The UpSlide library system is designed to access shared content directly from Office with minimal IT intervention.
Overview
All shared content is stored in Sharepoint, network folders compatible with Blob storage or locally synced folders such as Dropbox. It is also replicated for each user in a local cache. Each time content is added or removed, a synchronization system makes sure that the local cache gets updated. UpSlide then displays the content of this to the user. If the user has an administrator license, they can add new content or modify the existing one.
Overview of the three primary path categories
Customization path
A path where specific customized elements of UpSlide are stored and shared amongst your team (the underlying PowerPoint templates and Excel formatting rules). This means users should have read access rights and administrator users should have write access rights to this path.
Library path(s)
The UpSlide Library supports multiple locations for its content. Each of these folders, called library locations (more detailed information in this link), can be set up on different servers to allow a different set of access permissions. This can be used to manage access to a central corporate library and a decentralized country library. Each of the library locations contains .uplib files organized in subfolders. An .uplib file is an archive grouping the Office file with the shared content and the previews displayed in the library pane.
Suggestions path
To allow users to suggest new Library content a seperate path is required where the users should have write access too as their suggestion will get written in that location prior to an administrator approving it (where UpSlide then transfers it to the Library path). Often the suggestions path is a subsidary path or within a similar location to the paths above.
Your dedicated Consultant and Account Team will help you set up these paths during initial of UpSlide. You will always have control to change them via the UpSlide Portal.
Local cache
UpSlide automatically synchronizes the library locations with a local cache. It has two main benefits:
- Administrators can make modifications and have the content immediately available to other users.
- The library can be used offline.
The synchronization system starts each time the library pane is opened in UpSlide and will react almost instantly to any edits made to the library location. The default location of the local cache %appdata%\UpSlide\Content\LibraryCache can be customized.
Publish
UpSlide administrators, provided they have the required permissions (cf. below), can insert new content to the library with the Publish functionality and edit existing content.
Permissions
UpSlide teams do not need access to your library. Your storage remains fully segregated. We need to know the paths to instruct your users' machines where to look internally for the templates and content.
UpSlide filters accessible content via the active user directory read permissions on the library locations. For example, the user below has access to the Shared, Legal and Accounting locations. Removing their access to the Legal part of the library would be as simple as revoking their access to the library location.
Similarly, to publish or edit content, an administrator must have write permissions on the targeted folder.
Technical limitations
We conducted tests to check for any technical limitations with our synchronization system. With 5,000 users watching the same library location, the additional workload on the file server is barely noticeable.