Collaborating on Files
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Collaborating on Files

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Article Summary

You can invite co-workers, external users, or groups of users to collaborate on a folder or file with you. Collaborators will receive an email notification inviting them to collaborate on the project. They can then view or edit files in the project and add files and folders to the project, depending on the permissions assigned to them.

Shared folders are presented to collaborators with the name of the folder owner as part of the name. The storage consumed when sharing a folder with other users is taken from your storage quota. Team projects are shared equally by the collaborators and therefore your name is not displayed as the owner as part of the folder name. So that you can create a team project that does not use personal storage, you can request from a CTERA Portal administrator that a folder in the cloud drive be a team project with the storage allocation taken from the storage provisioned for that team CTERA Portal and not from your storage quota. For details, see Collaborating on Content Without Using Your Storage Quota (Team Projects).

To share a file or folder:

  1. Select a file or folder in your cloud drive and click the Share this folder/file icon image.png.
    If the file or folder is owned by you, the following Share window is displayed.
    image.png
  2. Select whether to invite a single user image.png or group image.png.
  3. Enter the user or group to invite: an email address, user name, or user group name. Users that you frequently share with will be auto-completed after you type only a few characters of the name or email.
    image.png
  4. You can manage the collaborator permissions.
    • Click image.png and choose the relevant permission as No Access, Preview Only, Read Only or Read/write.

      Note

      This icon changes depending on default permissions level. For example, the preview icon is displayed for the Preview Only permission level.

      When you share a folder, all the files in the folder inherit the folder permission. If you share individual files in the folder, and change the permission to override the inherited permission, including to mark some files as No Access, the files are still accessible via the parent folder. The override permissions only apply when attempting to access the file as a separate share. Preview Only share recipients are able to view the file using the CTERA Portal’s integrated document preview server. Users with this permission are unable to download, copy, or print the file.

    • Configure an expiration date for the collaborator, by clicking image.png.

    • Remove a collaborator, by clicking image.png and then Remove.

    • For external users defined by email, define authentication settings such as email or SMS verification for increased security, by clicking image.png. The user receives a verification code and must use this code within 30 minutes before it expires.

  5. If the file or folder is not under Shared With Me, configure project settings by clicking image.png and select the options you want:
    • This is a team project – The folder is a team project. The folder is displayed in co-workers Shared with Me folder without your name. The storage used for this folder is taken from your storage allocation, unless the folder is requested from an administrator to use team storage, as described in Collaborating on Content Without Using Your Storage Quota (Team Projects).
    • Allow team members to reshare this folder/file – The folder or file can be reshared by other team members. If you do not want this folder or file reshared with additional people, clear this check box.
    • Allow team members to sync this folder – The folder can be synced to the computer of other team members. This option is only available for top-level folders.
    Note

    If the file or folder is under Shared With Me, you can leave the shared file or folder by clicking image.png and selecting Leave shared folder and then confirming that you want to leave the share. If you leave a shared folder, and then the folder is reshared with you, you do not see the share via the workstation CTERA Drive (Agent) unless you first log off the agent and then log back in.

  6. Click SAVE.

After sharing a file, the collaborator icon changes: image.png.
After sharing folder file, the folder icon changes: image.png.
An email is sent to the collaborators inviting them to access the file. Emails are also sent to Active Directory group members that are included in a collaboration.

  • If the email recipient has a CTERA Portal account, a team member, clicking the link in the invite goes to the item in the CTERA Portal. If the user is not logged in to the CTERA Portal a login window is displayed, otherwise the file or folder is displayed.
  • If the email recipient does not have an CTERA Portal account, an external user, clicking the link in the invite opens displays the file of the folder in a browser.
    Selecting the shared folder or file and then clicking the share icon opens the Share window, where you can change the settings. An additional option is available to resend an invitation, by clicking image.png and then Resend.
Note

Only files shared at the cloud drive root level are synced to the Cloud Drive folder on a PC running a CTERA Agent connected to the CTERA Portal.


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