💡 Announcement: File Browser in EasyMorph Desktop

[dgudkov]

Later in 2023, we’re going to introduce a new feature of EasyMorph Desktop – the File Browser app. Our goal is to make EasyMorph the most convenient tool for everyday work with data. Therefore we’re envisioning the Desktop as an integrated suite of tools to browse, organize, retrieve, and transform data. After the Catalog, the File Browser is another step in that direction.

The app will be accessible from the app bar.

With the File Browser you will be able to:

• Browse files and folders in any supported remote file store (such as Google Drive, Amazon S3, SharePoint, or SFTP) using the connectors configured in the Connector Manager
• Find and filter files in a folder
• Download remote files and upload files to remote stores simply by dragging them into EasyMorph
• Import remote files in the Workflow Editor in a single click
• Delete/rename remote files, create/delete/rename folders, move files to another folder (where possible)
• Add remote files (and folders) to the Catalog
• Browse local files and folders, import files with a single click, rename/delete/create folders/etc.
• Bookmark frequently used folders and locations
• Keep several locations open at the same time, move files between them by dragging

The File Browser app is somewhat similar to WinSCP or CloudBerry but intended for the non-technical user and is tightly integrated with the Workflow Editor and the Data Catalog.

EasyMorph Server will be supported as well (as a remote location), so you will be able to move files between Desktop and Server without opening a web browser, right in the Desktop.

The UI mockup below provides an idea of how it can look (not final, will change). The look & feel will resemble the Catalog.

The initial functionality will be somewhat basic - browsing, uploading, downloading, and deleting. More operations, like folder renaming, will be added later and will simultaneously appear as new commands in the respective actions.

Some file/folder operations may not be available in some remote file stores if they are not supported by the available APIs provided by the vendors.

How does it look to you? Feel free to share your opinion in the comments below.

[cvo]

Greetings,

Could we have the possibility to annotate the files ?
Thanks

Regards

[dgudkov]

It will be possible to add annotations to files once they are added to the Catalog, as with any Catalog item.

What kind of annotation do you envision?

[cvo]

annotations added in the Catalog are fine.
May I suggest to add some status tagging like : draft, submitted, approved
a end of life date

[dgudkov]

File tagging is an interesting idea. Note taken.

[michel.baldellon]

Excellent news
Could It handle a virtual machine folder (“Parallels Desktop”) on a Mac?

[dgudkov]

@michel.baldellon,

I don’t know yet. We’ll see when it’s ready. I suppose if a folder is available in Windows, EasyMorph should be able to handle it. The File Browser will use under the hood the same drivers as used by EasyMorph actions. So if a VM folder is available in an action, it will be available in the File Browser.

[RJO]

It really looks awesome ! And it also includes the feature we wanted, ie the possibility to download a whole folder where you can have the project but also the import and export files, ie the whole pack.

[Nicolas]

Will it convert EBCDIC char to ASCII while downloading, as WinSCP and FileZilla do ? That would allow to get data directly from a sequential file from a mainframe computer !

In my last job, because of this functionality, we had to use WinSCP (using the EasyMorph command action) to download the EBCDIC from the Mainframe to our office, then use EasyMorph to convert the sequential text file into a dset file. It didn’t work otherwise because the EBCDIC end line (CR) character was not recognized.

That would be wonderful !

[dgudkov]

It won’t convert encoding automatically. However, opening EBCDIC files in EasyMorph shouldn’t be a problem because it already supports EBCDIC encoding.

[Nicolas]

In my case, it didn’t work when I downloaded the Mainframe file with the File Transfer Action, and then treated it with the Import Plain Text (since it is a sequential text file) with the encoding set to EBCDIC - because of the unrecognized end line character. (ref: How to read EBCDIC files - #2 by Nicolas )

I do not work there anymore, but did I try ! (It would have been some sort of a revolution to be able to import the whole Mainframe sequential file right into Easymorph)

I’m sure anyway that this File Browser will be a great addition to EasyMorph, though !

[dgudkov]

The File Browser is scheduled for release in version 5.5, currently planned for April.

[dgudkov]

UPDATE

The File Browser is getting shape. The UI is not final yet and will undergo some changes.

[RJO]

It’s an opportunity for me to say that Easymorph is also a solution to virtualize applicative production NAS. I mean today in big companies, prod teams do not allow business teams to get direct access to prod NAS : they want an interface in front of them with authorizations and authentication. Easymorph is also clearly a solution for that.

[raskarov]

If you are doing Amazon S3, I would also like to see Azure Storage connection

[dgudkov]

Azure Blob Storage is on the roadmap. Meanwhile, this page states:

Clients can also securely connect to Blob Storage by using SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)

The File Browser supports SFTP, so that might work immediately.

[dgudkov]

Support for Azure Blob Storage has been added in v5.5 for the File Manager (only).

The “Azure Blob Storage command” action will be available for use in workflows starting from v5.5.1.