Notifications


Files.com gives Users or Groups the ability to be notified by email any time uploads are made to a specific folder on your site.

Upload notifications are sent in batches, with email frequency options of every five minutes, every fifteen minutes, hourly, or daily.

Upload notification emails will include a list of the files uploaded within the configured notification period, limited to the first 100. If you require a more comprehensive or fine-grained notification solution, consider using our Webhooks instead, perhaps in conjunction with our Zapier integration.

Setting Up Email Notifications

You can configure email notifications for any folder that you have access to within the site.

Web UI - If you have admin access

  1. Navigate into the folder you wish to add a notification for.
  2. Click the Folder settings button.
  3. Expand the Email notifications section.
  4. Click the Add new notification button.
  5. Fill out the form and click Create Notification

Web UI - If you do not have admin access

  1. Navigate into the folder you wish to add a notification for.
  2. Click the Email notifications button
  3. Fill out the form and click Create Notification

API

The Notifications API will allow you to create, update, or delete notifications.

CLI

Use the following command to create an email notification using the CLI application (replace <FOLDER> with the folder path and <USERNAME> with your own username):

files-cli notifications create <FOLDER> --username <USERNAME>

Notification Options

Every email notification must have three settings associated with it:

  • The user or group who will receive the emails
  • The path that is being monitored for activity
  • The frequency those mails will be sent

In addition, there are several options you can enable. Within the web interface, look for an "Advanced" link to display the fields for these options.

  • Include my own activity / Include each user's own activity - The label for this field will change, depending on whether you are editing a notification for yourself or for another user or group. When this option is checked, then the user's activity will generate email notifications. Because this can be a very noisy option, by default it is left unchecked.
  • Include subfolders - If this option is checked, making changes in subfolders of this folder will also trigger notifications.
  • What file actions trigger this notification - The checkboxes here indicate the types of activity that will cause an email to be sent. By default, only uploading files will cause an email notification.
  • What files trigger this notification - With this option, you can specify filenames or wildcards, (such as *.csv) to limit when an email notification is sent. If you do not add any filename patterns, then any file can trigger the email notification.
  • Include activity from share bundle recipients - Check this box you would like actions performed via share links and inboxes to generate email notifications.
  • Custom message - Any message entered in this setting will be included in every notification email.

Note that file activity on Remote Server Mount will not be included in the notifications. Files.com does not poll remote servers used in our Remote Server Mount feature for the purpose of firing Realtime and File Action-based triggers or notifications. Please consider our Remote Server Sync capability for realtime interoperability between Automations and Remote Servers.

Choosing Daily Notification Time

If a user has any notifications that are sent once per day, the "Daily email notification send time" user setting can select the hour when daily notifications will be sent.

Updating your Daily email notification send time with the Web UI

  1. Click on your username in the upper-right corner of the screen.
  2. Select "My account" from the dropdown menu.
  3. Locate the Daily email notification send time setting below the list of your notifications
  4. Use the dropdown to choose the hour to send daily notifications.

Updating a user's Daily email notification send time with the Web UI

Edit the selected user and scroll to the the Daily email notification send time setting. If the user does not have at least one notification delivered "Daily", the setting will not be displayed.

Use the dropdown to choose the hour to send daily notifications and click the Save button.

API

Use the Users API to show and change the settings for a user. The daily email notification send time is stored in the notification_daily_send_time property.

CLI

The Files.com command-line interface gives you access to the API without requiring a development environment.

Use this command to retrieve the setting for a user id. Replace <USERID> with the ID number of the user.

files-cli users find --id <USERID> --fields notification_daily_send_time

Use this command to retrieve the setting for a user id. Replace <USERID> with the ID number of the user. Replace <HOUR> with the hour of the day, from 0 to 23, when notifications should be sent (in the user's timezone).

files-cli users update --id <USERID> --notification-daily-send-time <HOUR>

Adding Notifications for Other Users

Users with Admin access to the site or to a folder can configure notifications for other users.

Web UI

  1. Navigate into the folder you wish to add a notification for.
  2. Click the Folder settings button
  3. Locate the Email notifications section of the folder settings panel
  4. Click the Add new notification button
  5. Fill out the form and click Create Notification

API

The Notifications API will allow you to create, update, or delete notifications.

CLI

Use the following command to create an email notification using the CLI application (replace <FOLDER> with the folder path and <USERNAME> with the username of the person who will receive notifications):

files-cli notifications create <FOLDER> --username <USERNAME>

FIles.com allows administrators to create email notifications for users and groups who do not have access to the source folder. As a result, when a user who has access to a folder creates a notification and then later loses access to that folder, the email notification will not be removed automatically.

Administrators can always view the list of all notifications that have been configured for a folder and make changes to remove unwanted entries.

Deleting Notifications

Web UI

  1. Navigate into the folder you wish to disable a notification for.
  2. Click the Folder settings button
  3. Locate the Email notifications section of the folder settings panel
  4. Cilck the Delete button that appears on the Actions column for the desired username.
  5. Confirm the deletion.

Email Preferences Page

Each notification email includes a link at the bottom to "Update your mail preferences or unsubscribe from these e-mails". Clicking this link takes you to a page that lists all of your currently activity notifications. You can disable individual emails or use the Permanent Removal Option to opt out of all future emails for all notifications.

API

The Notifications API will allow you to create, update, or delete notifications.

CLI

Use the following command to create an email notification using the CLI application. Replace <NOTIFICATION ID> with the unique ID for your notification (you may need to use the files-cli notifications list command to find the notification ID):

files-cli notifications delete --id <NOTIFICATION ID>

Permanently Opting Out of Email Notifications

Each notification email includes a link at the bottom to "Update your mail preferences or unsubscribe from these e-mails". Clicking this link takes you to a page that lists all of your currently activity notifications. You can disable individual emails or use the Permanent Removal Option to opt out of all future emails for all notifications.

Clicking the Don't email me anything, ever again button is a permanent step, and cannot be undone, even by our support staff.

Notifications for Deleted Users

When a user account is deleted, any email notifications associated with that user are automatically removed.

What To Do If Notifications Aren't Being Received

First, verify that the user hasn't unsubscribed or had mail bounce.

Edit the user's settings and scroll down to the Email notifications (or as a non-administrator you can view your own user at My account > Email notifications).

The Status column indicates whether the user is receiving notifications. If they had unsubscribed, the status would indicate "Unsubscribed".

Also, ensure that the User has an E-Mail address set. Some users have an email address as their username yet leave the email field blank, which means Files.com doesn't have an address to send notifications to. If this happens copy the proper address into the email field for the user.

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