Share Links
Files.com allows you to easily share files and folders with third parties via publicly accessible Share Links. Administrators maintain full control over which users have access to sharing features, as well as how long Share Links will last before expiring.
The Files.com Share Link provides a virtual read-only, dynamic access point to select files and folders stored on your site.
While other share systems are usually static snapshots of files at the point of the share creation, Files.com Share Links remain dynamic. If you make changes to a file, this change is automatically reflected in all Share Links that include that file. If you add a file to a folder being shared, the new file is automatically added. This makes the Files.com share a much more powerful tool, and an effective alternative to sending files via email.
Administrators have powerful controls over all Share Links in their account.
Want to limit the amount of time that a Share Link is publicly available? No problem - the lifetime of each Share Link is completely customizable via the expiration option. Some users set this to the minimum of 1 day, while others opt for ultra long-term share access.
Want to allow users to assign a friendly name to a shared link rather than a unique system generated ID? You can allow this by enabling the setting Allow Share Links to use custom URLs. Doing so will allow users to replace the auto-assigned ID with a friendly name, however note that such friendly name can also pose a security risk, such names can potentially be guessed in a similar way as commonly used passwords.
Would you like only select users to be able to share files on selected folders? You can do that as well! Share Link permission is assigned at the folder level so only those you explicitly grant this access to will be able to create Share Links.
Want to see a list of every Share Link being served by your site? Head over to Sharing and you will have full transparency. Curious if a Share Link has been downloaded? Go to Sharing and select your Share link to view the Access Logs.
There are so many uses for Files.com Share Links. Let’s explore how to create and manage Share Links with those outside your account.
There are three ways to start a new Share Link. You can use the method that is most convenient depending on your needs.
- Option 1: Navigate to Files or Sharing, and click the New Share button.
- Option 2: Check the checkbox for one or more files/folders, and click the Add to Share button.
- Option 3: Hover your cursor over a file or folder and click the Add to Share (chain link icon) button.
Once you have started a new Share Link, it is easy to add files and folders to it. A Share Link can contain as many files and folders as you wish.
As with starting the new Share Link, there are multiple ways to add files and folders to it.
- Option 1: Click the checkbox for one or more files/folders and click the Add to Share button.
- Option 2: Drag and drop a file or folder from the folder list onto the share drawer.
- Option 3: Hover your cursor over a file or folder and click the Add to Share (chain link icon) button.
- Option 4: Click on New Share button, you can drag and drop a file or folder to share drawer.
Users can expand and collapse the share drawer by clicking the handle at the top left of the drawer.
You can choose what visitors to your Share Link can do, such as only allowing previews but not downloads, or providing full access (including deletes). Choose the desired icon, and the text below will explain what link visitors can do with the contents of your share link. You can select between the following options:
- Visitors can preview items in your share link, but cannot download.
- Visitors can download items in your share link.
- Visitors can upload to folders in your share link.
- Visitors can upload or download items in your share link.
- Visitors have full access, and can upload, download, modify or delete items in your share link.
You can only assign allowed actions that are permitted by your own privileges. For example, if you have download access but not upload access, you cannot create a share link that allows visitors to upload.
The next step to create your Share Link is to generate the URL and copy it to your clipboard for distribution. Simply click the Generate Share Link button and the new Share Link URL will be displayed.
Additionally, each Share Link can be individually customized with the following options, which are accessible by clicking the Settings button in the Share Links page.
- URL Key This is the last part of the URL that will be assigned to your share. By default, this is assigned a random set of letters and digits to make your URL less likely to be guessed. You can replace this autogenerated text with your own text to make a more readable link. A custom URL Key can only contain letters and digits (no spaces or special characters). This setting will not appear if the site-wide share link setting "Allow Share Links to use custom URLs" is disabled.
- Public Description This is a publicly visible description that will be displayed on the download page.
- Add an internal note Sites often have numerous Share Links created by different users and active at any given time. This internal note assists to quickly identify Share Links while viewing and managing all Share Links.
- Allowed Actions This determines what operations visitors to your share link can perform. There are five options available: Previews only, Downloads, Uploads, Uploads and Downloads, and Full access including delete.
- Expiration This option allows you to customize when the Share Link will expire. By default, Share Links will expire based on the global setting found at Sharing > Settings > Share Link expiration.
- Maximum Uses Sets the maximum number of times the Share Link can be accessed.
- Access Control This setting allows you to choose how anyone can access the Share Link. By default, the Share Link can be accessed by anybody by just clicking the link unless other security settings are applied (for example, Require registration or Password protection which are explained below). You can prevent leakage of public Share Link by Emailing the Share Link and selecting the option "Only allow access from emails generated from Files.com".
With this option enabled, a session is created and saved in the web browser's local storage when a recipient clicks on an emailed share link, which is tied to that specific web browser and the email address that received the link. This is possible because share link URLs that are emailed from Files.com will contain a unique code associating that link with the email address being invited. If the link is later visited in a different browser (either on the same computer or another computer), the share link will display an error that the invitation has already been used. Each time the system detects share link reuse when access control is enabled, it will automatically generate a new email with a new link and re-send it to the original recipient. A recipient who receives an emailed link sent from Files.com can use the same link repeatedly from the same browser without invalidating the link.
Removing Access To A Share Link
If you change your Access control setting from "Allow access from anybody with the share URL" to "Only allow access from emails generated from Files.com" this will affect new visitors who follow the link without receiving an email invitation. Anyone who visited the link before access control is enabled will still have access to the share link.
To completely reset all access to a Share Link, you need to revoke the share link and create it again with the same Url key (if the site-wide share link setting "Allow Share Links to use custom URLs" is enabled). To keep previous visitors out, you can either:
- Add a password to the new Share Link (and not provide it to the people who should not have access) OR
- Enable access control on the new link and send email invitations to the people who should have access to the link.
- Separate submissions into subfolders - This setting is only available when the Allowed Actions setting is set to allow only uploads from share link visitors.
If enabled, each submission to this Share Link will be uploaded into a subfolder within the Share Link folder (as opposed to being uploaded directly into the Share Link folder). Disabling this may result in security risks.
If registration is required, subfolders will be named according to the registration details provided by the uploader. Otherwise, subfolders will be given a generic, numbered "Submission" name (Submission 1, Submission 2, etc.). - Password protection To ensure that the contents of your Share Link don't fall into the wrong hands, you may optionally choose to secure your Share Link with a password. Password-protected shares will require those visiting your Share Link to enter the correct password in order to view and download the contents of the share.
- Require registration With this setting, users will be required to provide their contact information before being granted access to the Share Link. This will allow to track who accessed your Share Link. You can view all the Registrations from the Registrations tab.
- Custom Form You can add a custom form to the Share Link so that users will be required to complete the form before being granted access to the Share Link.
- Clickwrap You can add a clickwrap to the Share Link so that users will be required to agree to the clickwrap terms before being granted access to the Share Link.
- Associated inbox If set, the Share Link will additionally allow users to upload files to your site. Use this if you want the user to take action on your shared files and send them back to you.
- Watermark previews This option allows you to add a watermark to any preview generated in this Share Link.
That's it! Your Share Link has been created and customized and is ready for distribution. You can copy the Share Link to your clipboard by clicking it.
Anyone visiting the Share Link URL in a web browser will be able to interact with the Share Link. If the allowed access includes downloading, the visitor will have the option of downloading select files individually by clicking on a filename, or they can download everything contained in the Share Link using the Download all button.
The Allowed Actions setting for a share link controls what visitors to the share link can do. There are five options available: Previews only, Downloads, Uploads, Uploads and Downloads, and Full access including delete.
- Previews only When someone visits the link for a share that is set for Previews only, they will only be allowed to preview files. File downloads will not be available. However, this setting can not prevent recipients from saving screenshots or printing the material available in a preview including obtaining the previewed material as a PDF or downloading the files by making direct API calls to the actual storage.
- Downloads The default allowed access for a share is Downloads. Anyone visiting the Share Link URL in a web browser will be presented with a page displaying the contents of the Share Link. The visitor will have the option of downloading select files individually by clicking on a filename, or they can download everything contained in the Share Link using the Download all button.
- Uploads A share link that allows only Uploads will function very similarly to an Inbox. The visitor can upload items but cannot view any of the files that have been uploaded. In order to allow uploads, you must include at least one folder path in your share link, and you cannot include any file paths.
- Uploads and downloads. A share link that allows Uploads and downloads will look very similar to the file manager, and users can click to navigate through the shared items, or upload their own items with buttons for "Upload files" and "Upload folder". To allow uploads and downloads, you must include at least one folder path in your share link.
- Full access When a visitor follows the link for a Full access share, they will see a file listing similar to what is displayed in the file manager area. Selecting checkboxes next to individual files or folders displays buttons for move, copy, and delete. In addition, the actions button (labeled ...) allows the users to move, copy, rename, and delete. To allow full access, you must include at least one folder path in your share link.
You cannot set the Allowed actions of a share link to do things that you cannot do in the File Manager. For instance, if you do not have Full permissions to a folder path, you cannot share things from that path with Full Access.
When you have set your Share Link to allow uploads (or uploads and downloads, or full access), you may wish to provide a receipt of the uploaded files to the web visitor who uploads to the Share Link. You can do this by turning the Send receipt emails to uploaders setting on for a Share Link (if the site administrator has not disabled receipts). This allows you to "close the loop" with submitters, as they receive written confirmation of exactly what files were uploaded. The email will also include any information entered by the web visitor in the registration form.
Site administrators can set the "Send receipt emails to uploaders" setting to one of three values, which will impact what options are available to users who create Share Links.
- When the option is set to Never send receipt emails by a site administrator, users cannot enable the option on individual Share Links. Emails will never be sent to web visitors who upload to a Share Link.
- When a site administrator chooses Always send receipt emails, the option is enabled on all Share Links. Each time a web visitor uploads files to the Share Link, an email is sent to that person, listing the uploaded files. If the web visitor's email address wasn't captured, emails won't be sent.
- When a site administrator chooses Can be set per share link, users can enable or disable the setting on each Share Link.
After generating a Share Link, you may send the URL to your recipients via email generated through Files.com. While it's possible to send your share link to several addresses, you can only generate invitations for up to 10 different email addresses at once. Files.com does not provide mass-mailing capability for share links.
Web UI
- Locate your share link in the table displayed at Sharing > Share Links > Manage Share Links and click on the URL Key or the Edit button.
- On the Share via email tab, fill out the form with your recipient's information. To email multiple people, click the Add another one button to display another form for each addressee. You can email up to 10 addresses at once in this way.
- If desired, add a custom message to be included with your email.
- Click the Send email button
CLI
You will need to locate the bundle ID in order to use the CLI to send an email invitation for a Share Link. You can generate a list of your active share links with this snippet
files-cli bundles list --fields="code,id,description"Once you have the necessary ID, use this snippet to send share invitation emails. Replace ID with the bundle ID you located, and replace ADDRESSES with a comma-separated list of email addresses for your recipient(s). You may only share with up to 10 different email addresses with a single command.
files-cli bundles share --id ID --to "ADDRESSES"To also include a custom message with your invitation, your snippet could instead look like this (replace ID with the bundle ID, replace ADDRESSES with the comma-separated list of email addresses, and replace MESSAGE with your custom message).
files-cli bundles share --id ID --to "ADDRESSES" --note "MESSAGE" Recipients of Share Links that have been shared via email will be displayed at the bottom of the Share via Email page for each individual Share Link. A table containing the details of the recipient of the Share Link email will display, containing the Company Name, Note(s), Email, and the sent date.
When access control is enabled for a share link, emailed links are automatically protected against mass distribution. When a recipient clicks on an emailed share link, a session is created and saved in the web browser's local storage, which is tied to that specific web browser and the email address that received the link. If the link is then visited in a different browser (either on the same computer or another computer), the share link will display an error that the invitation has already been used. If the system detects that this has happened, it will automatically generate a new email with a new link and re-send it to the original recipient.
What To Do If You Receive An Error Attempting To Invite Others To Your Share
Files.com includes a generous limit on the number of email invitations that can be sent for a share link each hour. In the unlikely event that you receive an error about exceeding those limits, you can try again later. If you believe you are receiving the error when you should not be, contact our support team for assistance.
Both standard users with Share Link permission and administrators have the ability to view Share Links. Standard users will see only Share Links they created, while administrators will see all Share Links within the site.
Users and administrators can view Share Links by clicking on the Sharing icon in the left pane. The resulting table displays information about each Share Link, including the URL with quick one-click copy, the user who created it, the date it was created, the Share Link access control.
When an admin user uses the web UI to delete a user who has active Share Links, they will be asked whether to delete or retain those share links. When the CLI or API is used to delete a user who has active Share Links, any existing share links will be retained.
Share Links that were created by a user who has been deleted will not display a value in the "Shared By" column of the share links liisting; since all site admins can see all Share Links generated by any users, the link is not "reassigned."
You want to add or remove files from your Share Link after the distribution? For example, let's assume you have a Share Link containing the folder Publications. After sharing, you realize that you found another file which should be included in the folder and thus the Share Link. No problem!
Once the Share Link has been generated, you can still add or remove files from the Share Link. Since Share Links are dynamic references to the files and not snapshots of the files, once you upload the missing file to the Publications folder, your share will automatically reflect the change.
You can do this by visiting "Contents" section in your Share Link. After clicking "Edit", you can pick the corresponding options to modify the contents or you can remove any existing contents in the Share Link.
A Share Link can be revoked at any time by an administrator, or by the user who created it. When a Share Link is revoked, it will immediately cease functioning, be removed from the Sharing list, and anyone visiting the Share Link URL will receive a "Share not found" message.
To revoke a Share Link, navigate to Sharing and click the Revoke button at the far right of the Share Link to be removed. You can use the internal note to quickly identify the correct link. Next, click the Revoke button.
The Revoke all button can be used to instead delete all of the Share Links visible.
Revoking a Share Link will permanently delete the Share Link, its settings, any registrations for the share link, and its Access Logs. There is no way to reactivate a revoked Share Link so this action should be considered a "last resort" option.
Rather than revoking a Share Link, consider expiring it, configuring a maximum usage that has already been met, or apply a password that will never be provided to users, using the Share Link Settings options. This way, the Share Link access logs and information are preserved after the link is no longer usable.
Share Links that have passed their expiration date are no longer functional. If you wish to restore a Share Link that has expired, and it is still listed in the web interface at Sharing > Share Links, you can use the Edit button to edit the Share Link and adjust the Expiration setting.
You can require that visitors register prior to accessing Share Links.
When creating a new Share Link, go to Sharing and click the New Share Link button. You will be taken to the Files section with a "New share" tab added on the right side of the screen. Add files or folders to the Share Link by navigating through the Files section and selecting folders/files to add or clicking and dragging folders/files to the Share Link tab. When you have added all of the items you need, click the Generate Share Link button.
When modifying an existing Share Link, go to Sharing on the left navigation column and click either the Share URL or the Edit button for the Share Link you want to edit. This will take you to the details for the selected Share Link.
Go to the Settings tab, and scroll to the Require registration section. Click the on/off toggle to the "on" position to require visitors to fill in a registration form before accessing the Share Link.
The default registration form includes fields for name, company, and email. Name and a valid email address are required.
If you want to create a custom registration form, go to Sharing > Custom Forms and click the New Form button. The Form title only displays internally to help you select the correct form when applying it to a Share Link. Hover over the Standard registration fields and click the Edit button to choose which fields to keep.
To add a new field to your custom form, click the Add Field button. Enter a Label, which displays above the field indicating what information the user should enter (e.g., "Phone", "Title", etc.). The Description displays as the help text when a visitor hovers over the question mark next to the Label. Select the Type, which can be "Short Answer" (one line of text), "Paragraph" (multiple lines of text), "Multiple Choice" (radio buttons allowing user to select one), or "Dropdown" (select list allowing user to select one). The "Multiple Choice" and "Dropdown" options give you the ability to enter the options the user can select from.
To use a custom form with a registration, go to Sharing > [select the Share Link you want to edit] and scroll to the Custom form section. Click the Edit button, select the form you want to use for this Share Link and click Save.
Inboxes can also be attached to Share Links, allowing a Share Link to provide two-way data transfer. To achieve this, create the Inbox first, then attach it to the Share Link during Share Link creation.
You can view the registrations for a Share Link by navigating to Sharing from the left pane, and clicking the share you want to see. If the share you've selected requires registrations, you'll see a Registrations tab. Click that tab to view the submitted registrations in a table.
Only registrations associated with an un-revoked share link will be included in the list of registrations. Revoking a share link removes all of the history of registrations for that share link. If you need to disable a share link but preserve the registration history, you set the expiration date for the share link rather than revoking the link.
By default, password protection of Share Links is optional. For greater security, administrators may elect to require that all new Share Links be password protected by enabling the security setting at Sharing > Settings > Password protect all Share Links.
Administrators can audit their existing shares for password protection by heading to Sharing and reviewing the SECURITY column for each Share Link.
“With great power comes great responsibility.” Share Links are extremely powerful; however, they also come with risks. Once a Share Link is created, those files are accessible to anyone with the URL until the Share Link expires or is manually revoked or limiting their usage by customizing. To help administrators manage this, Files.com lets administrators control exactly which users have the ability to create Share Links from each folder.
Access to creating Share Links is controlled at the folder level, and by default is enabled for all new folders. Administrators can adjust this setting for any user at Settings > Users > [username] > Privileges. Or for any Group of users at Settings > Groups > [groupname] > Folder Permissions. Also, access to creating the Share Link can be controlled at individual folder level by selecting the Folder from Files view and clicking on Permissions.
Site administrators can disable this setting, located under Sharing > Settings to prevent users from overriding the auto-generated link for share links. If enabled, users will be allowed to set a Share Link name, which will be used to generate a custom URL for that Share Link. Please note that a custom URL carries security risks because it has the potential to be guessed in the same way that common passwords do.
Share Link Notifications allow users of the system to be notified when a new visitor accesses a Share Link, or when a visitor uploads to a Share Link, or both. Site administrators can set options limiting what types of notifications can be created for share links.
Link Registration Notifications are emails generated for a user when a web visitor accesses a Share Link's URL for the very first time. The notification email includes any registration information collected from the visit.
Email Notifications for Uploads are emails generated for user when a web visitor uploads to a Share Link. The notification email includes a list of the files uploaded by the visitor and any registration information collected from them. This email is generated after the visitor leaves the Share Link page, 5 minutes after their upload finishes, or one hour after the page is opened (if they did not upload), whichever comes first.
Site administrators can set the "Link Registration Notifications" setting to one of three values, which will impact what options are available to users who create Share Links.
- When the Link Registration Notifications is set to Never send notifications by a site administrator, users will not be able to create Share Link Notifications for registrations. Emails will never be generated when a new visitor accesses a Share Link.
- When a site administrator chooses Always send notifications, users can add notifications for any user to receive an email when a Share Link is visited by a web visitor for the first time. Notifications are automatically added for the user who created the Share Link. When a new web visitor goes to the Share Link view page, an email is generated for each user who has a notification set for that Share Link.
- When a site administrator chooses Can be set per share link, users can add notifications for any user to receive an email when a Share Link is visited by a web visitor for the first time. Notifications are not automatically created for the user who created the Share Link. When a new web visitor goes to the Share Link view page, an email is generated for each user who has a notification set for that Share Link.
Site administrators can set the "Email Notifications for Uploads" setting to one of three values, which determines what Share Link Notifications options are available on each Share Link. These notifications are only supported for Share Links that allow web visitors to upload.
- When the Email Notifications for Uploads is set to Never send notifications by a site administrator, users will not be able to create Share Link Notifications for uploads. Emails will never be generated a Share Link visitor uploads files.
- When a site administrator chooses Always send notifications, users can add notifications for any user to receive an email when a web visitor uploads to a Share Link. Notifications are automatically added for the user who created the Share Link. When a web visitor uploads to the Share Link view page, an email is generated for each user who has a notification set for that Share Link.
- When a site administrator chooses Can be set per share link, users can add notifications for any user to receive an email when a web visitor uploads to a Share Link. Notifications are not automatically added for the user who created the Share Link. When a web visitor uploads to the Share Link view page, an email is generated for each user who has a notification set for that Share Link.
On the public Share Link page, visitors will have the option to "Download all" files via a single button. This generates a .zip file behind the scenes.
We are often asked whether it is possible to generate these .zip files via the REST API. The answer to that is no. A visitor would need to visit the Share URL to initiate the .zip download.
Share links can be embedded within web pages, allowing you to present a white-label, interactive share link within your own web sites.
There are two segments of HTML code that need to be placed into your web page's HTML.
The first segment should be placed at the beginning of the `<BODY>` element of your web page:
<div id="filescom-root"></div>
<script async defer src="https://jssdk.files.com/sdk/sdk.js"></script>
The second segment is placed anywhere within the <BODY> element of your web page, including within sub-elements such as <P> paragraphs and <TABLE> tables:
<div class="filescom-sharelink" data-key="URL_KEY" data-site="SUBDOMAIN.files.com"></div>
NOTE: Replace URL_KEY with the corresponding URL Key of the share link and replace SUBDOMAIN with your site's subdomain.
You can also embed multiple share links in a single HTML page, using multiple instances of the second code segment. For example:
<BODY>
<H2>First Share Link</H2>
<P><div class="filescom-sharelink" data-key="FIRST_URL_KEY" data-site="SUBDOMAIN.files.com"></div></P>
<H2>Second Share Link</H2>
<P><div class="filescom-sharelink" data-key="SECOND_URL_KEY" data-site="SUBDOMAIN.files.com"></div></P>
</BODY>
When embedding multiple share links you do not need to have multiples copies of the first code segment.
You can also access these instructions, and sample code to copy and paste, by navigating to Sharing > Share Links > Manage Share Links, selecting a share link, then navigating to the Embedding sub-tab.
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