CHAPTER 7

Content Organizer Feature

In the previous chapter, we discussed document sets feature, how to configure, and its application. In this chapter, we will discuss the content organizer feature. The content organizer feature provides document routing options on the site. All users will upload documents in a specific library and those documents will be moved to other libraries or sites based on the rules, conditions match for that upload. It allows automatic creation of a new version of the file with the same name during document routing also auto-create new folders when the number of items in a folder crosses the limit.

Structure

In this chapter, we will discuss the following:

Objective

During the end of the chapter, you will get a clear understanding of:

Activate feature first

To apply the content organizer feature, we need to activate one dependent site feature first that will enable this service. Let’s perform the following steps to activate the site feature:

  1. Navigate to Site settings (<_layouts/15/settings.aspx>) as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.1: Site Settings

  2. Click on Manage site features (<_layouts/15/ManageFeatures.aspx>) present under Site Actions as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.2: Manage Site Features

  3. Identify the feature Content Organizer and click on Activate as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.3: Activate Site Feature

  4. You might get an error as seen in the following screenshot if the dependent feature is not active related to this:

    Figure 7.4: Error While Activating Feature

  5. This error is due to a hidden feature Document Routing Resources with feature ID 0C8A9A47-22A9-4798-82F1-00E62A96006E which depends on site collection features SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure, SharePoint Server Enterprise Site Collection features, SharePoint Server Standard Site Collection features. If anyone of these site collection features is active, you will not receive this error while activating the Content Organizer.
  6. What you can do is, activate the site collection feature SharePoint Server Standard Site Collection features first as seen in the below screenshot, following the same step that we discussed in Chapter 6, Document Sets section Activate feature first:

    Figure 7.5: Site Collection Dependent Feature

  7. Now proceed to activate the site feature Content Organizer following the steps 1 to 3 above.
  8. Once the Content Organizer feature is activated, navigate to Site Settings (<_layouts/15/settings.aspx>) and you will find 2 additional options Content Organizer Settings, Content Organizer Rules under Site Administration. Under Site Contents, you will find additional library Drop Off Library.

Content organizer settings

We need to configure some settings related to content organizer which can be done in Content Organizer Settings. Let’s perform the following steps to configure Content Organizer Settings:

  1. Navigate to Site Settings (<_layouts/15/settings.aspx>).
  2. Click on Content Organizer Settings (<_layouts/15/Document Router Settings.aspx>) present under Site Administration as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.6: New Settings Added in Site Administration

  3. You will be redirected to the Document Router Settings page where you will find many options to configure. The first option is to Redirect Users to the Drop Off Library. You will find the checkbox Require users to use the organizer when submitting new content to libraries with one or more organizer rules pointing to them is enabled default since it enables routing as seen in the following screenshot. As I already shared there will be one new document library Drop Off Library will be created after the site feature Content Organizer is activated. Users need to upload create documents here and as per content organizer rule documents will be routed to different libraries or sites as the target location.

    Figure 7.7: Redirect Users to the Drop Off Library Option under Content Organizer Settings

  4. The next option is Sending to Another Site. If there is a requirement of moving the document to a different site, select the checkbox Allow rules to specify another site as a target location. Currently no need to select this checkbox. Keep it as default unchecked, as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.8: Sending to Another Site Option under Content Organizer Settings

  5. Select the checkbox Create subfolders after a target location has too many items Number of items in a single folder present under Folder Partitioning as seen in the following screenshot. When the number of items in a folder is more than 2500 then the new folder will be created and documents will be routed to the new folder, by enabling this option. There is a threshold limit for the number of items in a folder for better performance that’s why this option is provided:

    Figure 7.9: Folder Partitioning Option under Content Organizer Settings

  6. Next Duplicate Submissions provides an option to handle duplicate files routed to the target location. Select the option Use SharePoint versioning which will create a new version of the file at the target location when a file with the same name created at Drop Off Library and routed to target location as seen in the following screenshot. Option Append unique characters to the end of duplicate filenames will create new file name at the target location:

    Figure 7.10: Duplicate Submissions Option under Content Organizer Settings

  7. Option Preserving Context enables us to save the audit log and properties of the submitted document. Keep this option as default and not select at the moment as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.11: Preserving Context Option under Content Organizer Settings

  8. Next option Rule Managers enables to send mail for certain conditions like when submissions do not match a rule and when content has been left in the Drop Off Library. Both options are selected by default. Enter users or group who will receive mails as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.12: Rule Managers Option under Content Organizer Settings

  9. Submission Points shows the web service URL https://spmcse.share point.com/sites/BPB-ModernTeamSite/_vti_bin/OfficialFile.asmx that needs no action from our end now as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.13: Submission Points Option under Content Organizer Settings

Create a new site content type

We need to create a new content type and add it to a specific library. Let’s perform the following steps to create a new site content-type:

  1. Navigate to Site Settings (<_layouts/15/settings.aspx>).
  2. Click on Site Content Types (<_layouts/15/mngctype.aspx>) present under Web Designer Galleries as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.14: Site Content Type

  3. Under Site Content Types click on Create (<_layouts/15/ctypenew.aspx>) to create a new content type as seen in the following screenshot.

    Figure 7.15: Create Site Content Type

  4. Enter details like Name of content type as Project and Description as Project Details Documents.
  5. Select Document Content Types from the dropdown option Select Parent Content Type From. Option Parent Content Type will be selected as a Document.
  6. Next under the option Group from Existing Group select group name BPB Publication Group and click on OK as seen in the following screenshot. A new content type will be created, and you can see in Site Content Types.

    Figure 7.16: New Content Type Details

  7. Click on Advanced settings (<_layouts/15/ChangeContentTypeOptional Settings.aspx?ctype=***>) from manage content type page as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.17: Advanced Settings in Content Type Settings

  8. You will get the Change Content Type Optional Settings page. Select the option Upload a new document template select Project.xlsx from your local system as a template as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.18: Custom Template in Site Content Type

  9. Keep rest option as default and click on OK.
  10. A new content type Project is created.
  11. Similarly create 4 more content types Tables of Contents, Author, Project Manager, Invoice with custom templates Tables of Contents.docx, Author.docx, Project Manager.xlsx, Invoice.xlsx respectively.

Create a document library

Create a new document library with the name Project. Let’s perform the following steps to create a new document library:

  1. Navigate to Site Contents (<_layouts/15/viewlsts.aspx?view=14>).
  2. Click on New from the command bar. Select Document Library from the dropdown menu.
  3. Enter Name of the library Project and Description and click on Create as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.19: Create a Document Library

  4. Similarly create 4 more libraries named Tables of Contents, Author, Project Manager, Invoice.

Allow management of content types

The next configuration is to enable Allow management of content types in the library. Let’s perform the following steps to enable Allow management of content types:

  1. Navigate to Library Settings (<_layouts/15/listedit.aspx?List= %7B24****>) and click on Advanced Settings (<_layouts/15/advsetng.aspx?List=%7B24***>) under the category General Settings as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.20: Advanced Settings in Library Settings

  2. Enable Content Types by selecting checkbox Allow management of content types and apply changes as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.21: Allow Management of Content Type

  3. You will see Document as default content type added to Library Settings with added new category Content Types. Now we should proceed for adding content type Project in the library Project.

Adding content type to the library

We need to add the content type in the newly created document library. Let’s perform the following steps to add content type Project in the library Project:

  1. Navigate to option Content Types present under Library Settings and click on Add from existing site content types as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.22: Add from Existing Site Content Types

  2. From the Add Content Types page, under dropdown option Select site content types from select the group BPB Publication Group.
  3. Content type Project related to that group BPB Publication Group will appear in the next box. Select the content type Project and click on Add present side to that box. Content type Project will be added to another box Content types to add then click on OK finally to apply changes as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.23: Add Content Type

  4. Now content type Project is added to the library.
  5. Follow the same steps to add content types Tables of Contents, Author, Project Manager, Invoice to respective libraries Tables of Contents, Author, Project Manager, Invoice.
  6. The reason being we are adding this content type to the library because, when we will create Content Organizer Rules and will select Target Location then will get an error if the selected content type is not present in target library as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.24: Notification If Content Type Not Added In Library

Content organizer rules

Now we are good to go for the creation of Content Organizer Rules which is responsible to route documents to different library or site based on content types and metadata. Let’s perform the following steps to create Content Organizer Rules:

  1. Navigate to Site Settings (<_layouts/15/settings.aspx>). Click on Content Organizer Rules (<RoutingRules/Group%20by%20Content%20Type.aspx>) present under Site Administration.
  2. Click on New from command bar as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.25: Content Organizer Rules

  3. Enter Name (Project) of the rule.
  4. Next option Rule Status And Priority is selected as Active with Priority – 5 (Medium) as seen in the following screenshot. You can change the priority from Priority 1 (Highest) to Priority 9 (Lowest). When there are multiple rules present and multiple rules match once you upload documents then high priority rule will run first and rules with a priority less will run late:

    Figure 7.26: Rule Status and Priority

  5. From option Submission’s Content Type, select the Group that we created before BPB Publication Group and content type select as Project as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.27: Submission’s Content Type

  6. The next option is Conditions. We can set conditions Property as Content Type and Operator as is equal to as seen in the following screenshot. We can select the option Add another condition below to add more than one condition:

    Figure 7.28: Conditions

  7. Then we need to select Target Location to which the documents will be routed to once condition satisfied. Click on Browse. Another window will open, where you need to choose the document library Project that we create before as target location for the content type Project and click on OK once library selected as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.29: Target Location Selected

  8. Similarly create 4 more content organizer rules for content types Tables of Contents, Author, Project Manager, Invoice as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.30: Content Organizer Rules Created

How do the content organizer rules work?

We configured the Content Organizer Settings and created Content Organizer Rules. Let’s perform the following steps to understand how it works:

  1. Navigate to the Drop Off Library present under Site Contents.
  2. Click on New from the command bar.
  3. Select the content type template Project and create a file named ProjectReport. Similarly create files TablesOfContentReports, AuthorReports, ProjectManagerReports, InvoiceReports using content-type templates Tables of Contents, Author, Project Manager, Invoice respectively as seen in the following screenshot.
  4. Now upload files with name Project, Tables of Contents, Author, Project Manager, Invoice in the Drop Off Library as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.31: Documents Created Using Content Type and Documents Uploaded

  5. As per the Content Organizer Rules, documents created using content type template should be moved to respective libraries Project, Tables of Contents, Author, Project Manager, Invoice but it will not happen immediately.
  6. There is a timer job Content Organizer Processing scheduled Daily is responsible for this as seen in the following screenshot. Means every day, at a certain time this timer job will run, then only you will notice documents are moved to respective libraries as per the rules. We have to wait till the time this job complete:

    Figure 7.32: Timer Job Content Organizer Processing

  7. Once timer job Content Organizer Processing run, you will see files created using content types are moved to the respective libraries as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.33: Files moved to Target Location as per Rules

  8. Files with name Project, Tables of Contents, Author, Project Manager, Invoice that are uploaded, not moved and still in Drop Off Library as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.34: Files Not Moved to Target Location

  9. As per the configuration we did before Rule Managers will receive mail for action as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.35: Rule Managers Mail

  10. Click on any one of the documents link out of 5 links will redirect to view item properties as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.36: Edit Item

  11. Click on Edit Item. Select the content type as Project since its project type. You will notice a message at the top This document will be automatically moved to the correct library and folder after required properties are filled out. Click on Save or Submit as seen in the following screenshot:

    Figure 7.37: Change Content Type Field for Item

  12. After that you will see another page with the URL to access the file as seen in the following screenshot. The file is moved to the target location as per the ruleset.

    Figure 7.38: Saved to Final Location

  13. Similarly, you can edit respective Content Types for other items still present in the Drop Off Library from Details Pane as seen in the following screenshot. All items will be moved to the target location:

    Figure 7.39: Edit Item Properties

Conclusion

In this chapter, we had a glance on the content organizer feature all about, what is the purpose of using this. Understood the dependent features for the content organizer. Discussed step by step to activate site features related to the content organizer, to create site content type and adding content type to the library. How to configure content organizer settings, content organizer rules. Also checked how the content organizer rules work. Next in Chapter 8, Manage Permission will discuss managing permission in SharePoint.

Points to remember