Necessity is the Mother of Invention

And so it came to pass with plugin developer Greg Barchard who, after a friend's wedding, wanted a single location where the wedding guests from all over the States could upload their photos of the wedding and download everybody else's. The solution, he realised, had to be simple and intuitive enough so that guests with very limited computer knowledge would be able to complete the process effortlessly. And so the seed for weaverFM was sown. The Gold Master product you see today has come a long way since those early days seven months ago.

The FM in weaverFM stands for File Manager and, like FTP, it gives you the ability to upload, download, and delete files on your server. But that's not all it does. weaverFM's true power lies in its simplicity and versatility, and when it does what it does, it does it slickly, quickly and with an absolute effortless ease.

Teams

Picture this: you're a team leader and you have a team working together on a project and you want each user to have their own login and password so they can share the same files and folders on your server. Easy. Just create a group, add the users and they'll automatically be assigned new passwords. Want all group members notified when a file is uploaded? Couldn't be easier. Just select the option when you set up the group.

Case Study 1 — The Extraordinary Case of The University Professor

Business Clients

Another scenario: you run a business where you need to work with and share files with your clients. However you don't want Client A to see the project you're working on with Client B and vice versa. With weaverFM this is simple. You just create two groups, put each client in their own group, and make yourself an admin. Files and folders can not be seen across groups but special 'admin' groups can see all files and folders. This means you only need 1 weaverFM page that works with all your clients. This is managing made easy.

Case Study 2 — The Intriguing Case of The RapidWeaver Theme Developer

Member Areas

Say you'd like to have a special Members Area where you can offer your members access to premium content and resources. No problem. Add a weaverFM page, create a group and add your users. Then each time you add some more Premium Content — for instance a new video resource, article, screencast, or batch of images — then all your members will be immediately and automatically notified by email. Now that's quality service… and all you had to do was upload your content!

Case Study 3 — The Mysterious Case of The Church Leader

Families

Let's not forget families. weaverFM's initial raison d'etre. This is a place where whole families - whether in the same street or scattered across the globe - can share files, photos, videos with ease. Did I already mention there is built in preview support for audio and photos?

Screenshots

Caveats

I would love to say that with weaverFM you don't have to get your hands dirty serverside… and the fact is that when everything works as it should, you don't. However this is the web we're talking about, and by its very nature incompatibilities do arise. And so it was when I first published my weaverFM page that I ran into an error.

But one swift Skype/Google chat with Greg and he resolved my problem. All I needed to do was go to my server using an FTP program like Transmit or the (donationware) Cyberduck and create a folder called data in the same directory as my weaverFM page… and that was it. After that, everything ran as slick and smooth as intended.

So I would say this, as the many beta testers in his Google Group will attest, Greg's support is second to none. If you have an issue that is not covered in his live Help documentation, then use one of the several means to get in touch with him and he will get you up and running in no time.

Like Greg does himself, I would also recommend that you try before you buy. Because of the large number of themes out there, and the myriad scripts and styles they employ, it can't be guaranteed that weaverFM will work perfectly with every theme in your drawer. Some of the older themes, for instance, using Mootools scripts which haven't been updated recently are particularly vulnerable.

For those of you who'd like a quick hands-on experience of weaverFM in action, I've set up a simple test page here. Feel free to 'manage' the files and folders as you like — but please only delete your own!

Login Panel Themes

One of my favourite features of weaverFM is its unique ability to incorporate different Login Panel Themes. This means that if you don't like the style of the default login panel, no worries, just select one of the other included Login Panel Themes — custom designed specifically for weaverFM by Themeflood's Will Woodgate — and you are good to go. All the designs have configurable degrees of colour and/or opacity, and can be further customised using inline CSS or by editing the styles files inside the themes' contents. Pre-made weaverFM themes are available here, while custom-made themes — some of them to complement Themeflood's own RapidWeaver themes — are available here.

Not Just A Theme Installer

"But where do I install the themes?" I asked in my starring role as the straw that finally broke this particular boffin's back. An hour later a triumphant Greg Barchard emerged from his underground laboratory holding aloft an AppleScript that is destined to claim its revered place in the RapidWeaver Hall of Fame. Dubbed 'RWAddonsInstaller', this ingenious droplet Installs RapidWeaver Addons.

In fact, all you have to do is drop your Addon onto the droplet and it will automatically copy your weaverFM themes, Stacks, rwplugins, and RapidAlbum extras to their proper location. What's more, additional Extras can be easily supported upon request. Try it out for yourself: download your free copy here. Where to keep it? For easy access, why not drag it onto your Finder toolbar or Dock.

In Conclusion

For me the coolest features are definitely the Login Panel themes and the email notifications. The ability to drag and drop users between groups is another great feature, while the smart 'live' help system is slickness itself. Oh, and did I mention the audio preview?

For some people like teachers, web designers, group leaders, business teams, weaverFM is going to be an instant no-brainer. For other users — like myself initially — it's gradually going to dawn on us that this is a plugin with countless creative possibilities that we really can't do without.

I believe its full potential is huge, and that user feedback, to which Greg Barchard is immensely responsive, will create an even more versatile and eventually indispensible RapidWeaver plugin.

Finally, if you'd like to take advantage of our exclusive RapidWeaver Central discount then use the following Discount Code when purchasing and get $5 off: rwcentral2010. The coupon will expire on March 3, 2010 at 00:00:00 Mountain Standard Time.