I don’t think it’s any secret that people like the ability to get their e-mail from anywhere, and they find it equally important to get their files anywhere as well.
I work on about 3 different computers, and before Zimbra Documents launched, when I needed a file I would email it to myself (I keep losing my thumb drives). When I wanted the file again I would look in my saved search folder (that finds any email with attachments) or I’d use the Zimbra Web Client’s visual search tool to find it directly.
When Zimbra Documents came out, I started to attach files into documents, and that served me very well, especially because I now had some version control. Over time I was surprised to find that I was not alone. Many people are using Documents for personal file management in addition to document collaboration- until now.
After all, would you use copy and paste all of your home photos into a giant MS Word document? Nope.
Enter Zimbra Briefcase in ZCS 5.0. A user uploads pretty much any file they want (Class of Service Permitting), and they can get the file anywhere they can get their e-mail.
We’ve attached some screen shots, and welcome your feedback! Click on the thumbnails for larger images.
|
The Zimbra Briefcase appears as a tab at the top of the Zimbra Web Client. |
Once clicked, a list of the user’s uploaded files will appear. To the right, you see the detailed view. |
Lots of users prefer the "Explorer" feel, so you can toggle between the "Explorer" and the "Detailed" views. |
|
The upload dialog is the same dialog we use for the documents feature. A user can also upload many files at once. |
We’ve also added the ability to right click on files (in the detailed view, and Explorer view). Here a user can send a file in a message, open, view it as HTML (when available), tag, move, or delete it. |
In ZCS 5.0, we’re introducing shared folders. This functionality extends to the Zimbra briefcase. |
Send us feedback: feedback@zimbra.com or join the discussion in the Zimbra Forums.
on August 17th, 2007 at 4:33 am
Wow… cool
this really improves my everyday-life quality…
if you than can add two more functions
1. Build a plugin like GMailDrive that acts like a Windows drive
2. Let me email files from there to other people wether as an attachment or as a downloadlink
This would really rock…
Thx anyway
C.
on August 17th, 2007 at 11:28 am
You guys make me so happy I could cry.
on August 17th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Very cool! Will brief case also be available with the upcoming Zimbra off-line support too?
on August 17th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
@cabotine - Both Zimbra Briefcase and Zimbra Docs (notebooks) support access via WebDav. So you can mount the folder in Windows Explorer or Finder on a Mac.
Drag `n Drop the files into Zimbra via WebDav and they get indexed so you can search them with the same search you use to search your email.
@Justin - We won’t have this in Zimbra Desktop for the first release but plan to add it shortly after.
on August 18th, 2007 at 12:21 am
I like it. I too had started adding attachments to documents. The Briefcase will be a significant improvement. I also frequently find myself saving an emailed attachment to my local system so it is located near similar/related files. Two possible enhancements for the Briefcase: 1) Have an “email attachment” folder inside the Briefcase that includes the entire email folder structure and all the email attachments in the appropriate folder. Bug/enhancement #18227 is a step in this direction but this would be much nicer for me. 2) Have the tags that are applied to email messages automatically be applied to their attachments and be available from the Briefcase. Both of these help one keep a parallel structure on the information in email and in the Briefcase.
Of course, having a WebDAV interface to everything in the Briefcase also would be very cool. I might keep all my files in Zimbra!
Richard
on August 20th, 2007 at 4:37 am
Guy’s… just wow!
I’m seeing IM, Tasks, Briefcase, email folder sharing, etc in the next large version of Zimbra!
Exciting times ahead!
With such a briefcase function, it could, in time, be a “DMS” in itself. At least for smaller groups!!
Fantastic!
on August 20th, 2007 at 7:38 am
This is amazing, before buying Zimbra we asked for this and we got a “not know when” answer, and now this, amazing guys…
I have one suggestion to this, Alfresco has this and it would be amazing if you guys can implement this.
The idea is to have a nexus between the briefcase and shares on a server. So when a user works on his everyday basis and save new files on that particular folder, he can afterwards at home or traveling check that folder and get the file, without having to everytime upload it in zimbra and have duplicates.
And if you can browse directory structures (like folders and subfolders) it would be übber amazing and would be a lifesaver for us.
Otherwise we will have to cope with installing alfresco too and it often brings user to confusion to have two different places where to get files.
The opensource version of Alfresco has this, shouldn’t be too hard to implement this I suppose if the sourcecode is there.
Just an idea for this, but this is already amazing.
Thanks guys
on August 22nd, 2007 at 11:03 am
How would one go about mounting a Zimbra notebook via webDAV. I’ve tried, using MS Explorer’s built-in support of the protocol, and haven’t been able to make it work. A bit of googling also turned up no results…
on September 5th, 2007 at 2:18 am
I looked at version 5 beta 3 today and am impressed with this great functionality! One piece of functionality is missing though in my eyes: I would love to be able to add documents from the briefcase as an attachment to an e-mail message. Now I can only send a link to a document in an e-mail. Will this be possible in the final release?