SharePoint Folders: Folders vs. Metadata

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If you move the document, that URL is no longer valid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!