Collections are like personal folders to collect records. They can be turned into presentations, shared with others and can be used to upload files. Collections can be structured as a hierarchy.
Working with collections
There are multiple ways to create collections and add records to collections. The most common one is to use the little plus button on the lower left in the quick access. Click on the plus button to create a new collection on the top level. You can drag any collection on another collection to move the collection below another collection. Alternatively you can use the right click on a collection to create a new collection below the selected one (see options).
In the search result you can also use the right click on single records or on a selection of records to create a new collection on top level (“Add to new collection”) and add them to the newly created collection. When in the search result, you can also select one or multiple records and drag them onto a collection in the quick access to add them to already existing collections. Use the right click on single or multiple records in the search, go to “Remove from collection” and click on the collection you want to remove the records from.
When dragging records from one collection to another, you can choose if the records should be copied to the other collection (and remain in the opened collection) or moved to the other collection (and be removed from the collection you’re currently viewing).
To view the content of a collection side by side with the search result, open the collection and then click on the little icon on the upper right next to the “X”. Click the same icon again, to close the split view. Click on the “X” or the name of the collection in the quick access to close the collection.
Collection details
Click on a collection or presentation to open the collection and view it’s content.
You can choose between two views:
| View | Option | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Standard View | By default, preview images of the records in the collection are shown along with the standard info. You can choose between different preview sizes, etc. | |
| Compare View | In the compare view, the full details of the records will be shown next to each other. You can scroll left/right and are able to compare the files and/or the data of the records in the collection. | |
| Show | Choose if you want to show and compare both “Files & Data”, “Only Files” or “Only Data” of each record. | |
| Records per page | Choose how many records should be shown per page. A navigation will appear on the lower right. |
Collection options
Use the right click on a collection or the three dot menu in the collection detail to access the following options:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Select all (up to 1.000) | Select all records of the collection. Only works with up to 1.000 records, otherwise this option is disabled. |
| Show in Search | Shows all records of the collection in the main search so that they can be filtered. |
| Open in Fullscreen | Opens the fullscreen mode so that all records can be viewed. |
| Create Presentation | Turns the collection into a presentation. For all options see below. |
| Upload | Only available for collections with upload enabled. Click to upload files into this collection. |
| Download | Click to open download settings and download all files of this collection. |
| Export | Click to open the export settings and export all records of this collection. |
| Click to open the print settings and download a pdf file with all records of the collection. | |
| Share Collection | Click to open the sharing options. |
| Settings | Click to open the settings of the collection. |
| Rename Collection | Click to rename the collection without opening the settings. |
| Create New Collection | Click to create a new collection below the current collection. |
| Copy Collection | Click to copy the collection. |
| Delete Collection | Click to delete the collection. |
Collection settings
General
On the first tab some general settings, like the name and a description of a collection can be found.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Owner | The owner / creator of the collection. Will be set automatically when a user creates a collection. Can’t be changed. |
| Name | Name of the collection. Is shown in the quick access. |
| Description | Description of the collection. |
| Default View | Default view for the records in the collection. Will be used when opening a collection. See collection detail. |
| Short Name | Short name of the collection. Has to be unique. |
| Reference | Reference of the collection. Has to be unique. |
| Collection Link | The link to the collection. |
Sharing
By sharing a collection you can give other users, groups or anonymous users access to a collection and its content and grant them permissions they’d usually wouldn’t have. Collections can be shared with multiple users by adding multiple permissions.
Please note: users require the system right “Collection Sharing” to be able to share collections and they can only share the permissions they are allowed to (“grantable” has to be set for each permission they should be able to share with others).
Use the plus button on the bottom left and choose between:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Share with user/group/email | Choose this option when you want to share the collection with a specific user, a user group or with an email that doesn’t exist in the system yet. Only users with the system right “Create email user” are allowed to share a collection with an email as this creates a user account for the email. |
| Create anonymous sharing link | Choose this option when you want to create a link for external users that don’t have and don’t require a user account. Everyone who has this link can access the collection. |
For each share you have the following options:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| User/Group/Email | Choose a specific user, a user group or an email that doesn’t exist in the system yet to share the collection with. Only users with the system right “Create email user” are allowed to share a collection with an email as this creates a user account for the email. |
| Permission Preset | Choose a permission preset. Presets can be defined by administrators. If no preset is available, please use the additional options to set the permissions for the recipient. |
| Expiration Date | Define a date when the share should automatically expire so that the user will not be able to access the collection anymore. The expiration date can be adjusted afterwards. If no expiration date is set, the share is valid indefinitely. |
| Activate to send an email to the recipient (provided that the user has specified an email). | |
| Link | Either copy or open the sharing link. |
| Options | Open additional sharing options (see next table). |
The additional options include:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Active | Activate or deactivate the share. |
| User / Group / Email | Choose a specific user, a user group or an email that doesn’t exist in the system yet to share the collection with. Only users with the system right “Create email user” are allowed to share a collection with an email as this creates a user account for the email. |
| Starting Date | Define a date when the share should automatically start so that the user will be able to access the collection. If no starting date is set, the share is directly valid. |
| Expiration Date | Define a date when the share should automatically expire so that the user will not be able to access the collection anymore. The expiration date can be adjusted afterwards. If no expiration date is set, the share is valid indefinitely. |
| Persistent | Activate this checkbox to prevent this share from being disabled on a subordinate collection. |
| Send Email | Sends an email with the sharing link to the recipient (provided that the user has specified an email). |
| Language | Displays the language that’s used for the email. |
| Message | Enter a message that should be included in the email notification. |
| Permissions | Chose a permission preset or define individual permissions (only available for users with the system right “Allow to set custom sharing permissions”). |
You can change the order of the shares by using the drag handle at the beginning of each permission. This does not affect the permissions, it’s just a visual change. The shares and sharing links are valid indefinitely unless the expiration date has been reached, the share has been disabled (in the additional options) or the share was deleted (using the “minus” on the bottom of the sharing menu).
Use the “Copy row”, “Copy all rows” and “Paste rows” to copy & paste permissions within a collection. Copying an anonymous sharing link will result in a new sharing link with the same settings.
As an additional protection a pin code can be set for a collection. Users who open the collection have to enter the pin code to get final access to the collection and its content. The pin code has to be at least 3 characters long and can consist of numbers, letters and special characters.
By default, permission will be inherited by the subordinate collections, meaning the permissions you define for a collection also grant users access to the subordinate collections. Activate “Ignore permissions of the superordinate collections” so that the permissions are not inherited from above.
Use “Activate” to save the changes and prevent the dialogue from closing. Use “Save” to save your changes and close the dialogue.
Upload settings
Collections can be used to upload bulks of files. Files can either be dropped on the collection in the frontend or in the Hotfolder or File System Connect (without having to use the CollectionPro frontend). All files will be imported to CollectionPro and linked to the collection.
More details can be found in the following tutorials (coming soon) and below you find a detailed description of the settings:
- Difference Between Hotfolder and File System Connect
- Preparations Before Usage (fo system administrators)
- Setting Up an Upload Collection
- Importing Files
Settings
You can define if new records should be created for each uploaded file, or if already existing records should be updated with the uploaded file. Use the following settings to define the behavior of the upload.
To set up an upload collection, the user needs the permissions to create records and “read” permission for at least one pool.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Enable Upload | Enables the upload feature for this collection. |
| URLs | Open a http(s) URL with a webdav client. Browsers are not webdav clients. See our tutorials for more. URLs containing the word hotfolder are for Upload and URLs containing the word WebDAV are for File System Connect. |
| Object Type | Select the object type that should be used when creating or updating records. |
| Pool | Select the pool the files should be saved in. |
| Mask | Choose a mask that should be used. |
| Field for Files | Choose the upload field that should be used. |
| Metadata Mapping | Select the metadata mapping that should be applied when uploading files. |
| Method | Define what should happen, when files get updated to the collection. |
| “Create new records“: only create new records for all uploaded files. | |
| “Update existing records“: only updates existing records that were found by matching the filename (see below). | |
| “Create new records and update existing records“: updates existing records if found, otherwise creates a new record for the file. | |
| Field to Match Filename | Only available for method “Update“. Choose a field that matches with the filename of the uploaded files to update files of existing records. |
| File Upload Policy | Only available for method “Update“. Choose what should happen, when the records that should be updated already have a file. |
| “Create new preferred asset version“: uploads the file to the existing record, marks it as preferred and keeps the current file. | |
| “Create new asset version“: uploads the file to the existing records but keeps the current file as the preferred version. | |
| “Replace file“: uploads the file to the existing record and removes the current file. | |
“Refuse“: refuses the uploaded file if the record that should be updated already has a file. | |
| Method | Tags that should be set automatically when creating new records. |
Presentation settings
Collections can be turned into presentations by clicking on “Presentation” in the context menu of a collection. The content of the collection can be organized on slides, presented online and downloaded as a Microsoft PowerPoint file (.pptx).
Please note: to download the presentation as a Microsoft PowerPoint file, the plugin “presentation-pptx-plugin” has to be enabled in the Plugin Manager.
You can choose between the following slide types when adding new slides using the little plus button in the overview:
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Text only | Adds a new slide with a headline and a text field. |
| One record | Adds a new slide where you can place one record. |
| Two records | Adds a new slide where you can place two records next to each other. |
| One record & text | Adds a new slide where you can place one record and add a text next to it. |
| Add all missing records | Adds a new slide (type “One record”) for each (remaining) record. |
Slides can be deleted by clicking the little minus button in the overview whereas the little bin icon on the slide only removes the record from the slide. Use drag & drop to change the order of the slides. For records with multiple files, a little navigation appears in the lower left of the presentation and lets you choose the file you want to display. Add the same record to another slide to display another file from the record.
In the options of the presentation (click the settings icon in the overview) you can define if the standard info of each record should be shown as a caption below the record in the presentation (default) or not.
Click on “Start presentation” to enter the fullscreen mode and view the presentation in your browser. You can navigate the slides by using the keyboard (left & right and space goes to the next slide) or the “left” and “right” buttons on the bottom of the screen. Click on “Detail” to open the detail view of the shown record and access all available data. To close the presentation, click on the “X” in the upper right corner.