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: the channel Folder Path, its Direction and folder layout, and the folder names, Managed Folder Paths, and optional route destinations for each enabled direction. The layout determines the path Partners use; the route destination determines where the files are stored. A Template can send every assigned Partner to the same shared folder or use a pattern to select separate folders for each Partner.

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 the settings consistent across assigned Partners. To change one, change the Template.

Template Direction

The Template's Direction field offers the same directions as an individual Channel: Files To and From Partner (the default), Files To Partner Only, and Files From Partner Only. A one-way Template generates one-way Channels for every assigned Partner, with only the enabled direction's permissions.

Choosing a one-way direction on the Template form hides the disabled direction's fields and clears any values already entered in them. That direction has no folder, permissions, Managed Folder Paths, or route path pattern. The Partner Channel Templates table offers Direction and Folder Layout columns. Folder Layout shows Channel folder or Directional subfolders, so you can identify both the exchange direction and the layout applied to assigned Partners.

A one-way Template offers the same folder layout choice as an individual Channel. Use a directional subfolder creates an outgoing or incoming folder beneath the Channel folder, with optional name overrides. Blank names use the defaults. Use the channel folder directly applies the enabled direction's permissions, route, and Managed Folder Paths at the Channel folder itself, with no directional subfolder. Choosing it clears both folder-name overrides.

The create form's Folder Layout choice includes a preview of the exchange path relative to each Partner's root folder. For a delivery-only Template at DailyFlows, this is /DailyFlows/outgoing with the default subfolder or /DailyFlows with the direct layout. The preview shows the path Partners use, rather than the route destination where the files are stored.

Choose the layout when creating the Template; it cannot change afterward. On a one-way Template's edit form, Folder Layout is read-only with a note explaining that it is fixed at creation. A Template using the Channel folder directly also has a read-only Direction and stays one-way. Use directional subfolders when both directions are needed now or when the same Channels will later need a second direction.

You can expand a one-way Template with directional subfolders to Files To and From Partner. Saving updates its existing Channels so each gains the missing directional folder and the Partner's permissions for it. The new direction's configuration applies to every assigned Partner, subject to the same validation as other Template changes.

For Templates with directional subfolders, direction changes only add the second direction. A Template cannot change from two-way to one-way or switch between one-way directions, because that would require removing existing folder structure and handling its data. When editing a one-way Template with directional subfolders, the form offers its current direction and Files To and From Partner. A two-way Template shows Direction as a read-only value, with a note that neither direction can be removed.

Route Destinations

Each enabled direction's route path pattern can be a fixed folder path or a path containing {{partner_name}}. The choice applies to both folder layouts. The target folders must exist and remain within the Channels' Workspace, as described in Route Paths.

Route path patterns must stay on the same site. A pattern under _/Sites/ is rejected when the Template is saved, so it cannot select a Child Site or Connected Site as a destination.

Use a fixed path, such as shared/daily-flows, when every assigned Partner should reach the same content. For example, a delivery-only Template with the Folder Path DailyFlows, Use the channel folder directly, and the fixed route destination shared/daily-flows gives each Partner /DailyFlows/report.csv for a file stored at shared/daily-flows/report.csv. The reporting system publishes one file, and every assigned Partner reads that same file through its own Channel. Routing does not make a copy for each Partner or grant wider Workspace access.

Use a pattern such as reports/{{partner_name}} when each Partner needs its own destination. For a Partner named Acme Co, that pattern selects reports/Acme Co. This fits Partner-specific reports and private submissions. A fixed shared destination exposes the same folder content under each Channel's directional permissions, including its file listing for collection-only Channels; it does not separate files according to which Partner uploaded them.

Only {{partner_name}} is supported as a substitution in a route path pattern. A fixed path needs no substitution. Leaving the route path pattern blank keeps the files in the Channel's own exchange folder.

Managed Folders retain exclusive Channel ownership. A Template that applies the same Managed Folder Paths to several Channels needs separate destinations for those folders; a fixed route does not make the same Managed Folders jointly owned.

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.

Existing Channels retain the layout chosen when they were created. Reassigning a Partner from one Template to another updates its Template-owned Channel only if the new configuration is compatible. An assignment that would change that Channel between directional subfolders and direct use of the Channel folder is rejected; Template reassignment does not convert the layout.

API Direction Values

The Partner Channel Templates API accepts the optional direction field with values two_way, to_partner, and from_partner, matching the Partner Channels API. Omitting the field when creating a Template defaults to two_way. Configuration for a disabled direction must be blank, including its folder name, Managed Folder Paths, and route path pattern. The API allows expansion to two_way only for a one-way Template with directional subfolders; a Template that uses the Channel folder directly remains one-way.

The API also accepts and returns use_channel_root, a boolean that defaults to false. Set it to true at creation to apply the direct layout to the Template's Channels, with direction set to to_partner or from_partner and both folder-name overrides blank. The value cannot change after creation.

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.