Access control in the document archive allows the administrator to determine which users or roles should have access to view (or not view) folders and their associated files. The feature can be used in all objects in the property structure (buildings, rental properties, facilities, etc.).

• By default, all users have access to all folders in the document archive, as long as they have access to the building. If you want to restrict this, you must actively go in and grant access to folders.
• The green standard folders cannot be access controlled.
• Users with the Administrator role will always see all folders and content and can change access to all folders. Users with the Manager or Performer role have the ability to control access to folders they have created.
• If you don't have access to a folder, you won't see the folder at all, including underlying folders and files.
• You can control access at both the role level and the user level.
• If you move a folder into another folder that is access controlled, it will inherit any access to the new folder if these are more restricted than in the folder you are moving. Please note that users who are used to seeing the folder may lose access to it when it is moved. In order for them to get it back, they must gain access to the parent folder.
• If you remove all access to a folder, the folder will revert to being open to everyone.
• When a folder is moved under a restricted folder, you will be notified that you are about to move the contents under a folder that has restricted access controls. The purpose is to make the user aware that someone who currently has access to the folder may lose that access.

How to restrict access to a folder:

1. Right-click the folder you want to control access to and click Settings > Folder Access:
2. In the drop-down menu, you can choose whether an entire user role should have access to the folder, such as all administrators, or specific users. You can select specific users across user roles, and you can combine user roles with specific users.
   
3. Currently, Suppliers is not a separate role, but is included in the Ad-hoc user role. However, suppliers are grouped under specific users so that you can grant access to only suppliers by unchecking all of them.
   
4. In the overview, you can see in the column "Access controlled" whether a folder has restrictions. If your user does not have access to a folder, you will not see this folder either.

It is possible to copy files from the document archive into a work order. This is done by processing the AO / routine > Go to the comments and attachments tab > select the Documents tab > Add documents from archive. This will open a new window where you can check the desired files and click on “Add documents to work order and close the window”.

External upload can be used when you want external parties to upload documentation to your document archive, without having to create a user for them on your site. Right-click on the folder you want the external party to be able to add documents to and click "External upload". Then enter the email address of the person who should be able to upload documents.

The following is stated in the email they receive:

"Reply to this email (retain the original subject line) and attach documents to upload to the document archive. NOTE: Images must be added as attachments, not as part of the email itself."

When the recipient replies to the email with an attachment, the attachment will be uploaded to the folder you have chosen. You can also enter a custom message that will be included in the email, if the external user needs more context.

When a file is uploaded, the file is located in the folder with an X in the "Approved" column on the right of the list. This is to indicate that this is an external file that has not yet been reviewed. You can right-click on the file and click "Approve" and the symbol will change to a check mark, indicating that someone has viewed and approved the document.

The external user will be able to continue uploading documents until you close the access. To do this, right-click on the folder and click "more info". Here you will see all active accesses and can click "close".

If you need to upload many files and/or folders, you can use the zip upload solution. This allows you to upload one zip file that you have stored locally on your PC, instead of uploading files in one folder at a time.

Right-click on the folder you want to upload the zip file to, and select Upload zip file:

This will bring up the modal where you can upload the zip file:

If you want the zip file's folder structure and file contents to be uploaded to all builds, check the box next to "The files should be available to all builds".

You can also choose to check the box next to “Extract here”. What you choose here determines how the contents of the zip file will be extracted into the document archive in LAFT (if you choose “wrong”, you can always delete the file from the document archive afterwards and upload it again):

• Do not check “Extract here” :
  The zip file will be extracted “as is”, creating a folder with the same name as the zip file, and the folders you have in it (with any file content) will be placed under it. It will therefore look identical to your original file.
  In the example in the screenshot below, we have first created a file on the PC called “Test Skole”, built the desired folder structure in it, placed files in the correct folder, and then compressed it into a zip file.
  
• Check “Extract here” :
  LAFT can decipher the names of the folders in your zip file and check if the folder already exists. For this to work, the folder name in the zip file must be exactly the same as the folder in LAFT (lower/upper case, punctuation, etc. must be exactly the same). If a folder with exactly the same name already exists (under “General” in this case), the files will be placed in the existing folder. If the folder does not already exist, it will be created. This solution is therefore good to use if you have imported folders/files previously. This way you will avoid duplicate folders.
  In the example in the screenshot below, we have imported the same “Test School” file as above, but checked “Extract here” when uploading.
  
  What differs from the first example above is that the “Test Skole” folder is now the top folder, compared to “Test Skole.zip” in the first example above. If one or more of the folders had existed before, the folder would not have been created again, but the files would have gone directly into the folder with the same name.

Once you have clicked the “Upload” button, you will see a green confirmation box that the job is complete. You can then close the upload window and refresh the page once.

Regardless of whether you check “Extract here” or not, you will always be able to move the files to other folders after they have been extracted.

After uploading the zip file, you will sometimes see files named “.DS_Store” uploaded along with your files. These can be safely deleted from the document archive.
A .DS_Store file is a file created by the macOS operating system and is used to store folder display settings in the Finder. DS stands for “Desktop Services” and the file contains information about the location of files and folders in a particular folder, icon sizes, and other display settings. These files are usually invisible on Mac computers, and while .DS_Store files can be useful for maintaining folder display settings, they can sometimes become visible when shared with Windows computers or other Mac computers. They can also become visible when the folder they are located in is compressed and uploaded as zip files.