Uploading a file to a community

Add a file to a community to share it with community members.

About this task

The type of files that you can share depends on the type of community that you want to share the files with. A public community can contain only public files, and a restricted community can contain either public or private files.

A special case for adding files to a community has to do with adding files to Community folders. The following rules apply:
  • Only files owned by the community can be added to Community folders.
  • Files shared with the community cannot be added to Community folders and will show an error.
  • You cannot add a file from your desktop directly to a Community folder.
  • A community-owned file can only exist in one Community folder. Therefore, if you add a community-owned file to folder A, then later add the same file to folder B, the file will only show in folder B and is removed from folder A.

Procedure

Follow these steps to add a file to a community.
  1. Right-click a file name from Windows™ Explorer and select HCL Connections > Add to Communities.
    Alternatively, you can drag a file from Windows Explorer or from the desktop and drop it into the File folder for the target community, or paste a file to the same destination.
    Note: Dragging a file or pasting a file into a community directly uploads the file into the community instead of sharing it with the community.
  2. If you connect to more than one site, select the site to which you want to upload the file.
  3. Type the name of the community, and then select it. Or click the arrow icon next to the Community field and select a community that you are a member of.
  4. Choose one of the following:
    • Upload to community to upload to a selected community. Choose this option if you intend to share a file only with members of the community.
    • Upload to My Files and share with community. Choose this option if you want to share with colleagues who are not members of the community as well as sharing with community members.
  5. (Connections Cloud only) If you choose Upload to My Files and share with community, you are offered an option to share the file with people outside of the organization.
  6. (Connections Cloud only) Choose to encrypt the contents of the file.
  7. Click OK to upload the file.
    When you open the activity in Connections, your file is in the community.
    Note: A file that is shared with or uploaded to a community inherits the visibility of that community. For example, if the community is public all files within the community are also automatically public.

Results

If you want to add a file to a community that already displays in your HCL Connections navigation pane, expand the community list so you can see the Files folder for the target community and drag in a file to upload it to the community.