Applies to: IT personnel and System admins responsible for ILIA in your organization
The Integration Adapter can be used to transfer documents and/or contact information from a back-end system to Intralinks, ensuring that the information in both systems is up to date and accurate and reducing the amount of time spent on data entry.
The Integration Adapter can also be used to download documents and associated metadata from Intralinks VDRs and store it at a location of your choice. All Integration Adapter functions are configured using an XML file. The same XML file can be used to perform file upload and/or download functions.
Important! Reference information is located in the ILIA Reference Guide. This guide includes sample XML files, a data dictionary, troubleshooting information, and instructions on updating configuration settings in the WSB.Config file.
Supported functions
File upload
File upload is used to add VDRs, files, custom fields and other metadata to Intralinks VDRs, permission them to groups, and provide email notification to group members. The file upload capability facilitates bulk transfers from a back- end document management system.
Update
An Update Document operation type allows users to change the content and metadata of documents.
An Update Folder operation allows users to update the folder attributes as well as permissions for existing folders in a VDR.
An Update Group operation allows uses to update group metadata for existing groups in a VDR.
Rollback
Documents and folders that have been uploaded using the Integration Adapter can be rolled back using an Input XML file command that specifies the relevant output file that needs to be rolled back.
File download
File download is used to download documents and associated metadata from Intralinks VDRs and store them in a chosen location.
- A full download downloads all files, even those that may already exist in the storage location.
- An incremental download will compare the requested download with what already exists in the storage location and download those items that have not already been downloaded.
- A timebound download downloads documents that were added, documents that were modified or both new and modified documents within a specified time frame.
- Files will be saved with unique names. Files with the same name will be assigned a unique suffix.
A folder will be created for each VDR using the VDR name and ID. For example, if the selected destination directory is: C:\My Documents, ILIA will store the files in C:\My Documents\Workspace BC_123456 where “Workspace ABC” is the VDR name, and 123456 is the ID of the VDR. - Files are downloaded in a flat file structure (no folder hierarchy) but two extra files are created to help reconstruct the original file structure in the VDR.
- XML file with meta-data and file structure
- HTML file to view structure locally
Remove
- Users can be removed from a specified VDR.
- You can define a custom note that will be included in an email alert to a user who has been removed from a VDR specifying the reason for removal.
- Empty and non-empty groups can be removed from a VDR.
- Files and folders can be removed.
Synchronize
Ensures that users and groups on Intralinks VDRs match the users and groups in your organization’s back-end system.
How the Integration Adapter works
In order to add documents, download documents, or add and remove users, groups, or documents, you must generate an XML-based input file using your organization’s back-end system. The information in this input file is transferred to Intralinks using the Integration Adapter. When processing is complete, a report lists warnings and errors that occurred during the process, as well as notification of successfully completed tasks. The Integration Adapter can be configured to send email messages to selected managers when the process is started and completed, and when errors occur that cause the process to stop. The Integration Adapter will also send an alert when a user’s password needs to be reset.
The email address associated with each user serves as a unique identifier. If users being added to Intralinks do not have a record in Intralinks Global User Directory (that is, they have never been invited to use an Intralinks VDR using the selected address), they will be added only if the import file includes all the information needed to add them to the global system and the information is valid. This includes the person’s first and last names, the name of their organization, and their phone number, as well as their email address. You can also provide role information for the VDR the contact belongs to; if you do not, the default role that was selected during configuration will be used.
The Integration Adapter can be configured to prevent users who have particular roles within the VDR from being removed. You can prevent all users whose addresses belong to selected Internet domains from being removed; in addition, you can prevent newly added users’ records from being removed for a specified number of days.
Files can be uploaded to specified VDRs and permissions can be assigned for groups. An input XML file must contain the list of files to be uploaded plus the necessary VDRs, groups, and individuals required for successful placement of the files and the assignment of permissions. When uploading files, users with the proper Intralinks role assignment have the option to add new VDRs, new groups, new folders, new permissions and custom fields, if they do not currently exist.
Files can be downloaded using a variety of criteria specified in the XML file. For example, you can download all documents in a given VDR or all documents that you have access to.
Reports
You can also download a number of filterable reports:
- The Document-centric report provides detailed information about your VDRs, groups, documents and permissions.
- The Access report provides information about access to documents, users, and groups, including alert information.
- The User-centric report provides filterable information about VDRs (names, IDs, phases, etc.), groups (names, custom fields, etc.), and users (names, addresses, phone numbers, whether removed, etc.).
- The User Comparison report compares user profile information in an Intralinks VDR to user profile information stored on a back-end system. It reports all differences in profile details (name, phone number, etc.) and also indicates whether the user:
- could be found.
- was removed from the VDR.
- was assigned a new email address.
- was on the alias list (users who had more than one profile and these profiles were merged by the system administrator).
Report User IDs
All the ILIA reports listed above generate a unique identifier for each user. All reports, except the Document-centric report, allow you to enter the report user ID in the XML Input file to find the user when it is not feasible to use an email address.
For example, if a user is permissioned to a document and then changes his email address, you can enter the user’s unique identifier to find the user, without specifying an email address.
Security
The Integration Adapter provides the system security you expect from Intralinks. An Intralinks system administrator is required to set up users who are authorized to perform actions using XML input files. A user ID and password are required. Once a user is authenticated within Intralinks, a token will be created and saved on the client machine. This ensures that no passwords are required within the XML file.
Archiving
Once an XML file has been processed, it is deposited in an archive folder on the client machine where it can be retrieved at any time for review.