Files (and indirectly Folders as well) can be used to help control access to content in the Absorb LMS. Absorb provides Admins with varying degrees of access control over their content depending on how and where they upload an item in the LMS. The File distinction here becomes the difference between items that are made globally available and those that are only privately available.

Global Files

Files uploaded to the LMS via the File Manager are, by default, globally available. The Global File option is provided as the default so that a File can be immediately ready for more than a single application in the LMS if necessary.

While users of the LMS cannot search for any of Absorb's Global Files, the File's URL (when it is copied from the web browser window via the Preview File Action) can be accessed by any user of the LMS provided they have the item's address.

Global Files can also be accessed without a verified Absorb session. This feature can be used to accommodate various training scenarios. For example, a third-party application may need to directly access an uploaded File, perhaps in order to display externally created content to a Learner as part of their training.

Global Resources

The second type of widely accessible content are the Global Resources. A File uploaded to the LMS via the Global Resource tool is again globally available. In this instance though, it's access is limited only to those Learners that meet the File's configured Availability Rules. If a given user qualifies for access, then the File that makes up the Global Resource will be available to them at any time through the Resources tile of their Learner Dashboard.

Private Files

When it is important to control access to a File more stringently, Admins should designate their upload as a Private File in the LMS. Then, only Users with credentials to your portal are permitted access to the content - exclusively. Similarly to Global Files, the URL as copied from the Preview File Action, is what is exchanged between Admins and User in order to allow them to view a File's contents. Every Admin in the LMS can also go through the File Manager and directly access Private content if they need to work with actual File instead - regardless of which Admin added the Private File.

To make a File private, an Admin simply needs to set their upload destination to the Private Folder located in the File Manager. Additional Folders can also be created inside the Private File and anything stored in them will be Private as well.

In the event that an Admin may need to change a File from Global to Private (or vice versa), all they need to do is drag and drop the File from the old location to the new one.

Private Course Files

The second type of restricted access for LMS content is the Private Course File.

A File uploaded to the LMS as a Private Course File is again viewable to all Absorb Admins as a shared URL (by using the File Preview Action when inside a specific Course). Learners that are enrolled in the Course where the File has been added as a Learning Object or Learning Resource can also access it, but only through their lesson.

To access the actual File itself in the File Manager, the Admin must go directly to the Course where it was added. When inside this Course, the File Manager will show the uploaded item inside its own dedicated Folder. The Folder's File Path will be shown as: being located in the main 'Private' Folder; and then, inside an additional hidden subfolder named 'Courses'; and then, yet still one final level further down in a sub-folder which is named after the Course ID that Absorb generated when the Course was first created and saved.

Files: Global vs Private Access

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