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Understanding Sharepoint#

See also: computing

Aim here is to document and ponder some experiments with Sharepoint for the purposes of supporting the work of a small (learning/curriculum) design group.

Resources:

Overview#

Item Description
Microsoft Team A new SharePoint site is created for each team. Could be the starting point and also provide access to Team's additional collaboration facilities.
SharePoint Site The "parent" of all the abstractions below. Intended to be used to create websites. In this context, is simply the "foundation" for what we do.
Metadata
Content type Collections of different metadata properties. Some pre-defined, more can be created.
Document Library "Filing cabinent" place to organise files and folders
List Store non-documentation information
Folder
View
Document Set Create and manage (do different stuff) to a collection of documents as a single entity. A pre-defined content type

questions

  • Should we start by defining content types?

Limits#

  • Number of items that can be viewed - 5,000 or so and performance is a pain, including syncing
  • No more than 20,000 files in a single library
  • Create multiple libraries
  • 400 character SharePoint URL limit - including length of site name, document library name, folders, and file names
  • Use short names
  • Flatten the folder hierarchy
  • Consider using metadata
  • Windows 256 character path limit - problem when syncing to PCs
  • Don't sync (IMHO problematic)
  • Flatten the folder hierarchy
  • Use metadata
  • 300,000 item sync limit on OneDrive sync

Mental model#

  • A Microsoft Team has a SharePoint site. A SharePoint site can be created other ways.
  • Every SharePoint site has 1 default document library
  • Can create many.

Library (aka document library)#

  • where you store your documents in SharePoint, used to organise documents
  • Every SharePoint site has one document library when created
  • Multiple can be created
  • Library can have up to 30 million files/folders - but more than 100,000 causes limitations
  • Permissions can be set for a library
  • metadata created at the library level

Lists#

  • "for non-document information you would typically store in Excel" - a table of information
  • must be created manually on a SharePoint site
  • Support storing documents via the attachement capability - but without normal document management capabilities (version history, check-in/check-out)
  • There is a list app - essentially a Home for all the lists you have across tenant sites
  • Can create a personal list associated with your onedrive

Why you should never attach documents to a SharePoint list

  1. Lack of document management features
  2. Lack of version history on the attached files
  3. Now way to organise attachments or apply document specific metadata
  4. Can't upload multiple attachements at once (classic list only)

Might be a good idea to do this for some application, but not when storing multiple documents for clients/projects.

Document set#

Create a document set when you want to manage multiple documents as a single work product.

e.g. when you want to create a project

  • a folder with metadata
  • is given a purpose specific name
  • items stored within the folder can have metadata assigned
  • Additional features of a document set are
  • WElcome page - displaying folder-level metadata
  • Ability to inherit metadata
  • Unique permission for each data set
  • Ability to search across document sets

How to set up document sets

  1. Enable document sets
  2. Create a document set content type
  3. Add content type to the document library
  4. Create metadata columns
  5. Add metadata to the content type

Metadata#

  • Metadata organised at SharePoint site level. Information about the files.
  • Beyond default metadata, can create your own using SharePoint columns (aka fields). Updated via a form.
  • Defining the categories and tags is the hard bit.
  • SharePoint supports site columns via "site columns"

Sources#