How to Browse the Data-Base

Using the Browse menu will show all of the folders in the data base. There are two types of folders, Folders and upload folders. Folders can contain other folders or uploads, upload folders only contain uploads. Upload folders can be stored in any folder, but not another upload folder. There can be multiple upload folders in a folder.

The display is presented in two sections. The two sections are Folder Navigation and Uploads. Folder Navigation allows the user to browse through the folders in the Data-Base. The default folder is Software Repository. The Software Repository folder is always the top folder and holds all other folders and uploads.

When a folder is selected, it is highlighted in red. If there is an upload in that folder, the upload folder name(s) will be displayed in the Uploads section. A plus ‘+’ by a folder name indiciates that there are more subfolders inside of it.

It is possible to have folders in folders, with no uploads in a particular folder. When this situation occurs, there will be no upload folder displayed in the Uploads section.

Depending on the structure used to store the upload, it is possible that a number of folders must be opened before an upload folder is displayed.

While browsing folders, at some point, a leaf folder with no + by it will be reached. It is common but not a requirement to see uploads in a leaf folder. Uploads folders can be stored in any folder.

A folder has been found with an upload folder in it. How can you tell?

In the Uploads area of the display, there will be the following:

• A folder name with a short description under it. The description will note where it was uploaded from. If more than a single file was in the upload the folder name will be a link. If a single file is uploaded, the folder name will be black and not be a link.

• The next line is contains the following series of links:

[View] will attempt to display the contents of the upload. If the upload is a compressed archive the display may not very useful. If a single file is uploaded, this link will display the file.

[Meta] display meta data associated with this item. This is like a directory or folder listing.

[Download] will download the file to your computer.

• After the links, an optional user-supplied description of the upload is displayed. If no description is supplied by the user the words “No Description”

will be displayed.

• The next line is a count of the number if items found in

the upload followed by a date. The date is useful to distinguish uploads with the same name. If the Contains line indicates 0 (zero), then either the upload is still in progress or there was a problem with the upload and nothing could be unpacked.

• The next two lines contain links:

Jobs - The scheduled jobs status line shows the history of the scheduled jobs for that upload. The word jobs is a link to the jobs display.
Reschedule - This link can be used to easily reschedule a license analysis for the upload.

Select the upload folder. The screen might take a bit to refresh depending on the size of the upload. In this example, there is another folder under this one. Depending on the structure of the archive this may not always be the case. The in general, browse till you find the contents of the archive (second screen below).

Select the fossology folder again.

The display changes. In the upper left is a dynamic mini-menu and in the main display is a listing of files and folders. Files will always have the [View] [Meta] and [Download] links next to them. Directories/folders will be links to their contents.

In the upper left is the folder path to the item displayed. In the right hand side below login are dynamic menus that changed depending on the context of the display.

The dynamic menu’s are organized in groups. The groups are separated by a dot. Menu groups separated by the | symbol represent choices. For example Detail | Simple will change the current display to either a detailed one or a simple display. Try it.

[View] will create a sub display and menu’s see below for more details.

[Meta] display meta data associated with this item. This is like a directory or folder listing.

[Download] will download the file to your computer.

On the right are more dynamic menus.

The first group is Broswe | License | License Groups

Browse is black, it’s not active (you are browsing now)

License will display the license table for this level of folders.

License Groups will all the user to group licenses into groups and manage the groups.

The next group is Detail | Simple

Detail and Simple are switches that change the level of detail seen.

The last group is Refresh

Refresh always refreshes the display.

Now select [View] next to LICENSE

This shows the contents of the file LICENSE. If you wanted to display the licenses for this page, use the license link in the mini-menu.

Note that the dynamic menus have changed:

Let’s look at them left to right.

[View | Info | License | Meta] * [Hex | Text | Formatted] * Refresh

Note in the sub-menu license does nothing...

View: view tries to display the folder in a readable fashion. The default is a hexidecimal display if the file does not appear to be ASCII.

Note that the dynamic menus have

changed:

Info Displays the file size, SHA1 and MD5 checksums and the Repository ID as well as what folders this file is found in.

License (Wow, license at this level didn’t do anything?) display any license information available for this level.

Meta display meta data associated with this item.

Hex display the item in Hex

Text display the item in Text (as best a possible)

Formatted Format the item as best as possible.