This page describes how to download more than one file or folder at a time via the Files module. The files and folders selected for a bulk download will be compressed together into a single ZIP file and saved to a user's local computer. (To download an individual file, simply click on the file title -- if the site has been configured to download files that way -- or click Download from within the file actions menu.)
The bulk download option must be enabled by a site administrator for a specific site, in order for the bulk download option to be available. If enabled, the bulk download capabilities are available to any user who has access to the Files module but each user can only download the files and folders they can view.
Even if this feature has not been enabled, site administrators will always have access to the Download option, even if Digital Rights Management options have been enabled
This feature is not available users if the Online Viewer Digital Rights Management feature is enabled.
Simple bulk downloads
In the column and list views of the Files module, in the righthand pane there is a checkbox next to every file and subfolder in the currently selected folder:
To download any of the files and subfolders listed, select the checkboxes next to the appropriate items, then click More Actions > Download:
The system will generate a ZIP file with all of the selected content
If a folder is selected for download, then all of its content, including any files and subfolders will be downloaded as well.
The ZIP file will maintain the folder structure of the content of any folders selected for download. To download all of the files and folders in a site, select the checkbox next to the root folder and then click Action > Download.
At the top of the panel is a checkbox, next to the name of the currently selected folder. You can use this checkbox to check (or uncheck) all of the files and subfolders of the currently selected folder.
Configurable bulk downloads
The Files module contains another view of its contents - the index view, which can be selected by clicking Index within the bottom left-hand side panel:
The Index view shows all of the files and folders in the sites in a tree view:
Use the checkboxes to select the files and folders to be downloaded in bulk, then click Actions > Download. One difference from the simple bulk download is that a subfolder can be opened (by clicking on the + icon) and only certain pieces of its contents can be included in the bulk download. Selecting a file or folder will not automatically select the top-level folder (aka the root folder, which has the same name as the site). Nor will selecting a file or subfolder automatically select the parent folder as well. Unless the user expressly chooses to include the full folder path; only the selected files and folders will be included in the bulk download.
To select all of a site's contents, select the checkbox next to the top-level (aka root) folder. To select a folder and all of its content, select the checkbox next to the folder's name. Exclude any file or subfolder by deselecting it within the list.
After clicking Download, a window will be displayed with certain options. (Some options are only available for administrative users, depending on how the site has been configured.) And Include Special Characters and With auto-numbering will be automatically selected.
Determine what options to enable for the bulk download:
- Include folder structure: When this option is enabled, the immediate parent folder of any files selected for download will be included in the ZIP file.
- Include root folder: When this option is enabled, the Include folder structure check box option is also selected. The full path to all selected content will be included in the download, including the root folder - which is the name of the site.
- Include all draft: Whether or not to include only the most recent draft of each document. This option will only be displayed if versioning has been enabled for the site.
- Include special characters: Windows and other operating systems do not allow certain characters to be included in file and folder names (like / ? < > : * | "). However, Collaborate does allow these characters. By default, when a document is downloaded with one of these illegal characters in its name, these characters will be converted to an underscore. If the Include special characters checkbox is selected, then only the HTML version of the bulk download will display the illegal characters.
- HTML navigation: With this option unselected, the files will be saved as a folder tree with the full directory structure left intact. With this option selected, the files will be saved in a flat file format and an extra HTML file will be included that makes it easy to navigate to the downloaded content in a browser. One advantage of the HTML version is that file paths are not limited to the 260 characters found in the Windows operating system. Also, with the HTML version - illegal file characters can still be included in file names. This option is typically used when the file paths length in the site exceeds the length permitted by Windows.
When HTML navigation is selected, the entire folder structure, including the root folder, will be included in the HTML navigation
Other options will be displayed based on the site settings, including:
- Download original files: When the files in the site have been converted to PDF, users with access to the native file versions will see this option.
- With auto-numbering: If auto-numbering has been applied to the site, the user can choose whether or not to include those numbers in the downloaded content.
If the user has not selected the HTML navigation option, a window will be displayed indicating whether there are any long file paths in the site that might be problematic if the downloaded ZIP file is extracted to a Windows computer:
If any files are identified as having a long file path, the user may wish to download the files using the HTML navigation option. The other option is to rename files and folders to shorten any affected file paths.
Once the user clicks Continue, the ZIP file will start to download directly to the user's computer, with the browser showing a running total of the size of the ZIP file. This can be seen in different ways in different browsers. For example, in IE9 it shows like this:
Opening the file
Locate the file; store where it was saved on the local computer. The ZIP file will always be given a name that matches the name of the site, with a ".zip" suffix (like "Acme Merger Deal.zip"). Uncompress the contents of ZIP file using the unzip software installed on the computer.
Operating systems impose a limit on the length of the path of any filea and in Windows this limit is approximately 260 characters. When the ZIP file is unzipped, the path length is the sum of the length of the file path of each document in the ZIP file and the location on the computer where the file is unzipped, including the drive letter (e.g. "C:"). Therefore, if the path length of the documents in the ZIP file is long, unzip the file to a location near the root of the hard drive, to create the shortest path possible and keep it under the 260-character limit. This is only a concern with the regular version of the bulk download, as the HTML version saves the documents in a flat structure.
Because there is no limit on path lengths inside Collaborate, the path length of a file may be in excess of the operating system limit when an attempt is made to unzip the ZIP file. In that case, WinRAR and 7zip can be used to open a ZIP file that contains paths above the Windows file limit and extract individual files that could otherwise not be unzipped.
Using the regular version of the bulk download
The non-HTML version of the bulk download simply recreates all of the documents and folders in a regular directory structure. If the user had selected to include all versions, then every document name would have appended to it "(Version #)," to distinguish the different versions from each other.
If two files have the same name in the same folder (which is permitted in Collaborate), then the second file will be renamed and have "_2" appended.
Using the HTML version of the bulk download
If the user selected the HTML option, the ZIP file will include a file called index.html. Click this file to reveal the HTML version of the download (shown above), which will open in the user's browser. (First fully unzip the HTML-version of the file. If a user clicks on the index.html file from the unzipped file, the documents and folders in the ZIP file may not be listed in the browser.) In the ZIP file itself, all of the documents are saved 'flat', in a single folder called Documents and with each document given a name that is a combation of the document's unique ID and the version (like: "3561-2.doc"). If all versions of the documents were selected to be included, then every version will be included in the Documents folder but only the most recent versions are shown in the HTML page and can be opened from there. In the browser, click on any file name to open the file in its native application.
Downloading the files available to a particular security group
A site or system administrator has the option to download files that are accessible to a particular security group. When in the index view of the Files module, an administrator will see a Group drop-down menu, which lists all of the security groups in the site and by default has a value of All groups:
If an administrator selects one of the groups in the site, the list of files and folders below will be updated to only include the files and folders for which the selected security groups have at least view access rights. This permits an administrator to step into the shoes of any security group for two purposes:
- Firstly, if an administrator needs to prepare a bulk download that is limited to the files available to a certain security group, that can now be accomplished.
- Secondly, if an administrator needs to quickly determine which files and folders a given security group has access to.
The other options on this page, e.g. Exporting an Index and Print and Bulk Print etc. are subject to the same restriction, therefore, selecting a particular group from the drop down menu will change the content revealed by accessing those options.
Bulk download with watermarks on and with DRM enabled
As of 5.4, users can now bulk download with watermarks on, and with DRM enabled.
To enable this functionality, navigate to your profile drop down and click System admin:
The System admin screen is displayed. Within the System admin screen, navigate to System settings:
The System settings screen is displayed. Within the System settings screen, navigate to My files settings > Default DRM setting:
Within the drop down menu, select Download, view and print to enable this functionality.
Click Save to save your changes.
