Renaming Uploaded Files
Automatically renaming uploaded files helps maintain a consistent naming structure, simplifying file management and workflow automation. For instance, incoming files can be renamed to include additional details, such as appending the vendor name and uploaded date to the filename, ensuring they follow a standard format.
For example, if an uploaded file is named FILE-xyz-22313e.txt, it can be automatically renamed to vendorname-2024.csv. This approach is particularly useful in workflows that require specific naming patterns, such as adding metadata like vendor identifiers, timestamps, or unique identifiers like project IDs, department codes, or batch numbers. It also allows for complete renaming of files upon upload, including adding or removing timestamps, converting uppercase to lowercase, stripping parts of the filename, or removing any unreserved characters.
Supported Patterns
Supported patterns to automatically rename the files upon upload:
| Pattern | Details |
|---|---|
%Fp | Original filename with extension, converted to lower case and non ASCII characters normalized to ASCII to ensure widest compatibility. |
%Ff | Original filename with extension. |
%Fe | Original extension only. |
%Fb | Original basename without extension. |
%Fl | Converts upper case letters in your base filename to lower case. |
%p1 | Folder name of the folder that has been configured with this rename action. You can use %p2, %p3, and so on, for folder names further up the folder hierarchy. |
YYYY, MM, DD, hh, mm and ss | Time related patterns. Check our documentation for more supported time related patterns. |
Your chosen settings will also apply to all of this folder's sub-folders. Automatic renaming of uploaded files saves time and improves accuracy when you have a workflow that requires file names to be in a specific pattern before processing takes place by any Files.com automations flow or even a third party integration or automation.
Note that Rename uploaded files setting applies to files or folders that are directly uploaded to the folder, not when moving or copying them into this folder. In case you have a Files.com automation where you need to rename the destination files, refer to customizing destination filenames.
WebDAV Related Issues for Rename Uploaded Files
WebDAV isn't consistently implemented across clients and we have found that some WebDAV clients do not perform atomic uploads. This causes the Rename Uploaded Files feature to receive partially uploaded files rather than the complete file, causing data loss and zero byte files.
We strongly recommend using our Desktop App on desktop computers, rather than the built-in WebDAV client, so that partial data isn't uploaded into folders that have Folder Settings configured for them.