When adding an Upload field into the Database Form Builder, users will be offered two Upload File Type options, each with their own different series of features. Those options are:
This article will outline these differences and assist you in deciding which option suits the database form you are building, as note that once this Upload File Type option is selected and the field is saved it cannot be changed.
Click on an option above, or a specific item in the list below to jump to that section or keep reading to learn more about the Upload field options within a Database.
Single File Upload
Prior to January 2022, all upload fields were Single File Upload fields by default, and the below listed functionality remains the same for these existing fields. As such, only one file can be uploaded to each of these fields. New Upload fields will need to be added if the Multiple File functionality detailed further below is desired.
Single Upload Annotations
This option can be enabled in the form builder settings for Single Upload fields and will enable our 'legacy' annotation tool for uploaded Images and PDFs.
Click here for more information on this feature.
Note that this option is not currently available for the Multiple Files Upload option.
File Type Restrictions
In the form builder you can restrict what file types can be uploaded to the Single File Upload field by selecting either Images or Videos from the File Type Restriction field that will appear when Single File Upload is selected.
Subsequent Image Validation Rules or Video Validation Rules can then be enabled, if required.
Note that this option is not currently available for the Multiple Files Upload option.
Image Validation Rules may include:
- File Format - Can be restricted to only allow one or a combination of ‘‘GIF’, 'PNG’, 'JPG’, 'JPEG’, 'BMP’, 'TIF’, 'TIFF’, 'SVG’, ‘EPS’, 'AI’, 'PSD’, 'TGA’ file types
- Width of images in pixels
- Height of images in pixels
Video Validation Rules may include:
-
File Format - Can be restricted to only allow one or a combination of ‘MOV’, 'AVI’, 'MP4’, 'MXF’, 'FLV’, 'F4V’ file types
- Width of videos in pixels
- Height of videos in pixels
- Frame Rate - Can be restricted to one or more of ‘24p’, '25p’, '30p’, '48p’, '50p’, '60p’, '72p’, '120p’, '300p’ options
- Auto Sampling Rate
- Audio Bit Depth - Can be restricted to one or more of ‘8-bit’, '16-bit’, '20-bit’, '24-bit’, '32-bit’, '64-bit’ options
Use As Thumbnail
When the above ‘File Type Restrictions’ field is set to ‘Images’ in the form builder, an additional Use As Thumbnail option may appear. When enabled, the upload image will display as the record thumbnail in the record list. Only one field in a form can be set as such, so if this does not appear it means another field is already enabled to represent the Thumbnail for the records in this database.
You can read more about this option here.
Note that this option is not currently available for the Multiple Files Upload option.
Multiple File Upload
Select or Drag and Drop Multiple Files
A simple but key difference between the Single File Upload and the Multiple File Upload options, is that the latter allows for multiple files to be added, either by selecting them from your desktop, or by dragging and dropping them into the field.
The current limit to the number of files that can be added in total to a Multiple File Upload field is 50. There is however no limits to the number of Multiple Upload fields that can be added to a form. (Please just note general loading performance may be impacted the more multiple upload fields may exist in a form.)
Thumbnails will be generated for uploaded supported images that are smaller than 5MB.
Note that records cannot be saved or submitted while files are still uploading. Once finished uploading, the record must then be saved or submitted for the below functionality to apply for files in either View Record or Edit/Update Record mode.
Auto-Save Files when Updating Records
This feature can be enabled in the Database Settings page when adding a new Database or editing an existing one. Just enable the setting: 'Auto-Save Files on Updates' and when new files are added to Multiple Upload fields when editing your records they will automatically be saved, keeping you on the same page without needing to save/submit the record first. This will then allow you to start utilising features such as General Markup Comments, File Approvals, or Publish to Folder without delay.
There are a few things to note before enabling this feature for your database:
- This feature is strictly only supported on record update (edit, or continue of staged database record.) This is because a record needs to exist before a file can be saved to it.
- Likewise, a multiple upload field has to exist in the record before Auto-save will work - this excludes any potential multiple upload field that may conditionally appear during the updating of a record, or for when the field may reside in a duplicable section that is added but has not yet been saved.
- When more than one file is added at the same time during an update of a record, Auto-save will occur in batches once all added files have finished successfully uploading. (This includes across more than one multiple upload field).
- If any files have been removed during the update of the record, and then new files are added in, the removed files will be deleted at the same time the new ones are Auto-saved.
- It is also important to note that if a record publish workflow is enabled for a database that also has Auto-save enabled, then the added files will bypass the approval request: this is to say that files that are auto-saved will then appear in the record for all users who can access it right away, and will not be published pending approval like other potential changes to the record data.
Preview
Once a record is saved or submitted, a preview will be generated for certain file types.
The currently supported file types for preview within the multiple upload field are:
- DOCUMENTS: 'pdf'
- IMAGES: 'jpg', 'jpeg', 'png',
- VIDEO: 'mp4',
- AUDIO: 'ogg', 'mp3', 'wav', 'flac'
The number of supported file types will expand in time.
Previews can be accessed by clicking over the thumbnail of these file types. A hover will inform users when files are unsupported for preview.
File Details
After saving or submitting a record with uploaded files details of the user who uploaded it, as well as file format, file size, and file dimensions (if file is an image) will all appear under the file name and alongside the thumbnail.
Expand File List
When more files exist than can be shown in the field's native height a 'Show All' link will be displayed in the field footer:
Clicking this will expand the file list to show all uploaded files.
'Show Less' can be selected to collapse the list back down to a more condensed view (in this stage, any files not shown can still seen via scrolling within the condensed field state.)
Remove Files
Files can be removed from the field by either the user that has just added it (in case they have uploaded the wrong file by mistake) or in subsequent Edit of the record by any user that has permission to do so. For the latter scenario, the record has to be saved or submitted for the removal to take effect.
Download Files
Once a record is saved or submitted, files can be downloaded by any user that has permission to either View or Edit that record.
Multiple Upload Field Notes & Restrictions
- The Multiple File Upload field and subsequent options are only available in the Database module (i.e. this is not available in the Survey module).
- Single Upload fields cannot be changed to a Multiple Upload field. A new Multiple Upload field will need to be added to achieve this. Likewise Multiple Upload fields cannot be changed to a Single Upload field.
- Duplicate files will be automatically excluded from being added to the same field (the same file can however be added into different multiple upload fields within the same record).
- Should added files fail to initially upload, they can be re-tried and re-processed until successful, or removed if file cannot be uploaded.
- The ability to add new files will be paused if your platform storage limit is reached. Please speak to the Customer Success Manager about increasing your storage should this occur.
- This field is not supported for use in IE11. IE11 users who access a record with this field will be greeted with messaging advising them to use another browser to proceed.
Publish to Folder
This feature allows users viewing or editing a saved or submitted record to select files within a Multiple Files Upload field to Publish into a Folder on their platform.
When this option is enabled in the form builder for this field you can set one of two options that will dictate the Publish Destination Folder for files:
- Allow User Choice - this will allow users to select a folder ‘on the fly’.
- Nominate Folder - with this option the folder destination is set in the form builder and 'locked' (users will only be able to publish into the nominated folder)
These options will be explored further below.
Files can then be selected to be Published to a Folder individually or in bulk (where applicable).
Files can only be Published to a Folder once. Resource data such as keywords, filters and Custom Upload Fields can be entered at this stage (and must be, if these fields are mandatory).
When bulk files are selected, this can be done on the individual file level or in bulk (much like Bulk Upload Resources functionality.)
If a Publish Workflow is applied on the selected or nominated folder, it will appear for these files upon Publish to Folder.
Once the file(s) are successfully published into a Folder, all Resource actions can then be applied as normal (Resources can be duplicated as an alias, moved, edited, etc.)
Note however that if the published Resource is edited (either name changed, or a new Resource Version is added) that these changes will not be represented back in the record. The file in the record will continue to reflect the name and thumbnail/preview that was originally uploaded to that location.
Once published as a Resource, the folder name will be reflected back against the file(s) in the record.
If the Resource is then moved, both the original folder and the current location will be reflected here.
If the resource is deleted, this will also be reflected against the source file in the record.
Additionally, any items that have been Published to a Folder via a workflow request tied to the selected folder will display the status for the request when it is Pending, Declined or has been Cancelled.
Published resources will also be auto-related to the record the original source file resides in.
Publish to Folder - Allow User Choice
When this option is enabled, users viewing or updating a record will be able to select any folder they have Publish or above permission on to publish into ‘on the fly’. The Publish icon will therefore be available for all users who can Publish into any folder.
Users can select a folder from a Folder Tree. Only folders the user can permission to publish into will be available for selection.
The tree logic will show folders the user has permission to at last view, up to a point in the branch where the user loses permission.
For example: If user has the below permission to a folder branch:
- Folder A - View permission
- Folder B - View permission
- Folder C - Publish permission
- Folder D - No permission
- Folder E - Publish permission
- Folder D - No permission
- Folder C - Publish permission
- Folder B - View permission
The user will only be able to select 'Folder C' to publish into. They will not see 'Folder D', or 'Folder E' (since they did not have permission to its parent 'Folder D').
In this scenario the user can still find 'Folder E' via Search.
When searching only folders that the user can publish into will be returned in the results.
Users with no permission to publish to any folder on the platform will not see any 'Publish to Folder' icon against these files.
This option may suit scenarios where all users who access the record are trusted to publish into the correct folder of their choosing.
Publish to Folder - Nominate Folder
In the form builder, the user setting this up can select any folder that they have preview or above permission to see (they do not have to have publish permission themselves to that folder to set it up).
The user navigate the Folder Tree to locate and select a folder. Only folders the user has permission to View will be displayed and any of these can be selected as the nominated destination folder.
If the user knows which folder they are looking for, they can Search for a folder instead.
In the saved or submitted record, only users who have Publish permission to the nominated folder will see the ‘Publish to Folder’ icon. This option will therefore be hidden from all other users.
When selected, users will be taken directly to the Publish to Folder page to add relevant Resource information (i.e., they will not be able to select a different folder).
This option may then be ideal for scenarios where the destination folder needs to be strictly restricted, or to only display this feature for select users (a folder that only Admins can publish to, for example).
Publish to Folder in Resources
Once published, the below info will appear at the bottom of the published resource details (ie, under filters, keywords etc) in the Info Preview page. They are:
Linked Record
- This will display the title of the record the file was published from, including the record’s sequence ID (where present).
- The word ‘Record’ here will display as per that Database’s custom record name (such as ‘Linked Brief’ etc)
Published From
- This will display the name of the Database the above listed record resides in
The values for both of these are links which will open in a new tab - permissions for the record and database will be handled upon these links being opened. (All users who can access the resource can see them, but will get access error pages if they try to open the links without relevant permissions).
If either record or Database are deleted the names will continue to appear here, but not as clickable links and with (Deleted) appended to end of the names.
Publish to Folder Notes & Restrictions
- Initially, when a resource is created on Publish to Folder, the file within the record and the resource will count separately towards platform storage. This however will be updated early into 2022.
- Once created, any edits to the Resource will not reflect back against the source file in the record. This is to say that should the Resource name or Version change on an edit, the original file in the record will not be impacted and will continue to display the original upload name.
- When File Approvals have been enabled for the upload field, then a restriction can be configured to only allow users to Publish to a Folder if the file has been approved. You can read more on this feature here.
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Please note that some of the terminology referenced above may appear differently in your platform as there are customisable terms. You can view related terminology here.
If you have any further questions about Upload Fields within your Database Forms & Records, please contact your Customer Success Manager.
RELATED:
Database Upload Fields - General Markup Comments
Record File Approvals - Tracking & Reporting
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