Core” part of the Zextras Administration Zimlet is where the com_zextras_drive Zimlet may be launched.

Once the Zimlet has been deployed and activated, no more configuration on the mailboxd side is required.

compatibility with browsers

Which browsers are known to fully support all Zextras features is shown in the list below.

Only the two prior stable editions of the browser are supported for items marked as ” Limited”.

Mobile application

Both Android and iOS have official Zextras Drive mobile applications.

Description of the Upload and Download feature

Click the “Upload” button above the file list to add a file to Drive, or drag & drop any number of files from your computer to the main Drive window.

Right-click a file in Drive and choose “Download” to download it:

By right-clicking on any file or folder in Drive and choosing the “Rename” option from the context menu, you may rename it.

Briefcase contents go under the folder and item hierarchy of the mailbox, whereas Drive has its own internal folder hierarchy and navigation. Instead of using a tree view, users may navigate among Drive folders using the Navigation Bar at the top of the UI, and folders are displayed above files in the main area of the UI.

A “Quick Access” menu is provided on the left side of the UI in addition to the regular folder-based navigation, allowing users to rapidly examine the following sorts of items:

Preferred Products

Items that have the “Star” context menu option accessible when right-clicking them.

Items that have recently been modified, in order of most recent edit.

Presented to me

items that users have shared.

I’ve shared it

items that users share

marked for removal

Items with a deletion date

Making folders

Click “New” above the file list in Drive and choose “Folder” to create a new folder:

Names of files and folders

Drive folders and files cannot include the following characters:

Slash /
A backslash
Semicolon:
What’s up, Mark?
+ plus symbol
* Asterisk
percent symbol

Sharing

Drive files and folders can be shared individually since they are not included in the item hierarchy of the mailbox. Three choices for sharing rights are available: “View”, “Edit”, and “Edit and Share”; the latter two options by default include the “View” right.

Right-click a file or folder and choose “Edit Shares” to share it. Click the (+) button to add the share to the list after entering the target user’s email address and choosing the sharing permissions:

Simply click the trash can symbol to remove a share or the drop-down permission picker to alter a share’s sharing rights for a file or folder:

Drive only allows “positive” sharing rights, therefore it is not feasible to share an item with a lesser permission than its parent. For instance, if a folder is shared with “Edit” permissions, it is not possible to share one of its items with “View” rights with the same person.

Item Removal

Drive things are marked for deletion rather than being placed in the Trash like all other item types in Zimbra when they are deleted. Right-click on the file or folder to mark it for deletion, then choose “Mark for Deletion”:

Items marked for deletion are indicated by a strikethrough line at the bottom of the file list, and may be permanently removed by selecting the “Delete Permanently” option from the right-click context menu, whereas the “Restore” option will unmark the item:

Only the original owner has the ability to permanently remove an item or folder; any user with “Edit” or “Edit and Share” access on it may only flag it for deletion.

When a user tries to access an item that has been marked for deletion because it cannot be accessible, a pop-up notice will appear and inquire if the user wants to stop and leave the item as marked for deletion or restore it.

InfoBox

The InfoBox is a collapsible element that includes all the controls and information for the selected file or folder, as well as, if it is in a suitable format (photos, PDFs, and more), a preview of the file.

Click the symbol in the Drive UI’s top-right corner to show the Infobox:

Bottom to top, the InfoBox includes:

the title of the chosen file
The file preview (or a format indicator for formats that aren’t supported)
The context menu for right-clicking contains every action item.
Information exchange
information creation and editing
a “Description” field that is editable

File versioning enables end users to retrieve and download prior file versions while keeping track of all the versions of files saved in “zdrivev2-name.”

Simply right-click the file and choose “File Versions” from the drop-down menu to open the versioning menu.

The “options” button is located to the right of each entry in the File Versioning Menu and allows users to open, download, or permanently store any individual version of the file that is shown. The versions are listed in the File Versioning Menu in date-descending order. Additionally, using the “Upload Version” and “Purge Versions” buttons at the bottom of the window, it is also possible to upload a new version or to delete all currently installed versions.

Zimbra Drive by default stores 20 iterations of each file for a maximum of 90 days. The following properties can be modified by setting them at the global, COS, or account levels:

driveMaxVersionRetentionDays: the maximum number of days to keep a version. Any number between 0 (unlimited time) and 365. Standard 90.
driveMaxVersionNumber: The most versions that can be stored. As in a FIFO queue, the oldest version will be replaced by any newer one when it is reached. 0 (no limit) or a greater value. Standard 20.
Run the command zxsuite configuration global set attribute driveMaxVersionRetentionDays value 120 to set the maximum retention period to 120 globally.
Run the command zxsuite config account set user@example.com attribute driveMaxVersionNumber value 5 to change the maximum number of stored versions for the user@example.com account to 5.
Run zxsuite config global empty attribute drive to reset the maximum retention duration globally.MaxVersionRetentionDays

Technical details; File Storage;

Drive has a detachable folder structure based on nodes, whereas Briefcase files are kept as mail-like objects within the mailbox’s folder tree; as a result, Drive folders do not show up as mailbox folders (for example, in the output of zmmailbox getAllFolders). All files (including prior file versions and file previews) are kept in a dedicated folder in the volume’s root, while drive metadata is kept in a separate HSQL database. To accomplish native deduplication, file name is now hash-based rather than id-based, and compression rules adhere to the volume’s parameters.

A briefcase file’s filesystem path, for instance, is as follows:

whereas a Drive file’s filesystem path is:

Volumes

Drive files are now saved on the Current Primary disc just like any other item as of this release.

Syncing with Zimbra Docs If the Zimbra Docs zimlet is successfully installed, the “New” button above the file list will provide options for specific types of documents:

There will also be a “Open with Docs” option when you right-click a suitable file:

Additionally, Zimbra Docs will enable the InfoBox to provide samples of suitable document types.

Ports and URLs

Zextras Drive uses the default Zimbra settings for the domain of the active account to create URLs and links, using the zimbraPublicServiceHostname property for the URL itself and the zimbraPublicServicePort property for links.

The system will always fall back to the server-level attributes zimbraServiceHostname and zimbraMailPort or zimbraMailSSLPort if any of the two are not configured.

HSM and Zextras Drive Backup

Backup

Drive files are included in Backup, and since the RealTime Scanner and the SmartScan are both aware of this, no more steps are necessary to assure the security of the data.

Drive files can be restored using the External restoration and Restore on New Account modes, but not the Undelete Restore or other restoration options.

It is possible for HSM Drive to store its data on a disc other than the current primary volume by default, and HSM policies can transfer Drive files to a volume other than the current secondary volume, essentially enabling independent storage management for Drive files.

Drive files will be treated using the “document” item type when an HSM policy is implemented.

To allow various mailbox servers to use different volumes, this parameter is applied at the server level.

the Drive Primary volume setting

Run zxsuite hsm getAllVolumes to obtain the volumeID of the target volume before setting the Drive Primary volume.

Run the command after identifying the volumeID.

(where [volumeID] is the ID discovered by the prior command)

Volume control for the Drive Secondary

Finding the volumeID of the target volume as mentioned in the preceding paragraph will enable you to establish the Drive Secondary volume.

Migration of briefcases

The specific doImportBriefcase CLI command may be used to import Briefcase data into Drive:

Different target types may be used on the same operation, and the command accepts a comma-separated list of targets to migrate that might be either mailboxes or domains.

The migration may be tailored using the following attributes:

Drive Zextras CLI

The index of all zxsuite drive commands may be found in this section. Comprehensive information is available in the section on ZxDrive CLI Commands.

doImportBriefcase doRestartService doStartService doStopService dump doDeleteBriefcaseData doDeployDriveZimletSessions monitor getQuota getServices