A Collection is a group of related Resources, possibly submitted by different people. A Collection has a custom email address that can be used to submit Resources to the Collection. Resources can also be assigned (or reassigned) to a Collection by the Resource owner through the registered user interface.

The list of Resources in a Collection may have accessed through a separate Collection URL if the privacy settings for the Collection allow, or from an external application through the API.

A Tag can be used to further categorize Resources within a Collection. For example, if you have a Collection with collection key sWk45Kp8x for purchase receipts, you could Tag the resources by their purchase order number, for example PO4761. You can optionally specify the Tag in the email address when you submit using a "plus address", for example sWk45Kp8x+PO4761@4thefile.com. Or, you can submit the Resource to the main submission address submit@4theFile.com and assign it to a Collection later via the edit link in the confirmation email, or through your account. The set of Resources in a shareable Collection that match the Tag could be seen at http://4thefile.com/collection/sWk45Kp8x/PO4761

Yes. A Resource submitted to sWk45Kp8x+PO4761+software@4thefile.com would be assigned to Collection sWk45Kp8x with both the PO4761 and software Tags.

No. "Thistag" and "thisTag" are considered to be the same tag.

That depends on the "privacy setting" you specified when you set up the Collection. If your Collection is "shareable", it has a URL with an unguessable random URL that can be shared with whomever you want, similar to how the Resource URLs are used. If your Collection is "private", it can not be listed through a browser except by the Collection owner. However, a private Collection may be accessed through the API with the proper API authentication credentials, allowing for controlled access to the Collection list from inside a third-party application. If your Collection has privacy setting "restricted", it can only be viewed by the Collection owner.

Your collection can have a "whitelist" to allow some people to submit messages to your collection without having to click the confirmation link in the notification email. If the submission "From" address contains any of the whitelist strings, the submission is automatically confirmed, and the notification message received by the submitter states that no confirmation is necessary. Whitelist entries are typically addresses such as jilldoe@gmail.com or domains such as acme.com.

You can, but you probably shouldn't. The submission step is an easy and effective spam-prevention method. If your collection's email address is ever obtained by a spammer, you may receive many pointless messages to your collection. However, the spammer will never follow the confirmation link, so the spam messages will always be deleted if nobody looks at them within 48 hours.

But, you might ask, how would a spammer ever get my collection address? Good question! If you've used the Internet for a while, you've probably noticed that spammers are pretty resourceful when it comes to collecting email addresses. A virus or worm programmed to infect a user's PC and search for the email address book is one possibility. A sad fact of the Net these days is that the more people that know your email address, the more likely it is to end up on a spam list.

If you insist... the whitelist entry containing only @ will match all email addresses.

You could use 4theFile to attach a list of emails to an indivdual object or database record in an existing application. Example: your help desk app issues "ticket numbers". You can set up a 4theFile Collection for the tickets, and Tag each Resource with the ticket number. Provide a link to the tagged Collection URL (e.g. https://4thefile.com/collectionkey/ticketnumber) from the ticket description in your customer service app, and voila... instant email integration!

No, and Yes. We automatically assign the unique and unguessable Collection key (used in the Collection URL for shareable Collections). When you create a Collection, you may choose your own email address for the Collection that's easier to remember (as long as it isn't already used in our system). If you don't choose an address, the Collection key will be used as the email address. Note that you can change the Collection's email address later, but you can't change the Collection's key

Anyone who knows your Collection email address may submit a Resource. However, that Resource doesn't necessarily show up on the Collection list immediately. If you've specified "moderation required" in the Collection settings, the Resource won't appear on the Collection list until you, as the Collection owner, have given it the "OK". If you've specified "retro-moderation", the Resource will show up on the list immediately, but you'll have the option of removing it. With either of these settings, the Collection owner receives an immediate email notification of a new Collection submission. You may also mark a Collection as "submissions closed" through the moderation setting.

Generally speaking, Resources are owned by the Collection owner. However, the originally submitter has a one-hour window after submitting the Resource during which they own the Resource, and can delete it, redact it, or change the Collection assignment. During that period, the Collection owner can remove the Resource from the Collection, but can not delete or redact the Resource until the ownership has been transfered (as indicated by a check mark in the "own" column on the Collection detail page). After the one-hour window, ownership is automatically transfered, after which the submitter can still see the Resource using the "Include All" checkbox on the Resource list page, but can no longer reassign, redact, or delete it. Note that the Resource always counts against the current owner's storage quota.

The Collection Date is the date the Resource was submitted to the Collection. This may be different than the Resource date, because the owner can assign or reassign an existing Resource to a Collection at any time.

No resource will be created. If you're not sure of the Collection email address, you can send to submit@4theFile.com and assign it to a Collection later.