February 2024

February 2024 brought Desktop App improvements alongside a range of collaboration and editor updates.

The list of features highlights the most notable updates, including key improvements and new capabilities. It also includes changes that may require action, such as updates affecting security, compliance, or system configurations. Reviewing these updates ensures you stay informed and can take any necessary steps to maintain smooth operations.

Desktop Client Improvements

You can now use the Files.com Desktop Application's preferences menu to turn debug logging on and off. This simplifies troubleshooting with our Support Team. Upgrade to the latest version of the Desktop Application to use this feature.

Learn more about the Files.com Desktop Application.

Minor Updates

Support for Binary MDN Signatures

Our AS2 feature now supports MDNs signed with binary (DER) format rather than Base64 (PEM) format. This makes our AS2 processing compatible with a wider range of AS2 Partners. No action is required to enable this behavior.

Learn more about using AS2.

Last Modified Date on Public Hosting

When you enable Public Hosting on a folder, the page visitors see now includes the date each file was last modified. This reduces confusion for visitors looking through a long list of files with similar names. No action is required to enable the updated view.

Learn more about Public Hosting.

Separate Submissions Compatible With Subfolder Locking

Share Links that allow visitors to only upload can automatically organize those uploaded files into subfolders using a dynamic template to generate the subfolder names. You can now use this feature with a folder that has subfolder creation locked. Users can't create unexpected folders, and your Share Link uploads are still automatically organized. If you're using upload-only Share Links, consider whether locking subfolders also makes sense.

Learn more about subfolder locking.

Use Clickwraps Created By Other Admins

Creating or managing Clickwraps is restricted to site administrators because Clickwraps represent legally enforceable agreements. This didn't provide enough flexibility for all our customers, so we've updated the "Availability" settings for Clickwraps, adding an option to make a Clickwrap available to non-site administrators for use with Inboxes or Share Links. Site administrators can edit a Clickwrap's availability settings to make it selectable by other users.

Learn more about Clickwraps.

Image Preview Orientation Improvements

Previews of image files now use the EXIF information embedded in the image file to automatically orient the preview. This helps workflows that rely on the preview thumbnail grid. Because previews are generated only when files are first uploaded, you may need to re-upload an image to recalculate the preview.

Learn more about previewing images in our web interface.

Better Performance For Automations With Mounts

We've improved the reliability of Automations that act on very slow Remote Server Mounts. Some remote SFTP Servers were taking a long time to respond, and we've made Automations more patient, making the process much more likely to succeed. No action is required to take advantage of this improvement.

Learn more about using Automations.

Improved Preview Performance

We've optimized how image previews and thumbnails are generated behind the scenes. Viewing thumbnails and previews in the web interface is faster, particularly in folders with many image files. No action is required to enable this.

Improvements to Editing Common Business Document Types

We've made the document editing workflow more resilient. If another user or automatic process deletes a file you are currently editing, your changes are saved when you close the editor. This prevents lost work when someone changes the file while you're working in it. No action is required to enable this behavior.

Learn more about editing documents with the Files.com Editor or Microsoft Office.

Notifications Require History Permission

As a security enhancement, we've tightened the permissions required to create Email Notifications. Users without admin rights now need the History permission on a path to create notifications on that path. Existing notifications are unchanged. Site administrators and folder admins can still create notifications on a path for any user.

Learn more about Email notifications.

Webhook Signature Verification

Webhooks can send a x-files-signature header with each webhook request that can be used to verify the sender. This provides extra protection for your webhook listener. To enable the signature header, update your webhook to add a verification token, which is used to generate the header.

Learn more about verifying webhook authenticity.