Public links for sharing dynamic documents outside BackOps
Create a public link to a dynamic document so people without a BackOps account can read it, preset its variables, and limit which values a reader can pick.
A public link lets anyone open a document without a BackOps account: vendors, talent, sponsors, clients, venue staff. The link opens a read-only view of the document with its live data, so the call sheet you sent on Monday is still right on Thursday.
Creating a Public Link
Open the share dialog
Create the link
Set variables if needed
If the document has variables, open the new link's menu in Links, edit it, open Variable Constraints, set the values (see below) and click Update.
Send it
A document can have many links, each with its own name and variable settings, so you can make one per collaborator, area or audience from a single document.
Presetting and Limiting Variables
Each variable on the document can have a Preset value on a link. Collaborator, Area, Activity, Crew and ResourceType variables can also have Allowed values.
A preset value is what the link opens with. A day sheet with a Collaborator variable, linked with that variable preset to one company, opens straight on that company's day; the reader never has to know what a variable is.
Allowed values limit what the reader can switch to. Leave it empty to allow any value; fill it in to offer only those options, for example letting a sponsor switch between two venue areas and nothing else. A reader cannot request a value outside the list.
What Readers See
Readers see the document as it renders in BackOps, with the variable values the link presets or allows, and can switch variables within what the link allows. Files attached from the event Drive are not shown to link readers. They cannot edit anything.
Query block data is not filtered for link readers. Every column in a query block is visible to anyone with the link, so check what a document shows before sending a public link to it.
Changing and Ending a Link
Each link's menu in the Links list lets you edit its name and variable settings, or delete it. Deleting a link is permanent: anyone who opens it afterwards sees that the document is not available, and the same URL cannot be brought back. Deleting the document ends all its links the same way.