File Store Pro

What it does

File Store Pro adds two kinds of link to the File Store, for people who do not have an account on your site:

• Share links - anyone with the link can download one of your files.
• Upload requests - anyone with the link can send files into one of your folders.

Every link can have an expiry date and a password, and a limit (downloads, or files). You can see when each one was used, and withdraw it at any time.

Share links

Right-click a file in the File Store (or use its ⋮) and choose Share link…. Choose when the link expires, and optionally a password, a download limit and a note for yourself, then Make link - the address is copied, ready to paste into an email or a message. Give the password separately.

The person who opens the link sees the file's name and size and a Download button (or a password box). Nothing else on your site is opened to them.

A link stops working when it expires, reaches its download limit, is withdrawn, or when the file is deleted (if the file is restored from Trash, its links work again). Ten wrong passwords in a row lock a link for fifteen minutes.

Upload requests

Right-click a folder and choose Request uploads… (or right-click the empty space in a folder for Request uploads here…). Give the page a title and a message, then choose:

• when the link expires,
• a password, if you want one,
• how many files may be sent in all, and how big each may be,
• whether to ask for the sender's name (with an optional email and note).

The person who opens the link sees your title and message and a form to send files. What they send arrives in the folder, marked with their name, and you get a notification. The files are yours and count towards your space - if your space is full, they are refused and the sender is told. The site's largest-upload size and blocked kinds of file apply as always.

Senders can choose files or a whole folder. A folder arrives with its folders inside your folder (one already there with the same name is added to); hidden files such as .DS_Store are left out and do not count towards the link's number of files. One send takes up to 50 files - a bigger folder can be sent in parts.

Links

Links in the File Store's banner lists every link you have made, with what it is for, whether it still works, how often it has been used, and its Activity (downloads, uploads and wrong passwords, with when). Withdraw stops a link at once; Remove takes a link that no longer works off the list.

Permissions

• Share links and Upload requests (File Store Pro) - given to admin to start with. Give them to other roles at System > Roles to let members make links too.
• Someone who manages the File Store sees and can withdraw everyone's links.

Tips

• Prefer an expiry and a password for anything private: a link works for anyone who has it.
• For a form that collects a file together with other answers, the Forms Tool may suit better; an upload request is for "just send me the files".