Before you add users, you’ll need to have a folder ready for them and, possibly, configure some global site settings before your users log in. We recommend you configure your site, create a folder for the user, and then create the user.

Configuring Your Site

This step is optional, and you're not required to configure anything in your site before moving on to the next step.

However, when your users log in, they’ll interact with your site and you may want to apply some visual branding to it or apply some limitations and restrictions so that users cannot upload content that you wish to prohibit. You may choose to customize the menu categories visible to your users.

At a minimum, you may want to apply some branding, such as your logo and corporate color scheme, and define a folder structure as a “landing zone” for your users.

Creating Folders For Your Users

Your users will require a “home folder” so that, once they log in, they have a place where they can upload and download files.

Files.com allows you to create any folder structure you require and you can specify that any folder, or subfolder, becomes the “home folder” of a user.

For easier management, it’s best to place users into a well organized folder hierarchy. There is no “one size fits all” for a folder hierarchy but a common practice is to have a top-level folder named something like users/ or home/.

Then, within this top-level folder, you can create subfolders for individual users, or subfolders for departments, teams, or groups, building a hierarchy that matches your needs.

For example, if you have a relatively small set of users, where you don't have a need to further differentiate them from each other, you could use a simple structure such as:

users/alex
users/blair
users/charlie

You could also arrange users based on their department, such as:

users/accounting/alex
users/development/drew
users/sales/sam

If your organization is global, you might wish to arrange users based on geographic regions, such as:

users/APAC/alex
users/EU/blair
users/US/charlie

If your site will be used by both internal employees and external partners, you may wish to arrange users based on that criteria, such as:

users/internal/accounting/alex
users/external/customers/blairs_boutique
users/external/suppliers/charlies_custom_widgets

Ultimately, the best hierarchy will be the one that best fits your business model.

If you have an existing identity system, such as an Active Directory or LDAP, or your users are being migrated from another system, then you may wish to match the folder hierarchy of the users as defined in that system.

If the users of your Files.com site are not related to the users of an existing system, or you wish to define a newer folder structure, then this is an opportunity to plan out a structure that best fits your needs.

Automating the Creation of User Folders

You can also automate the creation of “home folders” for users.

Once you've created some home folders, or configured them to be created automatically, you're ready to create user accounts.