---
url: /technical/file-manager.md
description: >-
  The File Manager browses the instance filesystem - the shared directory where
  CSVs awaiting load, images used in Cards, exported files and Packages all
  live.
---

# File Manager

The **File Manager** browses the instance filesystem: the directory on the server that MODLR uses for files rather than data. It's reached from **File Manager** in the Gateway's primary menu, or from a model's own page.

Everything that isn't a Cube value tends to pass through here - source CSVs waiting to be loaded, images displayed in Cards, files written out by an export Process, and [Packages](/technical/packages) created for deployment.

![The File Manager, annotated to show the breadcrumb of the current path, the directory listing, the file actions and the Upload File control](/file-manager.png)

The breadcrumb shows the directory you're currently in, and **Home**, the up arrow and the refresh control move around it. **Add Folder** creates a subdirectory, and selecting a file exposes **Download** and **Delete**.

## What lives here

| Content | How it gets there |
| :--- | :--- |
| Source data files | Uploaded by hand, or delivered by [FTP](/technical/ftp) or a Process |
| Images used in Cards | Uploaded here, then referenced by path from the [Image component](/card-guides/image) |
| Files written by a Process | Created by the `datasource.*` file functions during a run |
| Packages | Written to the model's root directory when a [Package](/technical/packages) is created |

## Uploading a file

Open the File Manager, click **Upload File**, then **Choose File**, select the file and confirm. The file lands in whichever directory you're currently browsing, so navigate to the destination folder first.

Uploaded files are addressed by their path relative to the home directory. An image uploaded into an `images` folder is referenced from a Card's Image component as `images/your-image-here.png`, not as a full URL.

Manual upload isn't only a setup step. Where data has no automated feed behind it, uploading by hand is a perfectly normal way to keep it current - a user updates the file and uploads the new version to the same directory, and a Process pointed at that path reads whatever is there on its next run. Anything uploaded this way lives in the same filesystem as everything else, so it's equally reachable over [FTP](/technical/ftp) and from a Process.

## Reaching the same files elsewhere

The File Manager is one of three ways into the same filesystem, and which you use depends on whether a person or a system is doing the work:

* **The File Manager** - browsing, manual uploads and updates, and checking what a Process actually produced.
* **[FTP](/technical/ftp)** - scheduled or automated delivery from another system. Each instance ships with a **MODLR Filesystem** datasource pointing at the `filesystem` folder, which is the FTP server's default directory - so a CSV dropped by FTP is immediately readable by a Process. Note that FTP ports are closed by default and must be opened by support.
* **Process functions** - reading and writing files during a run, via [`datasource.files`](/process-functions/datasource-files), [`datasource.readFile`](/process-functions/datasource-readFile), [`datasource.csvRead`](/process-functions/datasource-csvread), [`datasource.directoryCreate`](/process-functions/datasource-directorycreate) and the rest of the [Datasource Functions](/process-functions/datasource-functions).

::: tip Loading a file once it's uploaded
Uploading a file doesn't load it. See [Loading a Flat File](/technical/flat-file-load) for reading a CSV into Dimensions and Cubes, and [Reading Excel Files](/technical/reading-excel-files) for `.xlsx` sources.
:::

## Related

* [Accessing Files via FTP](/technical/ftp) - automated file delivery into the same filesystem
* [Datasource Functions](/process-functions/datasource-functions) - reading and writing files from a Process
* [Packages](/technical/packages) - the export format written to the model's root directory
* [Navigation within MODLR](/technical/navigation-within-modlr) - where the File Manager sits in the Gateway