Using Megabrowser as a Web server

Virtual file trees

Both WWW and FTP Megabrowser services are based on virtual file trees. A virtual file tree consists of parts of the real file system of your computer, mounted together in some order or file hierarchy. Think of it as a file tree that has been selectively created from select parts of your computer’s file system.  Megabrowser can then make this virtual file tree accessible to the Internet. Each part is defined by the root’s location and by the maximum depth of the root’s sub-directories. This is an example.

Suppose we have the following virtual tree:

The actual location of folders and files shown on Figure 9b is the following:

The root node is located at c:\site1 and has the depth –1 (infinite allowing access to all of its subdirectories).

The node 1 is located at c:\1 and has the depth 1 (permits access to its files and all files in its subdirectories).

The node 2 is located at c:\2 and has the depth 1 (permits access to its files and all files in its subdirectories).

The node 3 is located at c:\3 and has the depth 1 (permits access to its files and all files in its subdirectories).

The node 4 is located at c:\4 and has the depth 0 (permits access to its files only and not files in its subdirectories).

The node 5 is located at c:\5 and has the depth 0 (permits access to its files only and not files in its subdirectories).

Each object in the tree can be assigned with a set of permissions, consisting of

Visibility permission – Determines if the file or folder is visible

Write permission – Determines if visitors are permitted to write to the file or add files to the directory

Read permission – Determines if visitors are permitted to read the content of the file

Execution permission – Determines if visitors are permitted to execute the file.

When a file is not visible (hidden), this is reflected in the service tree by the special icon (Fig. 9b)