Collaborating on Collections

Collaborating on collections is useful for efficient Workstation analysis. Users can be assigned as collection participants, as well as tagged in discussions via the comments system.

This guide is recommended for users who have read and write permissions for:

• Workstation: Views
• Workstation: Comments Attachments

Assigning Users to Collections

A collection can have primary and participant users assigned:

• Primary users help enforce a structure where a specific user is dedicated to maintaining a collection.
• Participants are aware of changes made to a collection, or may contribute to it, but are not necessarily responsible for maintaining it.

Users can be assigned during collection creation or added later when a collection is edited. The primary user assigned receives system notifications for collections as they are updated.

Using Collection Comments

Collection comments provide analysts a space to leave comments on collections, reply to comments in a collapsible thread, tag one another for further analysis, attach files, and manage conversations surrounding case files.

Writing Comments

Write a comment to record thoughts on analysis, or to tag other users for further analysis and commentary. Notes require dragging a collection from a collections widget into the Object Details Viewer. For more information, see Adding Widgets to Views.

Note

Tagging users in comments and inline replies generates a system notification that provides some context for the tag.

To tag a user, prepend the @ symbol to that user's name. For example:

• @Mary
• @Bill

To write a comment in a collection open within Object Details Viewer:

1. At the bottom of Object Details Viewer, locate the Comments text field.
   • Add Comment is visible if no comments exist.
2. To the left of the Comments field, click the dropdown arrow to reveal all existing comments.
3. To the right of the comments field, click Add Comment.
4. Type comments into the comment field.
   • Comments allow markdown with a 3,000 character limit.
   • It is possible to add attachments to comments.
   • Replying to comments creates a collapsible thread.
   • If inline replies already exist, click the Replies link to open the accordion box containing all replies.
5. Click the Add button to save the comment as written, or Cancel to discard the comment.

Inline Replies

Inline replies are collapsed by default, but contain any responses to a top-level comment.

Inline replies are collapsed by default, but contain any responses to a top-level comment.

Comments and replies require dragging a collection from a collections widget into the Object Details Viewer. For more information, see Adding Widgets to Views.

To respond to an inline reply:

1. At the bottom of Object Details Viewer, locate the Comments text field.
   • Add Comment is visible if no comments exist.
2. To the left of the Comments field, click the dropdown arrow to reveal all comments.
3. Locate the top-level comment to be replied.
   • Replies allow markdown with a character limit of 3,000 characters.
   • Replying to comments creates a collapsible thread.
   • If inline replies already exist, click the Replies link to open the accordion box containing all replies.
4. Type a reply into the Add a reply field. It is possible to add attachments to comments.
5. Click the Save button to save the inline reply, or Cancel to discard it.

Comment Attachments

New or existing comments can contain attachments, including comments containing many individual files.

Note

Users with view permissions for Workstation: Comments Attachments can view and download attachments on comments.

To attach a file to a comment:

1. At the bottom of Object Details Viewer, locate the Comments text field.
2. At the bottom left of the comments field, click Attach Files. A dialog box opens.
   • Files are limited to a size of 1GB per file.
   • Users can upload multiple files simultaneously.
   • If the attachment is for a new comment, the attached files only begin uploading after Save is clicked.
   • If the attachment is for an existing comment, they are uploaded immediately after being selected.

To download a file attached to a comment:

1. At the bottom of Object Details Viewer, locate the Comments text field.
2. At the bottom left of the comments field, click Attachments and locate the file(s) to be downloaded.
3. From the list of attachments, click the file(s) to be downloaded.
4. Optionally, to the left of Attachments, Combine Files creates a zip file containing all files attached to a single comment and adds it to the attachment list.
5. Repeat steps 2 and 3 to download the newly created zip file.

Editing Comments

Comments can be edited to add additional text, remove or upload additional files, or tag other users.

Note

Users can only edit comments and attachments that they have made.

To edit a comment:

1. At the bottom of Object Details Viewer, locate the Comments text field.
2. At the bottom right of an existing comment or reply, click Edit.
3. Make any desired changes. (For information about attaching files to comments, see Comment Attachments.)
4. Click Save to post the edited comment or reply, or Cancel to discard the changes.

Deleting Comments

If a comment is no longer needed, or was created by mistake, it can be deleted.

To delete a comment:

1. At the bottom of Object Details Viewer, locate the Comments text field.
2. At the bottom left of the comment or reply, locate Delete.
3. Confirm you wish to delete the comment or reply, or Cancel deletion.

Note

Users can only delete comments that they have made.

A comment that has in-line replies cannot be deleted unless the in-line replies are also deleted.