HornWare: SharePoints

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Description

SharePoints is an application or a preference pane that makes it easy to add and delete share points like in the old Finder. In Mac OS X, by default, you are limited to sharing only what is in your public folder in your home directory. This program makes it easy to share any folder.
In addition SharePoints also brings back users and groups management to Mac OS X as well as easy configuration of AppleFileServer (AFS) and Samba (SMB) Server properties.

Donation-ware

If you like SharePoints, please consider making a donation by clicking on the PayPal Donate button or the Amazon Donate button below.
Thanks to everyone who has donated previously, I now have relegated the Beige G3 to be a webserver after the purchase of my new machine. Thank you.
 
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This program was inspired by an article on http://www.macosxhints.com.

Download and Operational Instructions

To add a share using Share Points, follow these 3 steps.
  1. Download SharePoints.
    3.5.4 (Mac OS X 10.4.x)
    3.5.1 (Mac OS X 10.3.x)
    3.2.2 (Mac OS X 10.2.x)
    2.0.6 (Mac OS X 10.1.x)
  2. Launch SharePoints and use it to add or delete share points and to set the permissions for the share directory.
    ***Caution: SharePoints only modifies the permissions on the directory that is shared. All directories residing within the shared directory retain their original permissions.***
  3. Connect to the share from another machine with a non-admin user.

Note: It has been reported that folders that reside on a disk formatted as a HFS disk will not be shared. You can check the format of your disk by getting info for the disk in the Finder. If it says "Format: Mac OS Extended", then everything should work well.

If you encountered problems when using a previous version, start the Application and then select "Delete All Shares..." from the Shares menu. This will clean your NetInfo database of all shares and will give you a clean slate to work with.

To add a new File Sharing Only user using SharePoints, follow these 3 steps.

  1. Click on the Users & "Public" Shares tab.
  2. Fill in the information for the new user.
  3. Click Add New User.

Note: A File Sharing Only user is defined as a user that cannot login via telnet or ssh and does not have a home directory assigned.

To add a new group using SharePoints, follow these 4 steps.

  1. Click on the Groups tab.
  2. Fill in the information for the group.
  3. Click Add New Group.
  4. Add new users from the user list to the newly created group.

Installation

To install the SharePoints.prefPane file, place the file either in ~/Library/PreferencePanes/ (create the directory if it doesn't exist) or in /Library/PreferencePanes/ (create it if it doesn't exist). If you place it in ~/Library/PreferencePanes/, then only you will see SharePoints in the System Preferences application. If you place it in /Library/PreferencePanes/, then everyone that logs into your computer will see SharePoints in the System Preferences application.

To Install the application version of SharePoints, just copy it to any convenient location on your harddrive. I would suggest placing it in your Utilities folder.

Enjoy and you use this at your own risk.

Mailing List

You can join the SharePoints Announce mailing list if you would like to be notified by email when a new version of SharePoints is available.

Version History

3.5.4
  • Updated to be a Universal application (PowerPC and Intel native).
3.5.3
  • Fixed a crashing issue with the help of Derek Scott (derek.scott@gmail.com) when trying to run SharePoints on a G3 based machine.
3.5.2
  • Updated for Tiger compatibility (removed Use AppleTalk button, changed Rendezvous to Bonjour)
  • Added Change Password for Selected User button.
  • Temporarily (hopefully) disabled the public share enable/disable buttons. I have to figure out a new way to disable the public shares.
3.5.1
  • Fixed a crashing problem when changing the NetBios Name and Workgroup.
  • Fixed a disconnection in the Italian Preference Pane localization.
3.5
  • Added AppleFileServer text encoding option.
  • Added Samba server text encoding option.
  • Added workgroup master control for the Samba server.
  • Added map to guest when using USER security setting with the Samba server.
  • Added inherit owner option for AppleFileServer shares.
  • Code optimization and rewrite.
  • GUI updates.
3.4.3
  • Fixed a Windows guest access bug where the guest button would not stick.
  • Updated AFS Inherit Permissions to make it more compatible with Mac OS 9 machines.
3.4.2
3.4.1
  • A problem with the Swedish Localization was fixed.
3.4
  • Updated new user password code to Apple's new method for storing passwords.
  • Added more AFS Properties (Admin is Normal User, Use Rendezvous).
  • Added Samba share guest access controls.
3.3
  • Updated for Panther compatibility.
  • Added more error checking when adding and deleting users.
3.2.2
3.2.1
  • Marcus Lindell updated the Swedish Translation.
3.2
  • Removed Restart AppleFileServer and Restart SMB Server buttons because they are automatically updated with every change now.
  • Updated SMB Properties tab to allow access to more properties in the same amount of screen space.
  • Added the SMB property to specify a WINS server.
  • Added the SMB property to specify the security method (USER, SHARE).
  • Updated inherit permissions button to work with SMB shares as well as AFS shares. (Shares with current inherit permissions, must be updated.)
3.1
  • Added option for AFS shares to inherit permissions from the parent folder.
  • Added control over home directory sharing with the Samba server.
  • Updated the Samba configuration file parsing.
3.0.1
3.0
2.1.1
  • Fixed Italian Localization
  • Fixed problem with higher order characters such as · (opt-8) and ü.
  • Fixed problem with a permission update not being reflected in the main window.
2.1
  • Updated for Jaguar (Mac OS X 10.2). Thanks to Jay Lichtenauer (jay@macinmind.com) for the help. This version will only work with 10.2 and later. Please use version 2.0.6 for Mac OS X 10.1.x.
  • Added Guest Access control.
2.0.6
  • Removed dependency on nireport (nireport is only installed with the developer tools).
  • Added Internet Version Checking.
  • Updated links to point to new webpage, http://www.hornware.com.
  • Added documentation.
2.0.5
2.0.4
  • Fixed blank lists at startup.
2.0.3
  • Updated to properly handle accented characters.
2.0.2
  • Updated to work when the Developer Tools are not installed.
  • Added French localization. Thanks to Bruno Lapeyre (http://www.ietmac.com) for the localization work.
2.0.1
  • Added password creation when adding a new user instead of having to type sudo passwd.
  • Added data entry checks.
2.0
  • Added Users and Groups management.
  • Michael Simmons (Mayhem!), macguitar@mac.com, polished the App UI.
1.6.2
  • Added "Use AppleTalk" option to the AppleFileServer properties tab.
  • Made creating a new share more intuitive.
  • Added the version number to the main window.
1.6.1
  • Clean up the innards.
  • Changed to use the uid instead of the NetInfo record number when determining system users.
  • Added a one time reminder that SharePoints is donation-ware.
1.6
  • Added AppleFileServer Properties Tab. Please email me if there are other properties that you can explain to me how they work. I will add them.
1.5.4
  • Fixed a problem with the sharedDir property not being set for users. This was another cause of the Preference Pane hanging for some people.
1.5.3
  • Changed "Create New Share" button to show "Update Share" when appropriate.
  • Michael Simmons (Mayhem!), macguitar@mac.com, provided a clean up of the Pref Pane UI.
  • Changed to use a Localizable.strings file to allow for each localization of SharePoints. If you would like to see SharePoints in a specific language, please translate the phrases on the right hand side of the equals sign in the Localizable.strings files for both the Application and the Pref Pane and send to hornware@hornware.com.
1.5.2
  • Fixed problem with shares with no directory_path set. This is what was causing the prefPane version to hang when loading.
  • Fixed the lack of a double quotes in buttons in the "Public" shares tab.
  • Added checks to ensure the Share Name and Directory text fields are not empty.
  • Attempting to include Japanese Resources. Please let me know how it goes.
1.5.1
  • Never Released
1.5
  • Added owner and group modification for top level share directory.
  • Added "Public" folder share management.
  • Cleaned up the Interface.
  • SharePoints is now donation-ware.
1.1.2
  • Fixed a startup problem with parsing the current shares.
  • Added a "Delete All Shares..." menu item.
  • Added a "Refresh List" menu item.
  • Updated permission menus with current permissions when the directory is selected using the "Browse..." button.
  • Changed internals to provide more reliable operation.
1.1.1
  • Never released.
1.1
    Added a restart Apple File Sharing button.
  • Added privilege modification for top level share directory.
1.0.2
  • Fixed the lock/unlock image problem with the prefPane version.
  • SharePoints now works with setups that have a NetInfo master other than the local machine.
1.0.1
  • Added a prefPane version and fixed a small bug that could cause the "Create New Share" button to become permanently disabled.
1.0
  • Added a share browser as well as delete functionality
0.1
  • First Release

If you would like to contact me, email hornware@hornware.com.

Copyright © 2003 Michael Horn All rights reserved.