ZDDC Browse

A two-pane file browser for ZDDC archives — and any directory.

Online — when this page is served by zddc-server, the listing for the current directory loads automatically.
Local — click Use Local Directory to pick any folder on your computer (Chromium-based browsers).

Once loaded: click a folder to see a table of every file under it (edit the name fields in place, or round-trip through CSV); the ▸ chevron expands the tree; click files to preview them in the right pane. Markdown files open in a full editor with TOC.

What is Browse?

Browse is the ZDDC file experience. Two top-level modes:

Browse mode: File tree on the left, preview on the right. Click a folder to expand, click a file to preview. Markdown files open in a full editor; PDF, image, ZIP, XLSX, DOCX, TIFF all render inline.
Grid mode: Spreadsheet view of the current subtree's files for bulk ZDDC renaming. Edit cells directly, copy/paste with Excel, save back to disk.

Tree navigation (Browse mode)

Click a folder: Select it — the right pane shows the file table: every file under it, with tracking number / rev / status / title editable in place or by Export CSV → edit → Import CSV. Edits hold as drafts (the dot column shows clean/dirty per row) until you commit — ✓/✕ per row, or Save all / Cancel all in the toolbar; committing renames the file. Columns resize and each has a filter box; Download zip packs the files as shown. Ctrl-click more folders — or several files — to widen the table. The grid edits like a spreadsheet: select cell rectangles (shift-click / shift-arrows / Ctrl+A), Ctrl+C copies as TSV, Ctrl+V pastes as drafts, Ctrl+Enter in an editor fills the selection, Delete clears.
Click the ▸ chevron: Expand or collapse the folder inline — the chevron is the only click that rearranges the tree. A dimmed chevron means the row's own click does something else — a register folder (MDL, Risk, SSR) opens its table — but the chevron still expands it to the files on disk.
Alt-click the ▸ chevron: Recursive expand or collapse — the whole subtree. Acts on that one folder, whatever else is selected.
Expand subtree ▸ (row menu): Same thing, but it takes a depth — 1 to 5 levels, or all — and it acts on every folder you have selected. Ctrl-click folders anywhere in the tree first; they don't have to be siblings or share a parent. Since the folder structure is the same shape in every project, one gesture opens the same stratum across all of them at once.
Click a file: Preview it in the right pane.
Row actions — right-click, ⋯, or the menu key: Right-click a row, click the ⋯ button that appears on hover, or press the menu key (or Shift+F10) on the selected row. The menu only lists actions that apply to that item; actions you can see but can't use yet (you lack write/create access, or they're for project or site administrators) appear greyed with a reason — so you can see what a higher role unlocks.
Toolbar (above the tree): Filter, New folder / New file (created in the current directory), Sort order, and Show hidden files all live here.
⤴ Pop out: Open the current preview in a separate window — useful for a second monitor.
ZIP files: Behave as folders — click to inspect contents inline. JSZip is bundled, so this works offline.
Download / Download ZIP: Right-click a file for Download, or a folder for Download ZIP (everything under it that you're allowed to see, bundled into one archive). Online, the server streams it; locally, the browser bundles the picked folder (a confirmation appears if it's very large).
Refresh: Re-fetches the current directory listing — works for both local (re-enumerates the FS handle) and online (re-fetches the JSON).

Editing files

Markdown: Opens in a full editor with a separate pane for YAML front matter. Save writes back; History… on the row shows every earlier version.
YAML — including .zddc: Opens in a YAML editor with line numbers and live linting. Parse errors appear in the gutter as you type; for a .zddc the check also flags unknown keys, bad values and wrong types, so a typo is caught before you save it rather than by things quietly ceasing to work. Ctrl+S saves. Files inside a ZIP are read-only.

Moving work through the project

These appear on the right-click menu only where they apply, and only for people who hold the rights they need. If you can see one greyed out, the reason is in its tooltip.

Stage to… / Unstage to working/: Move a draft between your working/ area and staging/, the mutable mirror of the archive.
Create Transmittal folder… / Add transmittal data file…: Start a transmittal in staging/ and give it its data file.
Commit to archive (issued / received)…: Document controller only. Moves a staged transmittal to the same path under archive/ — the write-once record. Seal to archive .zip does the same but as one sealed archive.
Ship to <party>… (.zip) / Import shipment (.zip)…: Hand a committed transmittal to another ZDDC server, and take one in at the far end.
Plan Review… / Respond — start in reviewing/…: Set up the review of a received submittal, and draft the response beside it.

Who can do what

Manage access…: A guided view of who holds which access to a folder. It edits only the access lines of that folder's .zddc and leaves everything else in the file untouched.
Edit raw policy (.zddc)…: The same policy as text, for anything the guided view doesn't cover.
Finding out who to ask: You only ever see folders you have been given access to — nothing above or beside them. To learn who administers a folder you can reach, open its policy and switch to the effective view: it shows every rule in force there and names the level each one came from, including rules set further up. Changing a policy needs administrator rights over that folder.
Administrator mode: If you administer part of the tree, a toggle appears at the bottom-right. It is off by default and lasts only for the page — it unlocks the things ordinary rights don't cover, such as rearranging records in the archive.

Working offline

Use Local Directory: Pick a folder from your computer. Everything above that only reads or edits files works the same way; actions that write an audited record need the server, because the server is what stamps and versions them.
Transfers: A chip in the header tracks bulk drag-and-drop uploads. If you were offline when you saved, the change waits and is sent when you reconnect.
⚠ N sync conflicts: Appears when something you changed offline also changed on the server. Click it to see both and choose.

Header buttons

⟳ Refresh: Re-load the current directory listing.
◐ Theme: Cycle auto / light / dark.
? Help: This panel.