It's easy to create a post that references external content by pasting the URL from a website.
Device(s): Desktop, Mobile
Roles/Permissions: Any user
To add external content to your Workvivo post:
- Go to the web page with the article, blog post or content you want to share and copy the URL.
- Click "What's going on?" to type your update
- Paste the URL
- Wait a few seconds for the preview to render. This will be a URL and usually an image if the image is passed by the website
- Delete the URL text from your post to make it neater and type your update
- Once you're ready, click "Post"
Once it's posted, colleagues will see the preview at the bottom of your update. They can click on it easily to get to the web page.
URL Malware Scanning
To ensure malicious links cannot be launched from Workvivo, the platform will scan attributes of any link added to content by using Google's Web Risk API. Users can add links to various content types on the platform including:
- Posts
- Articles
- Comments
- Events
- Goals
- Questions & Answers
- Spaces
- Space Links
- Documents
- Pages
Based on Google's Web Risk API response we will allow or block the link as seen below:
When a link is blocked, Workvivo will automatically send an email to the security team of your organization. The email will contain important information including:
- User, Timestamp, Suspicious Link, Log Event Reference ID
The email will also include a link to Google Web Risk which explains why this specific URL is considered suspicious.
Known Limitations:
Workvivo URLs / Links
If you wish to share a link to a Workvivo space in your post, bear in mind that rather than a preview of the content, it will show 'Preview not available' in the preview box however it will link to the space. Articles, Updates and Space documents will preview as normal.
If you do not want the preview box to show 'Preview not available' our recommendation is to hyperlink text in your update instead and remove the preview box before posting.
To hyperlink text:
- Enter the text for your update
- Highlight the word(s) you want to hyperlink
- Click the 'link' icon in the floating toolbar
- Click 'Edit'
- Paste the URL and click 'Save'
- You can remove the preview box by clicking the big 'X' on the top right of the preview box
- The hyperlink behind the text will not be removed, only the preview box will disappear
The post will now look like this:
Authenticated Sites
If you are sharing a link to your document management system or another work tool for example, instead of displaying a preview of the content, users may see a sign-in link instead.
The below example shows a Sign-in link to Google Drive when a Google Drive folder URL is pasted in the update.
This will show even if the user is already logged into that system / app.
Our recommendation is to hyperlink the relevant text in your update and remove the preview box before posting.
Websites that do not generate a Preview
Some websites pass limited metadata / information so Workvivo may be unable to:
- Render a preview image. In this case just the URL domain is shown in the preview box
- Render an indicative URL for the external content shared. In this case, Workvivo will present an illustrative URL such as www.example.com
Our recommendation is to hyperlink the relevant text in your update and remove the preview box before posting.
We have logged the above limitations as areas for enhancement in the platform and we will update you once these changes are made.