Outside Users: A Share Gate Before the Folder Opens

Implementation checklist for external collaborator permissions is a share-gate walk, not a role-design essay. Before an outside account can see a plasmid map or an experiment record, the object must be named, the role must be named, and the parent folder must not be an unmarked dump. What read-only means is a definition page. Staff offboarding is a later exit walk. This page only decides whether this outsider may be let in.

Share the Map, Not the Unmarked Folder

The search is external collaborator permission checklist. Keep the hold. An external collaborator is a person who is not on your payroll and who should see a named object — one map, one record, one project folder that you can list. An unmarked folder is a parent that still contains unrelated constructs, unpublished data, or another lab’s plasmids. Sharing that parent because it was faster than making a clean share is the failure this page names.

Prefer a share that a stranger on your team can describe in one sentence: who, which object, which role, until when. Reject a forwarded link that opens the lab. Sign-off readiness assumes the object is already internal and complete. Do not use that page as permission to send a draft folder off-site. Software does not complete 21 CFR Part 11 by offering a share dialog.

Walk the Share Gate in Order

Run the steps in this order. Do not skip to the invite because the collaborator is waiting on email.

1. Name the outsider as a unique person with an institutional email, not a shared inbox. Record the lab they belong to and the scientific reason for access. If you cannot name those three facts, stop.
2. Name the object: plasmid ID, record ID, or a project folder whose contents you have listed. If the only description is “the cloning folder,” stop. Open the parent and list what else sits there.
3. Assign the least role that finishes the job. Viewing a map is not editing a map. Commenting is not exporting. Read-only is a candidate role, not a finished gate.
4. Set an expiry or a review date. A share with no end date is a forgotten account. Write the date in the same place you will look next quarter.
5. Create or confirm a clean share surface: a dedicated folder or a single object, not the unmarked parent. Move or copy only what the outsider is allowed to see.
6. Send the invite. Immediately open the share as that person would, or have a colleague do it, and confirm the unmarked folder is not visible.
7. Record the share: person, object, role, expiry, and who approved. A share that exists only in a chat thread cannot be revoked on purpose.

Each step has a stop. The stop is the product of the walk. A pretty permissions UI that still exposes the parent has failed the walk even if the collaborator is polite.

Expected Result and Verification

Expected result: the outsider opens only the named object, with the named role, until the named date. Your unmarked folder stays closed. A person on your team can revoke the share without hunting through email.

Verification: log in with a test account in that role, or sit with the collaborator on a screen share, and attempt to open a sibling object that was not named. If that sibling opens, the gate failed. Attempt an action above the role — edit, download, or reshare. If it succeeds, the role failed. Mark the calendar reminder for the expiry. If you cannot revoke in one motion, the record of the share failed. Do not declare the walk complete because the invite was accepted.

Name Roles Before You Touch a Permission Surface

Finish the sentences — who, which object, which role, until when — before anyone opens a product. ZettaNote or ZettaFile can be the permission surface after those sentences exist. Official copy describes read and write access and audit trails. That is support for a control objective. It is not a finding that the laboratory is 21 CFR Part 11 complete, and it is not a reason to skip the unmarked-folder check. Offboarding a staff member who is leaving is a later page. Single sign-on as a buying criterion is a later page. If the only artifact is a forwarded folder link, you have not run the gate. You have shared the lab.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a read-only link enough for an external collaborator?

Read-only is a role, not a gate. You still must name the object, expiry, and parent folder.

Is this the same walk as staff offboarding?

No. Offboarding revokes a leaver. This page is the inbound share before an outsider arrives.