This article describes how to use shares in the DRACOON Web App.
In previous versions of the DRACOON web app, shares were called download shares. The word download- has been removed because the share web page now displays a preview of the shared file for many file types, making the download unnecessary in many cases.
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What is a share?
- A share is the public provision of a file, a folder or an entire data room from DRACOON for download (and for previewing image, video and PDF files).
- With shares, you can make files, folders, and data rooms from DRACOON available to people who do not have a user account in your DRACOON, e.g. to external partners or the general public - as well as to DRACOON users who do not have access authorization to the data room in which the shared item is located.
- For each share, DRACOON generates a corresponding share website. The shared element can be downloaded from DRACOON on this page. When sharing an image, video or PDF file, it can also be viewed in a large preview.
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The share website can be accessed via a unique address (URL) that DRACOON generates when a share is created. You can use DRACOON to send the link directly to the desired recipients by email or forward the link manually. The recipients then open the link in their browser.
The share website is automatically displayed in the language that the users have set in their browser (if a browser language is used in which DRACOON is not available, such as Chinese, the website is displayed in English). - Shares can be protected by a password, which must then be entered before access. (Shares in encrypted data rooms must always be password-protected).
- Numerous other setting options are available - for example, availability can be limited by an expiration date.
Settings defined when the share is created can be changed later if necessary.
What happens when you share an entire folder or data room?
- If you share an entire folder or data room, the users of the share receive the contents of the folder or data room as a bundled zip file for download.
- Subfolders in the shared folder or data room are also included, whereby the structure of the subfolders in the zip file is retained.
- Sub-data rooms of a shared data room are not included, as each data room is an independent element (with its own authorizations). If you also want to share sub-rooms, please create a separate share for each desired sub-room.
- The download of a shared folder or data room always contains the current status of the folder or data room at the time of the download. For example, if you save 3 new files in an already shared folder, these are immediately included in the download of the share.
- Folders from encrypted data rooms or entire encrypted data rooms cannot be shared. However, it is possible to share individual files from encrypted data rooms.
Create new share
- Select the file, folder or data room for which you want to create a share.
- Click on Share in the line on the right.
If you want to share an entire data room or folder in which you are currently located, click on the three-dot button to the right of the path bar and then on Share in the menu.
- The Share dialog box is displayed:
- In the Share dialog box, you can set an expiration date and a password for the share by selecting the corresponding checkbox if required.
Specifies that the share is limited in time. The date determines the last day on which the share can still be used. After that, the share is deleted (the shared element itself is of course retained in DRACOON).
If you do not set an expiration date, the share remains active until you manually delete it from the shares (left sidebar).Your configuration manager may have defined a default expiry period for shares. In this case, a corresponding expiration date is automatically set when a share is created (e.g. 30 days after creation). You can change or remove this automatically assigned expiration date for a new share if necessary.
By default, anyone who knows the link to a share can use it. If you want to restrict a share to a certain group of users, you can protect it with a password. The users of the share must then first enter the password before they can download the shared item or view it in a preview (for PDF files, images and videos).
To activate password protection, activate the Password checkbox and enter any password that meets the password guidelines in the field next to it. Alternatively, you can click on the
, to automatically create a random secure password, which you can then copy to the clipboard for sharing using the
button (to the right).
Special feature for encrypted data rooms: Shares of files from encrypted data rooms always require a password.
Password requirement depending on the classification (Policy): The configuration manager may have defined the Policy, that shares must always be password-protected if the shared item has a certain minimum classification (e.g. confidential). In this case, the password option is automatically activated and a password must be set for the share.
Additional setting: Send password by SMS
For security reasons, the password for shares should not be passed on together with the share link, but separately. DRACOON therefore offers the option of sending the password by SMS. If you want to do this, select the Send password by SMS checkbox and then enter the desired phone numbers to which DRACOON should send an SMS with the password in the Mobile phone number field. If you want to send the SMS to multiple phone numbers, enter them one after the other, separated by a semicolon (;).
SMS sending not available? If the Send password via SMS checkbox is not selected, then SMS password sending is not enabled for your DRACOON environment. If necessary, contact your configuration manager to activate SMS password sending in the settings to activate SMS password sending in the settings.
Restriction on sending SMS for encrypted data rooms: Please note that the password for shares from encrypted data rooms cannot be sent by SMS.
In these cases, you must therefore communicate the share password to the recipient manually by other means, e.g. via chat.The reason for this restriction is that the share password must be sent in plain text via the SMS gateway. As the password is also used to decrypt the downloaded files in encrypted data rooms, there would be a security risk here. DRACOON's strict security concept stipulates that decryption passwords must never leave the user's end device and must never be stored anywhere in plain text. This principle would be violated if decryption passwords were sent in plain text via SMS.
Password forwarding without SMS: If you do not send the password by SMS, please remember to communicate it manually to the intended users of the share, as otherwise they will not be able to use the share. For security reasons, it is best not to send the password together with the share link, but in a separate way, e.g. via chat if you send the link by email.
Name of the share. By default, this is the name of the shared item (file, folder or data room). However, you can also assign a different name.
The name is displayed in the overview of all shares (click on Shares in the left sidebar) and on the public website of the share.
A name must be assigned for each share - either the default name or a modified one.
Specifies that the name of the DRACOON user who created the share is publicly displayed on the share website.
In this way, for example, the contact person for the share can be communicated.
Specifies that no download button is displayed on the public share website. The recipient of the share only receives a preview of the file. This option is only available for PDFs, images and videos (mp4, mov).
Important: With a file preview, the file is downloaded to the user's device as the browser saves the file locally for display. This download is often only temporary. In addition, you cannot prevent the content of the file from being saved by other methods, such as screen recording.
Specifies that the file can only be downloaded a limited number of times via this share. You can enter the number of permitted downloads in the field that becomes visible after activating the setting.
The limit refers to the shared downloads of all users of the share. Once the limit has been reached, no further downloads are possible for anyone - unless you subsequently increase or remove the limit.
Multiple downloads of the shared element by a specific user, which are carried out by this user within a session (i.e. during a specific login), only count as a single download. This means that a single user can repeat a failed download immediately afterwards if necessary without this affecting the download limit. However, if the user logs in again to download the share, this counts as an additional download.
If you limit the number of downloads and share a single image, video or PDF file, it is not possible to preview the image, video or PDF file on the sharing page, only to download it.
Allows you to store an internal note on the share. Here you can document the purpose or intended user group of the share, for example.
The internal note is displayed in the overview of created shares for each share in the right sidebar and can be viewed by all DRACOON users who are allowed to use shares in the data room.
Example:
Specifies that an additional note about the share is displayed on the public website for the share. You can enter the text of the note in the field next to the setting after activating the setting.
You can use the note to provide users with additional information about the share, e.g. the purpose and content.
If you expect international users of the share, it may be useful to also add the note in English below the note in German.
- Click on the Create share link button to create the share with your chosen settings.
After creating the share: activate the notification, copy the share link or send it directly by e-mail
After creating the share, you can activate a notification for the share if required so that you are automatically notified by email when your share is used.
You can also copy the share link to the clipboard for forwarding or send it directly by email.
If you would like to be informed when your share is used (e.g. when someone downloads the shared file), you can activate the notification for the share. You will then receive a notification email every time the share is used (e.g. every time a file is downloaded via the share).
- In the dialog box that appears after creating the share, click the button with the bell icon to activate the notification for this share:
You can also activate the notification at any time later by clicking on Shares in the left sidebar, selecting the desired share and then clicking on Activate notification in the right sidebar.
At the same point, you can also deactivate the notification again if required by clicking on Deactivate notification. This is useful, for example, if the shared file is downloaded very often and you receive a lot of notification emails for this share, which you find annoying.
- In the dialog box that appears after creating the share, click Copy.
- The link to the share website is copied to the clipboard. You can now forward this to the desired recipients who should be able to access the share.
If you have set a password for the share in the settings and have not sent it by SMS in the settings, you must also manually forward the password to the recipients in addition to the link so that they can access the share. For increased security, you should send the password separately, e.g. by chat message, if you send the link by email.
Although you can manually insert the link for the newly created share into a draft email in your mail program and then send it, it is more convenient to use DRACOON's email dispatch function after the share has been created:
- Enter the e-mail address of the desired recipient in the Recipient field and press the ENTER key. Repeat this for all other desired recipients.
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A text for the e-mail is suggested in the Message field. Change the suggested text if necessary or add additions if required.
If the email recipients speak a different language, select the desired language in the language selection field. The e-mail message is then automatically sent with a subject in the selected language and the suggested message text is in the selected language.
The selected language only affects the email sent by DRACOON and has no influence on the share website - this is always displayed in the language that the user has set in their browser (possibly in English if the browser language is not integrated in DRACOON, such as Chinese). - Click on Send.
- DRACOON sends an email with the specified text and the link for the share website to the specified recipients.
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