Public-facing URLs for Digital Assets 

Public URLs are web addresses that don’t require a login to access a file. You can store digital assets in an FTP location, a DAM or a cloud-based file storage application like Google Drive, Dropbox and Box. 

In cases where your digital asset isn’t available publicly, in most services you can give permission to those files. In the sections below we cover how to do this for the major file storage applications. If you don’t see your service listed, check the help documents for your service for more information.

If you have a number of assets to share, best practice is to put them all in one folder and give public view access to the folder. The files inside the folder will inherit the view permission and all files will be available. This will save you time, and simplify troubleshooting by avoiding cases where permission is missed on a file here or there. In most cases, giving access to an individual file is the same process as giving permission to a folder.

Test for Public Access

If you already have your digital assets stored in one of these methods, you can test whether or not the URL is accessible publicly. While not logged into the service your digital asset is hosted on, copy the URL for your digital asset, paste it into your browser and press enter. You can use a private window like Incognito for Chrome to be sure that you’re not logged in. If you can see the digital asset, it’s in a public location and you can use the URL.

Google Drive

There are two types of Google Drive accounts, individual and GSuite. GSuite accounts are paid accounts designed for businesses and managed by a central administrator. If you’re not sure which type of account you have:

1. Log in to Google Drive
2. Click on your user icon in the top right corner of the screen. 
3. If your account is GSuite, there will be a note at the top of the menu indicating who the account is managed by. If not, there won’t be a notice at the top of the menu. 

Please follow the directions below for your version of Google Drive.

Set View Permissions for a GSuite Google Drive Folder

To share public view access a Google Drive folder:

1. Sign in to Google Drive and find the folder that you want to share.
2. Right click the folder name, and choose Share... from menu that appears. 
3. Click Share…
4. Choose Get Shareable Link from the top right corner of the sharing box.
5. In the link sharing box, click the menu above the link address, and choose More…
6. Choose On - Public on the Web and Save your changes.
7. The link sharing box should now say Anyone on the internet can find and view.

Now any digital assets you add to the folder will be public facing. 

Set View Permissions Individual Google Drive Account Folder

To share public view access a Google Drive folder:

1. Sign in to Google Drive and find the folder that you want to share.
2. Right click the folder name, and choose Share... from menu that appears. 
3. Click Get Shareable Link…
4. The link sharing box should now say Anyone with the link can view.

Now any digital asset you add to the folder will be public facing.

Get a Digital Asset Link

To get a digital asset link from a Google Drive account, right click on the asset name, choose Get Shareable Link and copy the URL. The asset sharing should say Public on the Web - Anyone can find and view. If it doesn’t, follow the instructions above to make the folder public, or choose Sharing Settings on the individual asset to change the permission for it. 

In order for the shareable link to be compatible within Salsify, you will need to edit the format using the template provided below:
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id={fileId}

Example:

The unedited shareable link is:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12lM03k5WkFXFXKUlnKD7WQcghDCIDmOS/view

The correct edited shareable link is:
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=12lM03k5WkFXFXKUlnKD7WQcghDCIDmOS

Dropbox

To share public view access for a Dropbox folder:

1. Navigate to the folder you want to share.
2. Click Share next to the folder on the right.
3. Click Create a Link. Access should default to Anyone with the link can view this folder

Now digital assets added to this folder will be public facing.

Get a Digital Asset Link

To get the link for a digital asset:

1. Click Share next to the digital asset you want to share.
2. Click Copy Link.
3. At the end of the link, change dl=0 to dl=1. For example, if the download link is http://dropbox.com/xxxx?dl=0, the link you use should be http://dropbox.com/xxxx?dl=1

Box

To share public view access for a Box folder:

1. Click the Share next to the folder.
2. Click Get Shared Link.
3. At the bottom of the access box, choose People with the Link from the sharing options.

Now digital assets added to this folder will be public facing.

Get a Digital Asset Link

1. Click the Share next to the folder.
2. Click Get Shared Link after clicking the Share button to generate a shared link.
3. Copy the link in the Get Shared Link box.