Help > Working with Files

About Files

A file is an item, such as a document, photo, video, embedded content, and so on, that you want to save on Clearvale. You can associate files with multiple folders, make them viewable, share them with select people, communities, or networks, and use widgets to display them. Files of up to 100MB of any type are allowed.

DocuVault is offered by BroadVision as a premium service for Clearvale. Features include file versioning and file history. If you purchase this feature, your files will be versioned and you will see a history of actions taken on the file. See DocuVault Features for more information.

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Sharing Files

With Clearvale files, you have granular control and flexibility over which people, networks, or communities can see and perform actions on your files. When you upload a file, you set sharing values. Sharing indicates who can view and who can perform actions on your file, such as editing its content. You can choose to share a file with specific members, specific networks, or specific communities. You can also choose to share the file with a combination of these choices. For example, you might share a file with someone from another network in your ecosystem, with your current network, and with two communities in your network; all can have different share access, too. For example, you can choose Owner, View, or Edit access:

  • Owner access indicates that a person has the exact access to the file as the original file creator; do this to transfer ownership. For example, this can be used if the file creator will no longer be managing the file and you need to designate a new owner. 
  • View access indicates that a person, network, or community has view access only; no changes to the file can be made.
  • Edit access indicates that a person, network, or community can make changes to the file.

Additionally, when a file is shared, it appears in a person's, network's, or community's file interface under Shared with Me.

NOTE: If you create a network-level file, by default the file is shared with the current network; if you create a community-level file, by default the file is shared with the current community. You can update these defaults.

Also see Creating Folders.

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Accessing the File Interface

You can access files or add files at the network, community, or private level. For example, you can create a network-level file for a document that everyone in your company network should see; on the other hand, you might have a community-level file for a Human Resources document that only the HR community members should access. To access the file interface so that you can see existing files or add new files:

  • For network-level files, click More from a widget on the network home page. Note that your network administrator may decide not to include certain widgets on the network home page. You can also select the Files tab in the main menu to see network-level files.
  • For community-level files, click More from a widget on the page. You can also select Files from the Community Directory widget. Note that your community administrator may decide not to include certain widgets on a community page.
  • For your files ("My Files"), click More from a widget on your Profile page. You can also select the Files tab in the main menu.

Your page will look something like the following:

Options on the left-hand side of the screen allow you to filter your files. Selecting on:

  • My Files displays only the files that you created.
  • Shared with Me displays the files shared with you. See Sharing Files for more information about sharing before working with and creating files.
  • Everything I Can See displays files you created and those shared with you.

Additionally, you can use the drop-down menu at the top left-hand side of the screen to filter by file type. You can filter by:

  • All Files to display files of all types.
  • Documents to display files of type .doc, xls, and so on.
  • Pictures to display files of type .jpg and so on.
  • Videos to display files of type .avi and so on.
  • Audio to display files of type .mp3 and so on.
  • General to display files of unknown type.

Also see Creating Folders.

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Adding Files

Once on the page where you want to add the file, perform the following steps:

  • Click Add File.  
  • For network-level files and your files, you will see two sub-menus: My Files and Network Files. To add a network-level file, click Add File in the Network Files page. To add a personal file, click Add File in the My Files page. There are no sub-menus in the file interface for communities.
  • Use the radio buttons to select Upload or Embed.
    • If you select Upload, click the select box that appears and choose the file you want to upload to the network. Once the file is uploaded, you will notice that Title is auto-filled with the file name.
    • If you select Embed, an Embed Code box appears in which you can place an embed code for an external video or presentation. For example, you might want your community to see a useful YouTube video on SOX compliance, but your organization has blocked access to the YouTube domain for certain staff members. By copying in the embed code from the site, staff can view the video within the Clearvale professional network that you set up. When you choose Embed, select a type from the Type drop-down to indicate how you want the file filtered. Your choice also determines in what type of widget, such as the images widget, video widget, and so on, that your embedded file can appear.
  • If folders already exist, you can optionally add your file to a folder or to several folders by clicking on the folder name in the Folder selection box. If no folders exist and you want to create a new folder, see Creating Folders for more information.
  • Choose your Sharing settings.  
    • Type the names of members in Members with access to indicate the members with whom you want to share the file. If visible, use the drop-down menu to select the sharing access level (such as view, edit, etc).
    • Type the names of the networks in Networks with access to indicate entire networks with whom you want to share the file. If visible, click the checkbox to share with your current network.  If visible, use the drop-down menu to select the access level (such as view, edit, etc).
    • Type the names of communities in Communities with access to indicate entire communities with whom you want to share the file. If visible, use the drop-down menu to select the access level (such as view, edit, etc).
  • Check the General public checkbox if you have a public network and you want to let guest visitors see the file that you are adding.
  • Use the radio buttons to indicate Yes or No for displaying the file on the home page. Selecting Yes does not guarantee that the content will display on the home page; instead, it gives permission to the network administrator to have the content display on the home page.
  • Click Upload.
  • When done, go to your file in the file interface and:
    • Adjust the Flag setting for your file. This setting indicates the importance of an item. By default, the flag is set to normal. If you click on the exclamation point icon, you activate the flag and change it to orange, which identifies the file as important. This icon toggles between the two settings.
    • Adjust the Status setting to indicate if the file is In Progress or Completed. This setting is a toggle.
    • Adjust the Due Date for your file.
    • Select Edit if you want to add a file description or make other changes.
  • Note that you can upload multiple files.  After uploading a file, click Select More to upload additional files.
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Creating Folders

Folders in Clearvale are different from typical folder systems with which you may be familiar. With Clearvale, you can associate your files with no folders, one folder, or multiple folders. To create a folder:

To add a file to an existing folder, click one of the following:

  • Add to My Folders to add your own file to a folder.
  • Add to Network Folders to add a network-level file to a folder.
  • Add to Community Folder to add a community-level file to a folder.

When you create a folder, you determine the privacy settings for the folder. Your privacy setting options are:

  • For network-level Folders: Network Members.
  • For community-level Folders: Network Members or Community Members.
  • For personal-level Folders: Me (yourself) or Network Members.

You can also add sub-folders to your folders. The privacy settings of sub-folders are independent of the parent folder settings and you can change the folders with which your file is associated. Go to your file interface and find the file. Under the file name, you will see links to add the file to your folders. Select the location, for example, Add to My Folders or Add to Community Folders. From the folders selection click on the folder(s) with which you want the files associated. A selected folder appears in bold. You can select more than one folder.

To edit a folder:

  • Select Edit in the folders box on the left-hand side of the screen.
  • Navigate to the folder that you want to edit.
  • Type a new name in the folders name box.
  • Update the privacy setting.

A note about file privacy and folder visibility: It's possible that you might have a folder with the privacy set to Me and a file within this folder with the sharing set to Network Members; alternatively, the opposite might be true, where the folder has a privacy setting with greater access. No matter what the setting, file sharing and folder privacy are independent of one another. For example, if you share a file with a network or community, but the file resides in a folder visible only to you, the file is still shared based on the file sharing attributes you chose and the folder will only be visible to you.

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Editing Files

Using the file interface, access the file you want to edit. For information on accessing your files, see Accessing the File Interface.

  • Click Download. (If you are editing an embedded file, you will see different options.)
  • Use the dialog box to select the location to which you want to save the file.
  • Make your changes, go to the same file location and click Update.
  • Upload your revised file.
  • Optionally add any notes about the file, such as information about what you changed.
  • Click Save.

IMPORTANT: BroadVision recommends that you review the history log before uploading a new version of a file. The history log provides an audit trail of previous downloads, uploads, and user information. Verify whether or not another member has uploaded a new version since you began working on the file. If so, merge the changes from each file before uploading or you will overwrite another user’s work.

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Due Dates

The Due Date setting allows you to specify a due date for the file; this is an optional setting. To specify a due date:

  • Go to the DocuVault main page and locate the file with which you want to work.
  • Click on the value in the Due Date field and select a date from the calendar. Colors change depending on the length of time from the current date until the due date:
    • Green indicates that the file is 15 or more days away from the due date.
    • Gold indicates that the file is 8-14 days away from the due date.
    • Red indicates that the file is 7 or fewer days away from the due date.
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Deleting Files

You can only delete a file if you are the file owner. You can also delete files if you are a network administrator, even if you did not create them.

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DocuVault Features

When you purchase the premium DocuVault feature, you can retain versioning and history information on your files. With versioning, a copy of each discreet file version is maintained in case you need to role back to a previous version. With history information, you can view the following information for each file transaction:

  • Date and Time.
  • Action (file creation, file download, and so on).
  • File Version.
  • User who took the action.
  • Notes provided by person performing the action.

NOTE: Because embedded files are not uploaded to Clearvale, they are never versioned.

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