File components
Collect the evidence your service needs, from a single receipt to large files and structured datasets. Govform supports multiple uploads, review links, a choice of file stores, antivirus scanning, document reconstruction and image privacy controls.
Choose the upload pattern
- Single file: ask for one clearly identified document, image or other file.
- Multiple files: collect a set of related evidence in one component, with a configurable maximum of up to 100 files. Use separate labelled components when each document has a distinct purpose.
- Bulk Data: connect a CSV/XLSX upload to a defined dataset structure for background validation, optional correction, review and explicit confirmation.
State what is needed, why, the accepted formats and maximum size. Provide a clear alternative where the person cannot upload a digital copy.
Upload your proof of address
For a service configured with a 10 MB limit: upload a clear PDF, JPG or PNG smaller than 10 MB. Explain the actual alternative route available in your service.
Set file types, counts and size limits
Choose formats your team can use and set an explicit maximum that fits the storage destination and downstream processing. The 20 GB platform ceiling does not mean every security mode or receiving system accepts a 20 GB file. MB/GB below are decimal; MiB refers to the binary API allowance.
| Capability | Limit | How to configure it |
|---|---|---|
| Standard file upload | Up to 20 GB per file; 10 MB default when no limit is set. | Set the component maximum in MB, up to 20,000. Storage, scanning, service policies and processing capacity can impose a lower usable limit. |
| Multiple files | Up to 100 files per component; default maximum 10. | Set a count that fits the evidence task. The per-file size limit still applies. |
| Content Disarm and Reconstruction (CDR) | 50 MB default, or a lower component/platform limit. | Single-file components only. The deployment can configure the CDR cap; the lower cap wins. |
| Govform AV for your own store | Current scanned-transfer ceiling 5 GB. | Applies to both scan-first and parallel modes. It is separate from the general 20 GB ceiling. |
| Bulk Data validation | 5,000,000 data cells and 200 configured columns. | For example, 500,000 rows across 10 columns. Input-file size and processing limits also apply. |
| Base64 in API action bodies | 25 MiB combined raw files per action. | Repeated references count again. Encoding adds about one third; use streaming for larger files. |
The current 5 GB external AV ceiling comes from its temporary scanning transfer, which uses a single S3 PUT; see the upload FAQ for storage and processing choices.
Choose Govform storage or your own
| Storage choice | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| Govform-managed storage | Use our storage and configured in-place antivirus processing, with authorised viewing, downloading and API retrieval. |
| Your own SharePoint | Keep evidence in an existing document library; large transfers use upload sessions. |
| Your own AWS S3 | Keep evidence in your bucket, with streaming multipart transfers. |
| Your own Google Cloud Storage | Use your bucket with resumable large-file transfers. |
| Your own Azure Blob Storage | Use your storage account and container with streamed transfers. |
Configure the approved connections in Library settings and select the service’s file-storage destination. Keep QA and Production details separate. A customer-owned store retains its own permissions, retention and lifecycle policies; test both authorised retrieval and deletion.
Configure S3, Google Cloud Storage or Azure Blob Storage or configure a SharePoint site link.
Choose antivirus and document reconstruction
For a supported customer-owned store, antivirus scanning can be scan-first, parallel or disabled in favour of your destination’s controls. The choice affects where a file can exist before its scan result is available.
| Mode | When to use it | Behaviour |
|---|---|---|
| Govform-managed storage | Keep storage and scanning together. | When scanning is available and configured, files are scanned in place in Govform storage. This is not a per-component external-store opt-out. |
| Own store: scan first | Require a clean result before transfer to your destination. | Govform temporarily stages the file for scanning and sends it to your store only after a clean result. Current transfer ceiling: 5 GB. |
| Own store: parallel scan | Allow destination transfer to run alongside scanning. | Scanning and transfer run concurrently. A detected threat triggers destination deletion; downstream access must account for scan timing and possible cleanup failure. Current transfer ceiling: 5 GB. |
| Own store: no Govform AV | Use the destination’s scanning or another agreed control. | Govform transfers the file without its own AV stage. Configure the destination’s protection and service policy explicitly. |
| CDR enabled | Reconstruct supported content before use. | CDR always requires scan-first processing and fails closed if scanning is unavailable. Its default 50 MB cap and single-file restriction apply. |
CDR reconstructs supported documents, including DOCX, XLSX and PDF, into controlled outputs. Test representative documents and their resulting format before relying on them in a workflow. CDR is unavailable on multiple-file components; use separate single-file components when reconstructed evidence is required.
Protect privacy in JPEG and PNG images
- Resize: reduce large images to Full HD dimensions where configured, helping reviewers and transfers.
- Remove metadata: strip supported image metadata such as location and camera information when it is unnecessary.
- Blur faces: optionally blur detected faces through the CDR worker, with its single-file and size limits.
Choose transformations around the evidence task. Check whether reviewers need the original resolution, metadata or visible faces, and explain material processing in the service’s privacy information.
Process large CSV and Excel returns
Bulk Data streams CSV rows or rows from the selected XLSX worksheet through background validation. Excel input is staged to temporary disk for streaming worksheet reading. Respondents see progress, a preview and error reports without loading the entire dataset into their browser.
- Define the structure: up to 200 columns with text, integer, decimal, date, boolean or fixed-choice types, plus required values, lengths, ranges and uniqueness rules.
- Validate at scale: up to five million data cells, counted against the configured columns.
- Correct and confirm: optional spreadsheet-style correction works in selections/edits of up to 1,000 rows. Review and confirmation remain explicit steps.
- Keep evidence: retain the source upload separately from the validated CSV containing corrections, subject to configured retention.
- Deliver onward: stream the confirmed CSV or selected source file to a configured store using Upload files, or retrieve it through the authenticated Bulk Data API.
Streaming transfers avoid the 25 MiB Base64 request-body allowance. Provider, network and execution limits still apply. Bulk Data availability depends on your account and release.
Review files and handle conditional evidence
Choose filename-only, view or download links on review pages. Test existing and replacement uploads when a person saves and returns, and ensure authorised reviewers can retrieve the stored file.
Use conditional validation when evidence is required only for particular answers, or page-flow conditions for a whole evidence step. Ensure later actions use only evidence relevant to the person’s current answers.
Test the complete upload journey
- Test accepted and rejected types, file count, and files just below and above the configured maximum.
- Test large uploads on a slower connection, unavailable storage and understandable recovery messages.
- Verify scan timing, reconstruction output and any image transformations.
- Check filenames, folders, review links, retrieval, retention and replacement uploads in QA.
- For Bulk Data, test invalid rows, correction, confirmation and the exact evidence version sent onward.