# File naming recommendations

The platform is using AWS S3 storage under the hood, and while the platform offers full UTF-8 support for metadata, it is recommended for you to use only certain characters when uploading your files to the platform, not only to ensure compatibility with the platform itself, but also and more importantly, with 3rd party components and tools you may want to use in the future. 

{% hint style="info" %}
These recommendations are based in the [AWS S3 safe file names technical article](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/userguide/object-keys.html).
{% endhint %}

This way, in order for you to avoid future limitations and shortcomings, it is recommended to consider the following guidelines to name your files:

### Safe Characters

These are characters that are generally safe to use in key names across the platform:

<table data-header-hidden><thead><tr><th width="166" align="center"></th><th width="374"></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td align="center">Alphanumeric characters</td><td><ul><li>0-9</li><li>a-z</li><li>A-Z</li></ul></td></tr><tr><td align="center">Special characters</td><td><ul><li>Exclamation point (<code>!</code>)</li><li>Hyphen (<code>-</code>)</li><li>Underscore (<code>_</code>)</li><li>Period (<code>.</code>)</li><li>Asterisk (<code>*</code>)</li><li>Single quote (<code>'</code>)</li><li>Open parenthesis (<code>(</code>)</li><li>Close parenthesis (<code>)</code>)</li></ul></td></tr></tbody></table>

{% hint style="warning" %}
Although they are safe characters, it is not recommended to use periods (.) at the end or as a prefix for files and folders, as these characters could be removed when handled.
{% endhint %}

### Special Handling Characters

These characters will be recognized by the platform and your AWS S3 storage but might require additional code handling when using third parties (i.e. browser applications):

* Ampersand ("&")
* Dollar ("$")
* [ASCII ](https://www.ascii-code.com/)character ranges 00–1F hex (0–31 decimal) and 7F (127 decimal)
* 'At' symbol ("@")
* Equals ("=")
* Semicolon (";")
* Forward slash ("/")
* Colon (":")
* Plus ("+")
* Space – Significant sequences of spaces might be lost in some uses (especially multiple spaces)
* Comma (",")
* Question mark ("?")

### Characters to Avoid

The following characters are not recommended at all as part of any of the namings across the platform:

* Backslash ("\\")
* Left curly brace ("{")
* Non-printable [ASCII](https://www.ascii-code.com/) characters (128–255 decimal characters)
* Caret ("^")
* Right curly brace ("}")
* Percent character ("%")
* Grave accent / back tick ("\`")
* Right square bracket ("]")
* Quotation marks
* 'Greater Than' symbol (">")
* Left square bracket ("\[")
* Tilde ("\~")
* 'Less Than' symbol ("<")
* 'Pound' character ("#")
* Vertical bar / pipe ("|")


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