Partner Channels

A Partner Channel creates a structured exchange path under a Partner's root folder for delivering files to the partner, receiving files from the partner, or both. Files.com creates the folders for the directions you enable and applies their permissions automatically.

Use a one-way Channel when an exchange only delivers or collects files. A delivery-only Channel has no upload folder for the partner to leave files in, so it does not create an unmonitored place for submissions. Use a two-way Channel when both sides need to send files.

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 always has a base folder. Its Direction determines which directional folders Files.com creates beneath it:

A disabled direction has no folder, permissions, Route Path, or Managed Folder Paths. When folders already exist at the enabled paths, the Channel adopts them as its own folders, as long as the existing structure matches its configuration. Files.com never deletes existing content to make a Channel fit, so creating the 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 enabled directional 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.

Each enabled 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 and the default Files To and From Partner direction. 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 browsing the folder tree 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.

For a Partner whose users mostly upload files through the web interface, you can enable the Partner Channel Home Page. It shows one upload destination for each folder those users upload into, and replaces the File Manager as the first page they see after signing in.

Creating a Partner Channel

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

Set the Channel's Folder Path and Direction on the Partner Channel form. Configure the Files To Partner and Files From Partner sections for the directions you enable. Each enabled direction can optionally use a Route Path.

Choosing a one-way direction hides the other direction's fields and clears any values already entered in them. You can name the enabled folders using the To Partner Folder Name and From Partner Folder Name settings. If you leave a name blank, the default name is used.

The Partner Channels table includes a Direction column. On a one-way Channel, the disabled direction's folder name, folder path, and route path columns display None.

Expanding a One-Way Channel

You can expand a one-way Channel by changing its Direction to Files To and From Partner. Configure the newly enabled direction's folder name, Route Path, and Managed Folder Paths as needed. Saving creates the missing directional folder and applies the Partner's permissions to it, just as when creating a two-way Channel.

After creation, the only direction change is from one-way to two-way. A Channel cannot change from two-way to one-way or switch from one one-way direction to the other, because those changes would require removing existing folder structure and handling its data. The edit form for a one-way Channel offers its current direction and Files To and From Partner. A two-way Channel has no Direction field on its edit form.

For a Channel created by a Template, change the Template's direction to expand its assigned Channels together.

API Direction Values

The Partner Channels API accepts an optional direction field: two_way for Files To and From Partner, to_partner for Files To Partner Only, or from_partner for Files From Partner Only. Omitting the field when creating a Channel defaults to two_way.

Configuration for a disabled direction must be blank, including its folder name, Route Path, and Managed Folder Paths. The API enforces the same direction-change rules as the form and rejects changes from two-way to one-way or between the two one-way directions.

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 enabled 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 access to the base folder and only the enabled directional folders:

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 Channels vs. Manual Folder Setup

Building the same exchange by hand means creating a base folder, the directional folders your exchange needs, and the corresponding permissions under each Partner's root. You must then keep that structure and access consistent every time the exchange changes. A Partner Channel creates the structure in one step and applies permissions automatically. Templates keep the configuration consistent across Partners.