In this tutorial, you'll learn how to share your marketing materials by generating secure links using the HubSpot-CloudFiles integration. We’ve covered both manual sharing and automating the entire process in just a few steps. We’ll guide you through each step to ensure your files are shared securely, making it easier to manage and track the distribution of important assets.

By the end of this tutorial, you can expect to -

The GIF below shows the expected output. If you have a basic grasp of these concepts, you can expect to finish the tutorial in under 5 minutes.

Let's start with the steps to manually share files securely, enabling you to control access and track downloads. Follow these steps to create your first secure link.

Before you start with the set-up, please ensure you have installed CloudFiles and connected it to your cloud storage of choice.

CloudFiles is available on the app marketplace and can be installed using the standard app installation process. Check out Installation guide for CloudFiles HubSpot Integration.

CloudFiles links are secure publicly shareable links that can be used to share your PDFs and other documents.

To create a CloudFiles link, go to any contact record in your system. Locate the CloudFiles widget and click on the "Add" button. Next, choose the library where your files or folders are stored. Select the specific file or folder you want to share and create a shareable link.

Once the link is created, you can configure the security settings. You can choose whether to enable or disable the downloading option for the file or folder. You can also set an expiry date for the link or decide after how many views it should expire. If needed, you can protect the file or folder by adding a password.

To add an extra layer of security, you can put up an email wall. This will require viewers to provide their email address before accessing the file. If you need stronger protection, you can set up a hard email wall. This requires viewers to authenticate by logging in with their Google or Microsoft accounts, or they can request a temporary view code sent to their inbox.

You can control who can access your shared files. To allow specific people access, add their email addresses in the "Restrict to specific emails" section under the allow list. If there are individuals you want to block, add their email addresses in the block list. Similarly, you can restrict access based on specific domains.

If you already have a list of contacts in HubSpot, you can use the "Allow HubSpot Contact List" feature to quickly share the file with a specific list. This option can save time when managing large groups of contacts.

Once you have configured all the settings and restricted access as needed, simply copy the shareable link and send it to your intended viewers. This allows them to securely access the file or folder based on the permissions you’ve set. The GIF below shows the expected output.

Now that you’ve learnt manual sharing, let’s automate the process to save time and ensure secure, consistent file distribution. Follow these steps to set up your automated workflow.

Before you start with the set-up, please ensure you have installed CloudFiles and connected it to your cloud storage of choice.

CloudFiles is available on the app marketplace and can be installed using the standard app installation process. Check out Installation guide for CloudFiles HubSpot Integration.

Login to your external storage of choice such as Google Drive, SharePoint etc. through the CloudFiles interface. This will give you instant access to your external files within HubSpot. The GIF below shows the steps quickly.

Check out Quick start for file connector in HubSpot for more information.

In addition to installing CloudFiles in HubSpot, you also need to set an automation user for the workflow to work. This is the integration user that will be used by the workflow actions to pass files into the cloud storage.

To connect an automation user, simply head over to app.cloudfiles.io > Settings > Integrations > Google Drive and login through your google account. What is an 'Automation User' and how does it work? this article explains everything you need to know about the automation user, including what it is, why it's useful, and how it operates.

After connecting the desired storage, we will proceed to create contact-based workflow which will be triggered when a new contact is registered. Here’s how our final workflow looks like. We will detail these elements in the sections below.

To set up a workflow that provides new contacts with access to a specific file, start by creating a contact-based workflow from scratch. Select the trigger to fire when a new contact is created as shown in the GIF below.

The Create Attachment action allows you to associate a file or folder to HubSpot records. To use it, search for "Create Attachment" and select the action. To use the “Create Attachment” action, simply click on add button and search for ‘Create Attachment’ as shown below.

Once you add this action, it will ask you to fill in certain parameters.The Library parameter is the desired Cloud storage where you wish to choose the file from. Select the desired storage from the drop down field.

We also need to enter values for Shared Drive ID & Path to Destination. These are -

These parameters can be easily copied from CloudFiles app library. Follow these steps -

Check the GIF below for a quick walkthrough of these steps.

Here's an example of how the completed Create Attachment action should look:



The Share Attachment action enables you to share attachments using HubSpot workflows. Sharing an attachment is exactly the same as manually creating a sharing link of a file / folder / dataroom from HubSpot record.

To use this action, simply click on add button and search for ‘Share Attachment’ . This action has only one parameter that can be set to specify the Attachment to be shared. You can derive this from the return value of the previous Create Attachment action - ‘New Attachment ID’.

This is what the final Share Attachment action looks like -

In this step, we will set the link created in the last step to a contact property. For this, first create a single-line text property in the HubSpot Contact Settings. We created a property called ‘Shareable Link’.

To set the shared link to the above property, we will use the Edit Record action. For the ‘Property to set’ parameter, we will choose 'Shareable Link' and under 'Shareable Link' parameter we will set it to the output ‘URL’ of the last action.

The GIF below shows the configuration for the Edit Record action.

The Update Link Settings action allows you to modify the settings of CloudFiles links created in your records. These settings include options for disabling downloads, setting expiration dates, and enforcing email verification, among others. This action is useful for applying security policies to your shared links.

In this step, we’ll update the URL of the attachment and enable email verification of the enrolled contact. First, choose a link under “Links to Update” — you can either select the latest link or all links used in the workflow. Next, decide whether to disable downloads by selecting “Yes” or “No” under “Disable Downloads.”

You can configure the link’s expiry date in the “Expires on” section and specify the time after which the link should expire. Alternatively, set the link to deactivate after a specified number of days in “Expires After (Number of days)” or after a desired number of unique views in “Expires After (Number of views).”

To add an extra layer of protection, you can set a password for the link by selecting “Yes” under “Update Link Password.” For collecting email addresses, choose “Yes” under “Requires Email for accessing the Link.” To enforce email verification, select “Yes” from “Enforce Email Verification” and under “Allowed Emails,” choose the property with access permissions. Here, I’ve selected the “Email” property of the enrolled contact.

Here's an example of how the completed Create Attachment action should look:

That’s it. Save and activate the flow. In the next section, we will test the workflow.

Now that everything is set up, let’s test our flow. Simply create a new contact in HubSpot. The workflow may take a few seconds to execute, so refresh the page if needed. Navigate to the properties section and look for "Shareable Link." Copy the link and open it in a new window. Copy the email ID of the respective contact, and you will be able to access the file. This is shown in the GIF below -