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 the folder names, Managed Folder Paths, and optional route path patterns for each enabled direction. 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.

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. Each Channel has its base folder and only the enabled directional folder and 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 includes a Direction column so you can identify each Template's exchange direction.

You can expand a one-way Template 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.

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, the form offers its current direction and Files To and From Partner. A two-way Template has no Direction field on its edit form.

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 enforces the same rule that a direction change can only expand a one-way Template to two_way.

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.