I-Soft File Manager: Foundation

I-Soft File Manager: Foundation is a modular download manager built for modern WordPress, designed for organizations with many documents, a structured category tree, and editorial teams that need per-department write permissions.

Key features

• Category-as-folder storage. Every isoft_fmf_category term maps 1:1 to a physical folder under wp-content/uploads/isoft-fmf-files/. Folder names mirror the category slug chain (skupstina-opstine/saziv-2025-2029/iv-sednica/). Rename a category slug and the folder renames on disk plus every affected file path updates in the database.
• Drag-and-drop upload. Multi-file dropzone inside the download edit screen, with per-file progress bars. Files land directly in the target category folder.
• “From Folder” browser. Files dropped into a category folder via SFTP, rclone, or any other external tool show up as untracked candidates in the admin. One click links them to a download.
• Per-user category ACL. Assign each editor a set of allowed categories. They inherit access to the whole subtree. Admins are unrestricted. Non-allowed categories are hidden from their admin list, edit screens, and category picker.
• Unpublished visibility control. Draft and private downloads are invisible to users whose allowed-category set doesn’t cover them — even to logged-in editors from other departments.
• Secure download handler. Files live under an .htaccess-protected directory. All downloads route through a PHP handler with nonce verification, access-role checks, rate limiting, hotlink protection, and X-Sendfile / X-Accel-Redirect support.
• Audit logging. Optional per-download log with timestamp, file, user, IP (detailed logging), user agent, and referer. Configurable retention.
• Gutenberg blocks. Download List (with layout, filter, search, and subcategory toggle), Download Entry (embed a single download card), and Category Grid.
• Classic editor shortcodes. [isoft_fmf_list], [isoft_fmf_download id="123"], [isoft_fmf_categories], [isoft_fmf_search].
• Cyrillic filename and slug handling. Automatic Serbian Cyrillic → Latin transliteration for category slugs, post slugs, and uploaded filenames (configurable extension allow-list, double-extension strip, 80-char cap).
• License management. Assign licenses per download, with optional “require agreement before download” modal.
• PDF thumbnails. Auto-generate post thumbnails from the first page of a PDF (requires the Imagick PHP extension).
• REST API. Every taxonomy and the CPT are exposed to wp/v2 with custom endpoints for listing and searching.
• Statistics dashboard. Per-file and per-download counts, with a nightly HOT recalculation of the top downloads.

Architecture

I-Soft File Manager: Foundation stores files outside the Media Library in a predictable per-category folder tree. This is the key difference from most download managers: the filesystem is the source of truth for what’s stored where. Moving a download to a different category auto-moves its files on disk; deleting a category blocks if any downloads still reference it.

This design exists so automation tools can sync files in and out without having to understand WordPress internals. Rclone mirroring a cloud folder, an SFTP drop from a government mainframe, or a scheduled scan — all just write to isoft-fmf-files/<slug-path>/ and the plugin picks them up.

Extensions (coming soon)

• I-Soft File Manager: Sentinel — server-side automation. Monitors category folders for new files, creates draft download entries, and supports rclone mirroring, SFTP bulk upload, and WP-cron folder scans.
• I-Soft File Manager: Orbit — Google Shared Drive sync. Departments drop files into shared folders; Orbit imports them as drafts for review.
• I-Soft File Manager: Nomad — one-shot importer from jDownloads. Reads the legacy tables directly and rebuilds categories, downloads, files, and counters in Foundation’s data model, preserving the slug tree so URLs and category folder names stay stable.

Shortcodes

Foundation ships eight shortcodes. Drop them in any classic-editor page, any Gutenberg “Shortcode” block, or any builder’s HTML / Shortcode widget (see the builder-compatibility FAQ below). Every category and tag attribute accepts either the term slug (preferred — stable across exports) or its numeric term ID. Slugs are visible on the Downloads → Categories screen and as the chip next to the category name on the download edit screen.

[isoft_fmf_list] — filtered list of downloads

Renders a grid, list, or table of downloads. Same renderer as the Download List block.

Attribute Default What

category empty slug or term ID; empty = all categories

include_subcategories "1" also include downloads in descendant categories; "0" restricts to the exact category

tag empty slug or term ID

limit per-page setting how many to render

orderby "date" date / title / download_count / any WP_Query orderby

order "DESC" ASC / DESC

layout display setting grid / list / table

show_search "0" render a search box scoped to the same category

Common recipes:

[isoft_fmf_download id=”123″] — a single download card

Renders one download’s full card by post ID.

Attribute Default What

id required the download post ID

show_description "1" include the description below the title

show_files "1" render the per-file list with download buttons

style "card" card / compact / button-only

[isoft_fmf_categories] — category grid

Clickable cards leading to each category’s archive page. Same renderer as the Category Grid block.

Attribute Default What

parent 0 term ID of the parent category to show children of; 0 shows top-level

columns 3 grid columns

show_count "1" show the count of downloads per category

show_description "1" show the category description text

[isoft_fmf_search] — search box

Renders a search form that filters Foundation downloads.

Attribute Default What

category empty scope the search to a single category (slug or term ID)

placeholder “Search downloads…” the input placeholder text

[isoft_fmf_recent] — latest downloads

Pre-set list, newest first.

Attribute Default What

limit 5 how many to render

days 0 restrict to downloads posted in the last N days; 0 = no time limit

category empty scope to a single category

[isoft_fmf_popular] — most-downloaded

Pre-set list, ordered by download count.

Attribute Default What

limit 5 how many to render

period "all" all / 30d / 7d

category empty scope to a single category

[isoft_fmf_button file_id=”42″] — a single download button

Renders just a download button for one specific file (not the whole download post). Useful inline in body content.

Attribute Default What

file_id required the file ID (visible in the per-file list on the download edit screen)

text “Download” button label

class empty extra CSS classes appended to the button

[isoft_fmf_count] — download counter

Renders just a number — either a single file’s count or a whole download post’s total.

Attribute Default What

id 0 download post ID (uses the post’s aggregate counter)

file_id 0 specific file ID (uses that file’s counter)

format "%s" sprintf format string for the number, e.g. "%s downloads"

Exactly one of id or file_id should be set.

Customizing appearance

I-Soft File Manager: Foundation exposes its styling via CSS custom properties on :root so you can recolor cards from Appearance → Customize → Additional CSS without writing any selectors.

Example — recolor the PDF icon to match your theme blue and soften card borders:

Available CSS variables

• --isoft-fmf-card-bg — Card background
• --isoft-fmf-card-border — Card and grid borders
• --isoft-fmf-row-border — Per-file row separator
• --isoft-fmf-title-band-bg — Grid-mode title band background
• --isoft-fmf-meta-color — Date / size / count text
• --isoft-fmf-empty-color — “No files available” text
• --isoft-fmf-badge-hot-bg — HOT badge background
• --isoft-fmf-badge-hot-color — HOT badge text
• --isoft-fmf-icon-color — File-type icon/badge text
• --isoft-fmf-icon-pdf-bg — PDF file color
• --isoft-fmf-icon-doc-bg — DOC / DOCX color
• --isoft-fmf-icon-xls-bg — XLS / XLSX color
• --isoft-fmf-icon-ppt-bg — PPT / PPTX color
• --isoft-fmf-icon-zip-bg — Archive (ZIP / RAR / 7Z) color
• --isoft-fmf-icon-img-bg — Image color
• --isoft-fmf-icon-vid-bg — Video color
• --isoft-fmf-icon-aud-bg — Audio color
• --isoft-fmf-icon-file-bg — Generic / unknown file color

Targeting individual classes

For deeper changes (layout, spacing, typography), all public classes use the .isoft-fmf- prefix with BEM naming. Key entry points:

• .isoft-fmf-download-card — Outer wrapper around one download
• .isoft-fmf-download-card__title — Multi-file card heading
• .isoft-fmf-file-item — Per-file row
• .isoft-fmf-file-item__icon — Large file-type tile (list mode only)
• .isoft-fmf-file-item__title — File or download title link
• .isoft-fmf-file-item__meta — Date / size / count meta block
• .isoft-fmf-file-item__action — Action column (button or status label)
• .isoft-fmf-download-btn — The action button (intentionally not theme-locked via CSS variables; targets WP wp-element-button so theme styling stays in control)
• .isoft-fmf-meta--type — Inline file-type badge (grid mode only)
• .isoft-fmf-badge--hot — HOT marker
• .isoft-fmf-grid — Grid wrapper (use .isoft-fmf-grid--cols-3 etc. for per-column-count overrides)
• .isoft-fmf-list-wrap — List wrapper
• .isoft-fmf-category-grid — Category grid wrapper

Source code

Full source — including the un-minified React/JSX for the three Gutenberg blocks — is hosted publicly at:

https://github.com/I-SOFT-Mionica/isoft-fm-foundation

The compiled block bundles shipped under blocks/build/ are produced from blocks/<block-name>/{index,edit}.js via @wordpress/scripts (webpack). To rebuild from a clean checkout:

The build script reads webpack.config.js, compiles each block’s index.js entry, and writes blocks/build/<block-name>.js plus an <block-name>.asset.php dependency manifest. Running npm run start instead watches the sources and rebuilds on save during development.