Partner Channels

Every partner exchange needs a place to put files for the partner, a place for the partner to put files for you, and permissions that let the partner do exactly that and nothing more. Building that by hand for every partner would mean creating folders and setting access permissions one at a time and keeping them consistent as partners multiply.

A Partner Channel is that exchange path, defined as a single configuration. It is a structured, two-way exchange path under a Partner's root folder. Files.com creates the To Partner and From Partner folders, applies their permissions automatically, and keeps the structure identical for every partner.

A Partner can have more than one channel. A partner channel can also enforce a required folder structure inside the exchange through Managed Folders, and one configuration can be applied across many Partners with Partner Channel Templates.

Partner Channel Folders and Directions

A partner channel has a base folder and two directional folders beneath it. Files.com creates the base folder and both directional folders automatically when you create the partner channel. When folders already exist at those paths, the partner channel adopts them as its own folders, as long as the existing structure matches the channel's configuration. Files.com never deletes existing content to make a partner channel fit, so creating the partner channel fails with a detailed error message when something is in the way, such as a file sitting at a configured folder path.

The two directions are named for the flow of files between your site and the partner:

• The To Partner Folder holds files your site delivers for the partner to retrieve. Its default name is outgoing.
• The From Partner Folder holds files the partner submits to your site. Its default name is incoming.

A channel's Folder Path is a relative path. It gives the partner channel's location beneath the Partner's root folder, such as EDI, and is the path the partner sees. The Channel Folder Path is the corresponding absolute path on your site, such as partners/Acme Co/EDI, which administrators see in the partner channel's settings. The To Partner and From Partner folders are created inside it.

A Folder Path is not limited to a single level. You can place channels at multi-level paths, such as EDI/X12/Orders and EDI/EDIFACT/Orders.

Either directional folder can carry a required substructure through Managed Folders, or resolve to a different location through a Route Path.

An Example EDI Exchange

Suppose Acme Co is a Partner whose root folder is partners/Acme Co, and you create a partner channel with the Folder Path EDI. Files.com creates partners/Acme Co/EDI with outgoing and incoming folders inside it, and grants Acme's users their access to all three in the same step.

From there the exchange runs itself. You (or an Automation) place files in outgoing, and Acme's users download them. Acme's users upload their files into incoming, and your team or automations pick them up from there. Onboarding the next partner is the same single configuration again, and its channel folders and permissions come out identical to Acme's.

What the Partner Sees

A Partner User who connects through the web interface, SFTP, or any other protocol sees the Partner's root folder as the top level of the site. In the example above, an Acme user logs in and sees EDI at the top, with outgoing and incoming inside it. They can browse and download from outgoing, and upload into incoming. They see nothing of your wider site, other partners, or the partners/Acme Co prefix that administrators see.

Creating a Partner Channel

Site Administrators and Workspace Administrators manage Partner Channels. Workspace Administrators manage only Partners within their own Workspace.

A channel's configuration has three parts, named Channel Details, Files To Partner, and Files From Partner. You set the partner channel's Folder Path, configure the To Partner Folder for files going to the partner, and configure the From Partner Folder for files coming from the partner. Each direction can optionally use a Route Path.

You can name both folders using the To Partner Folder Name and From Partner Folder Name settings. If you leave a name blank, the default name is used.

Managed Folders

Many exchanges depend on a folder structure inside the directional folders, not just the folders themselves. Monthly reports land in outgoing/reports/monthly, appeals go to outgoing/appeals, and receipts arrive in incoming/receipts. When those subfolders are created and managed by hand, the structure drifts. A partner renames a folder, a file lands one level too high, and the automation that reads from the expected path stops finding its files.

Managed Folders make that structure part of the partner channel. Each direction's Managed Folder Paths setting lists the required folder paths inside that direction's folder, such as reports/monthly under outgoing. Files.com creates the full hierarchy when the partner channel is created and enforces it afterward.

A Managed Folder cannot be deleted, renamed, or moved, so the paths both sides depend on are always there. At levels that carry configured subfolders, users cannot create files or unconfigured sibling folders, which keeps stray content out of the structure your automations rely on. Inside the deepest Managed Folder of each path, work continues as normal, and files are uploaded and downloaded there as in any partner channel folder.

Creating the partner channel fails with a detailed error message when the structure cannot be applied cleanly. A file sitting at a configured path, a folder already managed by another partner channel, or stray content at a managed level each blocks creation. Files.com never deletes customer content to make the structure fit.

Adding Managed Folders to Existing Folders

Existing folder structures can adopt management. Make the structure match first, then add the Managed Folder Paths.

Bring the Partner's existing folders in line with the paths you plan to configure. Clear stray files and unconfigured folders out of every level that will carry configured subfolders, because Files.com will not delete them for you and they block the partner channel while they are present. Remove any folder permissions and Lock Subfolders folder settings you created to protect the structure by hand, since they also block the partner channel, and the partner channel enforces the structure on its own from here forward. Then add the Managed Folder Paths, and Files.com adopts the matching folders and enforces the structure from that point on.

If a script has been recreating or managing these folders for you, retire it once the partner channel takes over.

Route Paths

Use a Route Path when the files a partner exchanges need to land where an existing system already reads or writes them, instead of an ordinary folder under the Partner's root. That existing system might watch a folder on a Remote Server Mount, a folder on a Child Site, a folder in another Workspace, or a local folder tied to an internal workflow. The partner keeps working in the channel path while your operations resolve to the real location, so no separate step is needed to move files between the two.

The To Partner Route Path and From Partner Route Path settings point the partner channel's To Partner or From Partner folder at the target folder, so the two locations show the same files. Anything in the target folder appears in the partner channel folder, and anything placed in the partner channel folder appears in the target. Routing is configured on the partner channel itself, and no separate Automation is required for it.

Linking to a folder in a Workspace is only supported from the default Workspace, which can link into any other Workspace. A partner channel in a non-default Workspace cannot use a Workspace as a Route Path target. Files.com validates that the target exists and is accessible when you create the partner channel. Linking to a folder on a Remote Server, for example, requires that the Remote Server is online and that the folder exists there.

A Route Path and Managed Folder Paths can be used together on the same direction. When they are, the routed destination must be empty or already match the configured structure at every level that carries a configured subfolder.

Partner Channel Permissions

A Partner Channel sets its permissions automatically. Partner Users receive:

These permissions are inferred rather than created as editable permissions. Folder Permissions shows the Partner Channel context for these folders and keeps the inferred permissions out of the editable permissions table, so the partner channel's access model stays intact and cannot be partially edited into an inconsistent state.

A Partner Channel's permissions are independent of any other folder permissions the Partner has been granted. The partner channel grants access only to its own folders, and it neither extends nor is changed by other access permissions that the Partner has been granted. A Partner Channel can be set up only within the Partner's own area.

Non-Partner users can be given access to the partner channel's folders through ordinary folder permissions. Those permissions are entirely separate from the partner channel's inferred permissions. Granting a non-Partner user access to a partner channel folder does not change what the partner can do, and the partner channel's permissions do not affect the non-Partner user's access.

Deleting a Partner Channel

Deleting a partner channel removes everything the channel put in place around the folders. Managed Folder enforcement ends, Route Paths stop resolving, and the inferred permissions are removed. The folders and their files stay intact, so deleting a partner channel never causes data loss.

When the exchange data itself is no longer needed, delete the remaining folders and files manually. Confirm first that nothing still depends on the data, because that manual deletion is the only step in the process that removes any files.

Partner Channel Templates

A partner channel covers one Partner. When many Partners get the same exchange, configuring each channel by hand means repeating the same settings for every Partner and re-doing that work every time the exchange changes. Partner Channel Templates apply one channel configuration across many Partners and keep it applied.

A Template carries the reusable channel settings. Those are the channel Folder Path, the To Partner and From Partner folder names, the Managed Folder Paths for each direction, and optional route path patterns. In a route path pattern, {{partner_name}} expands to the Partner's name, so each Partner's channel routes to its own target folder from the same pattern.

Site Administrators and Workspace Administrators manage Templates. You can create as many Templates as your exchanges need, and each Partner can be assigned only one. Assign a Template to a Partner using the Partner's Partner Channel Template option. Assigning it creates or updates that Partner's Template-owned partner channel, and editing the Template pushes the change to every assigned Partner's channel.

A Template change validates every assigned Partner first. When any Partner's channel cannot be updated cleanly, the change fails and names the blocking Partner and folder path, so it never lands on some Partners and not others. Files.com never deletes folders or files to make a Template change apply.

A Template-owned partner channel cannot be edited or deleted directly. Its configuration comes from the Template, which is what keeps every assigned Partner's channel identical. To change one, change the Template.

Removing and Deleting Templates

Removing a Template from a Partner disconnects the Template and leaves an identical partner channel in place. The leftover channel is no longer Template-owned, and it acts as if it had been created manually for that Partner, so you can edit or delete it directly from then on.

Deleting a Template deletes the Template itself and disconnects every Partner that had it assigned. Each of those Partners keeps an identical, now-disconnected partner channel, so their exchanges keep working without the Template.

To fully remove a Template's effects, delete the Template, then delete each Partner's leftover channel. Deleting a Partner Channel removes the inferred permissions and routing while leaving the folders and files intact, so as the final step, delete the remaining folders and files manually, and only once you have confirmed the data is no longer needed.

Assigning a Template Where Folders Already Exist

The same match-first approach from Adding Managed Folders to Existing Folders applies to Templates. Before assigning a Template to a Partner whose exchange folders already exist, bring that Partner's structure in line with the Template's configuration, clear stray content from managed levels, and remove the hand-built folder permissions and Lock Subfolders folder settings that block the assignment. Then assign the Template, and Files.com adopts the matching folders into the Template-owned channel.

Partner Channels vs. Manual Folder Setup

Everything a Partner Channel builds could be built by hand, by creating a base folder and two directional folders under each Partner's root and then granting three permissions per exchange. With 50 partners, that's 100 folders and 150 permissions to create, and to keep consistent every time an exchange changes. A Partner Channel creates the same structure in one step, and because its permissions are applied automatically rather than editable, every partner's exchange stays consistent by design.