A molecular model can be ready to share long before it is ready for everyone to edit. Maybe you want a colleague to inspect a structure, a research group to reuse a document, or a collaborator to access a resource without making it broadly visible. The difficult part is often not sending the file—it is deciding who should be able to use it and what access the link should provide.
SAMSON Connect lets you publish documents from SAMSON and choose their visibility. Thinking through that choice before publishing can help prevent two common problems: making a document more widely available than intended, or sharing a link that does not give the recipient the access they need.
Start by deciding who should be able to use the document
In SAMSON, choose Home > Publish to open the publishing dialog. Enter a document name and description, then select its visibility. The three options describe who can use the document:
- Public: Everyone can use the document. Editing still requires access rights.
- Hidden: Anyone with the link can use the document. Editing still requires access rights.
- Restricted: Access rights are required to use or edit the document.
These distinctions are useful when deciding how to share a model. For a resource intended to be discoverable and usable by everyone, Public is the relevant option. If the document should be usable by people who receive its link, but not generally visible, choose Hidden. If people need permission even to use it, choose Restricted. In all three cases, remember that use and editing are different: Public and Hidden documents require access rights for editing, while Restricted documents require access rights for both use and editing.
Publish, then share the resulting link
After entering the document details and choosing visibility, click Publish document. The document is shared in SAMSON Connect – Documents, and the link to it is provided in the same window. That link is especially important for a Hidden document, since its intended audience is people who have the link.
A practical pre-publication check is to pause and ask: Who needs to use this? Should they find it among shared documents, or should access be through the link? Do they need to edit it, or only use it? The visibility setting answers the use and discovery question; editing requires access rights where specified. If a recipient needs different access, you can manage shared documents and access through your SAMSON Connect account.
Downloading a document shared with you
Sharing works in both directions. To download a document available through SAMSON Connect – Documents, use Home > Download in SAMSON. This is a useful route when a collaborator has shared a document and you want to bring it into your own SAMSON workflow.
Keep track of shared work
You can access and manage your shared documents, as well as documents shared with you, from your account on SAMSON Connect. This gives you a place to revisit shared work after the initial publish or download, rather than relying only on a link in an old message. For more on access rights, groups, and managing shared documents, continue to the Collaboration documentation.
For the complete instructions, see Share documents.
Note: SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. Get SAMSON.