Inbound Inboxes

Press Play on the video player above to view this training video. The video script is presented below if you prefer to read.

Welcome to Files.com

In this tutorial about Inboxes, we’re going to cover:

What is an Inbox?
What are Inboxes used for?
How to create an Inbox
The various features of Inboxes and how to configure them
How to manage your Inboxes

What is an Inbox?

Inboxes are a way to accept files from people who don’t have a user account on your site.

Inboxes provide a simple-to-use web portal for users, which can be used to upload files and folders, using any web browser.

You can create as many Inboxes as you need, each one associated with a target folder on your site.

What is an Inbox Used For?

Inboxes can be used to receive files from a public audience and from people who are outside your business ecosystem.

For example, you may have a business process that needs to collect submissions from external entities. But you don’t yet know who those entities are. Or perhaps those entities change on a daily basis, making it impractical to create and manage dedicated user accounts for those transient entities.

Think of an Inbox as a “secure public drop box” which you can provide to customers so that they can send you files without needing to have a user account on your site.

Creating an Inbox

Users with Administrator privileges can create Inboxes.

Navigate to Sharing then Inboxes and select the New Inbox button.

Select the folder that you want the Inbox to upload into.

Enter a Title for the Inbox.

The URL Key will be shown to the user so update or change it if needed.

Enter a Public Description.

Enter some Help Text.

Both the Public Description and the Help Text will be shown to users of the Inbox.

We’ll start with a simple Inbox so we’re going to uncheck all these options. (Uncheck “Require registration” and “Separate submissions into subfolders”.)

And then select the Save button.

Your Inbox has been created.

You can send the Inbox’s Link to users by either copying the link or by emailing it.

To copy the link:

Select the Copy Inbox URL button
and then send it by any method you want.

To email the link:

Select the Inbox,
Navigate to the Share via Email tab,
Enter the recipient’s Email address,
Add a custom message to the email,
And click Send email.

Embedding in a Web Page

Inboxes can be embedded into other web pages.

There’s also an easy way to make an Inbox appear on the Login page of your Files.com site.

Navigate to the Inbox’s settings and select Show on login page.

To embed an Inbox into one of your own web pages:

Navigate to the Inbox, then the Embedding Tab
Paste this first segment of code into your web page source, right at the beginning of the <body> section
Then place this second segment of code wherever you want the Inbox to appear on your web page.

Viewing Activity

The activity for an Inbox is tracked and logged.

You can view the activity for the Inbox by navigating to Sharing -> Inboxes:

Select the Inbox,
Then select the Access Logs tab.

Additional Configuration for Added Security

Inboxes have additional configuration settings that add security and can manage how the submitted files are received.

Password Protection

You can add an extra level of security to your Inbox by applying a password to it.

To add a password to an Inbox:

Navigate to Sharing > Inboxes,
Select the Inbox,
Select the Settings tab,
Then click the Edit button next to Password Protection.
Enter a password for the Inbox,
And click Save.

Prohibiting Folder Uploads

By default, Files.com allows folders to be uploaded in addition to files. You can prohibit folders from being uploaded to Inboxes, limiting users so that they can only upload files.

Navigate to Sharing > Inboxes,
Select the Inbox,
Select the Settings tab,
Then click the slider next to Disable folder uploads to enable this setting.

Applying a Clickwrap

To add a clickwrap to an Inbox:

Navigate to Sharing > Inboxes,
Select the Inbox,
Select the Settings tab,
Then click the Edit button next to Clickwrap.
Select the clickwrap you want to use for the Inbox,
And click Save.

Separating Inbox Submissions

You can separate the submissions to an Inbox so that uploads are delivered into separate subfolders. This helps avoid submissions overwriting each other when users upload identically named files or folders.

Navigate to Sharing -> Inboxes -> select the inbox -> Settings -> Separate submissions into subfolders.
Toggle the slider to enable.

Requiring Registration

To add a Registration Form to an Inbox:

Navigate to Sharing > Inboxes,
Select the Inbox,
Select the Settings tab.
Toggle the slider next to Require registration.

This will enable the default standard form.

To use a custom form:

Click the Edit button next to Custom form,
Select the form you want to use,
And click Save.

Viewing Registration Information

Whenever a registration form is submitted by a user, it’s logged, so that you can audit it later.

To view the submitted registration forms for Inboxes, navigate to Sharing -> Inboxes -> Registrations, where you can see the submitted registration information for the Inbox.

Separating Submissions Using Registration Information

You can use the submitted form data to name the subfolders that are created when submissions are separated.

If you enable both the Require registration and Separate submissions into subfolders settings, you’ll be presented with the option to specify a Subfolder name template.

This allows you to customize the naming rules for the subfolders used to separate the submissions.

The shortcut buttons here will reflect the fields of the registration form being used. Use the buttons to insert those form field variables into the subfolder name.

You can also insert static text into the subfolder name.

Once you’re happy with the subfolder pattern, click Save.

Now the subfolders will be created using the submitted form data in the subfolder names.

This is a handy way for grouping submissions based on the submitted form data.

Uploads via Email

You can configure an Inbox to have an email address.

Attachments sent to this email address will be uploaded into the Inbox.

This is a great way to collect files from users, or systems, that are only able to send files using email.

NOTE: Email is not secure. Never send sensitive files via email unless they’ve been PGP encrypted first.

To enable an email address for an Inbox:

Navigate to Sharing > Inboxes,
Select the Inbox,
Select the Settings tab,
Toggle the slider next to Allow uploads to this inbox via Email.

The Inbox now has an email address.

If an Inbox has an email address, then the email address will be shown in the Manage Inboxes Table.

Any attachments sent to this email address will now be uploaded into the Inbox.

Managing Inboxes

To manage your Inboxes, navigate to Sharing -> Inboxes.

Here you can use the Edit button to manage your Inbox.

Use the Share via Email tab to send the Inbox link to someone via email.

Use the Access Logs tab to view the activity for the Inbox.

Use the Embedding tab to embed the Inbox into your own web page.

Use the Settings tab to update the configuration of the Inbox.

Use the Revoke button to delete an Inbox.

You can use the New Inbox button to create a new Inbox.

Inboxes can also be managed programmatically using the Files.com API or the Files.com Command Line App.

Thanks for watching.

If you have any questions, please feel free to Contact Us or give us a call at 1-800-286-8372.

Inbound Inboxes

Get Instant Access to Files.com