Introduction

What is it

PH Cloud is:

1. DAV server
2. DAV web client
3. IMAP/SMTP email web client

If you do not know what is DAV check this FAQ.

You have the option to use all, or one of the above functionalities, depended on yours, or company's needs.

One server, many clients

With PH Cloud each of Joomla! users can have access to one DAV server link, and may login with their Joomla! user password, but they have access to create many DAV and Email clients. That means one user can have access to all his emails, files, calendars, contacts from various providers, on a single web page.

How it works

When a user login to Joomla!, and access PH Cloud, has the ability to create unlimited Accounts. Each account correspond to a different email, or DAV server.

Setup

Installation

After you install it for the first time, make sure you activate the related plugin, if it is not already activated. 

Updating to the latest release

The extension can be updated with two different methods:

1. By installing the new version on top of the old one.
2. By using the integrated Remote Update system of Joomla! extensions manager.

Updating directly

This is the failsafe approach, but the least convenient.

1. Download the latest release from our site and save the ZIP file to your hard disk.
2. Then log in to your site's back end and click on Joomla! Extensions Manager.
3. Use the Browse... button to locate the ZIP file you downloaded, then click on Upload and Install.

All Joomla! versions since 1.5.5 are smart enough to understand that you're doing an upgrade instead of installation, so they adjust the process accordingly.

Do NOT uninstall the current version of the extension before updating it. Uninstalling it will remove all of your data.

Using Remote Update

Firstly, insert from Extension's Options your download ID. You can get your download id at Your Download ID.

Then go to Joomla! extensions manager -> update tab and click button Find Updates. If a new release is appeared then you can just update it from there.

Something not working right after the update?

Sometimes Joomla! "forgets" to copy all updated files. Fortunately, this is something that we have seen a few times. In this case, simply follow the instructions in the Updating Directly section above. This will force Joomla! to retry updating the component, copying the missing files and everything will work again.

Uninstallation

You can uninstall the component just like any other Joomla! component.

1. In your site's back-end, just go to Extensions Manager and click on Uninstall.
2. In the Filter area type PH Cloud and click on Search.
3. Several entries appear. Select the entry where the Type is Package. Do not select the other entries; they are removed automatically.
4. Now click on Uninstall. This will completely remove extension including all related data.

Configuration

Categories

With the installation a default category is created. This category is used by the accounts. You may create new, edit etc. as the Joomla! standard categories.

Settings

Next you have to go at least once in the component's options (settings) and save.

General

First thing to configure is to create a new contact's category from your back end->SP Mail Client->Categories. That should be the category where contact's (address book) for each user will be saved. Note that each user can view only his contacts and not any other.

Auto save contacts? - Choose this option to yes if you want to automatically save contacts to Address Book every time you send an email.

Accounts Category - The default accounts category. When a new user uses PH Cloud automatically a default account is created. Choose here the category to save the accounts.

Accounts Access - The Joomla! access level the default accounts will have.

Under iFrame - Choose this option if you wish to integrate with other extensions. For more information see article "Integrate with other extensions"

Show Time? - Choose this option if you wish to see the date and time on front end.

Class Styling - The rest options is for how the emails appears in front end. That is useful if you wish to use your templates styling for tables.

Permissions

It is very important thing to define security as per your needs. The access to the component is defined by the standard Joomla! Access Control List (ACL), for maximum security and compatibility. For example, if you plan for your registered users to use the component in front end we recommend below settings.

Keep in mind that by default the registered group does not have all the necessary access.

Accounts

List View

From the Accounts View the user may create, edit, delete etc. his web client accounts. An account may point to the same local server, or to any other remote server. Below in edit view, things but come more clear.

Edit View

When you edit/add an account there various tabs where user must define the necessary remote server credentials.

General Tab

In this tab actually you define the name you wish and access level of the account. Also you may choose the default account. You may only have one default account, and you can't delete it. This is the account the user will see by default when at first access the system.

Emails Configuration Tab

Here user may setup everything to use an IMAP\SMTP email client. All necessary information should be available by the user's email host provider. It is not necessary to setup the email client if you do not wish to use it, but PH Cloud might be the best web solution to have access to all the emails from one web place.

DAV Client Configuration Tab

If you leave empty the DAV configuration fields, then by default the local host is used. Still you might wish to connect to other remote DAV servers. This is where you put the necessary credentials.

Publishing Tab

From this tab you may define change the category, or the user if you have the necessary access. The user is the one who have access to this account.

Emails

Integrate with other extensions

Actually the component takes advantage the magic Joomla! variable tmpl=component where you can strip the template and just show the component itself. With this ability, you can use for an example an iframe, to show the component as a part of any other extension you might have. You can even add it within an article, given that your editor does not strip the html tags.

The first thing to do is to go to SP Mail Client options, and set option to work with irame as Yes.

Then you must create front end menu. To do that from the back end, menu manager, you just add a new menu item, and select SP Mail Client, as below image.

After that and we assume that you use sef, then just add the iframe any place you wish. The url to add in iframe should be: 'www.yourdomain.com/mails?tmpl=component'. The result should be something like below image!

If for some reason you added the iframe as a unique url, if you press the envelope url in the navigation bar, then you will be redirected to the home page of your site.

Technical Requirements

1. Session support
2. Socket support
3. PHP Data Objects (PDO) with driver for either MySQL, PostgreSQL or SQLite (required)
4. Note: MySQL database driver requires PHP 5.3 or newer.
5. iconv (recommended)
6. OpenSSL (recommended)
7. Mbstring (optional)
8. FileInfo (optional)
9. Mcrypt (optional)
10. Zip (optional)
11. Pspell (optional)

PEAR packages distributed with Roundcube or external:

1. Mail_Mime 1.8.9 or newer
2. Mail_mimeDecode 1.5.5 or newer
3. Net_SMTP (latest from ​https://github.com/pear/Net_SMTP/)
4. Net_IDNA2 0.1.1 or newer
5. Auth_SASL 1.0.6 or newer
6. Net_Sieve 1.3.2 or newer (for managesieve plugin)
7. Crypt_GPG 1.2.0 or newer (for enigma plugin)
8. Net_LDAP2 2.0.12 or newer (for LDAP address books)
9. ​kolab/Net_LDAP3 dev-master (for LDAP address books)

php.ini options:

1. error_reporting E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE (or lower)
2. memory_limit > 16MB (increase as suitable to support large attachments)
3. file_uploads enabled (for attachment upload features)
4. session.auto_start disabled
5. zend.ze1_compatibility_mode disabled
6. suhosinsession.encrypt disabled
7. mbstring.func_overload disabled
8. magic_quotes_runtime disabled
9. magic_quotes_sybase disabled

How To Use Email Client

Emails view

In the main left filter bar user can choose to view the follow:

1. account,
2. folder,
3. thread, or simple view

The thread view is a very nice feature that group mails conversations. To expand a thread just click on plus (+) button. This feature is only available to mail servers that support it.

From mails view the follow self explanatory tasks are available:

1. sort ascending/descending by subject, date, size, sender. Default sort is date.
2. pagination default is 20.
3. keyword search by subject, sender, recipient, cc, bcc, body, or entire message.
4. refresh view. Note that every 5 minutes the view is automatically refreshed.
5. compose new mail.
6. view, reply, reply all, forward, or edit an email.
7. move to trash, or permanently delete an email if in trash folder.
8. mark as seen, or unseen.
9. mark as flagged, or remove flag.
10. move selected mails to another folder.
11. compact, or empty trash folder.
12. download an email in eml text format.

 The same tasks are also when viewing individually an email.

Mail edit view

From this view you can send an email. The view is available when compose, reply, reply all, forward, or edit an email.

The signature is automatic added in message. If a reply, reply all, forward, or edit the old message is also appended.

You have also the unique ability to add any of your site's article's text in any place of your email. Just press the button Article Text and choose the article.

You can add/remove any email in to, cc, or bcc. User can choose from the address book, or a new mail. To edit an address just click on the contact button.

If you save the email, it is automatically saved in drafts folder.

Folders

In folders view you can create, move, subscribe, or unsubscribe a folder.

Contacts & Calendar

Manage Contacts

From the toolbar you can create a new contact, or delete an existing. You may also sort the contacts as your wish. From search field you can search for a specific contact.

Add/Edit a Contact

To create a new contact just click the New button, or click on an existing contact from the list to edit it. The user interface after that is the same.

Specify the new contact information as follows:

1. Name - The name of the contact.
2. Address Book - Choose the address book the contact belong to. Keep in mind that you can change the address book, after you save once the contact. This field is only editable for new contacts.
3. Nickname - If the contact is having one
4. Image - Click the button to choose an image for the contact. It is recommended to use small pictures to avoid long sync duration with the clients.
5. Email – The email address for the contact.
6. Phone – The phone number for the contact.
7. Address – The address for the contact.
8. Miscellaneous Information– Any notes you want to add about the contact.
9. Birth Day - The birth date of the contact.
10. Website - The website of the contact
11. Organization – The organization for the contact.

Note

The Email, Phone, and Address fields provide the option of specifying a contact method as “preferred.”

Editing Contact Information

The application enables you to edit or remove contact information.

To edit contact information:

1. Navigate to the specific contact that you want to modify.
2. Select the information in the field that you want to edit.
3. Make your modifications.

Changes that you make to any contact information are implemented immediately.

Removing Contact Information

The application enables you to remove contact information.

To remove contact information:

1. Choose the contact
2. Click the delete button.

Changes that you make to any contact information are implemented immediately.

Managing Address Books

Clicking on the Address books button at the navigation menu to get access to the Address Books list view.

In this view you may gain access to all available address books, certain options for each address book, and enables you to create new address books.

Adding an Address Book

To add an address book:

Click the New button

1. Click the New button

A field opens requesting you to enter a display name for the new address book.

1. Specify a display name for the address book.
2. Click the checkbox icon to create the new address book.

Editing Address Book Information

The application enables you to edit or remove Address Book information.

To edit contact information:

1. Navigate to the specific contact that you want to modify.
2. Select the information in the field that you want to edit.
3. Make your modifications.

Changes that you make to any contact information are implemented immediately.

Removing Address Book Information

The application enables you to remove Address Book information.

To remove contact information:

1. Choose the address book
2. Click button delete.

Changes that you make to any contact information are implemented immediately.

Synchronizing Address Books

One of the most important features in any contact application is the ability to keep it in sync. The PH Cloud Contacts enables you to sync your address books to external devices that use the Android or Apple iOS operating systems.

Synchronizing With Android

To synchronize with an Android device:

1. Install and CardDAV Sync client from the Google play store
2. In the server url add: http://example.org/phcloud/carddav.php
3. Use your Joomla! username and password to connect.

Synchronizing With Apple iOS

To synchronize with an Apple iOS device:

1. Open the settings application.
2. Select Mail > Contacts > Calendars.
3. Select Add Account.
4. Select other as the account type.
5. Select Add CardDAV account.
6. For server, enter http://example.org/phcloud/carddav.php
7. Specify your Joomla! username and password.
8. Select Next.
9. If your server does not support SSL, a warning is displayed. Select Continue.
10. If the iPhone is unable to verify the account information, perform the following:
11. Click OK.
12. Select advanced settings.
13. Make sure Use SSL is set to “OFF”.
14. Change the port to 80.
15. Return to “account information” and click Save.

Your contacts appear in the address book of your iPhone.

Using Other Synchronization Options

PH Cloud allows synchronization with any client on any OS that support CardDAV. For a complete list check the corresponding document.

Manage Events

The application contains the following fields and controls:

1. Calendar Date Field – Provides the current date or enables you to select a date that you want to view.
2. Calendar View Options – Enables you to choose between an agenda, day, week, month, or list view for the main Calendar app window. The default view is monthly.
3. Calendar Selection – Enables you to choose the calendar that you want to view.
4. Calendars – Provides access to the calendars groups list.

Events Views

In below images you can see sample images of the various available views of events.

Agenda View

Daily View

Weekly View

List View

Creating a New Calendar

The application enables you to create new calendars for work or other activities that you want to keep separated. You can manage each calendar separately.

To create a new calendar:

1. Access the Calendars view.
2. Click the + New Calendar field.

A dialog opens to enable you to create a new calendar.

1. Specify a name for the new calendar.
2. (Optional) Specify a color for the new calendar.
3. Click the save button.

The application creates a new calendar using the name and color specified.

Synchronizing Calendars Using CalDAV

Calendaring Extensions to WebDAV, referred to as CalDAV, enables clients to access scheduling information on remote servers. As an extension to WebDAV, CalDAV (defined by RFC 4791) uses the iCalendar format to manage calendar data. CalDAV enables multiple clients to access the same information for use in cooperative planning and information sharing.

The Calendar app provides both the Primary CalDAV address and the iOS/OSX CalDAV address. Using these addresses, you can use CalDAV-compatible programs (for example, Kontact, Evolution, or Mozilla Thunderbird with the Lightning Add-on) using the address provided.

Note

The Lightning Add-on doesn’t support using multiple accounts on a single server as a default. You need to set calendar.network.multirealm to true in the Config Editor of Mozilla Thunderbird to be able to use multiple accounts.

In DAV Server view you can get the Primary CalDAV address. The link is: http://example.org/phcloud/carddav.php

Creating Events

The application enables you to create new events.

To create a new event:

1. Click the New button
2. The Create a new event dialog box opens.
3. The application contains the following fields and controls:
4. Specify a title for the event.
5. Choose the Calendar. Note that you can choose the calendar only when creating it and cannot modify it afterwards.
6. Specify a date and time duration for the event.
7. (Optional) Provide advanced option details. These details can include the event location, and an event description.
8. 
   
9. The application contains the following fields and controls:
10. (Optional) Click the Repeating tab to define any repeat settings for the event.
11. The Repeating tab provides the option of not repeating the event(default) or repeating the event daily, weekly, every weekday, biweekly, monthly, or yearly. In addition, by selecting the Advanced button in the Repeating tab, each repeat option provides different levels of customization to better define your repeat requirements for the event.
12. The following table helps to define the options for each repeat rule:

Deleting an Event

The Calendar app enables you to delete any event that you create. To delete a calendar event:

1. Click the event in the Calendar app.
2. Click the Delete event button.
3. The Calendar app deletes the event.

You can also delete many events at the same time from the list view. Just choose what to delete and press the button.

iOS - Synchronize iPhone/iPad

Calendar

1. Open the settings application.
2. Select Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
3. Select Add Account.
4. Select Other as account type.
5. Select Add CalDAV account.
6. For server, type ADDRESS/phcloud/caldav.php/principals/username
7. Enter your user name and password.
8. Select Next.
9. If your server does not support SSL, a warning will be displayed. Select Continue.
10. If the iPhone is unable to verify the account information perform the following steps:
11. Select OK.
12. Select advanced settings.
13. Make sure Use SSL is set to OFF.
14. Change port to 80.
15. Go back to account information and hit Save.

Your calendar will now be visible in the Calendar application

Address book

1. Open the settings application.
2. Select Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
3. Select Add Account.
4. Select Other as account type.
5. Select Add CardDAV account.
6. For server, type ADDRESS/phcloud/carddav.php/principals/username
7. Enter your user name and password.
8. Select Next.
9. If your server does not support SSL, a warning will be displayed. Select Continue.
10. If the iPhone is unable to verify the account information perform the following:
11. Select OK.
12. Select advanced settings.
13. Make sure Use SSL is set to OFF.
14. Change port to 80.
15. Go back to account information and hit Save.

Now should now find your contacts in the address book of your iPhone.

Synchronizing with OS X

The setup is basically the same as with iOS using the path ADDRESS/phcloud/caldav.php/principals/username/ to sync with PH Cloud. For OS X 10.7 Lion and 10.8 Mountain Lion everything works fine, but OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and older needs some fiddling to work. A user contributed the following:

1. Make sure, addressbook is not running. If it is, select the windows and press Command + Q to terminate it.
2. Navigate to /Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/Sources. If you have all ready some kind of addressbook setup, it is likely you will see some folders named like this BEA92826-FBF3-4E53-B5C6-ED7C2B454430. Note down what folders there are now and leave the window open.
3. Open addressbook and try to add a new CardDav addressbook. At this point, it does not matter what information you enter. It will come up with the same error message you mentioned before when you click “Create”. Ignore it and click “Create” again. A non-functional addressbook will be added.
4. Close addressbook again using Command + Q
5. Go back to the folder window from step 2. You will now see a newly created folder with another long string as its name.
6. Navigate to the newly created folder and edit the Configuration.plist with your favorite text editor.
7. Search for a section looking like this:

<key>servername</key> <string>http://:0(null)</string> <key>username</key> <string>Whatever_you_entered_before</string>

1. Make it look like this. Please note that the :80 after YOUR_DOMAIN is important:

<key>servername</key <string>http://YOUR_DOMAIN:80/phcloud/carddav.php/principals/username</string> <key>username</key <string>username</string>

1. Save the file and open addressbook again. It will not work yet.
2. Open the preferences for your PH Cloud CardDAV-Account and enter your password.
3. You may have to restart addressbook once more. After this, it should work.

Thunderbird - Synchronize Addressbook

1. Thunderbird for your OS unless it comes with your OS distribution (Linux)
2. Sogo Connector (latest release)
3. Lightning (a Thunderbird calendar add-on. At the time (Aug 14), syncing your contacts only works with this add-on installed.)

With an installed Thunderbird mailtool, an installed SoGo Connector, and an installed Lightning add-on:

1. Thunderbird Addressbook is in the Thunderbird “Tools” Menu
2. In the Thunderbird Addressbook application:
3. “File > New > Remote Addressbook” (SoGo Connector added this)
4. “Name:” is the name you want to give your Addressbook in the Thunderbird addressbook bar area
5. “URL:” is http://example.org/phcloud/carddav.php

in the -bottom left- of the Contacts View (same symbol as found in the -top right- in the Calendar view). Then look for a little impeller symbol

which will display the URL you need for your installation to work.

Once installed, synchronize (right click on your newly made remote address book and select “Synchronize”). You’ll see your address book populate from PH Cloud! Don’t click “read only” above unless you don’t want to modify your PH Cloudserver addressbook, like it contains a listing of corporate contacts and is shared with lots of people, and you don’t want a new user dragging it somewhere unintended.

The rest of the details of dealing with Thunderbird addressbook are left to the reader... First thing I learned is dragging a contact to a different addressbook is a “move” operation. If you are worried about losing the contact, save it to a VCF file using PH Cloud(Or LDIF using Thunderbird Addressbook) first! Like dragging from “PH Cloud Addressbook” to “Personal Address Book” removes the contact from PH Cloud Server (deleting it from all the other synchronized installations) and puts it in your Local Machine -only- Address Book. So be careful or you’ll have unintended consequences where you might have intended a “copy” operation.

Contact Pictures are also sync’ed!

Troubleshooting

BlackBerry OS 10.2

BlackBerry OS up to 10.2.2102 does not accept a URL with protocol https:// in front of the server address. It will always tell you that it cannot login on your server. So instead of writing:

https://address/phcloud/carddav.php/principals/username

in the server address field, you have to write:

address/phcloud/carddav.php/principals/username

Files

Accessing your Files Using the PH Cloud Web Interface

PH Cloud Files web interface allow the follow operations:

View

Click the file name to view file in browser.

Download

Click the download icon to download the file to your computer.

Versions

Displays older versions, if there are any, and you can revert to an older file version.

Delete

Delete the selected file or folder.

Previewing Files

You can display the various files in the browser by clicking on the file name. It depends on your browser capability of what you see and not what. If your browser cannot display a file, it starts a download process and downloads the file to your computer.

Video streaming also depends on your Web browser and the video format.

Navigating Inside Your files

Navigating through folders in PH Cloud is as simple as clicking on a folder to open it and using the back button on your browser to move to a previous level. PH Cloud also provides a navigation bar at the top of the Files field for quick navigation.

The navigation bar functions as a “breadcrumb” locator. It displays your current directory and enables you to migrate back to one of the upper directories or, using the home icon, to navigate back into your root folder.

Creating or Uploading Files and Directories

PH Cloud enables you to upload new files and create new folders directly in a folder by clicking on the corresponding buttons.

Selecting Files and folders

You can select one or more files or folders by clicking on the small check box that represent them. When you select a file or folder, a small checkbox is populated with a check to indicate that it is selected. To select all files in the current directory, you can click on the checkbox located at the top of the Files app field, above the first file or folder on the list.

If you select multiple files, you can delete all of the selected files by using the Delete button.

Accessing PH Cloud Files Using WebDAV

Article Index

1. Accessing PH Cloud Files Using WebDAV
2. Desktop and Mobile Clients
3. WebDAV Configuration
4. Accessing Files Using Linux
5. Accessing Files Using Mac OS X
6. Accessing Files Using Microsoft Windows
7. All Pages

Desktop and Mobile Clients

In all devices there are various clients applications you can use to connect to PH Cloud from your mobile device using WebDAV. The URL to use on these is:

example.org/phcloud/webdav.php

Username and password are the same as your Joomla! login.

WebDAV Configuration

If you prefer, you may also connect your desktop PC to your PH Cloud server by using the WebDAV protocol rather than using a special client application. Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) is a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) extension that makes it easy to create, read, and edit files on Web servers. With WebDAV you can access your PH Cloud files on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows in the same way as any remote network share, and stay synchronized.

Note

In the following examples, You must adjust example.org/ to the URL of your Joomla site link.

Accessing Files Using Linux

You can access files in Linux operating systems using the following methods.

Nautilus File Manager

Use the davs:// protocol to connect the Nautilus file manager to your PH Cloud share:

davs://example.org/phcloud/webdav.php

Note

If your server connection is not HTTPS-secured, use dav:// instead of davs://.

Accessing Files with KDE and Dolphin File Manager

To access your PH Cloud files using the Dolphin file manager in KDE, use the webdav:// protocol:

webdav://example.org/phcloud/webdav.php

You can create a permanent link to your PH Cloud server:

1. Open Dolphin and click “Network” in the left hand “Places” column.
2. Click on the icon labeled Add a Network Folder. The resulting dialog should appear with WebDAV already selected.
3. If WebDAV is not selected, select it.
4. Click Next.
5. Enter the following settings:
6. Name: The name you want to see in the Places bookmark, for example PH Cloud.
7. User: The PH Cloud username you used to log in, for example admin.
8. Server: The PH Cloud domain name, for example example.org (without http:// before or directories afterwards).
9. Folder – Enter the path phcloud/webdav.php/WebDAV.
10. (Optional) Check the “Create icon checkbox” for a bookmark to appear in the Places column.
11. (Optional) Provide any special settings or an SSL certificate in the “Port & Encrypted” checkbox.

Creating WebDAV Mounts on the Linux Command Line

You can create WebDAV mounts from the Linux command line. This is useful if you prefer to access PH Cloud the same way as any other remote filesystem mount. The following example shows how to create a personal mount and have it mounted automatically every time you log in to your Linux computer.

1. Install the davfs2 WebDAV filesystem driver, which allows you to mount WebDAV shares just like any other remote filesystem. Use this command to install it on Debian/Ubuntu:

apt-get install davfs2

1. Use this command to install it on CentOS, Fedora, and openSUSE:

yum install davfs2

1. Add yourself to the davfs2 group:

usermod -aG davfs2 <username>

1. Then create a phcloud directory in your home directory for the mountpoint, and .davfs2/ for your personal configuration file:

mkdir ~/phcloud
mkdir ~/.davfs2

1. Copy /etc/davfs2/secrets to ~/.davfs2:

cp  /etc/davfs2/secrets ~/.davfs2/secrets

1. Set yourself as the owner and make the permissions read-write owner only:

chown <username>:<username>  ~/.davfs2/secrets
chmod 600 ~/.davfs2/secrets

1. Add your PH Cloud login credentials to the end of the secrets file, using your PH Cloud server URL and your PH Cloud username and password:

example.org/phcloud/webdav.php<username> <password>

1. Add the mount information to /etc/fstab:

example.org/phcloud/webdav.php/home/<username>/phcloud
davfs user,rw,auto 0 0

1. Then test that it mounts and authenticates by running the following command. If you set it up correctly you won’t need root permissions:

mount ~/phcloud

1. You should also be able to unmount it:

umount ~/phcloud

Now every time you login to your Linux system your PH Cloud share should automatically mount via WebDAV in your ~/phcloud directory. If you prefer to mount it manually, change auto to noauto in /etc/fstab.

Known Issues

Problem

Resource temporarily unavailable

Solution

If you experience trouble when you create a file in the directory, edit /etc/davfs2/davfs2.conf and add:

use_locks 0

Problem

Certificate warnings

Solution

If you use a self-signed certificate, you will get a warning. To change this, you need to configure davfs2 to recognize your certificate. Copy mycertificate.pem to /etc/davfs2/certs/. Then edit /etc/davfs2/davfs2.conf and uncomment the line servercert. Now add the path of your certificate as in this example:

servercert   /etc/davfs2/certs/mycertificate.pem

Accessing Files Using Mac OS X

Note

The Mac OS X Finder suffers from a series of implementation problems and should only be used if the PH Cloud server runs on Apache and mod_php.

To access files through the Mac OS X Finder:

1. Choose Go > Connect to Server.

The “Connect to Server” window opens.

1. Specify the address of the server in the Server Address field.

For example, the URL used to connect to the PH Cloud server from the Mac OS X Finder is:

http://example.org/phcloud/webdav.php

1. Click Connect.

The device connects to the server.

For added details about how to connect to an external server using Mac OS X, check the vendor documentation

Accessing Files Using Microsoft Windows

To use the native Windows implementation, you can map PH Cloud to a new drive. Mapping to a drive enables you to browse files stored on an PH Cloud server the way you would files stored in a mapped network drive.

Note

Prior to mapping your drive, you must permit the use of Basic Authentication in the Windows Registry. The procedure is documented in KB841215 and differs between Windows XP/Server 2003 and Windows Vista/7. Please follow the Knowledge Base article before proceeding, and follow the Vista instructions if you run Windows 7.

Mapping Drives With the Command Line

The following example shows how to map a drive using the command line. To map the drive:

1. Open a command prompt in Windows.
2. Enter the following line in the command prompt to map to the computer Z drive:

net use Z: https://<drive_path>/phcloud/webdav.php /user:youruser
yourpassword

where <drive_path> is the URL to your PH Cloud server.

For example: net use Z: https://example.org/phcloud/webdav.php /user:youruser yourpassword

The computer maps the files of your PH Cloud account to the drive letter Z.

Note

Though not recommended, you can also mount the PH Cloud server using HTTP, leaving the connection unencrypted. If you plan to use HTTP connections on devices while in a public place, we strongly recommend using a VPN tunnel to provide the necessary security.

An alternative command syntax is:

net use Z: \\example.org@ssl\phcloud\webdav.php /user:youruser
yourpassword

Mapping Drives With Windows Explorer

To map a drive using the Microsoft Windows Explorer:

1. Migrate to your computer in Windows Explorer.
2. Right-click on Computer entry and select Map network drive... from the drop-down menu.
3. Choose a local network drive to which you want to map PH Cloud.
4. Specify the address to your PH Cloud instance, followed by /webdav.php

For example:

https://example.org/phcloud/wedbav.php

Note

For SSL protected servers, check Reconnect at logon to ensure that the mapping is persistent upon subsequent reboots. If you want to connect to the PH Cloud server as a different user, check Connect using different credentials.

1. Click the Finish button.

Windows Explorer maps the network drive, making your PH Cloud instance available.

Accessing Files Using Cyberduck

Cyberduck is an open source FTP and SFTP, WebDAV, OpenStack Swift, and Amazon S3 browser designed for file transfers on Mac OS X and Windows.

Note

This example uses Cyberduck version 4.2.1.

To use Cyberduck:

1. Specify a server without any leading protocol information. For example:

example.org

2. Specify the appropriate port. The port you choose depends on whether or not your PH Cloud server supports SSL. Cyberduck requires that you select a different connection type if you plan to use SSL. For example:

80 (for WebDAV)

443 (for WebDAV (HTTPS/SSL))

3. Use the ‘More Options’ drop-down menu to add the rest of your WebDAV URL into the ‘Path’ field. For example:

phcloud/webdav.php

Now Cyberduck enables file access to the PH Cloud server.

Known Problems

Problem

Windows does not connect using HTTPS.

Solution 1

The Windows WebDAV Client might not support Server Name Indication (SNI) on encrypted connections. If you encounter an error mounting an SSL-encrypted PH Cloud instance, contact your provider about assigning a dedicated IP address for your SSL-based server.

Solution 2

The Windows WebDAV Client might not support TSLv1.1 / TSLv1.2 connections. If you have restricted your server config to only provide TLSv1.1 and above the connection to your server might fail. Please refer to the WinHTTP documentation for further information.

Problem

You receive the following error message: Error 0x800700DF: The file size exceeds the limit allowed and cannot be saved.

Solution

Windows limits the maximum size a file transferred from or to a WebDAV share may have. You can increase the value FileSizeLimitInBytes in HKEY_LOCAL_MacHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters ** by clicking on **Modify.

To increase the limit to the maximum value of 4GB, select Decimal, enter a value of 4294967295, and reboot Windows or restart the WebClient service.

Problem

Accessing your files from Microsoft Office via WebDAV fails.

Solution

Known problems and their solutions are documented in the KB2123563 article.

Problem

Cannot map PH Cloud as a WebDAV drive in Windows using self-signed certificate.

Solution

1. Go to the your PH Cloud instance via your favorite Web browser.
2. Click through until you get to the certificate error in the browser status line.
3. View the cert, then from the Details tab, select Copy to File.
4. Save to the desktop with an arbitrary name, for example phcloud.cer.
5. Start, Run, MMC.
6. File, Add/Remove Snap-In.
7. Select Certificates, Click Add, My User Account, then Finish, then OK.
8. Dig down to Trust Root Certification Authorities, Certificates.
9. Right-Click Certificate, Select All Tasks, Import.
10. Select the Save Cert from the Desktop.
11. Select Place all Certificates in the following Store, Click Browse,
12. Check the Box that says Show Physical Stores, Expand out Trusted Root Certification Authorities, and select Local Computer there, click OK, Complete the Import.
13. Check the list to make sure it shows up. You will probably need to Refresh before you see it. Exit MMC.
14. Open Browser, select Tools, Delete Browsing History.
15. Select all but In Private Filtering Data, complete.
16. Go to Internet Options, Content Tab, Clear SSL State.
17. Close browser, then re-open and test.

Problem

You cannot download more than 50 MB or upload large Files when the upload takes longer than 30 minutes using Web Client in Windows 7.

Solution

Workarounds are documented in the KB2668751 article.