Content Sharing
We offer three different mechanisms for sharing content. Each mechanism is designed for a specific use case, described below.
Mechanism | Description | Use case |
|---|---|---|
Stable, persistent links to the website, with an optional expiry date. | Sharing links to content via chat messages, emails, etc. | |
Stable, persistent and cacheable links to public, published content, with either a direct view (of the derivative) or a rich view (a video player, a carousel with content from a collection, or an HTML page containing a still image). | Embedding content on other websites. | |
Direct access to originals and derivatives. Options: choice between originals or derivatives, events on link usage, automatic download by the browser. Variants:
| Direct, one-off access to the original or derivative files, for example, for downloading or automated processing. |
What happens when a share link becomes invalid
Share links become inactive immediately as soon as one of the underlying criteria is no longer met, for example, when the content is archived, deleted, or no longer public. What happens next depends on the mechanism used:
Mechanism | Behaviour when the link is no longer valid |
|---|---|
Shares | The application shows a formatted error page explaining the reason. |
Direct downloads | A technical HTTP error code with a message is returned. This results in broken images when the link is no longer valid. |
Embeddings | The intended behaviour is that a placeholder image is shown, containing a message that this content is no longer available. This way, websites that embed the link do not end up with broken links. |