Lesson #10: Working from Your Desktop

Many users spend most of their time working from the desktop. For many people, creating folders, dragging and dropping documents into them, double-clicking to open them in an editor and saving them directly to Xythos on Demand defines their work day.

For this audience, the Xythos Drive provides three key benefits:

Familiarity. The Xythos Drive gives Microsoft Windows users the familiar experience of being able to map a drive, double-click on documents and open them in an editor.
Flexibility. The Xythos Drive lets you use features of Xythos on Demand--for example, versioning and subscriptions--through the desktop.
Evolution. While the Xythos Drive accommodates familiar ways of working with documents and folders it also enables and encourages better ways of working. For example, the Drive can automatically intercept e-mail attachments, sending a link to the document on the service instead. Additionally, even though your content is stored on Xythos on Demand, the Drive also lets you continue working when you do not have an Internet connection.

Many actions you took through the Web View are also possible through the desktop. You can choose which works best for you.

Important: Before continuing, be sure to install the Xythos Drive. A download of the Xythos Drive is available on the Xythos on Demand website.

Task #10a: Creating a Connection

To begin working from the desktop, you must first map a drive.

If the Xythos Drive is not running, launch it now.
Normally, you will find the Drive in the Xythos folder of the Windows start menu.
On the Connect tab, click on the Xythos On Demand Service.
For Username, enter your Username.
Check the Save password option, and enter your Password.
For convenience, this will save you the trouble of entering the password every time you connect to Xythos On Demand.
Click OK.
Now that you have defined the connection, we will map it as a drive letter.
From the Drive drop-down, select X:.
If, for some reason, X: is already mapped to something else, select any available drive letter.
Click the Work Online button.
A folder now opens showing you the user root of your Xythos on Demand account. The sub-folders shown here should look familiar.

Task #10b: Managing Documents From the Desktop

As discussed earlier you can use the Xythos Drive to perform normal file system tasks as well as using Xythos on Demand-specific features. We will do a little of both in this step.

Drag and drop a document from your PC into the user home folder.
You will need something that you can open in the correct viewer or editor, such as a Microsoft Excel or HTML document. Just be sure to pick something that you can edit.
Double-click the document.
The document should open in the correct editor.
Make a change to the document and save. Close the application.
So far everything works as expected.
Right-click on the document and select Versioning - Enable Versioning.
Just as you turned on versioning through the Web View, you can enable versioning here. Now whenever you save this document you create and store a new version of it.
Right-click on the document and select Copy URL to Clipboard.
This is a handy way to copy the link to the document if you need to insert it into another document or e-mail.
Right-click on the document and select Sharing.
The dialog that opens gives you the same options for setting document permissions that you saw in a previous lesson.
Click Cancel.
You have had a little taste of how to use the Xythos Drive while connected to Xythos On Demand. But what happens if you lose your connection?

Task #10c: Working While Disconnected

Whether you are on an airplane or in the office when the wireless router stops working, you need to keep working. Working offline through the Xythos Drive gives you the appearance of still being connected even though the service is not really accessible. For the time being you are working on a copy of a document that is stored on your hard drive. When you connect again the Xythos Drive will upload the new content automatically to Xythos on Demand.

Re-open the Xythos Drive configuration dialog.
Click the Offline tab.
Here, you see the options for when you synchronize content between your local "cache" and Xythos On Demand. We will assume that you always want the most up-to-date content available.
Under Synchronize, check both boxes.
Now, when you connect and disconnect, the Xythos Drive will synchronize changes between the Xythos On Demand and your local PC.
Return to the user home folder.
Not in the browser, of course, but in Windows Explorer.
Right-click the document you uploaded and select Always Available Offline.
This step identifies the document as something that you always want to be available, connection or no connection. Obviously, you do not need every document in a system that might store terabytes of content, so here you can choose what to store offline.
Right-click the Project Phoenix folder and select Always Available Offline.
Since a folder might contain documents and sub-folders, you now choose how much of this content you want available when working offline.
Select Yes, and click OK.
A few seconds later the Xythos Drive has finished making local copies of the contents of the folder.
Return to the Xythos Drive configuration dialog and click the Connect tab.
Click Disconnect, and then click Work Offline.
It looks as though you are connected but you are really not.
Navigate into the user folder.
The document you made available offline is here along with other documents that will not be available.
Navigate into the /Project Phoenix sub-folder, back up to the home folder, and then back down to the sub-folder.
In the folder you made available offline, the documents are definitely there. However, the other folder contain pale or "ghosted" icons for content that would be there, if you were connected. Since you are not, you can not really open these documents.
After navigating back to the home folder, make a change to the document you made available offline. Save these changes.
In the Xythos Drive dialog, click Disconnect, and then click Work Online.
The Drive now uploads the modified document to Xythos On Demand.

What's next

We have only scratched the surface of what you can do with the Xythos Drive. Consult the online help to see if there are other options that might help you collaborate with other users and manage your content without ever leaving the desktop.