The Blackbaud Hosting Files Folder

You’re sitting at your desk. You’ve got your headphones on. Your mp3 player is set to your “Workaholic” playlist. You know, that fast upbeat music that inspires you to up your pace a little and provide you energy, like a working out playlist, but for work. A long day of data entry, reports, batches and analysis lies ahead of you. Your coffee cup is full, and you’re ready to power on. You run a query, you pull all the information you need into one nice, clean, organized spreadsheet. You save it to your Files Folder. Next comes exporting the data to your computer, when lo and behold, you see it. You read it. You re-read it. You’ve gotten an error message! One of those annoying little grey boxes that pops up on your computer, stopping you in your tracks. Standing in the way of you and your work like a dragon guarding the bridge to the castle. All your data is right in front of you, like a gleaming chest of treasure, but you can’t get to it, because that dragon is blocking your way.

Okay, I admit I’ve been reading too many Game of Thrones novels lately. But in all seriousness, the Files Folder can be as daunting as a dragon if you’re not familiar with it, or how to manage it. However, at  second glance, it’s no more fearsome than one of those adorable little kittens you see on the internet that wants one of your cheeseburgers. So I’m here to help tame your dragon into a fluffy purring little ball of cuteness.

The Files Folder. It’s how you get your files in/out of your hosted application. It’s the bridge you cross to get to your treasure. It’s a temporary storage area, to get your files from where they currently are, to where they need to be. By using the Files folder as a transit facility, you can more efficiently manage your daily workload.

The Files Folder is a temporary means of storage, much like the trunk of your car is when you’re bringing home groceries. It’s more effective to load the groceries into your car, drive them home, and then store them in your kitchen cabinets. Imagine how much more time and effort would go into your day if you had to run out to your car every time you wanted something to eat, drink, or an ingredient to cook with. And just like groceries in the trunk of your car, it is also inefficient to keep your files in your files folder, when it’s quicker and easier to access them from your local computer.

Each hosting user is limited to 100mb storage within their Files Folder. Once a user has reached this limit, they will no longer be able to import or export information to and from their hosted application. They may run into errors when trying to download or open the file that the user wishes to access. Yet all this can be easily avoided by managing your Files Folder and cleaning it out on a regular basis.

I also recommend creating a new folder for each of your users, and having them import/export exclusively via their own personal folder. This not only allows for ease of access to their own files, but will also let you easily track a users quota by tallying up the file sizes in their folder to see how close to their limit they are. Once the document has been downloaded to your local machine, it can be deleted from the Files Folder.

Few users realize it is possible to access your Files Folder directly without having to log into the hosting portal. Depending on the datacenter which your applications are located in, it is possible to save the URL as a favorite, thus eliminating the need to log into your hosted application portal just to get to your folder.

Did you also know that the Files Folder can also be accessed through third party software?  We encourage clients located in the Boston or Orange County datacenters to use FileZilla, and Vancouver customers to use BitKinex. Using these programs allows you to view your Files Folder the same as you would view your folders on your computers. You can drag and drop files, and even move or delete multiple files at the same time. If you let them, these FTP clients can be your knight in shining armor, guiding your way.

You can find instructions on where you can download these programs, and how to install them in the Knowledgebase solutions How to use FileZilla to Access your Files Folder and How to Configure BitKinex to Access your Files Folder.

So there you have it. You too can slay the dragon, and turn him into a purring kitten stretched out on his back, begging to have his belly rubbed. And it really is as simple as the information provided to you above.

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