Creating the Anonymous Portal

The anonymous portal allows your organization or clients to easily access documents in your repository such as newsletters, forms, or corporate policies without having the need for a registered user license or to login with a username or password. This method is extremely helpful when an organization wants to proactively have employees look at information. The portal alias users are given extremely limited access to the documents and features of FileHold. Portal alias user accounts are ideal for casual employees, external personnel, partners, or vendors that are not part of your internal network but that may require secure access to specific documents or areas in the library.

The portal is disabled by default for FileHold Cloud customers even if they have purchased a portal alias user. If you have configured your library and you are ready to start using the anonymous portal, contact [email protected] to enable your portal. Self-hosted customers are able to do this on their own, but can request no-charge assistance from the FileCare team. You will need Windows administration access during the configuration.

The anonymous portal is configured so that users are automatically logged in without having to enter a username and password. You can send the link to a document in an email or have it posted on a website. After clicking the link, the Anonymous Portal opens and guest users can access documents they have permission to view in the repository.

This section discusses the use of an anonymous portal that is used in conjunction with a "portal alias" user account. The anonymous portal needs to be configured on the FileHold server using the FileHold Instrumentation Tools (FHIT). In order to create the portal you will need system administrator privileges, access to the FileHold server, and Microsoft SQL credentials.

In order for anonymous portal users to access documents, they will need a “portal alias” account to be created by a system administrator and then added to the limited security group/role. The limited user group will then need to be given access to cabinets, folders, and schemas. The Library Administrator will have to carefully plan the library hierarchy and security membership for the portal. When guest users access the portal, they will only be able to see those cabinets, folders, and documents that they have access to.

The Anonymous Portal can be configured to use a customized header. See Customizing the Header Panel in the Anonymous Portal.

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Anonymous portal

Do not try to use the same browser session for both a regular login session and the anonymous portal access. If you are using Internet Explorer, for example, to login to the normal FileHold Web Client then you need to install Chrome or FireFox to test the normal usage of the Anonymous Portal. This is because of how browsers work, in that your user session cookie will be set to your normal FileHold user account with its right and privileges and the Web browser will share this to the anonymous portal. Use two different browsers at all times for this.

FileHold 16.0 and higher versions

To create the Anonymous Portal

  1. Create a user for the “portal alias” account. For example, create a user called “FileHold” with a password of “guest123”. You can choose a more secure password, this is just an example of course.
  1. Add the user to the Limited group/security role.
  2. Login to the FileHold server using the Administrator username and password.
  3. Go to C:\Program Files\FileHold Systems\Application Server\FHInstrumentation and run FHInstrumentation.exe.
  4. In Actions menu, select Configure anonymous portal and click Start.
  5. Specify the directory where the FileHold application server is installed. By default, this location is C:\Program Files\FileHold Systems\Application Server. Click Browse to change this location.
  6. Click Next.
  7. In the Database connection settings, enter the SQL server name and enter authentication credentials.
  8. Click Next.
  9. Select the Enable Portal check box.
  10. Select the Portal alias user from the drop down list. If the guest alias user has not been created, click Add. See Creating Portal Alias User Accounts for more information.
  11. Enter the Portal alias password.
  12. Enter the contact email address. This email address is displayed as part of a message on the self-service guest portal screen should the portal become unavailable. This allows the user to contact the email address owner if any issue should arise.
  13. Enter the path to the Custom portal header. This path is relative to to the C:\Program Files\FileHold Systems\Application Server\WebClient\ directory. For more information on a custom header panel, see Customizing the Anonymous Portal Header Panel.
  14. Enter the path to the Custom portal class, if needed. See Customizing the Anonymous Portal Header Panel for more information.
  15. Copy and save the guest portal link that is displayed on the screen for future use.
  16. Click Next.
  17. Click Configure.
  18. The message "Completed successfully" should appear. Click Finish.
  19. Using the link copied above, paste the link into a browser window. Note that you should use a different browser than the one being used for the regular user session.

 

FileHold versions 15.2.1 and below

To create the Self-Service Portal

  1. If you haven’t already done so, login as a System Administrator and create a user for the “named alias” account. For example, create a user called “FileHold” with a password of “guest123”. You can choose a more secure password, this is just an example of course.
  2. Add the user to the Guest Users group/security role.
  3. Login to the FileHold server using the Administrator username and password.
  4. In the FileHold server, open the Server Manager and go to Roles > Web Server (IIS) > Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
  5. In the Connections pane, go to Server Name > Sites > Default Web Site > FH > FileHold.
  6. Right-click on FileHold and select Add Virtual Directory.
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Guest portal server manager
  1. In the Add Virtual Directory window, enter WebClientPortal in the Alias field.
    IMPORTANT: The Alias for the Self-Service Portal must be called WebClientPortal or the portal will not work.
  2. In the Physical Path field, enter the path to the FileHold server. In Windows Server 2008, this path is typically C:\Program Files\FileHold Systems\Application Server\WebClient.
  3. In the Virtual Directory window, click Connect As…
  4. In the Connect As window, select Specific User and click Set.
  5. VERY IMPORTANT: In the Set Credentials window, enter the User name and password for the FileHold service account (FH_Service) and click OK.
  6. In the Add Application window, click Test Settings.
  7. Your service account will be authenticated. Click Close.
  8. Click OK. The Web Client Portal is now a virtual folder in the list.
  9. Right-click on the WebClientPortal virtual folder and select Convert to Application.
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Guest portal add application
  1. In the Application Pool field, and click Select.
  2. Select the FHAppPool and click OK.
  3. In the Add Application window, click Connect As…
  4. In the Connect As window, select Specific User and click Set.
  5. VERY IMPORTANT: In the Set Credentials window, enter the User name and password for the FileHold service (FH_Service) account. 
  6. Click OK.
  7. In the Add Application window, click Test Settings.
  8. Your service account will be authenticated. Click Close.
  9. In the Add Application window, click OK.
  10. Then go to the properties of the WebClientPortal in IIS 7 Manager and double click on the Default Document.
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Guest portal default document
  1. Click Add. 
  2. In the Add Default Document window, type default.aspx and click OK. It is added to the default document list and entry type is Local.
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Guest portal default aspx
  1. Double click on Directory Browsing in the Features View for the WebClientPortal
  2. Click Enable to enable directory browsing. The WebClientPortal is now an application.
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Guest portal directory browsing
  1. Click the + sign to view all the folders in the application you have created
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Guest portal folders
  1. Right-click on WebClientPortal and select Explore.
  2. In the Webclient window, locate the web.config file and open with an xml editor or Notepad. To be able to login to the Self-Service Portal automatically, use the guest user account username and password that you set in Step 1 to edit the web.config file.
  3. Locate the PortalLogin key under <appSettings> and change the value to the guest username. For example: <add key="PortalLogin" value="filehold" /> 
  4. Locate the PortalPassword key under <appSettings> and change the value to the guest user password. For example: <add key="PortalPassword" value="guest123" />
  5. Save the web.config file. You may need to run the application you used to edit the web.config file as an Administrator in order to save the changes.
  6. You can test the Self-Service Portal by entering the path in a separate web browser. For example:

    http://YourServerName/FH/FileHold/WebClientPortal/LibraryForm.aspx
  7. If your Self-Service Portal successfully opens, then you should see the Document Tray, Search, Reports (if they exist), Library, and Library Archive. There is also a place to insert a custom header in the portal.