📖 R-Scope User Guide (Standalone)

1. Overview

R-Scope is a browser-based file manager for your web server. It runs as a single PHP application — no Apache .htpasswd required — with non-destructive layer annotations on photos, PDFs, text, and video/audio via .rnote sidecar files.

This guide covers the standalone deployment (e.g. https://lab.rnote.jp/root-proxy.php), where R-Scope manages files from your site's document root.

2. Standalone deployment (root-proxy)

On lab.rnote.jp and similar setups, open:

https://lab.rnote.jp/root-proxy.php

How it works

First-time setup

1. Open root-proxy.php (or R-Scope.php).
2. Click 🔑 Password and set the shared access password.
3. Select a folder → 🔒 Protect to require login for that folder and its contents.

3. Interface

Three panes: left folder tree · center file list · right preview. Use ➕ Views for up to three side-by-side scopes.

Toolbar

Each scope header shows a breadcrumb of the current folder. Selecting a folder shows a meta strip (item count, size, dates). .rnote sidecar rows appear linked to their base file.

Context menu (right-click)

ZIP compress/extract, rename, permissions, delete, protect/unprotect, and more.

ShotMemo (named scenes)

Save the current left tree + center folder + right preview under a name, then click Go later to restore that checkpoint. Stored in config/scopes.json (scenes array).

Text editing

Open .txt .md .php .html etc. in the built-in editor.

• 💾 Save — writes file (creates .bak backup first)
• ↩ Undo / ↪ Redo — or Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y

4. Copying files (drag & drop)

Drag from Windows Explorer or Outlook onto the center pane or preview area.

1. Select the destination folder in the left tree.
2. Drop files or folders onto the highlighted blue area.
3. Folder structure is preserved when dropping a whole folder.

5. Folder protection & viewing password

The standalone edition uses two separate mechanisms. The toolbar buttons look similar but do different jobs.

How the two pieces fit together

Recommended setup order

1. 🔑 Password — set the shared viewing password (required; without it, .protected does nothing)
2. Select a folder → 🔒 Protect (creates an empty .protected marker file)
3. Visitors without a session are prompted when they try to open protected paths
4. 🔓 Unprotect removes the marker when no longer needed

What protection blocks (and what it does not)

Your original files are never modified by protection — only visibility through R-Scope is restricted. Folders in the list show a leading 🔒 when protected.

6. Non-destructive layers (.rnote)

Annotations on images, PDFs, text, and video/audio are stored in a sidecar file. Example: photo.jpg → photo.jpg.rnote. The original is never modified.

Layer panel

Open the Layers drawer on the right side of each editor.

• Base — show/hide and opacity of the original
• Image overlay — stack another image on top
• Annotation layers — arrows, text, circles, dimensions, stamps, whiteout

Each layer supports visibility, opacity, order, and lock.

👁 Overlay ON/OFF

The 👁 button in the mode bar toggles overlay preview. When OFF, you see the original only — and 🖨️ Print / export uses the same setting (useful before distribution).

7. Editors

7-1. Images (jpg / png / gif / webp / bmp)

📍 Field annotations (recommended) — original unchanged. Draw on layers → 💾 saves .rnote only.

🎨 Pixel edit — resize, adjustments, crop, rotate. Modifies the image file itself (overwrite or save as).

7-2. PDF

Rendered with PDF.js. Page through the document and mark up with the same tools as images. Cover mode for whiteout. 💾 saves to drawing.pdf.rnote.

7-3. Text / Markdown

• Edit source — edit the file directly (💾 Save updates original + .bak)
• Markup — annotation layers on the rendered view (.rnote)
• Cover — whiteout regions

↩ Undo / ↪ Redo — Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y.

7-4. Video & audio (mp4 / webm / mp3, etc.)

• Preview — in-browser playback
• Trim — cut a segment (ffmpeg-wasm; first load may take a moment)
• 📝 Markup — timed text/stamps linked to playback position (.rnote). 💾 Save, then play to verify

In Markup mode, 👁 toggles mark visibility during preview.

8. Print & export (🖨️ Print)

Use 🖨️ Print in the image, PDF, and text editors to output a composite. Originals and .rnote sidecars are never modified.

Formats: PNG / JPEG / GIF / PDF (multi-page PDF supported).

Include layer annotations syncs with 👁. When OFF, export uses the original only.

9. ZIP archives

• Select a ZIP to browse contents without extracting (virtual path archive.zip/…)
• Right-click to compress folders/files or extract ZIPs

10. Typical file layout (standalone)

/public_html/                    ← document root (root-proxy scope)
├── root-proxy.php
├── R-Scope.php
├── R-Scope-manual-en.php        ← this guide
├── config/
│   ├── rscope.json              ← viewing password (hash)
│   └── scopes.json              ← ShotMemo, view restore, etc.
├── lib/                         ← R-Scope core JS/PHP
└── projects/
    ├── .protected
    ├── photo.jpg
    ├── photo.jpg.rnote          ← image annotations
    ├── drawing.pdf
    ├── drawing.pdf.rnote        ← PDF annotations
    └── meeting.mp4
        meeting.mp4.rnote        ← video markup
    

11. FAQ

Q. Where are edits saved?

Layer annotations → .rnote only.
Pixel edit / text Save → overwrites original (with .bak).
🖨️ Print → new file with a different name.

Q. Print when 👁 is OFF?

Output is the original only. Turn 👁 ON (or check Include layer annotations in the Print dialog) for a composite with layers.

Q. Forgot the viewing password?

Clear password_hash in config/rscope.json on the server, or — if you can still log in — set a new password with 🔑 Password.

Q. Does 🔒 Protect prevent deletion?

No. It hides / blocks access when not logged in. After login, delete and upload still work.

Q. root-proxy vs R-Scope.php?

Both load the same app. root-proxy.php sets the root to the entire document root. R-Scope.php uses its own directory as root.

Q. Recommended browser?

Chrome or Edge (folder drag-and-drop, canvas, PDF.js, ffmpeg-wasm).

Q. Board Room integration?

Optional portal for housing associations (NEWS + folder browser). See the Japanese Board Room guide on welv51.org.