Network Setup & File Sharing

Access to the case-associated attachment folders are not managed by Case Manager, but instead by the protocols and settings provided by the Windows operating system. The extension settings in the previous section will simply point Case Manager to the right location; an administrator is still required to set up the network to allow users the required access.

note

This article makes a few suggestions to allow network access to workstation, but it remains vital for the administrator to understand the security impact of the decision made and settings set.

Choosing a location

Any folder on the network can be used for Case Manager attachments, given that users on the network have both read and write access to this location. In general, we make use of the CaseManagerAttachments folder in the CaseManager folder on the server. Other folders in the CaseManager folder are typically shared on the network as well, such as the CaseManagerApps folder to install the applications on the agent workstations. For this folder, however, you do not want to give write access. The security settings will be covered in the Share the folder section of this article. It is also important to take the chosen folder for attachments into consideration for your backup processes. Since the attached files are stored in the Windows file system and not in the Case Manager database, they will not be included in the database backup. Your backup processes should therefore include at least the database backup file (.fbk) and the attachments folder.

Configure the network

File Sharing in Windows requires the network to be a Private Network and to have file sharing enabled. Our first steps to sharing the attachments folder will be to verify that the network is set up to allow this.

Windows 10

1. Open the Windows (Start) Menu and open Settings. Click on Network & Internet.
2. Verify that the network is Private. If not, click on Properties and select Private Network.
3. Back in the Network & Internet setting, click Change advanced sharing options
   1. In the Private Networks section
      1. Turn on Network Discovery
      2. Turn on file and printer sharing
   2. In the All Networks section
      1. You may keep the Public folder sharing off
      2. Choose Use 128-bit encryption. If you have older versions of Windows connecting to this server you are required to choose lower encryption.
      3. Password-protected sharing requires that a user connect to a local user on the machine. Typically we leave this setting off. This however can be switched on should you prefer this behavior.
   3. Save the settings.
4. We will make use of the server name to connect to the shared folder over the network. If you are unsure of the name of the server you may type in "View PC name” in settings search to view system information such as the name of server.

Windows 11

1. Open the Windows (Start) Menu and open Settings. Click on Network & Internet.
2. Verify, next to the network name, that the network is Private. If not, you may change this setting by clicking on Properties.
3. In the Network & Internet settings, click on Advanced Network Settings. In the window opened, click on Advanced Sharing Settings
   1. In the Private Networks section
      1. Turn on Network Discovery
      2. Turn on file and printer sharing
   2. In the All Networks section
      1. You may keep the Public folder sharing off
      2. Choose Use 128-bit encryption. If you have older versions of Windows connecting to this server you are required to choose lower encryption.
      3. Password-protected sharing requires that a user connect to a local user on the machine. Typically we leave this setting off. This however can be switched on should you prefer this behavior.
4. We will make use of the server name to connect to the shared folder over the network. If you are unsure of the name of the server you may type in “View your PC name” in settings search to view system information such as the name of server.

Other versions of Windows

The required settings remain the same for other versions of Windows. How to navigate to these settings may differ a bit. In essence, be sure that

1. The network is set to Private
2. Network discovery, and File and Printer Sharing are both on for Private Networks
3. On all networks you may typically disable the Public folder sharing, use 128-bit encryption, and disable password-protected sharing.

Share the folder

1. Browse to the chosen attachments folder in Windows Explorer.

2. Right click the folder and select Properties. Select the Sharing tab.

3. Click Advanced Sharing

4. Enable “Share this folder”

5. You may edit the Share Name. Typically, when the folder in the CaseManager directory is shared, CaseManagerAttachments is used - the same as the folder name.

6. Click on Permissions. This will show a list of all the users who can see this folder.

7. Here, you may consult your network administrator. In general, we may share this folder with everyone on the network. If “Everyone” is not listed in the list of group or user names click Add.

   1. Type in “Everyone” and click OK.

8. Select Everyone in the list and allow Full Control.

9. Click OK on the open windows until you’re on the Properties windows again.

10. Select the Security tab. If there is no Security tab, it may be that the underlying file system is the older FAT32 which does not support further security. You may then ignore the relevant steps.

11. The users/group to which the folder was shared (in step 7) also requires access to the folder. Select the appropriate group from the list (as in our case “Everyone”) to verify that Full Control is allowed . If the group (e.g. “Everyone”) is not in the list it can be added in the following steps. If Full Control is not allowed, the same step can be followed.

    1. Click Edit
    2. If the group (e.g. “Everyone”) is not listed, it can be added by clicking on the Add button, similar to step 7.1.
    3. Select the group in the list (e.g. “Everyone”) and allow Full Control.
    4. Click OK.

    

Test the shared folder

Once the folder is shared, you can access it via the network path: \\{SERVER}\{SHARE NAME} where {SERVER} is the name of the server hosting the attachment files, and {SHARE NAME} is name of the file share as set up. Open a file explorer window and type in the network path, for example \\CMSERVER\CaseManagerAttachments. If set up correctly, you would be able to see the contents of the shared folder. Also, create a new file - something simple such as a text file - to verify that you have write access to the shared folder. Repeat the test on another machine on the network. The network path as described here should be set in the extension settings as explained previously. We will then be able to test attachment access from Case Manager:

1. Open Case Manager. Note that if Case Manager was open before the extension setting was set, close and reopen the application.
2. Open any case.
3. Click on the silver paper clip toolbar action, Attachments.
4. This should open a folder (a subfolder of the shared folder) specifically for the current case.