Drive App Overview
Store, share, and find files across your organization with Drive — personal and shared drives, fine-grained sharing, version history, tokenized external links, file requests, and AI-powered search and summarization.
What is the Drive App?
Drive is the file storage and sharing layer for MangoApps Workforce. Every user gets a personal drive automatically, workspaces get shared drives, and other apps (Forms, eSignature, Service Desk) attach files through a stable platform API. Permissions, audit trail, search, and AI run on the same substrate.
Core Value Proposition:
- 🗂️ Unified File Layer — Personal drives for individuals, shared drives for teams, and a system drive that backs other apps
- 🔐 Granular Sharing — Four roles (viewer, commenter, editor, manager) at the drive, folder, or single-file level — for users or groups
- 🔗 External Sharing Done Right — Tokenized share links with optional passwords, expiry, and download caps; tokenized file requests for inbound uploads
- 🤖 AI-Native Discovery — Search by filename, semantic search over PDF/text content, file summarization, and conversational admin actions
How It Works
File & Sharing Flow
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ DRIVE LIFECYCLE │
├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ ┌────────────┐ ┌────────────┐ ┌────────────┐ ┌────────────┐ │
│ │ UPLOAD │──▶│ STORE │──▶│ PROCESS │──▶│ SERVE │ │
│ │ (file) │ │ + version │ │ thumbnails │ │ preview / │ │
│ └────────────┘ │ + audit │ │ + embed │ │ download │ │
│ └────────────┘ └────────────┘ └────────────┘ │
│ │
│ ▼ │
│ ┌──────────────────────┐ │
│ │ SHARE & DISCOVER │ │
│ └──────────┬───────────┘ │
│ │ │
│ ┌──────────────┬──────────────┼──────────────┬──────────────┐ │
│ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ │
│ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ │
│ │ Internal │ │ External │ │ File │ │ Filename │ │ AI │ │
│ │ Member- │ │ Tokened │ │ Requests │ │ Search │ │ Search/ │ │
│ │ ships │ │ Links │ │ (inbound)│ │(trigram) │ │ Summary │ │
│ └──────────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────┘ │
│ │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Integration Ecosystem
┌─────────────────┐
│ DRIVE APP │
└────────┬────────┘
│
┌─────────────┬───────────────┼───────────────┬─────────────┐
▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼
┌───────────┐ ┌───────────┐ ┌───────────┐ ┌───────────┐ ┌───────────┐
│ FORMS │ │ eSIGNATURE│ │ SERVICE │ │ WORKSPACES│ │ ASK AI │
│ │ │ │ │ DESK │ │ │ │ (Agents) │
└─────┬─────┘ └─────┬─────┘ └─────┬─────┘ └─────┬─────┘ └─────┬─────┘
│ │ │ │ │
▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼
Submission Signed PDFs Ticket Workspace- Find,
attachments archived attachments bound shared summarize,
via attach_to in Drive via attach_to drives manage files
Key Features
🗂️ Personal & Shared Drives
Two drive kinds, one model.
| Kind | Owner | When Created |
|---|---|---|
| Personal Drive | Each user | Auto-provisioned on first login (PersonalDriveProvisioner) |
| Shared Drive | Workspace or organization | Created with a workspace, or as a system drive that backs other apps |
Use Case: A user opens Drive for the first time and finds their personal “My Drive” already provisioned. They join a project workspace, and a shared drive scoped to that workspace appears in their sidebar automatically.
💡 Pro Tip: Shared drives bound to a workspace inherit editor access for every workspace member — you don’t need to re-grant access per file.
📁 Folders, Files & Versions
A clean tree with first-class versioning.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Folder Hierarchy | Nested folders with breadcrumbs; no-cycle and same-drive validation |
| Multi-File Upload | Drag in many files at once via the Upload drawer |
| Automatic Versioning | Re-uploading a file with the same name creates a new version (configurable retention) |
| Version History | Per-file timeline; download or restore any prior version |
| Soft Delete + Cascade | Deleting a folder moves the entire subtree to trash in a single SQL update |
| Trash & Restore | Recover deleted items from per-drive trash |
| Sibling Uniqueness | Filenames are unique within a folder (no silent overwrites) |
🖼️ Preview & Thumbnails
In-app preview without downloading.
| Type | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Images | Inline image preview (PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, BMP, TIFF) |
| PDFs | Inline PDF iframe |
| Video | HTML5 player |
| Audio | HTML5 audio controls |
| Text | Inline iframe preview |
| Other | Download-to-view fallback |
Thumbnails: A 256×256 PNG thumbnail is generated automatically for images and PDFs (page 1) using ruby-vips, attached to the file version for fast list rendering.
💡 Pro Tip: PDFs get a thumbnail of the first page automatically — useful for visually scanning a long folder of documents.
🔍 Search & AI Discovery
Two search modes, both scoped to what you’re allowed to see.
| Mode | How It Works |
|---|---|
| Filename Search | Trigram-indexed (pg_search), fuzzy match on names with min threshold 0.2 |
| Semantic Content Search | Background job extracts text from PDFs / .txt / .md / .csv, generates embeddings, and stores them on the version for AI agents to query |
| Cross-Drive Scope | Searches your personal drive, accessible shared drives, and items shared with you via membership |
File Types Indexed for Content Search: application/pdf, text/plain, text/markdown, text/csv (cap ~200 KB per file).
🤝 Sharing & Permissions
Fine-grained access at three levels.
Roles (max-wins resolution):
| Role | Capabilities |
|---|---|
| Viewer | Read & download |
| Commenter | Read, download, comment |
| Editor | Read, write, upload, rename, move |
| Manager | Editor + share, revoke, configure |
Where you can grant a role:
- Drive-level — Applies to every item in the drive
- Folder-level — Inherits down to all descendants
- Item-level — A single file, with optional expiry
Principals: Either a User or a NotificationRecipientGroup (rule-based group), so access can follow your org’s existing audience definitions.
Resolution Order (highest wins): Business admin override → personal drive owner → workspace member of bound shared drive → item-level membership → ancestor membership → drive-level membership.
🔗 External Share Links
Tokenized public links for sharing files with people outside your organization.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Token-Based URL | 16-byte URL-safe token; no auth required |
| Roles | Viewer or Commenter |
| Optional Password | BCrypt-hashed password challenge before access |
| Expiry | Configurable date; capped by admin policy (default cap 30 days) |
| Download Limit | Optional max download count |
| Revocation | Revoke any link instantly; activity is audited |
| Branded Landing Page | Recipient sees your business’s logo, accent color, and message |
| PDF Watermarking | Optional viewer watermark stamped onto every PDF page on download |
Admin Controls: External links can be globally disabled, or globally required to use a password.
💡 Pro Tip: For sensitive PDFs, combine a viewer-role link with branding-level watermarking — recipients see the file but every page is stamped with your custom text.
📥 File Requests
Tokenized public uploads — collect files from people outside your organization without giving them an account.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Target Folder | Each request points to one folder; uploads land there as DriveItems |
| Recipient Email | Optional; auto-sends an invitation email when set |
| Message + Branding | Custom message and per-business branding profile on the landing page |
| Expiry | Default 14 days; admin-cappable up to a max lifetime |
| Max Files Cap | Optional per-request upload limit |
| Status Tracking | pending → received → expired / cancelled; counts and timestamps recorded |
| Cancel Anytime | Curator can cancel a pending request to stop further uploads |
Use Case: HR needs signed offer letters back from 12 candidates. They create a single file request pointing at the “2026 Offers” folder, set max_files to 12, expiry in 14 days, and email each candidate the unique upload URL.
🎨 Branding
Custom landing pages for every external surface.
| Setting | Applied To |
|---|---|
| Logo | External link & file request landing pages |
| Accent Color | Hex color used on landing pages |
| Header / Footer Message | Custom copy shown to recipients |
| Watermark Text | Stamped onto downloaded PDFs (when enabled) |
| Default Profile | One branding can be marked default per business; auto-applied when none specified |
🛡️ Activity & Audit
Every meaningful event is recorded as a DriveActivityEvent.
Tracked Actions: uploaded, version_added, downloaded, renamed, trashed, restored, shared, external_link_created, external_link_revoked, external_link_downloaded, version_restored.
Each event records actor, item, timestamp, and structured metadata.
📊 Analytics Dashboard (Admin)
Range-based dashboard for storage and sharing trends.
Summary Tiles: Total files, total folders, total storage bytes, items in trash, active external links, active file requests.
Activity (selectable 7 / 30 / 90 / 365 days):
- Uploads in range
- Downloads in range (internal + via external links)
- Shares in range (internal grants + external links created)
Tables:
- Activity breakdown by action
- Top uploaders (last N days)
- Largest files
- Recently accessed files
Export: CSV download of the full analytics view.
🤖 AI Agents
Two purpose-built agents wire Drive into Ask AI.
| Agent | Audience | Capabilities |
|---|---|---|
| Drive Help Agent (read-only) | All users | Search files by name or content, list recent files, list shared-with-me, summarize a specific file, find a file by natural-language description |
| Drive Admin Agent (write) | Managers & admins (opt-in) | Create folders, share files, revoke access, generate password-protected external links, revoke external links, restore prior versions, move to trash |
Safety: All Drive Admin Agent tools require explicit user confirmation before executing. The agent is opt-in (default off) and toggled via the admin_agent_enabled configuration.
🧩 Cross-App Platform API
Other apps attach files through a stable service rather than re-implementing storage.
result = Drives::AttachToService.call(
owner: form_submission,
io_or_blob: uploaded_file,
filename: 'response.pdf',
user: current_user,
business: current_business
)
Used by: Forms, Service Desk, eSignature, and any app that needs durable file storage with audit + thumbnails + AI indexing.
Round-trip: DriveItem.owned_by(record) returns the items attached to a given owner record.
🧹 Content Governance
Drive plugs into the platform Content Governance pipeline.
- Stale Content Detection — Files not updated in 120+ days are surfaced for review
- Reviewer Assignment — Drive owner gets first review slot, with admin fallback
- Container Rollups — Findings roll up to the parent drive for at-a-glance review
🔔 Notifications
| Type | When Sent |
|---|---|
| File Request Invitation | Email to recipient when a file request includes their address (DriveFileRequestMailer) |
Configuration (Admin Settings)
| Setting | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Enable Drive AI Agent | Toggles the read-only Drive Help Agent |
| Include Drive in Global Search | Surfaces Drive items in cross-app search and governance |
| Enable Drive Homepage Widget | Adds Drive to the Home page |
| Max Upload Size (MB) | Per-file upload cap |
| Allow External Links | Globally enables/disables tokenized share links |
| Require Password for External Links | Forces every external link to be password-protected |
| External Link Max Lifetime (days) | Caps how far in the future links can expire |
| Keep Prior Versions | Toggles version history |
| Versions Retained Per File | Retention count |
| Embed File Contents for AI Search | Enables semantic content extraction + embeddings |
A “Sample Data” loader/cleanup is also available to populate a demo drive for evaluation.
User Roles & Permissions
| Role | Capabilities |
|---|---|
| Employee | Upload to & manage own personal drive, browse shared drives they’re a member of, share files (manager role on their own items), use Drive Help Agent |
| Manager | Same as employee + manage permissions on items they own; can use Drive Admin Agent if enabled |
| Drive App Admin | Configure Drive settings, manage branding profiles, view analytics, manage all file requests business-wide, configure agent toggles |
| Business Admin | Full override — manager role on any drive or item in their business |
How We Compare
See how MangoApps Drive stacks up against leading enterprise file-sharing platforms:
| Feature | MangoApps Drive | Google Drive | Microsoft OneDrive/SharePoint | Box | Dropbox |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal & Shared Drives | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Folder/File-Level Sharing | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Tokenized External Share Links | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Password-Protected Links | ✅ | 💰 | 💰 | ✅ | 💰 |
| Download-Count Limits on Links | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Inbound File Requests | ✅ | ⚡ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Custom Branded Landing Pages | ✅ | ❌ | 💰 | ✅ | 💰 |
| PDF Watermarking on Download | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | 💰 | ❌ |
| Built-in AI Search & Summarization | ✅ | 💰 | 💰 | 💰 | 💰 |
| Conversational Admin Agent | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Native Cross-App Attachment API | ✅ | ❌ | ⚡ | ⚡ | ❌ |
| Bundled with HR / Comms / Forms | ✅ | ❌ | ⚡ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Legend: ✅ Included | ❌ Not Available | 💰 Paid Add-on / Higher Tier | ⚡ Limited |
Why MangoApps Drive?
- 🔗 Unified Platform — Drive is the file layer for Forms, eSignature, Service Desk, and every other MangoApps Workforce app — one permission model, one audit trail
- 💰 No Tier Lock — Password-protected links, watermarking, and AI search are included, not premium add-ons
- 🤖 AI-Native — Read-only help agent for everyone, opt-in admin agent for managers, all built on the same content embeddings that power semantic search
Getting Started
For Employees
- Open Drive from the app rail — your personal “My Drive” is already provisioned
- Click Upload to drag in files (multi-file supported)
- Use the Search box to find files by name, or ask Ask AI to find them by description
- Click Share on any file to grant access to colleagues or generate an external link
For Managers
- Use shared drives tied to your workspaces — every workspace member gets editor access automatically
- Grant viewer/commenter/editor/manager roles at the file, folder, or drive level
- Create File Requests to collect files from people outside the org
- Restore prior versions or recover from trash if a teammate overwrites or deletes the wrong file
For Administrators
- Configure Settings — set max upload size, version retention, and external link policy
- Create Branding profiles so external recipients see your logo, color, and message
- Review the Analytics dashboard monthly — watch storage, top uploaders, and sharing trends
- Decide whether to enable the Drive Admin Agent (opt-in for write actions via Ask AI)
Best Practices
- ✅ Use shared drives for team content — they auto-grant editor to workspace members so you don’t have to manage individual access
- ✅ Enable versioning with a sensible retention count — recovery beats blame
- ✅ Require passwords on external links for sensitive content; layer in expiry and download caps
- ✅ Apply branding before sharing externally — recipients see your business, not a generic landing page
- ✅ Watermark PDFs when sharing financials or legal docs externally
- ✅ Audit external links periodically via the Analytics dashboard — revoke stale ones
- ✅ Let AI find files — semantic search reaches into PDF and text content, not just filenames
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Where do my uploaded files go?
A: New uploads land in the drive you’re currently viewing (the file dashboard defaults to your personal drive). To upload into a specific folder, open that folder first and click Upload.
Q: How do permissions resolve when I’m a member of multiple groups with different roles?
A: Highest role wins. Drive evaluates business admin override → personal drive ownership → workspace membership → item-level memberships (including inherited from ancestor folders) → drive-level memberships, and grants you the maximum role across all of them.
Q: Can I share a file with someone outside my company?
A: Yes — generate a tokenized external share link from the Share drawer. You can require a password, set an expiry, cap downloads, and use a viewer or commenter role. Admins can disable external links globally or require passwords on every link.
Q: What happens when I delete a folder?
A: Folders soft-delete with a cascade — every descendant file and subfolder is moved to trash in a single operation, and direct URLs to those items stop working immediately. You can restore from the per-drive Trash view.
Q: Can other apps store files in Drive?
A: Yes. Forms, eSignature, Service Desk, and any internal app can call Drives::AttachToService to attach files to their records. The file lives in Drive (so it gets thumbnails, versioning, audit, and AI indexing) but is logically owned by the calling record.
Related Resources
- Apps & Extensions Overview — The full MangoApps Workforce app catalog
- eSignature — Signed PDFs are archived to Drive automatically
- Forms — Form attachments live in Drive
- Libraries — Curated, audience-targeted resource collections
- Service Desk — Ticket attachments use the Drive attach API
Drive is the file layer beneath every MangoApps Workforce app. Upload once, share with anyone, find with AI.