Webdrop 2.0

Get Files

To access a file, the faculty member (or TA) must download it from the webdrop folder to the local computer. This basically makes a copy of the file and puts the copy on the local computer.

The original file remains "up" on the webdrop folder's computer. The copy on the local machine can be modified or even deleted without affecting the original file that was dropped by the student.

Once the file has been downloaded once, it does not appear in the show/get file list. This helps the faculty member and any TAs keep track of what files are new and need to be viewed. If necessary, the file can become visible again for retrieval by contacting the system administrators at: webdrop_sysop@d.umn.edu

When a one or more files are downloaded, they are zipped into a single file which will be unzipped on your computer and appear in a folder on your desktop. Once downloaded, these can be moved to other locations to accomodate your file management preferences.

To get one or more files from Webdrop:

1. If you have not done so already, access the webdrop program at: https://webdrop.d.umn.edu. You will need to authenticate using your x.500 username and password
2. Click the link "Manage Available course folders
3. Pick the appropriate course by clicking the radio button to the left of the course name
4. Click the button "Open Course Folder"
5. Pick the option to get files by clicking the radio button to the left of the option "Show/Get New Uploaded Documents"
6. Click the "Submit" button
7. You will see a list of newly uploaded documents grouped by each student's username. Choose those you want to get by clicking the check box to the left of each one. You may request more than one at a time
8. Click the button "Get Documents"
9. You will receive a confirmation message listing the files that are ready to be copied (downloaded) to your computer in the zipped file
10. Click link "click to download" to copy (download) the files to your computer

Notice that you can add files from multiple webdrop courses to the zip file and download them at once. This would be very handy if you have multiple sections of the same class and want to handle all of their assignments together. To do that, perform the above steps 1 through 9 for each webdrop folder. Do not click the download link (step 10) until you have added all the files from all the webdrop folders you want for this session. Then do step 10 AND remember to clean off the zip file from the webdrop system so that you don't get confused next time you download files.

When the file is downloaded to your computer, it is named with your username and the zip file extension. Many computers will automatically unzip this file for you, creating a folder on your desktop named "webapps". Within this folder, you will find folders for each webdrop folder and within those will be folders for each student. This prevents files becoming over-written if several students call their submissions by the same name. You may move these folders if you use a different file management scheme.

You can remove the zip file from you computer's desktop as soon as it has been expanded into separate files.