sharepoint folders vs. metadata
TRANSCRIPT
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SHAREPOINTFOLDERS vs. METADATA
GREGORY ZELFOND
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About Me
Gregory Zelfond 10+ years of experience with SharePoint SharePoint advocate, blogger Love to solve business problems using code-free, out of
the box SharePoint configurations Owner of SharePoint Maven (sharepointmaven.com)
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About SharePoint Maven
I HELP ORGANIZATIONS TO UNLOCK THE POWER OF SHAREPOINT
MIGRATION CONSULTING TRAINING
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What’s wrong with folders?
1. Usability (finding files)
2. URL Length limitation
3. File URL & Sharing
4. Security
5. File duplication
6. 1 lonely view
7. No filtering/sorting/grouping
8. Change is hard
9. Lost documents
10. No breadcrumb
11. 5,000 item limit threshold
12. Cost
13. Empty folders
14. Data Integrity
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Reason # 1: Usability
Can you (easily) make sense of this folder structure?
Would you be able to find the document easily?
Every person has their own “mental” map on how to organize files & documents
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Reason # 2: URL Length limitation
https://company.sharepoint.com/SharedDocuments/
Clients/Projects/Year/Agenda.docx
Folder Folder Folder File
The total length of URL (server name + list name + all folders + file name)
cannot exceed 256 characters!
Server List
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Reason # 3: File URL
Moving file from one folder to another means change of file URL!
Example:OLD: https://company.sharepoint.com/SharedDocuments/Clients/Projects/Year/Agenda.docx
NEW: https://company.sharepoint.com/SharedDocuments/Clients/Projects/Agenda.docx
Did you share the file with someone by sending URL to the file?– When you move file from one folder to another, “old”
URL is no longer relevant…
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Reason # 4: Security
Managing security at a folder level is an administrative nightmare!
20 folders in a library = 20 different security configurations!!!
Also, each time you break the security inheritance from site/document library, your SharePoint performance is impacted!
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Reason # 5: File Duplication
Each folder can contain 1 “unique” file name
That means same file can be in multiple folders in same document library
Which one is the right document?
No single source of truth…
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Reason # 6: 1 lonely view
With folders, not much choice
for viewing files…
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Reason # 7: No filtering, sorting or grouping
…In contrast to metadata, where you can group, sort & filter
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Reason # 8: Change is hard!
Changing set folder structures is hard
They just become deeper and wider with time
“Restructuring” folders is a challenge and is rarely done anyway
Metadata allows for quick and easy change
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Reason # 9: Lost documents
With folders, documents can easily become “lost” in nested folder hierarchy
This leads to frustration for users and unnecessary file duplication
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Reason # 10: No breadcrumb
Can you tell which library or folder I am in?
There is no way for users to know current folder hierarchy
Limited breadcrumb for navigation (does not show full path)
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Reason # 11: 5000 item limit threshold
View cannot contain more than 5,000 items (folders + files) Displaying a folder with > 5,000 files will cause issues Metadata and indexing resolve the issue To learn more, read this blog post: http://sharepointmaven.com/how-
to-overcome-sharepoint-5000-item-limit-threshold/
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Reason # 12: Cost
If you use folders in SharePoint, you essentially converted SharePoint into an expensive file share or DropBox– “We have always done it this way” mentality
– You might be better off going back to file share
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Reason # 13: Empty Folders
Can you tell which folders contain files and which are empty? With folders, you can’t
Metadata allows you to see how many files belong to certain metadata property (in parenthesis, when you group)
Better user experience!
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Reason # 14: Data Integrity
What’s the difference between 2 folders?– Client A
– Client A, Inc.?
If you rely on folder name to carry important piece of information (i.e. company name), you are prone to data integrity issues
Possible issues– Folder names can be misspelled
– No single naming convention
– You have to recreate same names somewhere else
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Should I never use folders in SharePoint?
Folders are great for:– Small teams– Informal file organization– Short projects
Metadata is great for:– Larger teams– When documents need to be shared with lots of people– When there are a lot of content contributors (users who
generate/upload files) and consumers (users who find/access files)
– Any time you need to easily find documents
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Need help with SharePoint?
SharePoint Site Configuration and Customization
Document Migration to SharePoint
SharePoint Implementation Strategy
SharePoint Training
SharePoint User Adoption
SharePoint Governance
SharePoint Project Management
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THANK YOU!
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