CKFinder 1.1, an advanced Ajax File Manager

Today the new version of CKFinder 1.1 has seen the light after some months in development.

This version provides support for Asp and ColdFusion server hosting, provides improved security across all the environments, does bring support for Safari 3 and Opera 9.5 and fixes some little problems with some IE6 installations.

It also introduces the new documentation site for FCKeditor and CKFinder. It is still an ongoing task, but you should be able to find much more info and detailed explanations about how to configure and use these tools, please be gentile if there's something wrong or missing, you should know that developers hate to write documentation and that you must point them with a gun in order to stop coding and start writing in plain English ;-)

What's this CKFinder about?

If you still haven't checked it, CKFinder is a browser based file manager.

Its User Interface is written with HTML and Javascript (buzzword: AJAX) so the client doesn't need any plugin to run it. The new version provides support for the four major engines, as long as you are using a recent enough version. That means: due to marketshare there is support for IE going back to IE 5.5, with Firefox you need 1.5 or newer (or equivalent Gecko browser), Safari 3 does work, and with Opera you need to run the latest beta available for 9.5

On the server side, as I said this version does provide two new languages, so there are four different configurations where you can use it:

• PHP 4.3 and later
• IIS with Asp.Net 2.x
• IIS with classic Asp
• ColdFusion 6.1 and later, BlueDragon 7.0 and later

With a few lines of code you will be able to add some nice features to your web applications like allowing the users to browse some server folders, upload their files and select them (for inclusion in FCKeditor or any other related situation).

Security and working with different users at the same time has been a main topic since the start of the development, so it's possible to define in a simple file using your server language the way that CKFinder should work, for example:

• allow non-indentified users to only browse the folders.
• Users of type "editors" have the ability to upload pictures to the images folder. They have their own folder each one.
• "Administrator" users are allowed to delete folders and files
• etc...

All those names and features are just some suggestions that I wrote, you can fine tune the behavior to your specific needs, just site and pick pen and paper, write down the types of users that you need and what should each one of them be allowed to do, and then just configure the CKFinder with that roles and restrictions.

If you just want your registered users to upload some files, and there are no problems with regards to different roles, and you don't need either the abilities to manage uploaded files (renaming, deleting both files and folders), and usage of thumbnails, then the basic filemanager included with FCKeditor might fit your needs.