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AdminPro Version History
12/22/2002 – public release of v 2.61
Several fixes, functional improvements and minor cosmetic were made for more reliable performance.
Since very few users could get the compiled AdminPro executable version to perform all its various functions reliably, the "adminpro.exe" was eliminated from the downloadable archive – a good idea that will require more research and testing before it can be implemented.
05/03/2002 – public release of v 2.6
AdminPro is now a standalone executable (.exe) which means, to run AdminPro on your server, the Perl interpretor is no longer required. Other benefits include improvements in speed and more reliable performance in a wider variety of server environments.
AdminPro now references a separate "adminpro.txt" file to set all your preferences. However, AdminPro will function at the factory default settings if the "adminpro.txt" file is not uploaded to the server in the same directory as AdminPro.
A separate File Upload module is included in the AdminPro download. If your server does not have Perl installed, do not upload the "adminpro-u.cgi" document then AdminPro will perform all functions except file uploading.
AdminPro is now IPLock Aware, a new technology I am developing that will help improve security with password protection while providing access for those on computers with a randomly-assigned IP Address. Watch this site for details on its upcoming public release.
Server file size calculations now extend to the 2nd decimal point and, as before, report file sizes in either bytes (b) or kilobytes (k) but also report as megabytes (m) or gigabytes (g) depending on the file's size.
03/15/2002 – public release of v 2.5.5
I improved the function that removes a directory that contains files or subdirectories (recursive delete) when that user option is set in AdminPro.
AdminPro now verifies that file/directory permissions have been changed as requested by the user (rather than presuming so if the server did not return an error).
01/17/2002 – public release of v 2.5.4
This minor update improves the reliable performance of AdminPro's chmod function (changing file permissions) in some webserver environments.
06/15/2001 – public release of v 2.5.3
This minor update fixes an error that incorrectly interpreted some character strings when remotely opening files through AdminPro.
The problem with corrupted zip archives may finally be resolve with this update.
05/25/2001 – public release of v 2.5.2
On some servers, the file "save" (after remotely editing) feature did not function correctly and has now been fixed.
Also fixed a bug that prevented the set of icons from displaying despite their correct placement in the directory with the "adminpro.cgi" document in some server environments.
Added a User Preference to define the path where the user has placed the AdminPro icons. AdminPro will first check the user-defined path or (as before) check for them in the same path as the "adminpro.cgi" document. Failing to find them in that location, AdminPro will continue to read the icons from the CraigRichards.com server.
Users confirm the long-standing issue that caused some desktop extraction utilities to corrupt the "adminpro.cgi" document and some or all the image files when uncompressing the zip archive seems to have been resolved for some users though I will keep working on it until it's a predictable experience for all users.
05/16/2001 – public release of v 2.5
Added a new function to rename files and directories on your remote server. Users click on the "name" of the file or directory and are prompted for that item's new name. User then clicks on the "rename" button and a confirmation is instantly returned.
Easier and more intuitive access to AdminPro's many new functions necessitated the reassignment of only a couple functions in AdminPro. Once you get used to them, these reassignments will make sense...
If you're a long-time AdminPro user, you will notice that clicking on the "name" of a directory no longer allows navigation into that path. To do that, you will click on the  "folder" icon to navigate to that path. Clicking on the name now allow you to change the name of that directory.
You'll also notice that clicking on the "name" of a file no longer initiates a test of that file's CGI. To do that, you will click on the new  "test" icon to perform CGI testing. You click on the "name" of a file to change its name.
Added new User Preferences – some thanks to user suggestions:
To relieve the confusion experienced by some users (as well as the media), and to streamline the production and release of updates and upgrades to users, the parallel programs AdminFTP and AdminPro have been re-combined into a single application with this release of AdminPro 2.5. [ more ]
The surviving AdminPro application now operates in either "default" mode (similar to the way AdminFTP worked) or "administrator" mode (familiar to AdminPro users since August 2000). The mode can be toggled in the User Preferences section near the top of the adminpro.cgi document.
A new User Preference was added for displaying or concealing "hidden files" on the server. Many FTP applications will not show "hidden files" (file names that begin with a period) – AdminPro 2.5 adds a user preference to toggle on or off the display of hidden files on the server.
Previous versions of AdminPro permitted only empty directories to be removed from the server (as an extra measure of safety). This release adds a User Preference that you can toggle to permit directories with contents (files and/or folders) to be removed all at once. When this user preference is toggled on, users are spared the tedium of first entering the target directory and deleting its contents before removing that parent directory.
The results titles and descriptions that are displayed after an action is performed have been edited for greater clarity and consistency.
Instructions added in the AdminPro "Quick Reference" for the new "rename" function and further edits were made to other instructions for improved clarity.
The server or domain name has now been added to the browser window's <TITLE> tag and the "headline" at the top of the "reporting" table to help eliminate the possibility of confusion by the many AdminPro users who manage content on multiple domains – sometimes simultaneously in multiple browser windows.
A new
user guide link has been added beneath the "reporting" table. The AdminPro User Guide provides explanations in much greater detail on how to install, configure, set User and Session Preferences and use AdminPro. The AdminPro Troubleshooting FAQ" has been moved from the AdminPro product description page to its own page in the User Guide.
A potential problem has been fixed that allowed AdminPro to upload and overwrite itself while it is running.
Fixed a previously unknown quirk in which AdminPro did not preserve the "display path edit" session preference setting to "off" when set to "on" in the User Preferences.
As helpful visual cues, CSS cursor styles were added to help indicate what action will occur when the user clicks on a link under the cursor. (Full CSS implementation in all browsers is still spotty, so the browser you're using may not display the cursor styles – AdminPro will still function as cursor styles is only an aesthetic issue.)
04/26/2001 – public release of v 2.0
New open, edit and save file functions added: When users click on the  "edit file" icon, that file is opened in an new "File Editor" screen. User then clicks on the "save" button to update that file on the server.
This can significantly streamline the user's production cycle by sparing the user the tedium of first downloading the file, opening in a separate text editor, editing, saving, re-uploading to the server, then switching back to the web browser to test the changes.
New download feature added: Users may download an image or text file via AdminPro by clicking on that file's associated  "download" icon. The web browser may or may not automatically prompt to "save" before downloading depending on the file type, operating system and web browser version. Either way, the user may then "save" or "save as" to their local desktop.
New icons were created, some existing icons were modified, and online "Instructions for Using AdminPro" were updated to reflect the new 2.0 enhancements.
Fixed a bug that caused a display error when aliases were being reported.
Other minor tweaking of code for efficiency gains.
03/24/2001 – public release of v 1.3
This release fixes a bug that occurred in some environments that caused the server to return "file not found" errors when attempting to navigate up or down the directory tree via AdminPro 1.2.
03/09/2001 – public release of v 1.2
Some server configurations – especially ones in which technologies such as symbolic links, aliases and CGIWrap are employed, can make it very difficult to perform debugging of your scripts. (Ironically, many server administrators who use these masking technologies on their client's domains also prohibit their access to error logs and do not permit Telnet connections for command-line debugging.)
AdminPro can accurately report your paths and files in an even wider variety of server configurations including the Mac OS X Server. Users of AdminPro can now view paths and files previously unreported by previous versions of AdminPro.
Particularly large pages (with a lot of directories and files to report) should download noticeably faster and begin to render more quickly in your web browser.
02/06/2001 – public release of v 1.1
AdminPro now permits you the flexibility of renaming the "adminpro.cgi" script document to any name you like.
Other very minor cleaning up of the code.
11/21/2000 – public release of v 1.0.5
A minor update to improve the accurate calculation of numbers represented in the permissions options checkbox grid.
10/11/2000 – public release of v 1.0.4
A minor update to improve rendering and function performance in newer versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape web browsers.
08/26/2000 – public release of v 1.0.3
A minor update that vastly increases the quantity of permissions options that are dynamically represented in the checkbox grid and fixed several options that, when keyed in by hand, didn't represent properly.
08/23/2000 – public release of v 1.0.2
Eliminated the permissions pulldown menu in favor of a more intuitive "permissions grid" – users simply check off the new permissions (chmod) attributes for files and directories with realtime feedback provided by JavaScript code.
Established a relationship with RegNow so users can conveniently and pay their AdminPro shareware fee online with any major credit card.
08/21/2000 – public release of v 1.0.1
Added an "image" checkbox in the file upload form to distinguish a text file upload from other file types. Text files are screened for errant "line end" characters so that, if it is a script, it will properly execute.
Fixed an error that sometimes caused a double slash (//) to appear in the path which prevented directories and files on some servers from reporting in the directory table.
Added an "image file" graphic to the set of icons so users may more readily distinguish text and image files in the directory table.
08/19/2000 – public release of v 1.0 – Features
Upload/configuration instructions are commented at the top of the adminpro.cgi script document.
Instructions for use provided as the default content in the main table in your browser.
AdminPro features a point-and-click browser interface that performs like enhanced FTP software and reports details about paths and files such as file size, modification date and permissions. Click on the file name, the trash icon and the permissions value to initiate the desired action.
AdminPro operates in either "default" mode or "administrator" mode. In default mode, AdminPro performs similarly to AdminFTP (discontinued) while, in administrator mode, AdminPro allows users to navigate "behind the domain root" so advanced programmers and server administrators can overcome the limitations imposed by the use of symbolic links (aliases) and CGIWrap, etc.
The default path on launch of AdminPro is the path (from the server root) in which the script resides.
Click up your directory tree to each path from the current one. Most users can navigate to directories "behind the domain root" which should help them see their files even when they are aliases (symbolic links), contained in aliased paths or when CGIWrap is installed on the server.
Click on a document icon or name in the "file" column and click "execute" to test the syntax of that script. Any errors are itemized and presented immediately in your browser window.
To pass data into your script for more comprehensive testing, type a question mark (to begin the query string) and any variables after the script's name in the "item" form field. (Your script should be able to parse data submitted via GET even if it parses data via POST.)
AdminPro can modify file and directory permissions. Since this function is likely to work only on Unix/Linux servers, when file permissions are not reported in the directory table, the "permissions grid" is automatically disabled.
Users can modify a script's permissions and check its syntax simultaneously.
Click on a directory icon or name to view the contents of that path.
Create a new directory. By default, the permissions for the new directory are the same as the parent. Before clicking the "execute" button, simply check in the permissions grid the permissions setting for the directory you're creating.
Delete an empty directory. A "dim" trash icon  indicates that a directory contains items (files and/or folders) and, therefore, deletion is disabled. A popup confirmation window should help prevent accidental deletions of a directory or file – but please be careful – it's good policy to make sure you have current local backups of any files before deleting! Deleted files from the server are not recoverable. (Note: It's been reported that some implementations of JavaScript do NOT effectively cancel the deletion. I encourage you to be sure before you click delete.)
Delete a file by clicking on the  trash link in the directory table.
Included in the .zip and .hqx archives are eight tiny graphics: (folder), (file),  (image),  (delete) and  (delete disabled). When running AdminPro, the script will attempt to read those icons from the same path from which the script runs. If users opt not to upload the images, rename them or they are otherwise unavailable, the script will automatically download them into the browser from the CraigRichards.com server.
Configure the script to report file modification dates for their local timezone by changing the value of hours (add or subtract) from the server's clock.
Configure the script to report file modification dates either in the UK (day-month-year) or US (month-day-year) format.
Users may set User Preferences in the script before uploading as well as setting on-the-fly "Session Preferences" through a control panel. Users may toggle the manual path edit field, change local/server time-display adjustment and/or toggle the US/UK date format.
By default, the manual "path" editing form field is disabled since most users prefer to point and click to navigate through their sites. A user-modifiable toggle can easily turn it back on in User Preferences or Session Preferences.
Toggle the optional access-restriction feature and add one or multiple static IP Addresses from which AdminPro may be run.
Access-restriction status is verified in the page header for greater confidence.
Potentially "dangerous" characters such as + ` * ! ? $ ^ # % are automatically stripped from user input to help reduce the impact of a careless or malicious user.
Update notification is built into AdminPro in which older versions of AdminPro will display a subtle animated "update available" message in the logo. Clicking on that logo takes users directly to the Software section of the CraigRichards.com website.
Global colors may be modified to suit the user's tastes by changing the appropriate variables at the top of the adminpro.cgi script.
Tested on Linux/Unix OS running Apache and Perl 5.
Tested on Windows NT running MS Information Server and Perl 5.
Tested on MacOS X Server and MacPerl 5.
Tested using Netscape Navigator 4.7 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 though the interface should display perfectly in an older browser as long as it supports table tags and JavaScript.
AdminPro is compressed into a bin-hex archive for easy download and extracting with Aladdin StuffIt Expander or other desktop extraction utility on Mac and other platforms.
AdminPro is compressed into a zip archive for easy download and extracting with WinZip, PKZip or other desktop extraction utility on Windows and other platforms.
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