Improving the Files Field: Naming, Sharing, and Organization

[Lee_Denny]

@Edan

still think this needs to be way more accessible for non-technical users

agree with this

[Renato_Carvalho]

if you don’t mind, can you share the details of how you called the entity description and file from the API inside make?

[Viktar_Zhuk]

Hello @Edan ,

We have added url and urlExpiresAt to File entity in GraphQL. So If it suitable for your need, you can pull Entity with fields, rich text fields and file urls in one go.

You can explore our graphql editor here.

In my case the query look like this:

{
  findDbFilesNews{
    id,
    name,
    description {md},
    cover {
  		secret,
  		url,
  		urlExpiresAt
    }
  }
}

[Edan]

Thanks for adding those fields to GraphQL!

Any chance url and urlExpiresAt could be added to the regular query API schema (the one used in automations)?

Right now I’m able to get the file secret through an automation query, but I still need to make an extra HTTP call in Make to extract the CloudFront URL from the redirect.

If those fields were available in automation queries, I could handle all the data prep in Fibery and keep Make focused on just posting to social platforms.

Would simplify the workflow a lot.

[Viktar_Zhuk]

If you’re talking about query to ‘api/commands’ than there almost no chance it appears there. On the other hand if you’re using Automation Script Steps, AFAIK you can use there GraphQL query, see here.

Can you share your setup somehow? The words doesn’t do a good job here.

[nathan_jay]

A lot of improvements have been made over the last few months which is great. But I thought I should keep adding to this especially the “Organisation” of files to hopefully keep going.

We have entities that could have 20+ files attached but I don’t yet move them into Fibery because of the limitations.

Since the Files field can now be displayed a a List view (which is great):

1. If they look like Lists they should behave more like Lists. On click the file should open in side panel (I don’t like the lightbox). Maybe a CMD + Click could open in modal but default is to open in a side panel.
2. Add properties for files. Then the properties could display on the List view just like regular entity fields. This opens up a lot more options to wrangle with many files. e.g. the list can be filtered and sorted by modified date, person who uploaded, tag for doc category, stage “new” or “checked” etc, and have a Comments discussion about specific files for collaboration.
3. Separate permissions for file viewing v file download (some users are allowed to view the file but they cannot download the file). This is especially true for sensitive documents. Maybe this could be achieved somehow with this Lookup files field using relationships ?

Why I don’t like lightbox:

• Its jarringly different from the rest of the experience.
• Depending on the type of File there is different behaviour when you click. Sometimes the file downloads. Sometimes it opens modal. Sometimes it downloads file even if I click “Open in new tab”.
• I know that not all files can support viewing (please support at least Text/md) but the same interaction should happen when you click them.
• They could display like native “Documents” which display similar to an entity but without properties. Maybe the lightbox can be put in a frame?

And if the file type isn’t supported for viewing, then an error message with download option. This gives the user a way to “back out” or cancel and not download it if they don’t want to. Then it doesn’t matter if the file is supported for viewing or not, the same action will happen regardless i.e. Open a side panel and display either the file itself or a download button.

If you read this far

[Chr1sG]

@nathan_jay

Separate permissions for file viewing v file download (some users are allowed to view the file but they cannot download the file)

I’m not sure this can be technically possible (unless Fibery/the browser implement some kind of DRM system for files).
If a file can be viewed in the browser, then the user will have the option to save the file (using normal browser controls)

[nathan_jay]

I thought that might be a step too far!