How foldier works: sharing (part one)

In two previous posts we talked about how important the search feature is for foldier’s key organization mechanism, the smart folder.

Yet the power of searching in foldier does not stop there. Our search engine works within the smart folder itself, playing a fundamental role in the ability to share data, person to person. Here is how search works inside the smart folder.

After you have created a smart folder by saving a search you like, you can share the folder’s content with a contact. You click on the Share button in the upper right corner of the screen — across from the smart folder’s title — and up comes the share form, where you list the recipient and write a message.

You can use any email address. If the recipient already has a foldier account, his or her name will appear as you’re entering the email address. (More on the Contacts folder later.) When you enter the address of someone not yet a foldier member, the share also serves as an invitation to join foldier.

The recipient of your share will receive an email with your message and a link to a sign-in page. After the first-time recipient registers, he or she will be directed automatically to your smart folder.

The procedure is the same if you share a single file, a link or an entire smart folder. A smart share may contain items stored on Amazon S3, our computer hard drive, content from web sites like flickr or Facebook, news from RSS feeds, Internet links and any item type managed by foldier.

However, not all the items collected by a shared smart folder are visible to the recipient of a share. Remember: smart folders are active searches that constantly scan your content space for matching information. Smart folders may find things you don’t intend to share to others. This is why foldier gives you the option of marking your files and folders as Private, Shareable or Public.

Only the items with permission set to Shareable or Public are visible to others if collected by a shared smart folder.

If you have confidential items you link in foldier, do not change the default permission setting. Keep your item Private.

All the items shared to contacts are automatically available to their searches and to their smart folders. Consider this scenario.

The items I share with my friend Shelley will be organized within her account according to her logic and her set of folders. So a picture shared with her may end up in a smart folder she defined.

You can tell if an item you’ve shared is in other folders — by opening the property page of that item. In this example, the photo I shared with Shelley is now found in seven other folders.

So sharing with other people is one of foldier’s core function. Smart Folder shares automatically find and propagate information.

In our next post, I’ll have more on the benefits of sharing items via foldier — especially if you’re collaborating on projects or updating items frequently.

Michele Ursino