Connected Sites

Connected Sites lets two organizations with their own Files.com sites exchange files through a Partner relationship. Site Administrators at one organization can work with the folders shared by the other organization from their own site, using the permissions already assigned to the Partner. The connection is approved on the site receiving access and does not require the organizations to exchange an API key.

The API refers to these connections as Partner Sites.

Host and Guest Sites

The Host is the site that shares a Partner's folders. The Guest is the site whose Site Administrators access those folders. Each organization continues to administer its own site.

For example, a travel company creates a Partner for a restaurant chain. The Partner's folders hold booking requests and confirmations. The travel company is the Host. When the restaurant chain connects its own Files.com site as the Guest, its Site Administrators can send requests and collect confirmations from that site, within the permissions the travel company granted to the Partner.

Approval establishes the Partner relationship on both sites. The Host appears as a Partner on the Guest site. This does not give the Host access to the Guest's files. If both organizations need to share folders from their own sites, establish and approve a separate connection in the other direction, with its own Partner permissions.

The Our Role column in the Partners list describes your site's role for that Partner:

An ordinary Partner without a connected site also has the Host role. The role describes the relationship; a Host label alone does not mean another site is connected.

Connection Requests and Approval

Begin with a Partner on the Host site, its root folder, and the folder permissions needed for the exchange. Review those permissions before connecting: every Site Administrator on the Guest site can use the connection, not only the person who approves it.

A Partner Admin can create, view, and cancel connection requests for their own Partner. A Host Site Administrator can manage requests for any Partner on the site. A Host Workspace Administrator can manage requests only for Partners in their own Workspace. Approval or rejection requires a Site Administrator on the Guest site.

1. On the Host site, start a Connected Sites request for the Partner and enter the Guest site's full Files.com site URL.
2. Continue to the Guest site and sign in as a Site Administrator. Review the Host site's name and approve or reject the request. Creating a request alone does not establish access.
3. After approval, use the Host site's shared folders from the Guest site as described below.

The approval step confirms that the Guest site's administrators agree to the connection. Rejecting a request does not create a connection. To connect after rejection or disconnection, create a new request and approve it on the Guest site.

File Access

On the Guest site, Site Administrators access the Host through the underscore folder at _/Sites/<host-site-id>. The folder appears alongside any Child Sites, but it opens the Host Partner's root folder, not the root of the entire Host site.

The Host Partner's permissions determine which folders can be listed and which files can be downloaded, uploaded, deleted, copied, or moved. Being a Site Administrator on the Guest site does not grant wider access on the Host. The Guest's ordinary users and Workspace Administrators cannot access this folder, because access to the underscore folder requires Site Administrator permission.

You can work with the shared files directly or copy and move files between the Guest site and the Host Partner's folders. File transfers can run in either direction when the relevant permissions allow them. For example, the Guest can upload a booking request to a folder where the Partner has Write permission and download a confirmation from a folder where the Partner has Read permission.

Shared folders can include Remote Server Mounts configured on the Host. The Host Partner's permissions still apply, along with the access available through the Host's Remote Server connection.

Permissions and Disconnection

The Host controls access through the Partner's root folder and permissions. To change what the Guest can do, change the Partner's permissions on the Host.

A Site Administrator on either site can unlink the connection. Unlinking removes the Guest site's access through that connection without deleting either site's files, Partner records, or Partner User accounts. Any separate access through those user accounts remains, so review it as part of offboarding.

Deleting a Partner also removes its site connections and deletes its Partner Users. Use that broader action when ending the Partner relationship itself.

Connection Options

Use Connected Sites when another organization already has a Partner on your site and wants its Site Administrators to work with the shared folders from its own Files.com site.

Use a Files.com to Files.com Remote Server when you need an API-key-based integration, including a connection for Syncs or a Remote Server Mount in a folder you make available to other users. That connection follows the API key's permissions and is configured separately from Connected Sites.

Use Child Sites when your organization needs separate sites under a Parent Site's administration. A Connected Sites relationship does not make either organization a Parent or Child of the other.

Transfers between Files.com sites through Connected Sites are not billable Transfer Usage to either customer. Storage and transfers involving external systems follow the Usage rules.

For an API integration, see Partner Site Requests for creating and approving a connection, Partner Sites for unlinking it, and Partners for relationship roles. The same approval and permission rules apply.