I-Soft File Manager: Foundation

I-Soft File Manager: Foundation is a modular download manager built for modern WordPress.

Unlike standard media plugins that dump every upload into a single dated folder, Foundation is designed for municipalities, universities, libraries, and any team that needs to manage thousands of public documents, maintain a strict category tree, and give different departments their own secure upload spaces.

What’s new in 0.14.0

A security update, recommended for every site. Editors who are limited to certain categories can now only change, reorder or import files inside the downloads and folders they are allowed to work in. Script and server-configuration files are refused on every upload, whatever the allowed-file-types setting says.

The download storage folder is closed on Apache, LiteSpeed and IIS automatically, and Tools > Site Health now checks it is closed on nginx and other servers too, showing the one line to add if it is not.

Also new:

• Pending categories. A category can be held back from the public until someone approves it; its downloads stay hidden in the meantime.

• Hold a file without deleting it. A file can be marked unavailable: it stays listed with a short message you choose (default “Temporarily unavailable”) instead of a download button.

• Ready for add-ons and headless sites. One clear rule for what counts as public, one change signal for page caches and static builds, image sizes in the public data API, and a documented set of functions add-ons can rely on.

0 in the changelog).

Key features

• True folder organization. Every category you create maps 1:1 to a real folder on disk under wp-content/uploads/isoft-fmf-files/. Rename a category and the folder renames itself; every file path in the database updates instantly.

• Department-level access control. Restrict editors to specific categories so HR uploads only land in the HR folder, IT uploads only in the IT folder, and so on. Restricted users cannot see drafts from other departments either.

• External file sync and “From Folder” browser. Because categories are real folders, drop files into them via SFTP, rclone, or any external sync tool. The From Folder browser detects untracked files instantly so you can link them to a download with one click.

• One-click multi-file downloads. Upload multiple files to a single entry via drag-and-drop. Visitors can grab individual files or everything at once as an automatically generated ZIP bundle.

• Built-in analytics and audit log. Statistics dashboard tracks per-file and aggregate counts, recalculates HOT badges nightly, and the optional audit log records timestamps, IP addresses, and user agents with configurable retention.

• Secure download handler. Files live behind an.htaccess -protected directory; every download routes through PHP with nonce verification, role checks, rate limiting, and hotlink protection. X-Sendfile and X-Accel-Redirect supported for high-traffic hosts.

• Cyrillic transliteration. Uploaded filenames and category slugs are automatically transliterated from Serbian Cyrillic to Latin for safe disk storage; display titles keep their original characters.

• Native builder support. Gutenberg blocks ship out of the box. Eight shortcodes work in Elementor, WPBakery, Divi, Beaver Builder, and Bricks — see the full shortcode reference below.

• Themeable via CSS variables. Recolor every card, badge, and icon from Appearance → Customize → Additional CSS without writing complex selectors — see customizing appearance below.

Architecture in one line

The filesystem is the source of truth. Moving a download to a different category auto-moves its files on disk; deleting a category is blocked if any download still references it. This is what lets external automation tools sync files in and out without having to understand WordPress internals.

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 scheduled 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. Rebuilds your categories, downloads, files, and counters in Foundation, preserving slug paths so existing URLs keep working.

• I-Soft File Manager: Arbiter — extended licensing and enforcement. Per-license acceptance gates (read-and-confirm checkbox, scroll-through, read timer), signed download receipts that bundle a verifiable rider PDF with the file, and custom rider templates with your institution’s branding — logos, fonts, colors, per-department layouts.

Shortcodes

Foundation ships eight shortcodes. Drop them in any classic-editor page, any Gutenberg “Shortcode” block, or any builder’s HTML / Shortcode widget. 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_list category="resolutions"] [isoft_fmf_list category="resolutions" layout="grid" limit="12"] [isoft_fmf_list category="resolutions" orderby="download_count"] [isoft_fmf_list category="resolutions" show_search="1"]

[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"

g. "%s downloads"

Exactly one of id or file_id should be set.

Builder widget reference

The shortcodes above drop into every major builder’s HTML or Shortcode widget. Where to paste:

Builder

Widget

Elementor

Widgets panel → Shortcode

WPBakery

Add element → Text Block (source view) or Raw HTML

Divi

Module → Code

Beaver Builder

Basic Modules → HTML

Bricks

Basic Elements → Shortcode

Native, point-and-click widgets for each builder (with full attribute panels instead of writing shortcode strings) are planned as separate companion plugins.

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:

:root { --isoft-fmf-icon-pdf-bg: #1a73e8; --isoft-fmf-card-border: #ddd; }

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

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--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:

com/I-SOFT-Mionica/isoft-fm-foundation

js via @wordpress/scripts (webpack). To rebuild from a clean checkout:

npm install npm run build

php dependency manifest. Running npm run start instead watches the sources and rebuilds on save during development.