Using the Mapped Drives Screen
The Mapped drives screen tells ABM Service which shared folder on your network each drive letter stands for, so that attachments kept on a drive such as S: can be opened by everybody. Only the system administrator, ABM user number 1, has it: open the menu and, under Administration, select Mapped drives.
What is the Mapped drives screen for?
The Mapped drives screen, under Administration in the ABM Service menu, lists which shared folder each drive letter stands for. ABM Service needs it because some attachments are not stored in ABM at all: ABM keeps only a link to where the file is, such as S:\Scans\survey.pdf.
A drive letter only means something on the computer where somebody mapped it, and it can stand for a different folder on each computer. The ABM server, the computer ABM Service runs on, opens linked files for everybody using ABM Service in a browser, and it has none of those drive letters. So it needs to be told, once, which shared folder each letter means, written the way Windows names a folder on the network: \\server\share.
With a line saying that S: stands for \\fileserver\scans, a file linked as S:\Scans\survey.pdf is opened from \\fileserver\scans\Scans\survey.pdf. Only the start of the link is translated, and capitals do not matter.
Without a line for a letter, office staff see a file kept on that drive with the note This file is kept on drive U:, and ABM has not been told which shared folder U: stands for. Your system administrator can set this up in Administration › Mapped drives., and they cannot open it.
Some links need nothing here:
- A link that already names a shared folder, such as
\\fileserver\scans\Scans\survey.pdf, is opened as it is. - A link into C: points at the disk of the computer the file was attached from, which the ABM server cannot reach, so the screen does not offer to map C:.
The same list is used for the documents your customers open from their account history on the Customer portal, when those documents are linked files.
The first line under the heading names your company: on a site with two ABM companies, each has its own list.
How do I get to the Mapped drives screen?
Open the ABM Service menu and, under Administration, select Mapped drives. You can also come straight from a file that cannot be opened: its details panel offers Map U: in Administration › Mapped drives, with the file's own drive letter, to the system administrator only.
- Open the menu with Menu on the Home screen, or Navigation menu at the top of the filters panel on the Calls, Customers or Scheduler screen.
- Look under the heading Administration.
- Select Mapped drives.
From a file's details panel on a call or customer, Map U: in Administration › Mapped drives opens the Mapped drives screen with a new line for that letter already added and the cursor in its Shared folder box. If the list already has a line for the letter, the cursor goes to that line's box instead. Once you have saved, going back takes you to the file you came from, with its panel open, and the call or customer reads its files again, so the note about the drive letter has gone.
The screen is the same in the ABM Service desktop app, except that there linked files are read by the PC itself rather than by the ABM server.
Anybody else who opens the screen, for example from a bookmark, sees This page is for the system administrator and Mapped drives are set up by the system administrator, and the Mapped drives entry is only in their menu. Office staff are told to ask the system administrator in the note on the file. The foot of the screen says Only the system administrator sees this page.
What is on the Mapped drives screen?
The Mapped drives screen has two parts: Drive letters, the list you edit, and Linked files, by where they are kept, which shows where your company's linked files point and whether they can be opened.
Drive letters starts with a short explanation, then a sentence naming the Windows account that needs permission to read the shared folders, such as The ABM server opens shared folders as the server computer's own account, followed by that account's name. Then: This list is shared across ABM, including the engineers' phones — a change saved here applies everywhere.
Under the columns Drive and Shared folder, each line has:
- Drive letter — a box for the letter, such as S:.
- Shared folder — a box for the folder it stands for, written
\\server\share. - Test — checks whether the folder can be read, with the answer beside the line.
- Remove — takes the line off the list when you next save.
Under the lines are Add a drive, Discard changes (only once something has changed) and Save. No drive is mapped. means the list is empty. Nothing you type changes anything until you select Save, and messages about a save appear at the top of the screen, above Drive letters.
Other things the screen may say:
- Loading the mapped drives… while it reads.
- The saved list of mapped drives could not be read, so it is not shown. Saving here replaces it. — what is stored is damaged. Enter the lines again and save; what was stored is replaced.
- Mapped drives are not available for this company. — your company's database has no place for the list.
How to add, change, remove and save a line: How to Map a Drive Letter to a Shared Folder. What Test answers: How to Test a Shared Folder on the Mapped Drives Screen.
What does "Linked files, by where they are kept" tell me?
Linked files, by where they are kept, under the drive letters on the Mapped drives screen, groups every linked file in your company's database by where it points: each shared folder and each drive letter, with how many linked files each holds and whether they can be opened. The busiest places come first; after the first hundred, a line says how many more places there are, each with fewer linked files.
Each line shows the place followed by "…", such as U:\…, the number of linked files, and one of these:
- opened directly from the network — no drive letter to map — links that name a shared folder. Nothing to do; Test checks the folder can be read.
- through S: → followed by the shared folder, with your letter in place of S: — a letter on your list. Test checks that folder.
- U: is not mapped — a letter nobody has given a shared folder. Map U: adds a line for it to the Drive letters list, with the cursor in its Shared folder box. Until you save, the line adds — set up above, not saved yet.
- on the computer each was attached from — they cannot be opened from anywhere else — links into C:, marked Cannot open, with no Map button: C: is each computer's own disk.
- through T:, which is a folder on one computer — they cannot be opened from anywhere else, with your letter in place of T: — a letter whose line on your list names a folder on one computer, such as
D:\Exports, rather than a shared folder. Marked Cannot open. - not a valid location — these cannot be opened — links on the line named Not a valid location, which are not a full path to anywhere. Marked Cannot open.
This part of the screen always describes the list as last saved, not lines you have typed and not saved yet. Select Save to see what your change does.
Every attachment is stored in ABM — none is a linked file. means your company has no linked files, and the Mapped drives screen has nothing to do.
Is this the same list as Mapped Drive Rules in ABM?
Yes. The Mapped drives screen edits the very same list as Mapped Drive Rules, under Smartphone Configuration in Control Settings in the ABM desktop application. The list is kept once, in your company's ABM database, so both screens show the same lines, and the engineers' phones use them too. That is why the screen says This list is shared across ABM. ABM Service keeps no copy of its own.
What this means for you:
- A line set up in ABM already is on the Mapped drives screen the first time you open it, and works for ABM Service straight away.
- A change saved here is what ABM shows the next time its Mapped Drive Rules screen is opened, and the reverse.
- Every line ABM holds is shown, including one this screen would not accept, such as a drive that is not a single letter. A save then refuses with a sentence naming that line, so correct it or remove it before saving.
- Lines are saved the way ABM writes them, so ABM reads them unchanged.
- Mapped drives set up in the older ABM web portal's own settings are not used. If your company set them up only there, enter them here.
If somebody saves the list in ABM, or in another tab, while you are editing it here, your save does not overwrite theirs: see How to Map a Drive Letter to a Shared Folder.
How is the Mapped drives screen different in the ABM Service desktop app?
In the ABM Service desktop app, linked files are opened by the PC itself, as the person signed in to Windows, not by the ABM server. The Mapped drives screen says so: On this PC, ABM opens linked files itself: a drive letter listed here is read through its shared folder, and any other drive letter or folder is opened as it is on this PC.
So in the desktop app:
- A letter on the list is read through its shared folder, as in a browser.
- A letter not on the list is opened through that PC's own mapping, if the PC has one.
- A folder on one computer, C: included, is opened if it is on that PC.
On the screen itself, Test is answered by This PC, reading as you, and the sentence about permission says This PC opens shared folders as you, followed by your Windows account. Under Linked files, by where they are kept, a letter or folder the PC opens itself reads opened from U: on this PC, marked This PC.
The list itself is the same company-wide list in both. But a file that opens in your desktop app may still not open for people using a browser, so to see what they get, open the Mapped drives screen in a browser.