Email Files

Learn about the Email Files Action category in Automations.

Overview

As part of a workflow, you can email a file directly from Couchdrop as an attachment or create a Shared Link and email the link details that lead to the file. For sensitive data, we recommend the latter due to increased security and controls.

Couchdrop has several methods of transferring files that are more secure than email. We recommend using other methods unless there are no other options.

How Couchdrop emails files

When using either email action, Couchdrop will generate the email from [e-mail]. The email will use your organization name in the subject. See below for an example in Gmail.

Available Email Actions

Action Category	Description
Attach File and Email	Send file via email attachment to a custom email.
Create Shared Link and Email	Create a Couchdrop Shared Link and email link instructions.

Sending a file to multiple recipients

When using an Email Files Action, you define an email address that the file or Shared Link will be sent to. You can only enter one email address per action.

If you need to email multiple recipients, you can use variables as part of the email address. By defining custom variables earlier in the workflow, you can input them into this field to send files to different emails depending on parameters like filename, user, etc.

Attach File and Email Action

The Attach File and Email action sends the file being processed by the workflow as an email attachment.

This is useful when a workflow needs to deliver a file directly to a recipient after an earlier action has completed.

You configure the recipient email address when adding the action. The recipient can be a fixed email address or an Automation Variable, allowing the destination to be determined by values available in the workflow.

Only one email address can be configured per action. If the same file needs to be sent to multiple recipients, add additional email actions.

Because the file is sent as an email attachment, consider whether email is appropriate for the data being transferred. For sensitive files, Create Shared Link and Email provides additional controls without placing the file itself in the recipient's mailbox.

Create Shared Link and Email Action

The Create Shared Link and Email action creates a Couchdrop Shared Link for the file being processed and emails that link to a recipient.

Instead of attaching the file directly to the email, the recipient receives a link they can use to access it. This is generally preferable when you want to avoid sending the file itself through email.

You configure the recipient email address and can use an Automation Variable when the destination needs to change based on the workflow.

You can also configure an Expiry for the Shared Link. Once the configured period has passed, the link expires and can no longer be used to access the file.

As with Attach File and Email, one recipient can be configured per action.

Create Custom Email Action

The Create Custom Email Action lets you send a custom email from within a workflow branch.

This is useful when you want to notify someone that a specific part of a workflow has completed, or when a branch represents an exception or condition that needs attention.

For example, you can use a Custom Email Action to:

• Notify a team when files have been moved to a specific location.
• Send an alert when a conditional branch is triggered.
• Confirm that an exception condition has been met, such as checking the modification time of a file in a location before continuing.
• Send workflow context such as the User, Filename, or custom variables extracted earlier in the workflow.

You can configure the email recipient, subject, and body, and use Automation Variables in each field to include values from the workflow at that point.

Because Custom Email Actions can be added to branches, the notification can be tied to a specific workflow outcome rather than being sent every time the workflow runs.