This month, we've made it easier to manage your site with IaC and made even more logging available. Here's a breakdown of what's new to Files.com in July 2024.

New Logs Available

We've added logging for activity on Public Hosting, WebDAV activity and Outbound Connections. Site administrators have access to each of these types of logs.

Learn more about Public Hosting Logs, WebDAV Logs, and Outbound Connections Logs.

Terraform Provider for Files.com

Terraform allows you to manage your infrastructure using IaC (Infrastructure as Code) processes, providing automation, standardization, and quicker provisioning and de-provisioning of your business resources. Use the Files.com Terraform Provider, and its modules, to automate management of users, folders, sharing, encryption, automations, file transfer services (FTP, SFTP, AS2, WebDAV), integrations, notifications, security, data governance, and customization of your Files.com site.

Learn more about managing your Files.com site via Terraform.

Minor Updates

In addition to our major updates listed above, we've also added many other platform improvements this month.

Use Dedicated IPs With Custom SMTP

Sites with dedicated IP addresses and Custom SMTP settings can now be configured to use those dedicated IPs when connecting to their Custom SMTP. We don't expect this to be applicable to many of our customers because using the general pool of IP addresses for Custom SMTP is usually secure enough. However, if your custom SMTP server must whitelist the addresses allowed to connect for compliance reasons, this setting is now available for you.

Learn more about using a Custom SMTP server.

SharePoint Integration Sync Reliability

We've tracked down an elusive problem with some syncs using Microsoft SharePoint remotes. Those syncs should be more reliable now. No action is needed to update your syncs.

Learn more about integrating with SharePoint.

New Authentication Option for SFTP Remote Servers

We've added a new way to authenticate with remote SFTP servers. For servers that require it, you can configure your connection with both password credentials and a private key. Site administrators can choose this type of authentication when configuring your Remote Server.

Learn more about integrating using SFTP (Outbound to a Remote).

Improved Performance For Syncs To Google Drive

Syncs can now handle larger files and with Google Drive more quickly. This improvement is already enabled for all Google Drive syncs, and there's nothing you need to do.

Learn more about integrating with Google Drive via Remote Server Sync.

New Wildcard Options for Automations

We've added even more wildcard patterns to match the files used as the source of an Automation. You can now use curly braces { and } to supply multiple patterns, along with all of our time-related wildcards. Administrators should consider whether you can take advantage of the new matching options for Automations to reduce the total number of automations you need to manage.

Learn more about Matching Source Path and Filenames for an Automation.

Time Range Schedule Options for Automations

It's now simpler to configure an Automation to run every hour during your business hours, or run hourly during off-peak times. The Custom Schedule option that defines when Automation is started now supports time ranges. You can specify multiple blocks of hours, and the automation will be run once per hour for each hour included in the range. This feature is available now, and you can edit any existing automation's custom schedule setting to define time ranges.

Learn more about Automation Triggers.

Password Authentication for AS2 Partners

You can now define password authentication to use rather than certificates for your AS2 Partners. We added this feature so your site can exchange files with more types of AS2 systems. Site administrators can enable basic authentication and provide the credentials in the trading partner configuration.

Learn more about How to Configure AS2.

Improved Logging for AS2

We've clarified the error messages that can be returned when sending AS2 messages. This helps you track down any problems, such as out-of-date credentials, with less interruption. No action is needed to enable the updated messaging.

Learn more about Troubleshooting AS2.

Improved Preview Performance

We've done another round of optimizing how image previews and thumbnails are generated. Previewing folders with lots of files is even faster. No action is required to enable this.

Learn more about Previewing Files.

Improved Error Messages for the On-Premise Agent

We've improved the error messages provided by the Agent when it is running on a Windows remote. This makes it easier to debug problems with Windows not supporting certain folder names. To take advantage of this improvement, update your Agent installation to version 2.0.2122 or higher.

Learn more about using the On-Premise Agent.

Removed Time Sync Requirement for Agent

The On-Premise Agent has been updated to behave nicely with host systems with clocks that are out of sync. This removes the need to run an automatic clock synchronizing system, such as using NTP to update your system's clock. Update to version 2.0.2153 or higher to enable this.

Learn more about using the On-Premise Agent.

New Countries Supported for SMS 2FA

We've added four more countries - Australia, Türkiye, Qatar and Saudi Arabia - to the list of countries that are compatible with SMS 2FA messages. We're working on more options, so if there are other countries that you'd like to see us support sending SMS two-factor messages, please let us know.

Learn more about 2FA.

Require Internal Notes for Share Links

The Internal Note field helps your users organize and manage their Share Links. We've added a new setting to require the internal note on any Share Link. A site administrator can enable the setting, which will apply to all Share Links.

Learn more about Customizing Share Links.

Make an Inbox Email-Only

We've added a new setting for Inboxes that accept email, allowing you to disable web uploads to that inbox. The result is that your inbox will only allow uploads via email. Take this even further with a list of allowable domains and folder settings that limit the filenames that can be uploaded to the folder to configure a fully automated, secure landing spot which receive files via email. To try out this new feature, any administrator with access to the folder can change the inbox settings to disable the web interface.

Learn more about Accepting Files Via Email.

Android 14 Support for Mobile Application

We've updated our Mobile App to support Android 14. You can download the latest version from the Google Play store now.

Learn more about the Mobile App.

Troubleshooting Zip Issues With Desktop Application

Some people have run into problems decompressing zip files using the Desktop application on macOS due to disk access permissions. We've updated our documentation to help you troubleshoot this issue and fix your system permissions.

Read more about Troubleshooting the Desktop Application.

Better Feedback Using CLI for Syncs

We've updated the CLI to display more feedback about the comparisons made while syncing a folder. This gives more reliable estimates of how long a sync will take to complete. Update your CLI to the latest version to take advantage of the new stats display.

Learn more about Synchronizing Files and Folders with the CLI.

Improved User Creation Form

We aim to provide administrators with powerful and convenient tools for managing your site, and to do it in a way that is delightful to use. This month, we redesigned the Create User page, and we believe it will make manually creating users faster and provide a better overview of the available choices for each user account. Your site already has this new form available now.

Learn more about manually Creating Users.

Easily Clone Entire Folders

We've added one-click access to create a copy of a folder within the same folder. The new folder will have the original folder's name followed by - copy. No action is required to enable this feature in the web interface.

Learn more about the File Manager.

Site-wide Share Link Expiration Setting

The web interface now displays a warning if there are any existing Share Links that would be immediately expired by changing the site-wide expiration limit. No action is required to enable this warning; it will be displayed when you change the stetting, if there are any links that would immediately expire.

Learn more about Share Link Security.

Email Notifications Table

As requested, we have added a Triggers column to the table on the Email Notifications page, so you can see which file activities should cause an email to be sent. Along with our Outbound Email Logs, making more information available in the table helps with tracking down the eternal question of "Why didn't I get an email?". No action is required to enable this column.

Learn more about Email Notifications.

Markdown Formatting Guide

Numerous settings within the web interface support the use of Markdown. We've compiled a guide that demonstrates the formatting options available to you, whether it be in your site header or footer, clickwrap body text, or text that is displayed to Share Link or Inbox visitors.

Learn more about using Markdown Formatting with your site.

SDK READMEs Updated To Clarify Use Of Base URL

The Ruby, Python and .NET SDK READMEs have been updated to better explain the intent of the Base URL configuration parameter - i.e., to handle connecting when global acceleration is disabled for your site or when you are connecting to a mock server for development/CI. This is purely a documentation change, so you do not need to upgrade your SDK.

Learn more in Github.

Developer Documentation Updates

We've spent lots of time working on our Developer Documentation site this month. The introductory overview text for each language has been updated to make it more relevant to the SDK or tool you're using to connect. We've re-organized the API resources (all 50+ of them) into categories that reflect our Web UI and product documentation. We've also added even more tools to the documentation, including Zapier and our new Terraform provider.

Check out the Developer Documentation.