Why there is a specific feature to store files in Tiki,

The File Galleries feature in Tiki enables users to store, classify and distribute files. They are served or can be manipulated as the files like the one from your hard disk or displayed and used as content like images, video, PDF and more.
Uploading a file or an image in an internet page is a standard option for most of the web applications. While you can use this feature the same simple way in Tiki it has been empowered and turned into a secure full files management system so powerful that it can use the Tiki search engine to retrieve strings from within a Microsoft Word document or Open Office (I should have said Libre Office, the successor of Open Office).

Let's explore the File Galleries system installed by default in Tiki.

How it looks and how to use it

I'll start with the Tiki freshly installed, from the home page and logged in as admin.

Tiki is totally configurable and the buttons and menu locations can be changed. In my tutorials I always explain and demonstrate things based on the default install. From the main menu I go to the File Galleries menu and a click reveal to item in this menu "List Galleries" and "Upload File".

The File Galleries feature like most features in Tiki use the standard templates so action menu search tools and others are where you expect them to be.

By default anonymous user can't see and download files; as admin I have more privileges. I can upload, edit, create, ... in short I can admin the File Galleries.

To upload my first file, I click on the upload link at the top of the page. It opened the upload dialog page and I can drag and drop files or select one or more files within my hard disk. I'll choose a picture of the Tiki folks during the last Fosdem. Upload and it's done. If I click the Browse button to get back to my gallery I can see the new file where it should be and additional information concerning this file.

How to customize the listing and display

It has been uploaded in my main gallery and as I expect to place many more files I would like to create sub file galleries. I click on create and it opened the create file gallery screen. I give it a name, Fosdem pictures, a description and as usual in Tiki you’ll find dozens of options. It is easy to understand what each of them does and you can use and test them on your own Tiki. Let's just set the maximum width and height for the images uploaded in my new file gallery; I can also customize the display setting per gallery. Again, straightforward and easy to set. Information can be hidden in a pop-up box given next to the file or both. Nothing complicated and you should feel free to play on and adapt depending on your case. Save. Back to the main gallery I see everything as expected, my new file gallery and the file I have uploaded previously.

Now that I have this gallery I want to move my Fosdem pictures into it. I click on the check box in front of the file to select it and on the bottom drop-down I choose the move option. I validate my action, select where I want the file to be moved, click on move and it's done; if I click on my Fosdem picture gallery I can see that my file has been moved there. Of course now that I create this gallery I can directly upload file in it. Let's use the drag-and-drop option this time to upload two new file. Upload.
Shazaam! I have my three files in my gallery.

Moving over the wrench placed in front of each of the file reveals an action menu;
Display
Download
Archived not available by default at this stage.
Upload a new version so you can update a single file or image place it multiple documents without having to correct each one of them
Edit properties to change name description etc.
Refresh metatag
Page view to display all the information for a file
and finally Delete.

Back to my main gallery I will create a new file gallery. Again in my newly created file gallery I upload a couple of images. By the way Tiki will show you the right wiki syntax to insert it right away on a wiki page; if you want to know more about the wiki syntax check a previous Tiki Express tutorial I did on this subject. Let's browse the gallery, all is in place and the Explorer view set by default gives you a clear idea of what you have in your File Galleries.

So far we have uploaded images but everything works the same with documents. I prepared a new gallery to place documents I want to share with a team. Here I have a PDF file created from my own website and a yml file from the Tiki code files. Looking back to my main gallery everything is clean and this without hassle or without knowing any piece of code. Just choosing the default available tools in Tiki.

By the way, using sub galleries like virtual folders it is possible to apply specific permissions or options to a group of files in a file gallery. I'll do certainly a Tiki Express tutorial for permissions so don't forget to subscribe to my (youtube) channel to be informed when I publish a new video.

I'll show you the File Galleries control panel parameters and options

As usual in Tiki this feature comes with its own admin control panel where you can turn on and off dozens of options and enable more advanced parameters.

It is time for me to talk of an important setting about file storage. By default on new installation and to ease the setup Tiki will save your files in your database. This is OK in case you have a few images like logo and some illustrations. In other cases I strongly suggest that you use the "Store in directory" option. It will keep your database clean and thin two things that have no price especially if you want to upload many files. Select this option, indicate the path of your directory where to store your files and you will be on the safe side. In case you started to upload some files and they are in your database already just use the button "Move files from database to directory".

Another important setting you need to know as Tiki admin is the admin preferences view filter. By default it is set to "Basic". And you will see only a few preferences among the hundreds of settings that you can change in Tiki. Toggle the switch from "Basic" to "Advanced". Save this as my default. If I look back to the same general setting panel for the File galleries feature and Tiki shows now many more preferences. Choose your main galleries, add a ranking system for your files, add comments, many options. One I use the most as photographer amateur is the batch upload so I can upload hundreds of files in a few clicks.

The plugins tab shows and gives you access to the plugins that are related to the file galleries feature. The plugin draw is really something I need to show I guess another good idea for a Tiki Express Tutorial.

From the tab listing you can set the option for your listing display by default for all your future file galleries which means that the galleries you already created won't be modified — of course same goes for the admin listing options.

Search and indexing options are kind of more advanced parameters and they are to be set per use case so we will not discuss this in this tutorial.

The enhancements tab has options to enable ElFinder interface, H5P support, Tiki Draw, SCORM support and Vimeo support. Again I will talk of those in a future Tiki Express tutorial. So to be informed just click on the subscribe button on the bottom right of the [YouTube] screen and you'll be notified each time I'll publish a new video.

The max size of the file you can upload is a regular question. Well in Tiki this is unlimited and it depends of your server settings. To check the upload max setting value the easiest way is to go to this upload file screen and you will see at the bottom a remarks box with the information. In my case I set my local server upload maximum setting to 32 megabyte. If you need to change the value on your system you can ask your IT admin or the company that is hosting your server and add parameters and value in the .htaccess file where your Tiki is installed or to modify your server php.ini file. Check at doc.tiki.org and search for upload file size if you need more details about this.

It is time now to see common usage of the File Galleries feature in Tiki. The File Galleries include a slideshow that will be nice to set up if you want to use the feature to store images. I selected gallery, edited it, check the sideshow checkbox option. Save. And now I have a nice slideshow in an instant.

Another good plugin to use with files is the web document viewer. With so many options in Tiki I'll use the admin preference search system. Let's enter web document, search. And among the results activate it.

Now let's edit my HomePage. I start by deleting the previous content so we are ready to recompose this wiki page. I set a title. I pick an image from my file galleries using the upload button.

Using the help button on the right of the toolbar I open the plug-in help and I set an IMG plugin to display all the images from a file gallery. I select the right source. I pick my family time file gallery. Set the plug-in to display thumbnail. I checked by a click on the preview button. Images are here.

Let's continue by adding a files plugins to list files. Again I use the plug-in help. I set the plug-in to display the files in my team documents file gallery. Save. As we can see files, included images and documents were added on a wiki page in a few clicks.

Let's have the PDF file to the page now.
I edit the page, use the plugin help again select a web document viewer and in real life I should be able to set the Id of a document I have in my file gallery directly but because my website is not a real one but a local demonstration it can't display properly a file from within my computer. I’ll use an external link to the same document I've uploaded into my file gallery to do the trick. I set the width the height, I want to display the PDF. Save.
How cool is that !
Without having to copy all the content of my document I can display it directly from my file gallery to my wiki page.

To summarize this tutorial I'll show you how Tiki search is able to retrieve information from within a file

One last thing as bonus for this tutorial.
Some of my customers have hundreds if not thousands of documents made by different persons from different departments with different methodologies. And they are really despaired to have an easy-to-use tool that can retrieve information from within files. This without setting complicated and costly system like SharePoint for example Tiki will do it for you.

In my File Gallery I have a yml document, formerly it's a text document, and I have the word tutorial in the text it contains. I go to the search page enter tutorial click on the search button.

Magic happens.
Tiki shows me in the results a file and the file gallery that contained the information.

I've uploaded a Microsoft Word documents where my name Bernard Sfez has been saved. Let's see if Tiki can find it.

Easy as to say it and that my friends saved thousands of dollars to several Tiki customers.

Saying goodbye

That's it for this tutorial
Please if you find that video useful like, share and subscribe to my youtube channel.
Subscribing to my channel is actually the best support you can give as I want to make a multilingual channel and I need at least 100 subscribers.
Please help !

Thanks for many many positive comments you shared and posted and for sure I read 98% of good things and two suggestions one concerning the audio soundtrack and another one about my outro. I made some changes, I hope you like them!

Next video will certainly be directly from the Montreal 2018 Tikifest that will be held in less than a month.
That's it for now, thank you and enjoy the power of Tiki !

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