Manage folders

Folders are used to organize published resources and to facilitate filtering options.

There are two types of folders that you can create in the Published Resources tree in the Parallels RAS Console:

• Folders for administrative purposes. Folders of this type are intended for Parallels RAS administrators (users of the Parallels RAS Console). They are used to logically organize published resources in the Parallels RAS Console but they do not appear in the Parallels Client launchpad on user devices. These folders are used to help administrators manage published resources more efficiently.
• Regular folders. These folders are similar to administrative folders described above but they do appear in the launchpad on user devices. You normally use these folders to group published resources by type (e.g. office applications, specific business applications, utilities, etc.).

Creating a folder

To create a new folder:

1. In the RAS Console, select the Publishing category.
2. Right-click anywhere in the Published Resources tree and choose New Folder (or click the [+] New Folder icon at the bottom).
3. In the Folder dialog, specify a folder name and an optional description.
4. To make it a folder for administrative purposes, select the Use for administrative purposes option. To publish a regular folder, clear the option. See above for the explanation of the two folder types.
5. When creating a regular folder, you can change its icon by clicking the Change icon button. Administrative folders use a built-in icon that cannot be changed. Icons appear in the Publishing category in the Parallels RAS Console and in the Parallels Client launchpad (regular folders only).
6. On the next page, specify the initial status of the resource (the folder). Choose from the following options:
   • Enabled: End users can see the folder and will be able to launch published resources that it contains.
   • Disabled: The folder will not appear in Parallels Client.
   • In maintenance: The folder will appear in Parallels Client but users will not be able to launch resources that it contains. If the folder has subfolders, they inherit the status of the parent folder, which means that none of the resources contains in any of the folders in the hierarchy will be accessible to users. When a folder is in maintenance and a user tries to launch a resource from it, they will see a message. To customize the message, click the Configure button. For more info, see Site defaults (Publishing).
7. Click Finish to create the folder.

Managing folders

To modify an existing folder:

1. Select a desired folder in the Published Resources tree.
2. The Information tab in the right pane displays the folder information (read-only).
3. On the Folder tab, you can see and modify the folder name and description. You can also select or clear the Use for administrative purposes option to change the folder type (see above for an explanation). To change the folder icon, click the Change icon button. Note that the button is disabled if the Use for administrative purposes option is selected.
4. The Filtering tab specifies filtering options. Once set, these options will be inherited by all published resources in that folder. For more information, please see Using filtering rules.
5. For the information about Routing, please see Configuring preferred routing.

Adding published resources to a folder

To add a published resource to a folder, first add it to the root location and then drag it to the desired folder.

Delegating permissions to custom administrators

If you have custom administrators in your Farm, you can delegate permissions to them to manage a folder. This is specifically useful when a power administrator needs to grant permissions to a custom admin (they couldn't otherwise do it because they cannot manage user account directly). To grant folder rights, right-click anywhere in the Published Resources pane and then click Delegate Permissions. In the dialog that opens, select a user to grant folder permissions to. In the lower right pane of the Delegate Permission - Publishing dialog, select permissions (view, modify, add, delete) for a desired folder you want the user to have. Note that the custom administrator will be granted permissions to manage the folder and all its child items, including sub-folders. For more information about custom administrators, see Managing administrator accounts.