Browsing Altium Vault Content from a Web Browser

Old Content - see latest equivalent
Modified by Jason Howie on May 31, 2017
Contents

Parent article: Browser-based Access and Management of an Altium Vault

The Vault page of the Altium Vault's browser-based interface gives you access to the content of the Altium Vault. From here, you can:

  • Browse the folders and Items within the vault. And although you can't create or edit Items from within the browser interface (you can remove them), you are able to create and edit folders, and so build the structure of the vault.
  • Define folder-level and Item-level sharing - controlling who is able to see what content in the vault and, at the folder level, whether other users can simply view a folder and its content, or also edit it (effectively releasing design data into it).
  • Download content from the vault.
Access to the Vault page can be made from an external Web Browser, or through Altium Designer's Home page.

The interface itself presents with a look and feel that is similar to that of the Vaults panel, when accessing vault content through Altium Designer. A strong degree of consistency between the two interfaces means that if you are familiar with the panel, you'll be able to intuitively drive this browser-based variant without difficulty.

Browse and manage the structure through the Vault area of the Altium Vault's browser interface.

While the browser-based interface is accessible from any location you have an internet connection, if you are directly connected to the vault through Altium Designer, the Vaults panel offers a far superior interface, especially since it allows creation and management of Items themselves, along with other vault management features.

Managing Structure

At the parent folder level you can add a new sub-folder, or access controls to edit, share, or remove an existing sub-folder. At the highest level of the structure, you can add/edit/share/remove top-level folders for the vault. What can be done depends on the access privileges you have:

  • Administrators – full access to create top-level folders and sub-folders, and edit, share, and remove folders.
  • Non-Administrators – can create sub-folders, but cannot create top-level folders. In addition, they can only edit, share and remove sub-folders they have created.

Controls for managing the folder structure can be found on the right-click menu (with the mouse cursor over an existing folder entry). With the exception of adding a top-level folder, commands act on the currently selected folder in the structure.

Access folder structure management commands from the right-click menu.

You cannot move existing folders (or items for that matter) within the structure. This can be performed only through direct connection with the vault, via the Vaults panel interface, and provided you have the appropriate privileges to do so.
A folder must be totally empty for it to be removable. If it contains one or more empty sub-folders, remove those first. If a folder contains released Items, these need to be deleted first, which can be performed through the browser interface (right-click on an Item and choose the Delete Item command). Bear in mind that the remove operation cannot be undone. If you remove a folder by mistake, you will need to add that folder back, in the same way that you would create any new folder. And if you delete an Item, you will have to re-release, which cannot be performed from the browser interface.

Sharing Folders and Items

An Altium Vault supports the ability to 'share' vault folders – facilitating connection to, and access of, vault content of a particular nature. By sharing vault folders, design content in a vault can be easily partitioned and shared with others. A folder in a vault can be shared on a number of different levels, in effect defining both the level of visibility of that folder, and the level of security for access to it. This can range from being strictly private access by specified individuals or groups, through to levels for allowing anyone in the same organization to view or change content respectively.

By careful configuration of folder-level access permissions, the administrator of a vault can fully control who is able to see what content in that vault, and whether other users can simply view a folder and its content, or also edit it (effectively releasing design data into it). A single vault can be partitioned into various effective 'zones' of content, but with controlled permissions, the content can be made selectively visible, or hidden, as required – giving the right people, the right access, to the right data.

In addition, the Altium Vault supports the ability to 'share' Items within vault folders, offering a finer level of sharing when it comes to the actual data in a vault.

Those with administrator-level privileges will be able to see and manage all vault content. For a shared user of the vault (non-admin), only those folders that have been shared – i.e. the user has permissions to access – will be accessible when the user connects to that vault.

To share a folder or Item, simply right-click on its entry and use the Share command from the context menu. The Sharing Settings window will appear, from where you can modify the access permissions as required.

An example of folder-level sharing from the vault's browser-based interface.

Sharing can be configured to be simple 'any logged-in user can view' or 'any logged-in user can change', or it can be made more private in nature – adding individual users, or roles, and setting explicit permissions for each. In this way you can fully control who is allowed to Collaborate, and who is allowed to only View (Read-only permission, as it were).

Configure the sharing settings at the folder level, and use the Apply To Children option to quickly pass those settings to descendant sub-folders, Items and revisions.

Downloading an Item Revision

To download data from the interface, simply click the Download control () to the right of the entry for an Item Revision.

Using the control at the parent Item level will download data for the latest revision of that Item.

Navigating the Vault Structure

You can navigate the content in an Altium Vault – through the browser interface – in several ways, as highlighted in the following image and described thereafter.

The various ways in which to navigate vault content through the browser interface.

  1. By clicking on a folder name whose contents you wish to peruse.
  2. Using the breadcrumbs at the top of the page. These reflect the current folder being browsed, along with the hierarchical path to that folder. Click on any entry in the path to jump directly to that folder, making it the current folder being browsed.
  3. Using the search feature. Simply enter a keyword based on an Item's ID, Comment or Description and press Enter or click the magnifying glass icon (). The entire vault will be scanned and results of the search listed, in terms of matching Items.

 

You are reporting an issue with the following selected text and/or image within the active document: