To create a place where visitors to your site can upload files, add a Drop Box page to your Squarespace 5 site.
Note: The Drop Box page isn't associated with Dropbox, the file sharing service.
Before you begin
- To create a place where visitors can download files, add a File Storage page.
- As an alternative, member audiences with Editor permissions can add and download files from your file storage area.
Step 1 - Set up storage
When you create a Drop Box page, you'll connect it to a folder that stores the files that visitors upload. There are two options:
- The file storage area of your site (private) - Visitors can't see or download these files unless they have editor permissions for your site.
- A File Storage page (public) - A separate page on your site where visitors can see and download files.
File storage area
To keep your file storage area organized, it can be helpful to create a folder in it for visitor uploads:
- In the Website Management bar, click File Storage under Data & Media.
- Click Create Directory to create a folder. Give the folder an easily identifiable name, such as Visitor uploads.
Tip: To save to general file storage, rather than setting up a sub-folder, skip to Step 2.
File Storage page
To create a page where visitors can see and download the files uploaded via the Drop Box page, add a File Storage page.
Tip: When you set up the page, you can display the name of the user who uploaded the file with the Show Multi-User Data option.
Step 2 - Add the Drop Box page
To start building the page:
- In Structure Mode, add a page to your site, and choose Drop Box. Then click Select & Configure.
- In the Configuration window, add a title.
Step 3 - Choose where the files save
In the Drop Box Options section, choose the location where uploaded files will be saved.
- Option 1 - If you added a File Storage page in Step 1, click the folder for that page.
- Option 2 - To save it to your general file storage area, click General Storage.
- Option 3 - If you created a folder within your file storage area in Step 1, click the + next to General Storage and choose the sub-folder.
After you choose the storage location, click Create Page. Hover over the page link or widget and click Enable to make it live.
Step 4 - Set permissions
Use your Member Permissions area to choose which visitors can see and upload files on this page.
- In the Website Management bar, click Member Permissions under Members & Access.
- Use the settings for The Public to set what general visitors to your site can see.
- If you're on the Unlimited Plan, set the options for any other audiences.
To create a public upload page, we recommend these settings:
- Set the Drop Box page to Visible.
- Set the file storage area or your File Storage page to Storage Only.
To create an upload page that's only visible to certain audiences:
- For The Public, set the Drop Box page to Restricted. If you connected to a File Storage page, set that to Restricted too.
- For the audiences you want to allow to upload, set the Drop Box page to Visible. If you connected to a File Storage page, set that to Restricted as well.
- Set the file storage area of your site to Storage Only.
Note: If you set the file storage area of your site to Restricted, images you added to your site via file storage won't display.
Step 5 - Subscribe to page updates (optional)
To receive a notification when a visitor uploads a file, subscribe to updates for that page.
If you subscribe, you'll receive a notification when someone uploads a file. The notification includes their name and their email address if they added it.
What visitors see
Visitors to your Drop Box page see fields for their name and email address. They'll click Choose File to browse their computer, and then Upload to upload the file to your site.
- Files uploaded to File Storage must be 20 MB or smaller.
- Visitors can only add one file at a time.
- If you've connected the Drop Box page to a File Storage page, their files will appear there.
Tip: To see how your visitors experience your Drop Box page, test it in an incognito window.
Delete an uploaded file
How you delete a file depends on where you connected your Drop Box page in Step 2.
File storage area
To delete files uploaded to your file storage area:
- From the Website Management bar, click File Storage under Data & Media.
- The file appears in the folder you chose in Step 2. To delete it, click Remove.
File Storage page
To delete files uploaded to a File Storage page:
- Log into your site and go to the File Storage page.
- Enter Content mode.
- Click Remove next to the file.
