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SHAREPOINT
FOLDERS: FOLDERS
VS. METADATA
Thomas Duff – 11/19/2014
Agenda
What is Metadata?
Folders vs. Metadata comparison
Creating metadata columns in your Document
library
Creating views in your Document Library
What is Metadata?
Think about metadata as attributes of an
object
Example: A book
The attributes could be the title, author, date of
publication, and subject.
In a document library, metadata is data about
the documents
The attributes (a.k.a. metadata) could be the year,
month, department, category and project).
You’ve all seen (and done this)
And your URL to get to the
document…
… is some long string with a number of folders to
drill down to the final physical location
http://yoursite.com/sites/SP2010/FolderMetaDataDemo/
Finance/2014/01/FinanceJan2014Assets.xlsx
FolderMetaDataDemo > Finance > 2014 > 01 > The
File
This is bad because…
A URL string can only be approximately 255 characters long
If you move the document, that URL is no longer valid
Spaces and special characters in your URL count as three characters. Example – spaces become %20http://yoursite.com/sites/DuffTeamSite/Shared%20Documents/
Secondary%20Folder/Example%20Spreadsheet%2001.xlsx
This example takes twelve characters instead of four for the spaces
This is bad because…
A document can only go into one folder
(category) even if it pertains to multiple folders
Contributors can create, delete, rename, and
move folders
Your document libraries can become a “Wild
West” of content and structure
And worst of all…
You know, this
would look
better in year
order!
No, I *need* it
to be grouped
by Liabilities
and Assets!
You’re at the
mercy of
whoever
originally
created the
folder (and
categorization)
structure…
It’d work so much better this
way…
Everyone can
view the library
in their own
way!
Metadata fields
Additional columns in your Document Library
Choose columns you need for grouping and
sorting
Here’s how you add metadata
columns
Go into Library > Library Tools > Library Settings to get to your Document Library
columns.
To create a new column of metadata, click on Create Column:
Here’s how you add metadata
columns
Add a column name and type. If
you pick a choice field, add the
values you want the user to
choose from:
Here’s how you add metadata
columns
When you click OK, you’ll see that you now
have a new column in your Document
Library:
Here’s how you add metadata
columns
In this document library, I’ve added metadata columns
for Department, Report Year, Report Month, and Report
Type:
Here’s a new document being
added
When you click Add Document to the bottom of the view,
you see a dialog box for picking a document to upload:
Here’s a new document being
added
The next dialog box gives you the opportunity to add all
the metadata fields you have specified for this
Document Library:
Here’s a new document being
added
Your document is now in the library complete with
metadata for view categorization:
Creating views for your library
To create a new view, click the view dropdown and select Create View:
Creating views for your library
You can either start with a standard view (based on the current default
view), or you can choose an existing view to start your new view:
Creating views for your library
Give your view a name and choose what columns (and what order) you
want:
Creating views for your library
Select the sort order for your view. Here I chose to sort by Report Year
(descending order) and Report Month (descending order):
Without metadata columns, I couldn’t sort or group without folders.
Creating views for your library
Pick up to two columns for grouping data in your view. Also, if you have
already used folders in your view, select the Show All Items Without
Folders option:
The finished product
You can also filter views
By using the Filter options in the view, you can set the view to only show
certain items (like only items for the Claims department):
If you’re adding metadata after the
fact
Datasheet views are useful for adding metadata to library items without
having to open each one up individually.
If you’re adding metadata after the
fact
Pick a name and the columns you want to display:
If you’re adding metadata after the
fact
Remember to choose the Show All Items Without Folders option:
The finished product
You can now update the Department, Report Year, Report Month, and Report
Type by copy/paste, autofill, or selecting from the dropdown option menu:
Another way to customize your
view
You can filter on multiple columns to see just the data you’re interested in:
You can even save the URL so you can get back to that filtered view:
http://yoursite.com/sites/SP2010/FolderMetaDataDemo/Forms/All%20Docume
nts%20No%20Folders.aspx?View={2B181F00-A1C5-4286-8E4C-
8D363C17DC79}&FilterField1=Report%5Fx0020%5FYear&FilterValue1=201
4&FilterField2=Report%5Fx0020%5FMonth&FilterValue2=04
Moving from folders to
metadata
Examine how you have things grouped by folders
Decide what metadata fields you need to create along with what values they need
Set the metadata fields up in the library
Create a datasheet view to populate the metadata fields
Once all the metadata fields are populated, use Open In Explorer to move the documents from the folders to the main Document Library root location
Remove the ability to create folders in that library
Keeping folders from
reappearing
Go to Library > Library Tools > Library
Settings under the Advanced option.
Make sure the “Make ‘New Folder’ command
available?” option is set to No.
Sharing metadata columns across
libraries
If you need to share specific metadata
columns across libraries, you can use Site
Columns
Site columns are created at the Site level and
you can add them to libraries
Great for Choice fields where you want to have
consistent values across libraries
Talk with someone in the SharePoint Support
team if you want more information or help in
implementing them
Are folders always bad?
There are some reasons when they make
sense
Can’t get people used to the metadata concept
Permissions can be applied to folders and
inherited by documents (but you can also set up
separate document libraries in your site for this
situation)
Bottom Line: Folders should be the exception, not the
rule.
Questions?
Thanks for attending!