Project-Seafile

All users of the Projektablage who have been granted access to this IT-service in a project space via the administration interface.

Open the page https://seafile.projekt.uni-hannover.de in a web browser. A login dialogue appears, which allows you to log in with the credentials of your account at the Projektablage.

A client is available for Windows, Linux (also CLI), Mac, Android and iOS. It can be downloaded directly from the manufacturer's website under ‘Desktop Syncing Clients’.

As on the website, you log in to the client using your access data for the Projektablage.

Access via WebDAV works with the URL https://seafile.projekt.uni-hannover.de/dav.

Note: The LUIS recommends using the Desktop Syncing Client instead of WebDAV. Access via WebDAV is mainly for applications where there are no alternatives, e.g. in apps on mobile devices.

Note for users of MS-Windows: The WebDAV client integrated in MS-Windows does not work properly with the current version of Seafile.

The manufacturer's website offers two different desktop clients:

The standard client is the ‘Desktop Syncing Client’ (aka ’Sync-Client’), which is listed at the top of the page. This client can keep Seafile libraries synchronised with a local PC. Hence the data is also available on the PC and can therefore be used offline. As soon as the PC is online again, the data is synchronised. To initialise the synchronisation after setting it up on a PC, right-click on the library and select ‘Download and synchronise’. Use without synchronisation is possible as well: Right-click the library and select ‘View in Seafile file browser’.

An alternative is the ‘Desktop Drive Client’ (aka 'SeaDrive'). This Client does not synchronise files with the PC, but rather displays them integrated as a network drive, similar to access via WebDAV. As with the above-mentioned use of the Seafile file browser, the files therefore only remain on the server, which means that offline work is only possible to a very limited extent. On the other hand, only minimal amount of storage is used on the PC.

Both clients are capable of handling multiple accounts/servers. Simultaneous use of Cloud-Seafile Project-Seafile is therefore possible.

An additional account can be added in the Sync-Client via the avatar icon.

Versioning can be used to track the changes in a library and undo them if necessary. This feature is opened by clicking on the the clock symbol in the top right-hand corner when you are inside the library (highlighted in red).

A list of the changes is shown, together with the date and the editor. The exact time is displayed when the mouse pointer is placed over the date. Click on ‘View snapshot’ to display the contents of the library at that time. Files or folders can be restored at this point.

To make files available to an external person, select ‘Share link’. A password can then be set, which must be communicated to the external person to enable access. In addition, a time limit can be added so that the link automatically becomes invalid after a freely selectable number of days. The link is created and displayed by clicking on ‘Generate’. This link can then be conveniently sent directly to the person concerned via the service by clicking on ‘Send’. Multiple recipients and an optional personal message are possible.

When sharing folders and libraries, please note that the entire folder or library is shared. The recipient of the link can download individual files from these areas or the entire area as a ZIP archive. If the share link is no longer needed, the link can be removed again via ‘Delete’. Once a link is deleted accessing the data via this link becomes impossible at once.

To request files from an external person, select ‘Upload Link’. This option is only available for folders and libraries. Optionally, the upload link can be provided with a password and a time limit for its validity. The password must be communicated to the external person to enable access. The link is created and displayed by clicking on ‘Generate’. This link can then be conveniently sent directly to the person concerned via the service by clicking on ‘Send’. Multiple recipients and an optional personal message are possible. If the link is no longer required, it can be deleted by clicking ‘Delete’, which causes the link to stop working immediately.

It is possible to activate an e-mail notification that informs you about changes in the libraries at customisable intervals. To do this, select the desired interval in the profile settings (to be found via the avatar symbol in the top right-hand corner) under ‘E-mail Notification’ and confirm the selection by clicking on ‘Submit’.

In the web interface of Seafile, users can click on an Office document to edit it online and collaboratively. Collabora Online is the software used for this. The following file formats can be opened:

• DOCX-, XLSX-, PPTX-  and DOC-, XLS-, PPT-files (MS-Office formats)
• ODT-, ODS-, ODP-files (OpenDocument formats)

The files are automatically locked when they are opened and remain stored in Seafile.

Note: It is not possible to edit an Office document in Collabora Online and locally synchronised at the same time, as in this case the changes made in the file cannot be communicated between the editors. As a rule, simultaneous editing of this type is prevented by file locks, but can still occur under certain conditions (e.g. an interrupted network connection).

Collabora Online includes the Liberation fonts, among others. These are equivalent in width with the licence-protected fonts ‘Arial’ (Liberation Sans), ‘Courier New’ (Liberation Mono) or ‘Times New Roman’ (Liberation Serif). In addition, ‘Carlito’ is available as a equivalent in size alternative to ‘Calibri’.

The font ‘Rotis’ is not available in Collabora Online for licensing reasons.

If it is necessary to use a specific font for a document that is not included in Collabora Online, the final formatting of the document can be carried out on a local computer on which the font is available.

The maximum duration of an editing session in Collabora Online (i.e. the duration for which a document can be open continuously) is 10 hours. An information message is displayed shortly before this period expires:

In this case, the session should be renewed promptly. To renew the session, it is sufficient to reload the page in the browser. Alternatively, the document can be closed and reopened.

If the session has already expired, this will be indicated by a separate info message:

In this case, no further changes should be made to the document, as these cannot be saved in Seafile (all changes older than 5 minutes have already been saved by the automatic saving process). Instead, the document should be closed and reopened to start a new session.

• There is a maximum of one Seafile library per project space at the Projektablage. Users cannot create their own libraries. This can also be seen on the web interface, as the corresponding control elements are hidden. However, the specific clients sometimes suggest the possibility of creating libraries. The attempt to create a library therefore results in an error message.
• Seafile's internal versioning maintains versions with a maximum age of 90 days.
• There is a nightly backup for Project-Seafile, which does not exist for Cloud-Seafile.