Salesforce: Share Multiple Files in a Folder Using Public Links

In Winter '19, Salesforce introduces a new feature for the ability to share files in a folder to the public. Here is the article Share Multiple Files in a Folder Using Public Links. This feature is available only in Lightning.

This is pretty similar to Content Deliveries in classic, but public links let you share documents easily via links, but without password protection, expiration, or usage tracking.

Here are a few things you need to check to enable this:

1. Content Deliveries and Public Links
Make sure you see this menu in setup page, otherwise reach out to Salesforce support to enable it.

Once you in Content Deliveries and Public Links, enable this "Public Links can be enabled for users (Requires Content Deliveries)".

As you see from above this also requires Content Delivery.


2. Content Permissions
Search for Content Permissions under setup menu (until Spring '19 release - this only available in Classic, so you need to switch back to Classic). This will allow you to add, edit, and delete Library Permissions - a Library Permission is a set of user privileges for Salesforce CRM Content libraries.

Click Edit on Library Permission Name and enable Deliver Content.

If you do not see Deliver Content action, reach out to Salesforce support to enable it.


3. Create Library (optional)
This step only needed if you need to create a new library, make sure you have the appropriate permission to create Library.

4. Create Folder
Once you are in the library, click New Folder button to create a folder.

5. Create Public Link
Without correct setup and appropriate permission, the user will not able to click a public link for sharing.

Once all setup correctly, you will see Public Link option from the drop-down menu for the folder.

Note: if you delete and recreate the public link, the URL will be changed.

Once you uploaded files, here is the final result, the content accessed from the public link will be updated in real-time.

If you see a blank screen when open the public link, there is a known issue which will be fixed in Spring 19 release <-- update this has been fixed in Spring 19 release.



Reference: Share Multiple Files in a Folder Using Public Links

Salesforce: File and Content report type

Run File and Content Report report type to analyze how users are engaging with files and Salesforce CRM Content, however, this report type will not show custom fields created in the Content. You can use Content Report report type to report all content, including the Library Name and Content Custom fields, however, Content Report report type will not tell you the content and file download history and versioning.

Let me take a screenshot of fields available from File and Content Report

If your report contains fields only in the red box, the report result will not tell you the download history and version for each file. So, if a file has multiple version, it will show only the latest version as # Versions and # Size (MB).

Now, let us add "File Version" from green box.

See that the 1st file have 4 version and show as different lines, but note that Size (MB) for each line is the file size of the latest version, not file size of each file.


Next, let us remove "File Version" and add "Download Date" from the blue box.

Each download will appear as a line with the download date time, downloaded by, and user type.


Last, let us add back "File Version" to the last report.

The primary lines here is still "download", file version added will tell you the version of the file downloaded by someone and when. This report will not show all file version.


Reference: File and Content Reports

Salesforce: Library Subscriptions

In previous blog, we discussed how easy to subscribe contents we are interested in. We can subscribe content: Library, Content Pack, File, Author, and Tag.

In user detail, we can set to get the notification immediately after content change, or just once a day as daily digest.

But, over the time, we may subscribe to too many content and you would like to unsubscribe some of them since it no longer relevant.

To easily see all Contents you subscribe to, just click Subscriptions tab, if you do not see this tab, click + tab to show all tabs available for you and look for Subscriptions, if you still do not see it there, consult your Salesforce system administrator.

In this tab, it will list all Contents you subscribe to:

• Content - show all File and Content Pack you subscribed
• Tags - show all Tags you subscribed
• Authors - show all Authors you subscribed
• Libraries - show all Libraries you subscribed

In this page, you also able to unsubscribe the content subscribed by click the orange icon before Content title.


Reference: Salesforce Subscribe Library

Salesforce: Subscribe Library

Library is a great feature in Salesforce.com to publish and share official corporate files with co-workers. You can upload any type of files for up to size of 2 GB for each file. To access library, simple click Libraries tab, if you not see it, click + tab at the most of the tabs.

To access Library, user need to have Salesforce CRM Content User enabled, for system administrator to enable this permission, go to user personal detail. User without this permission will get error message when they click Libraries tab - "Insufficient Privileges
You are not a licensed Salesforce CRM Content user. You do not have the level of access necessary to perform the operation you requested. Please contact the owner of the record or your administrator if access is necessary."

Tips: if you are system admin and would like to enable this to ALL of your users, go to Setup | Customize | Salesforce Files | Settings | Salesforce CRM Content, make sure Enable Salesforce CRM Content is ticked to enable Library feature, and tick Autoassign feature licenses to existing and new users to enable all existing and new user created auto enable with Content Library permission.

Only user with Create Libraries or Manage Salesforce CRM Content permission defined in the Profile or Permission Set able to create new library. When this permission enabled for particular user, user will see New button in My Libraries section.

Subscribe Content
If you are not aware, you can subscribe Content in Library, you will get email notification with the content you subscribe to:

• If you subscribe to a file, you are notified when a viewer adds comments to the file or when a new version of the file is published. If you subscribe to a Web link or Google doc, you are notified when comments are added but not when the link is changed or the doc is edited.
• If you subscribe to a content pack, you are notified when a new version of the pack is published. Unless you are subscribed to the individual files within a content pack, you are not notified when new versions of the files are published.
• If you subscribe to a tag, you are notified of any newly published content that is associated to the subscribed tag. To be notified that new versions of the tagged content are available, subscribe to the content.
• If you subscribe to an author, you are notified when the author publishes new content. To be notified that new versions of an author's content are available, subscribe to the content.
• If you subscribe to a library, you are notified when new content is added to the library, including existing content that has been newly linked to your subscribed library. To be notified that new versions of the library content are available, subscribe to the content.

If you see Subscribe icon in orange, that mean you have subscribe to that content, if the icon grey, click it to subscribe. Sample of screenshot for Library subscribed and not subscribed.

Not receive Notification email
If you have subscribe to a content, but do not receive any email. Check following, go to your user detail: Click your name | My Settings | Personal | Advanced User Details
Make sure Receive Salesforce CRM Content Email Alerts is tick. Also check if you have Receive Salesforce CRM Content Alerts as Daily Digest ticked, if yes, you will just receive email once a day, so do not expect to get an email immediately when someone upload a file to the library you subscribe to.

Mass update CRM Content Alerts
As a system administrator, you can mass update above fields using Data Loader in User object:

UserPreferencesContentEmailAsAndWhen
When false, a user with Salesforce CRM Content subscriptions will receive a once daily email summary if activity occurs on his or her subscribed content, libraries, tags, or authors. To receive email, the UserPreferencesContentNoEmail field must also be false. The default value is false. This field is for label "Receive Salesforce CRM Content Alerts as Daily Digest"

UserPreferencesContentNoEmail
When false, a user with Salesforce CRM Content subscriptions will receive email notifications if activity occurs on his or her subscribed content, libraries, tags, or authors. To receive real-time email alerts, set this field to false and set the UserPreferencesContentEmailAsAndWhen field to true. The default value is false. This field is for label "Receive Salesforce CRM Content Email Alerts"

UserPermissionsSFContentUser
Indicates whether the user is allocated one Salesforce CRM Content User License (true) or not (false). Label is Salesforce CRM Content User. The Salesforce CRM Content User license grants the user access to the Salesforce CRM Content application. This field is for label "Salesforce CRM Content User", do not need to worry this one if you have enable "Autoassign feature licenses to existing and new users" explained above.

Sample Email Notification

Daily digest is on - user will receive email notification for all Contents subscribed once a day.

Daily digest is off  - user receive email notification for every changes on the Content subscribed.

Reference:

• Viewing and Editing Content Subscriptions
• Creating Libraries
• Managing Libraries
• Managing Library Permissions

Salesforce: Content Architecture

Before discussing Content in Salesforce, it is good to have a look for a few objects related to Content:

ContentWorkspace

This object is labeled as Library in the user interface with the key prefix 058, it represents a public library in Salesforce CRM Content. This object is available in versions 17.0 and later. This object does not apply to personal libraries.

You cannot use API to create records in this object.

SOQL sample: SELECT Id,Name,Description,TagModel FROM ContentWorkspace


ContentVersion

This object known as File in the user interface with key prefix 068, it represents a specific version of a document in Salesforce Content or file in Chatter. The maximum number of versions that can be
published in a 24-hour period is 36,000. This object is available in version 17.0 and later for Salesforce CRM Content and versions 20.0 and later for Chatter files.

This is the object you need to point to if would like to mass load documents into Public Library. You can use API to mass load documents.

Sample of CSV file to mass load document:

 Title,Description,VersionData,PathOnClient,FirstPublishLocationId,TagsCsv  
 this is 301 file,"This is a test file, use for bulk upload",d:\temp\301.txt,d:\temp\301.txt,05850000000GwZBAA0,exam  

A few fields need to note from this object:

FileType, when you upload a document, Salesforce will determine the file type: CSV, EXCEL, LINK, PDF, PNG, TEXT, WORD, ZIP, UNKNOWN
If the filetype is Link, then the ContentUrl field will contain a URL, this is when you add a Website link to the Library.

FirstPublishLocationId, this field refers to where the first-time document publishes, it may be an object, user, or a Library (which is ContentWorkspace).

ContentDocumentId & VersionId, when you load a document to ContentVersion, Salesforce will automatically create a record in ContentDocument. But, when you upload a new version of the document, a new record for ContentVersion will be created, but not for ContentDocument

SOQL sample: SELECT Id,ContentDocumentId,VersionNumber,Title,ContentLocation,ContentSize,ContentUrl,Description,FeaturedContentBoost,FeaturedContentDate,FileExtension,FileType,FirstPublishLocationId,IsLatest,IsMajorVersion,Language,Origin,PathOnClient,PublishStatus,ReasonForChange,TagCsv FROM ContentVersion ORDER BY ContentDocumentId,VersionNumber


ContentDocument

This object is also labeled as a File in the user interface with key prefix 069, it represents a document that has been uploaded to a library in Salesforce CRM Content or a file in Chatter. This object is available in API versions 17.0 or version 21.0 and later for Chatter files. The maximum number of documents that can be published is 2,000,000.

You cannot manually create records for this object, it is controlled by ContentVersion.

Field to note from this object:
ParentId, Id of the library that owns the document. This record will be created automatically when you load a document or via the API for the first time. This field is available in API version 24.0 and later when Salesforce CRM Content is enabled.

For Content Document / Files in a Library, you will notice the icon when opening the File

SOQL sample: SELECT Id,LatestPublishedVersionId,ParentId,Description,FileExtension,FileType,PublishStatus,Title FROM ContentDocument order by ParentId

ContentDistribution

This object is known as Content Delivery in the user interface with key prefix 05D, it represents information about sharing a document. This object is available in API version 32.0 and later.

You can mass create records using API to this object.

SQOL sample: SELECT ContentDocumentId,ContentVersionId,DistributionPublicUrl,ExpiryDate,FirstViewDate,Id,IsDeleted,LastViewDate,Name,Password,RelatedRecordId,ViewCount FROM ContentDistribution


Reference:

• Uploading Content with the Data Loader
• How to share Content files with other libraries

Using Salesforce Content and Chatter File to share file

Two months ago, I wrote a blog on how to publish image or document to public using Salesforce.com easily using Document. It works well, but Document have some limitation, very basic and do not have security:
- Cannot set password protection
- Cannot set expiration date
- Do not have visibility on view count, first and last file viewed
- Do not link to a record in Salesforce
- Do not have build-in preview
- Do not have version capability
- Maximum up to 5 MB of file size, more information here
But, document still a good option to sharing file internally with security of access implemented in Folder.

In this blog, I would like to share using Content Delivery and Chatter Files to share file with public.

Content Delivery

1. Enable Content Delivery.
Contact Salesforce support to activate Content Delivery (if it has not been activated), don't be afraid as this feature is free. To check if Content Delivery is activated, navigate to Setup - Customize  - Salesforce Files - Settings - Content Deliveries, if you see Content Deliveries menu here, your instance already has been activated with Content Delivery. Make sure Enable content deliveries is checked.

2. Add Content Delivery related list to the page layout, example to Account.

3. From object (in this sample Account) page layout, scroll to Content Deliveries related list added and click button Deliver Content.

4. Choose a file to upload and follow the wizard, you can rename delivery name, set notification, expiration date, and password. If your file is Microsoft Office file, you have more option for Delivery Method.

5. Done. You can pass the URL to your business partner securely and you know if when he open the file.

Using Content Delivery, you can upload file size up to 2 GB, compare this to Document which only 5 MB. For more information on setting Content Delivery, click this link


Chatter Files

Another option to publish file using Chatter File.

1. To share via Chatter File, you need to activate in Content Delivery as well, see points above to activate Content Delivery.

2. After Content Delivery activated, make sure Enable Creation of Content Deliveries for Chatter Files is checked.

3. Once Enable Creation of Content Deliveries for Chatter Files is checked, to allow user to share file via link, add permissions Create and Share Content Deliveries for Chatter Files in user profile to allow user to share file via URL.

4. Go to Files tab, upload file. You will see a new menu Share via link

5. Done. URL created will have the same format with Content Delivery link.

For more information on sharing Chatter files via link, click here


Few items to note using Content Delivery and Chatter Files

1. Using Chatter File, you do not have option to download in PDF, enable password, enable expiration date, notification and timestamp when the file open.
2. Although file uploaded via Content Delivery will be in Chatter Files, but you will not have "Share via Link" menu option.
3. Both Content Delivery and Chatter File support up to 2 GB of file size limit.
4. Both Content Delivery and Chatter File support file preview.
5. Both Content Delivery and Chatter File allow you for upload new version. To upload new version for Content Delivery file, go to Content Detail Page in Chatter File.
6. To delete file uploaded via Content Delivery, go to Content Detail Page in Chatter File.

Reference:

• File Size Limits in Salesforce
• Setting up Content Deliveries
• Sharing Files via Link