Ability to attach files to requests

[sebbacon]

Use case: a company that works with data on empty properties / rateable values etc makes FOI requests where they send an Excel spreadsheet to a council containing the details of the properties they're interested in and the council fills in the blanks.

[frabcus]

Smells to me of unnecessary complication. Yes it is just an attachment button, but it is a slippery slope to people asking for the ability to do headings and full HTML formatting, or to be able to CC requests to other email addresses. I don't think it is worth making the request form intimidating with such features.

In this particular case, there are lots of other options - send a link to a Google Doc, or a Survey Monkey survey or similar.

[RichardTaylor]

I agree with Francis, while this does get requested regularly there has not really been a compelling case made for it. There are already problems with users copying and pasting large amounts of extraneous material into requests; this feature could exacerbate that and encourage users seeking to abuse the site by posting material on it rather than getting their own website.

[sebbacon]

OK, perhaps we could best address this in the UI with some help guidance ("need to send files? use dropbox" or similar)

[hsenag]

I think the downside of using an external host is that the archive of the request becomes scattered, and if they break their URLs/drop their content then we lose important context.

Currently it's possible for us to manually upload files to the request area if someone asks, and we've done this at least once: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/appropriate_case_working_unit

Perhaps some automation so we can easily make this available at our discretion?

[skenaja]

Extract from WDTK mailbox giving more detail from a requester's point of view:

Today, I have submitted a review request to Napier University: it
comprised at least two pages of text in PDF format. Being able to
send DOC/ODT/PDF files is useful as it allows proper formatting to
be applied to the text and it is far easier to draft these sort of
documents in a word-processor as compared to a text window. The
length of this review request is probably terse compared to the
review that I will need to be drafted for the other requests, so it
quickly becomes impracticable in a browser.

It is common practice for public authorities to reply using PDF
files, so it stands to reason that a user may wish to use
attachments for the similar reasons.

I understand there may be risk concerning malware embedded in
attachments, however these can as easily be sent directly to the
authority's email address anyway and mySociety is essentially only
functioning as a transit service in that scenario so should be
legally protected.

Hope that helps explain why I was looking for the feature :-)

[RichardTaylor]

We've had a rare case where a user had a legitimate requirement for this feature.

The public body sought clarification; asking the user to mark the property a request related to on a plan:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/planning_permissions_2

The requestor worked around the lack of this feature by uploading the plan elsewhere and linking to it; though this means an element key to the request thread is not hosted on our site.

This such a rarely needed feature; I think the advantages of not having it outweigh by far the potential disadvantages of allowing users to upload attachments.

[RichardTaylor]

Another example of one of the rare cases of legitimate need for this feature has just arisen on WhatDoTheyKnow.com

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/freedom_of_information_historic

In this case WhatDoTheyKnow administrator @kingqueen3065 offered to manually upload the plans in question to WhatDoTheyKnow so the requester could refer to copies there.

[andreaspavlou]

Hi all,

We also got this request from an MEP assistant.

Maybe it would be useful if this feature could be available for users, but it is a turned off feature until they ask for it, and then it can be turned on, but only per request. (so similar system for the 'bulk messages' feature, but can be turned on per request, not per requester).

[kingqueen3065]

We've had an example of a user providing documents as context; after initiating the request via our system, they sent the documents by private email with team@ copied in. This risks the user being provided the FOI response in private and not via whatdotheyknow.
+1 for the ability for admins to offer an upload facility, or turn it on per account.

[Gemmamysoc]

User feedback:

"[It would be good to have the ] Ability to add attachments to documents (often need to do that, and it’s painful working around things like tabular data);"

[andreaspavlou]

We also find that this might be a good feature for making internal appeals on AsktheEU.org, as often people (the Access Info team mainly hehe but I know of others too) put in lengthy text which would be better and easier to read if we were able to attach it as a Word doc. At the moment, we copy and paste onto AsktheEU.org but also send a word doc via our emails just in case.

[NSkelsey]

Sometimes the requirement for extra information comes in from the agency receiving requests.

In Italy the public body tasked with responding to FOIAs has set the requirement that the issuer of the request must identify themselves with either a valid ID or using other APIs that provide govt ID for them.

The Cheidi platform is basically blocked from operating under the new legislation of Italian FOIA without a way to programmatically provide a photo of an identifying document through the platform.

And while the suggestions of using .gov.it APIs is a good one, it is not a generic solution for other MySociety sites that may run into the same requirement.

[andreaspavlou]

Italy is a good example of the risk its site (chiedi) might not be able to function at all without the ability for users to upload copies of their ID when making requests (or maybe to their account initially as users so they do not have to upload each time they request?)

Maybe as a turn-on feature, it could be useful for other installations too.

[pdehaye]

Another completely different use case is for Belgium, where some administrations actively fight the use of Transparencia. There has been a court judgment that they are interpreting as allowing them to chose by which channel to reply. So they ask for a private email address, and the response does not get put up online automatically. The requesters then have to send the documents obtained to the site admin, who then uploads the document. It would be much easier if the requester could say at the end:
"Thank you for sending me this document (attached)"

[MattK1234]

The WhatDoTheyKnow administration team have received contact from a prospective user of WhatDoTheyKnow Pro, who wanted the ability to send an attachment with a request for the public body to fill in.