Outbox - Help

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The Outbox provides users with a flexible platform to upload, describe, organize and share documents for administrative purposes. Currently, the tool is used by the Max Planck Digital Library to share usage statistics as provided by various vendors and further material like APC reports with the MPG library community. Please contact the support team if you require access to this data.

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Collections

Collections provide the main folder structure within the system and are required to upload and organize items.

All available collections are listed on the COLLECTIONS tab. The collection list can be sorted by author, name or date modified and filtered by state or creator. Private collections are marked by a person icon and shared collections by a group icon on the right side of the page.

Create Collection

Users require the appropriate authorization to create new collections. For any questions regarding your account, please contact the support team.

Go to the collections list and click on New collection.
Enter the collection information. The fields marked with an asterisk are required.
Via the plus (and minus) buttons, further fields for authors, organizations and additional information can be added (or removed).
Click on Save.

Edit Collection Information

Go to the collection you want to edit.
In the menu bar hover over Collection and click on Edit information.
Modify the values you wish to update and Save them.

Share Collection

Three different types of sharing rights are offered for a collection:

Read: Permission to view the collection information as well as all included items, appended files and metadata.
Edit: Extends the Read permission by the right to edit the collection information, existing items and item licenses, as well as the right to upload new files and to delete items from the collection.
Admin: Extends the Edit permission by the right to share and to delete the collection.

To share a collection with a user or user group, you can either

Go to the collection you want to share.
In the menu Collection, click on Share.

Go to the Collections list.
Find the collection you want to share and hover over the status icon on the right.
Click on Manage.

Afterward, decide whether you want to share your collection with one or several individual users or with user groups:

Share with a user:
1. Enter the e-mail address(es) of the user(s) you want to share the collection with. Separate several entries with semicolon.
2. Select the permission type (Read, Edit, Admin) that should be shared with the user(s).
3. By activating Send e-mail, the user(s) will get an e-mail notification about the sharing.
4. Click on Share.
5. If one or several of the chosen users haven't registered before, a message will appear where you can decide if the new user(s) should be invited to register or if you want to cancel the sharing process. Choosing Invite will send an e-mail with registration details to the entered e-mail address(es).
Share with a user group:
1. Select at least one user group from the list.
2. Select the permission that should be shared with the user group.
3. By activating Send e-mail, all users within the selected user group(s) will get an e-mail notification about the sharing.
4. Click on Share.

Unshare Collection

Two different methods are provided to unshare collections.

The owner and administrators of a collection can revoke sharing grants by navigating to Collection / Share and clicking on the bin icons on the right hand side.
A user can remove received grants in the user account: This method is described in Revoke Grants

Delete Collection

To delete a collection:

Go to the collection you want to delete.
In the menu Collection, click on Delete.
Confirm the action by clicking on Delete.

Subscribe to / Unsubscribe from Collection

By subscribing to a collection you will receive an automatic notification if new items are added to the collection or existing files are updated. The e-mail will be delivered daily and include a summary of all changes from the last 24 hours. When there aren't any changes within the last 24 hours, no e-mail will be delivered.

Go to the collection you want to subscribe / unsubscribe.
In the menu Collection, click on Subscribe / Unsubscribe.
Confirm the action by clicking on Subscribe / Unsubscribe.

Further on, Collection subscriptions can be canceled via your user profile.

Manage Subcollections

Subcollections can be used to organize the uploaded files into a hierarchical folder structure. Within each collection, subcollections will be listed first and are marked by a folder icon. Following methods are supported for subcollections:

Create: Go to any collection or subcollection and click on + Subcollection.
Edit name: Go to the subcollection and Edit name from the collection menu.
Move: Go to the subcollection and select Move from the collection menu.
Delete: Go to the subcollection and select Delete from the collection menu.

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Items

File Upload

To upload a new file to the system:

Go to the upload page.
Choose an existing collection for the upload by selecting one or create a new collection to upload your files.
Select file(s) or drag and drop file(s) into the drop area.

Following errors may occur when trying to upload files:

Same file already exists in the collection (same checksum): The file checksum is verified to avoid that identical files are uploaded to the same collection.
Data quota exceeded: Per default, users have a data quota of 1 GB. If this quota is used up, please contact:
- The support team if you are the creator of the collection.
- The owner of the collection, if the collection has been shared. You can find the owner of the collection on the share icon.
File format not allowed: For security reasons, the system restricts the list of authorized file formats. To get more information, please contact the support team.
You do not have any permissions to upload items or create collections: Your account is neither authorized to create a new collection, nor has the permission to upload files in at least one collection. Please ask the support team for authorization to create collections.

Describe Items

The system offers three different ways to describe your items with metadata:

Single edit: Describe one item
Batch edit: Describe multiple items
Collection edit: Describe all items of one collection

Describe one Item

Go to the item you want to describe with metadata.
Click on Edit.
Fill in the form.
[If you want to add a new metadata element] Click on Add metadata:
1. A list with all existing metadata elements will be displayed.
2. Check whether the desired metadata element already exists and if it is available, select it from the list.
3. [If the metadata element is not available] Click on Add metadata at the bottom of the list. This allows you to create a new metadata element by defining a name (label), a type and optionally some predefined values. After clicking Save the metadata element is added to the form of your item.
Click on Save.

Describe multiple Items

Select the items you want to edit via any items list or a search result.
The menu bar shows how many items have been selected. Click on X Selected Items to display the menu and select Edit.
This opens the edit interface as table in full screen. Click on Close at the bottom to leave the full screen without any changes.
If you are not allowed to edit all of the selected items, a corresponding message will be displayed above the table.
The edit table includes one row per item. The columns represent the metadata elements used by the selected items and some default metadata.
Add new metadata elements by clicking on Add Column:
1. A list with all existing metadata elements will be displayed.
2. Check whether your desired metadata element already exists and if it is available, select it from the list.
3. [If the metadata element is not available] Click on Add metadata at the bottom of the list. This allows you to create a new metadata element by defining a name (label), a type and optionally some predefined values. After clicking Save the metadata element is added to the table.
Edit metadata values:
1. Edit a single cell by clicking on to add a new value or to remove a value.
2. Add a value to a whole column by clicking on and confirming via Add to all.
3. Remove all values of a column by clicking on at the top of the column.
4. Remove a column by clicking on at the top of the column. A column can not be removed when it is defined as a default metadata by the system administrator.
5. Change the name of column by clicking on at the top of the column.
6. Hide a column by clicking on at the top of the column.
Click on Save.

Describe all Items of one Collection

Go to the collection containing the items you want to edit.
[If some items are selected], click on Select none positioned above the items.
In the menu X Items, click on Edit all.
Click on Select metadata:
1. A list with all existing metadata elements will be displayed.
2. Check whether your desired metadata element already exists and if it is available, select it from the list.
3. [If the metadata element is not available] Click on Add metadata at the bottom of the list. This allows you to create a new metadata element by defining a name (label), a type and optionally some predefined values. After clicking Save the metadata element is editable.
Enter a value.
Choose one of the following actions to add the metadata to the collection items:
1. Add a new value to all: The value will be added to all items of the collection, no matter whether they already have a value for the selected metadata element. As a result the metadata element may appear repeatedly.
2. Add only if value is empty: The value will only be added to the items of the collection which don't have any value for the selected metadata element yet.
3. Overwrite all values: The value will be added to all items of the collection. Previous values for the selected metadata element will be removed.

Add License

Licenses regulate the reuse of files and inform users of their rights. Therefore it is recommended to add license information to shared items.

Go to the collection containing the items you want to add the license to.
Choose one of the following options:
1. Single edit: Go to the item and click on Edit. Together with all the other metadata, the license is displayed at the top of the form and can be edited.
2. Batch edit: Select some items and click on Edit licenses in menu X Selected Items.
3. Collection edit: Click on Edit licenses in menu X Items (ensure that no item is selected).
Enter a license:
1. Select one predefined license from the list OR
2. Click on Enter your own license and enter you license information.
Choose if you want to replace the license of items that already have a license.
Click on Save.

Delete Items

To delete items:

Go to the collection containing the items you want to delete.
Choose one the following options:
1. Delete one item: Go to item and click on Delete.
2. Delete multiple items: Select some items and click on Delete in the menu X Selected Items.
3. Delete all items of a collection: Click on Delete all in the menu X Items (ensure that no item is selected).
Confirm the action by clicking on Delete.

Move Items

To move items from one collection to another:

Go to the collection containing the items you want to move.
Choose one of the following options:
1. Move one item: Go to the item and click on Move.
2. Move multiple items: Select some items and click on Move in the menu X Selected Items.
To select the target collection, you can either
1. Pick an existing collection or subcollection from the list displayed or
2. Create a new subcollection by clicking on on the right side of the parent collection and providing a name for the new subcollection.

Download Items

There are different ways to download items:

Go to the item and click on Download file.
Select multiple items within a collection and click on Download selected (X files) in the menu.
Go to one collection and click on Download (X files) to download all items of the collection. The items will be downloaded in a .zip-file.

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Browse and Search

Browse Items

Click on ITEMS to view the list of available items, comprising all items visible to you.

Simple Search

The Simple Search box is offered in the top navigation bar of each page. It allows you to search for items or collections.

The item search covers all available metadata as well as the item's full text (if applicable, e.g. for text documents like pdf or doc).
When browsing within one collection, the simple search automatically limits the search to items from this collection.
The simple search is compatible with the internal search syntax.

Advanced Search

The advanced search is restricted to items and is compatible with the internal search syntax.

Go to the advanced search page via the next to the Simple Search box.
Search for
1. All fields (all available item metadata and optionally the full text)
2. Specific metadata elements
3. File types (video, audio, document, image)
4. Licenses
5. Technical metadata of the items
Click on Search.

Faceted Navigation

Faceted navigation allows you to navigate the list of available items by applying multiple filters using metadata values/attributes assigned to them. Facets are displayed in a collection view and items view on the left-hand side of the displayed items.

Select Facet

Text: Click on a facet with an unchecked select box.
Number and Date: Choose values and click on the "go" link next to the values.

The displayed items will be refreshed and the selected facet is shown above the items.

Deselect Facet

Text: Click on "x" next to a facet above the items or on the selected facet on the left-hand side of the items.
Number and Date: Click on "x" next to a facet above the items.

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Manage User Account

Click on your user name in the top navigation bar to access your profile page. Beside of your account details, this page also includes your current data quota and displays how much of the allocated disk space is already occupied.

Change Password

You have to be logged in.

Go to your user page by clicking on your user name in the top navigation bar and select Change password.
Enter your new password twice (New password and Repeat password).
Click on Change password. Your new password is saved.

Forgot Password

To reset your password, please click on the Forgot your password? link on the login page. After entering your e-mail address, the system will send you a link which can be used to reset your password.

Revoke Grants

To revoke grants for a collection, go to your user page by clicking on your user name in the top navigation bar. Scroll down to the User Grants section and click on Revoke next to the collection name.

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Contact

For further support, please contact the support team.

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