SharePoint Unified Single Source List /Library with Filtered Folders Structure for Variated (Multi-Lingual) Site - Part 1
By: Hesham Saad | Comments | Related: > SharePoint Configuration
Problem
Sometimes there are requirements in a Variated Multi-Lingual SharePoint portal which require having a unified single source document library/list, along with its folder structure, to be displayed across all webs (Sub Sites : ex: English, Arabic, French, ...etc), but when trying to achieve this you will face two serious problems. We'll discuss these two issues in detail in this two part article series.
Part 1 - How can we differentiate/filter between the folder structures in the same list/library for the variated multiple-languages? (We will cover this in this article.)
Part 2 - How can we display/view the specified unified single source list/library across all webs? (This will be covered in Part 2) [We know that in MOSS 2007 Variated Multi-Lingual Portals, if we create a list/library in the root top-level site collection (Parent) we couldn't display it easily via OOTB (out-of-the-box) with the list/library list view web part, because it would not be displayed at the variated webs (children)].
Solution
We know that we can apply filtering in lists/libraries based on existing list/library columns for list/library items, but in our case we need to apply filtering when creating a new folder. So in order to do this, we need to enhance/update the New Folder metadata structure by creating new site content which will wrap the default OOTB new folder (lists/libraries) site content.
Let's do the following:
I. Creating the new Site Content Type
- Click on "Site Actions" (Menu) > "Site Settings" > "Modify All Site Settings"
- Click on "Site Content Types" under "Galleries" section then the "Create" link
- Type a "Name" for the new content type (ex: "New Folder Enhancement") and
in "Parent Content Type" section
- select "Folder Content Types" for "Select parent content type from:" drop down list
- select "Folder" for "Parent Content Type" drop down list
- select "Folder Content Types" for "Existing group" drop down list
- then click the "OK" button
- Click on the "Add from new site column" link.
- Type a Column Name (ex: Language Filter), select "Choice (menu to choose
from)" as the column data type, enter some choices for this selection (ex: English
, Arabic) and leave the other default settings as they are.
- Click on the newly created "Language Filter" column link, select "Required
(Must contain information)" under the "Columns Settings" section and click "OK".
- Repeat the steps for additional required columns.
II. Attaching the new Content Type to the targeted list/library
- Go to the targeted List/Library
- Click on "Settings" > "Document Library Settings"
- Click on the "Advanced Settings" link under "General Settings"
- Under "Content Types" section, select "Yes" for the "Allow management of
content types?" radio button group then click "OK"
- Click on the "Add from existing site content types" link under the "Content
Types" section.
- Select the new created content type "New Folder Enhancement" from "Available
Site Content Types" list box then click on the "Add >" button and then "OK".
- Now we can see the newly created content type "New Folder Enhancement" added
under the "Content Types" section. (We can change the default content type or
Show / Hide / Re-Order to our list/library via clicking on "Change new button
order and default content type" link and adjust the settings).
- Now, if we returned to our targeted list/library and click on the "New"
button in the list/library toolbar we'll find our newly attached content type
"New Folder Enhancement".
- Let's create some folders (ex: English & Arabic folder structures) based
on the new content type "New Folder Enhancement" for filtering purposes.
- Let's show our new column "Language Filter" (mapped to our content type
"New Folder Enhancement") for filtering by clicking on "Settings" > "Document
Library Settings" > scroll down to the "Views" section and click on the default
view (Usually : "All Documents " unless you renamed it) > check the "Language
Filter" column and then click "OK".
- Now we can see our new column "Language Filter" added to our list/library.
(It's better to create new views for our targeted list/library
(ex: English View, Arabic View) where each view will contain it's required folder
structure for filtering purposes, but here I used the default view and show
the "Language Filter" column for a quick scenario and for learning purposes).
Next Steps
- Look for the next part in this series - "Unified Single Source List /Library with Filtered Folders Structure for Variated (Multi-Lingual) Site - Part 2"
- Check out MSSQLTips.com for great information about Microsoft SQL Server.
