Our Heads are in the Clouds

Cloud-based file storage is particularly helpful to students for several reasons. It allows you to remotely back up files and collaborate with other students. Most of you have used Google Drive and/or Dropbox, both great services that meet this need. But what if you need more space than Google Drive’s 15GB and don’t want to pay more to extend Dropbox’s free 2GB? Or if you want to host your own website? Well, Hopkins has got you covered.

Introducing: JShare

JShare is not a new application, but it is an obscure one. You can access it from your my.jhu.edu homepage after logging in. Hovering over the “Cloud” Quicklink brings up the “Cloud Apps” and “JShare” icons, as shown below:

Bonus Description Pop-up!

Clicking on JShare will open up a tab similar to the one shown here:

You say 'bland', I say 'functional layout'

As you can see, I’m using my JShare space to host my own websites. For all students, but especially those considering doing Web development after graduation, having a website with your resume information is a great way to show off your skills and put yourself on the job market. By default, there is a public_html folder designated for html files, but you can add, remove, and rename folders to your heart’s content by right-clicking. In addition, JShare gives you a fair amount of control over who else can see what is on your space. Right-click on a folder and then select Manage from the drop-down menu. This brings up the settings for that particular folder. On the left is the tab navigator, and after pressing “Permissions” your screen should look something like this:

So much power!

Users are listed under "Name" and their permissions can be set to Viewer or Contributor mode. If you want to remove privileges from a user (or Public), first select the user with the checkbox, and then press the "Remove Access" button. The Add User/Group button allows you to add anyone in the Hopkins network (from what I can tell) to your permitted user list; if the email is not recognized by JShare, it will automatically create a “ticket” for that user that allows them to be given viewing or contributing privileges until it expires. The default lifetime of a ticket is 30 days, but this can be changed or even set to unlimited. You can also assign a password for the ticket, but a password won’t improve security. In order to send the ticket link through JShare, you must first choose to use Mircrosoft Outlook or some other mail client. All ticket-related activities can be done from the “Tickets” tab on the left.

You can also copy/paste the ticket link into any e-mail or FB message.

You’ll also notice Logging and Versioning tabs, but I’ll discuss how to use those in a future post about Online Collaboration. Feel free to leave comments below!