To quickly summarise my question:
Is it feasible to programmatically change the name of a directory (with both files and sub-folders) in SharePoint? I am expecting that users will have files checked out on at least some occasions what I am attempting the rename.
The background:
I am currently contracting for a company that produces web based software (ASP.NET) with a configurable document management system. The system can be configured to use different underlying systems, with the most common environment being SharePoint (WSS 3).
I have been assigned a task to extend what has to now been a fairly simple system (simply output files into a fixed directory structure, occasionally read). Having never worked with SharePoint before I am doing some research on best practices, and am attempting to work out what is viable. At this stage I do not have access to a testing environment myself, so am limited to reading up online.
One request is to have the directory structure reflect the name (as one example) of the current client - so all documentation for a client will be in one place, and can be accessed externally via SharePoint or other compatible applications. The specification cites that if the name of the client changes then the directory structure should immediately update. My concern is that this will either directly cause errors (eg. Permission denied) or indirectly cause errors (loss of work for users who have externally checked out files).
As a follow up question if there are concerns with the above, is there a better way to implement the above? I have looked at suggesting the users use views to access the structure in SharePoint, however there is a concern from our BA that users will not be able to directly upload new files into this structure.
Thanks
The issue with Folders in SharePoint is that they are not really folders in the way you would expect of a file system. All files in a SiteCollection are stored in one big-assed table on the Database (checkout the AllDocs table).
I cannot categorically say it is safe to rename the folder without doing a bit of testing, I know that the folders "name" is not the key to accessing the document, despite it appearing to be based on the Url you see in the browser.
The best bet is to do a quick test, but I am pretty sure that your plan will not be a problem.
The potential issue is if any Content Query Web Parts etc rely on specific folders to exist or if any other "code" or "pages" look for that folder and not the folderId.
Save the content of the list before you "attempt" it in production. You don't want to loose data.
Checked out documents will still work the way you expect them to.
You may however have to run a crawl again.
Related
We have a sharepoint website and as part of functional process across the website where there are lot of documents been uploaded. Currently they are been stored into database which results in very bulky table in terms of size. My initial approach was to utilize sharepoint to store the documents into file library. Does anybody think database is the wiser options and why or any other approach which is performant and better to store confidential files?
Using a database for storing documents is not a recommended approach, not only it will have large size but will be hard when it comes to maintenance and performance.
If you have a SharePoint server, why not go with a library or multiple libraries to store documents. You will get the below advantages when using SharePoint.
1.Permission management : you can set up access to documents and choose who access what.
2.Search : if there is a search service running you can search through your libraries.
3.OWA : office web apps can be used to open documents on the browser.
4.Audits : You can enable audit logs to see who does what.
Remember, SharePoint is a CMS and there are other options like MMS etc, but it stores the documents in a database too, its designed well so you dont have to worry much about it. If you go with your custom solution you will have to do a lot of custom development and testing.
I never recommend saving files in the database. The easiest approach is to store them on the server in a directory and only save the file names in the database. This makes it easy to show them via a URL in a browser as well. Create a table with a column for the OriginalFileName and one for the ActualFileName. When i save a file to the server after its uploaded i usually change the name so you never have complications with duplicate file names. I use a GUID as the actual file name when its saved and save the original file name in the database along with the actual so you can get both back.
I've built a SharePoint user control (not a web part) and am deploying it via Solutions, Features, etc.
It's a commercial component and I want to be able to store license information once it's registered. I've got all the licensing stuff down and working, however, I am trying to find a "global" (i.e. farm level) place to store the information (so it works on multi-server farms).
This is intended to be a commercial component so I have no control over security policies, application pool accounts, etc. I need it to work without admins needing to reconfigure their farms.
I've considered:
Web.config - best option so far, but have read that Windows UAC can interfere and changes may not always be applied.
Hierarchical Object Store - Several security gotchas - Namely app pool needs access to Config database (which many environments won't allow)
Root site property bag - Possible. I can update all the Root Sites Properties at the time of registration, but what happens when new web apps are created? User has to register component for each web app?
Registry, file system - Not persisted across servers
Custom DB - Seems like a lot of places for this to fail.
I know other commercial vendors are doing it somehow.
Any ideas?
Web.config - best option so far, but have read that Windows UAC can interfere and changes may not always be applied.
There are many many different opinions about putting your configuration stuff in web.config. Personally, i would NOT recommend it, because SharePoint is automatically pushing changes to it and you can't really control what's going on.
I've had similar requirements, but at a SiteCollection level. What i did was creating a simple custom list with 2 columns (Key, Value) at the root of my SiteCollection. Within my code, i hardcoded the name of the list and used elevated privileges (because i set the list permissions to admin-only) to access the values i needed.
You could basically do the same, but not at the root of the SiteCollection level, but in the Central Administration. This way, you can access the configuration list from anywhere within SharePoint.
Another idea would be setting up a simple configuration database and then use a custom web-service (which is deployed within SharePoint) to get it's values. However this adds quite a lot of overhead to such a "simple" task and will get you in a lot of trouble without proper exception handling/logging.
I'm creating a custom master page for my SharePoint 2010 publishing site. There are images, css files and js files associated with this custom master page. Where should they be stored?
I'm using the SiteAssets library for now - is this a good choice?
Thanks.
Yeah that is a good choice, also make sure you Provision all these files using Feature, this way upate of Files becomes easier.
In my opinion, you should store everything under the site collection libraries, this way you get:
Easy recovery in the cases you need to re-install the server[s]
Versioning and permissions on resources
Separation of resources between site collection
Simple deployment between environments, as you do not need to copy the files manually or design and deploy a feature to do it for you
The preferred place is of course Style Library, this is what it is intended for.
If you are creating and deploying your files through code, you can also use the _layouts directory to store your files. This makes it simpler to share files between site collections. Visual Studio 2010 makes it really simple to add a reference to the Images folder and any files will then be deployed to the _layouts/Images URL.
The only advantage of this is that a site collection administrator cannot make changes to these files, only someone with access to the physical server. (Although this can also be a disadvantage if your logos or images are changing regularly).
I usually store them in _catalogs/masterpage/ORGNAME/...
You can refer this blog for actual implementation
http://markviky.blogspot.com/2010/11/sharepoint-2010-web-content-management.html
-Vighnesh Bendre
I have a requirement wherein I have to obtain all the files of a web recursively (i.e. traversing through the folders and sub folders) and display them for the user through SP Object Model.
This has to be security trimmed, in the sense, if the user doesn't have sufficient privileges to view or open the file, then that file shouldn't be taken into account. Is it possible to obtain all the files without looping through each and every document library, folders and sub folders?
Also, I don't want the default document libraries like web part gallery, master page gallery,etc to be listed out. Any insights on how to achieve this?
The Content Query Web Part can get you most of the way there. Out-of-the-box you could set this up to show all files (based on a content type or content type category) from a site collection. You could even filter to remove system files although that might be a little tricky to get the filters right.
If that doesn't get you far enough, then you could write a web part that extends the Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.WebControls.ContentByQueryWebPart class. You could override the Filters (by setting the FilterField1, FilterType1, FilterOperator1, FilterValue1, etc).
The security trimming should happen for you by the default behavior of the ContentQueryWebPart. The Web Part and Master Page galleries will get filtered out based on your content type settings so you shouldn't have to worry about those.
I need to work with several teams and need to be able to share requirements and design documents. Most people won't be too technical, so I want to avoid source code tools. The main requirements are:
Easy sharing via links. I don't want people to have to install multple tools just to see a file or learn anything about svn checkout.
Permissions - I want to allow view only access to most people, with some having add/edit permissions. I don't want anyone to be able to permanently delete anything.
Revision History - I want to see who has added and edited files and be able to revert to previous versions.
I've tried Dropbox and SkyDrive, but they each have faults. Dropbox allows users to permanently delete files, and it will even delete the file from your local machine when it is synced. SkyDrive doesn't allow enough fine grained permissions or revision history. Do I need a CMS system like Drupal]? Would Sharepoint be the proper tool? I don't necessarily need an open source solution. The easier it is to set up and administer, the better.
Just my personal bias, but I hate Sharepoint. (I see this Q is tagged Sharepoint)
I much prefer some sort of Wiki, and have had good experience with TWIKI. It certainly meets the three basic requirements.
AFAIK Dropbox never deletes files "permanently" but you can undo it via the web interface. If I remember correctly you also can restore old versions of files but I cannot try it right now.
Adobe Buzzword might do most of what you are looking for.
If you do not need online document creation, a traditional CMS is not really what you are after. Drupal could serve your purposes, but it would not be straightforward- afterall, file attachments are second class citizens for a web content system.
Alfresco is a system I've heard used as a competitor for Sharepoint and useful for managing documents.