Vault structure

Every setting in the CtrlShare configuration that names a piece of vault structure is listed here. None of them can be filled in until the thing it names exists, so this is the work that comes before configuration rather than during it.

Create these in M-Files Admin under Metadata Structure, then point CtrlShare at them in First configuration.

Nothing has to be named the way it is named below. CtrlShare finds each one through the configuration, so an existing property that fits can be used instead of a new one. The single exception is the platform value, which is matched by name.

An object representing people

Sharing a document means naming the people to share it with, and there are two ways to do that. People as objects is the usual choice: the vault has an object type — normally Person or Employee — and documents point at those objects. People as M-Files users skips the object type, and the editors and viewers properties point straight at user accounts. That is less to build, but it only covers people who have a login, so it cannot share with an external contact.

Both can be used at once. Each kind of person is a separate person mapping with its own pair of properties — one for employees, another for external contacts.

A person object needs either an email address CtrlShare can hand to OneDrive, or a link to an M-Files user account it can read the address from. With neither, that person cannot be shared with. The user account link is also what lets CtrlShare tell that the person opening the document in M-Files is the same person it shared the file with, which is what the permission check and the licence count rely on.

If the vault has no Person objects yet

M-Files’ own Configuration Accelerator, part of the free compliance kit, includes a User Synchronization tool that creates and maintains these objects from your existing M-Files users. It saves creating them by hand, and it keeps them current.

Properties on every shared document

These go on the document classes you want to co-author, rather than on every class in the vault. Two of them name people, and you need one pair per person mapping: a vault sharing with both employees and external contacts has four, an editors and a viewers property for each.

Both URL properties should be multi-line text rather than text — these links are long enough to be truncated otherwise. Set each one’s Content to Hyperlink so it is clickable on the metadata card instead of being a string somebody has to copy out. CtrlShare writes the file properties itself: they appear when a document is checked out, and are cleared when it is checked back in.

A value list for the platform

Create a value list — External file platform is the obvious name — holding one item named exactly OneDrive for Business, and a single-select property that takes its values from it. CtrlShare looks that item up by name at check-out and refuses to continue when it is not there, reporting that the platform property is not set up correctly. One value looks redundant today; it is there so that a vault which later shares to somewhere other than OneDrive does not need its metadata structure changed.

What “required” means below

Required means required within the section the setting belongs to, not required for every deployment. The workflow, state and user group rows sit in sections a first deployment can leave empty, and become required only once a workflow mapping or a group whitelist is added.

CtrlShare binds 17 settings to something that has to exist in the vault, 8 of them required. Everything below is generated from the shipping application, so nothing it needs is missing from this list.

Object types

Create these first; classes and properties hang off them.

Needed for	Configuration section	Required
Person Object Type	Person mapping	Optional

Properties

The data type is not advice. A property of the wrong type cannot be selected for the setting at all.

Needed for	Configuration section	Data type	Required
External File ID	M-Files configuration	Text or Multi Line Text	Yes
External File URL	M-Files configuration	Text or Multi Line Text	Yes
Office URL	M-Files configuration	Text or Multi Line Text	Optional
External File Platform	M-Files configuration	Lookup or Multi Select Lookup	Yes
Track Changes Property	M-Files configuration	Boolean	Optional
Editors Property	Person mapping	Multi Select Lookup	Yes
Viewers Property	Person mapping	Multi Select Lookup	Yes
Email Property (optional if User Account Property is set)	Person mapping	Text or Multi Line Text	Optional
Name Property	Person mapping	Text	Optional
User Account Property (optional)	Person mapping	Lookup or Multi Select Lookup	Optional
Viewer Source Properties	Workflow mapping	Multi Select Lookup	Optional
Editor Source Properties	Workflow mapping	Multi Select Lookup	Optional
Share Message Property	Workflow mapping	Text or Multi Line Text	Optional

Workflows

One per object type that the application drives through states.

Needed for	Configuration section	Required
Workflow	Workflow mapping	Yes

Workflow states

States within the workflows above. Entering one is what triggers the work.

Needed for	Configuration section	Required
Workflow State	Workflow mapping	Yes

User groups

Needed for	Configuration section	Required
User Group	Whitelisted user groups	Yes

Generated from CtrlShare 2.26.8.0.

Check

• A document of a class you have configured shows the editors and viewers properties on its metadata card, along with the properties CtrlShare fills in. If they are missing, they were added to the property definitions but not to the class.
• The value list behind the platform property holds an item reading OneDrive for Business, spelled that way.
• A person object can be created with an email address, or with a user account link to read one from.

Next

• First configuration — point CtrlShare at what you have just created.