File Access

This feature is currently in BETA. It may change before general availability, due to user and client feedback, but it targeted to be high quality and stable. Documentation may lag behind feature updates. Use in production environments at your own discretion. Please refer to our Upgrade and Release Process for more information.

What is File Access Control

File Access Control is a new permission system that stores access control information directly on individual files rather than relying on folder-based permissions. This approach allows to adjust permissions on a fine-granular basis and solves scalability issues with the current folder-based system where search queries become too long when users have access to many folders.

What This Means for You

As a business user, the file access control feature provides:

Improved user experience / control

• Adjust access permissions on a more fine-granular basis

Improved Performance

• Faster search results, especially for users with access to many folders
• No more timeouts when searching across large folder structures
• More reliable search experience
• System can handle organizations with thousands of folders
• No performance degradation as folder structures grow
• Consistent search performance regardless of folder count

Transparent Operation

• No changes to your daily workflow
• File uploads work exactly the same way
• Search functionality remains unchanged from your perspective
• All existing permissions and access controls continue to work

How it works

When a file is uploaded to a particular folder, the file inherits the folder access permissions. The user can then further modify the access permissions through file info side panel in the Knowledge Base.

Implications

Folder and file access permissions are managed separately. A user must have access to a folder and a file in order to access a file. A user who has only access to the folder but none of the files inside the folder, won’t be able see any files. Changing the permissions on a folder level might affect the file permissions.