Web Content Analysis

We recently launched a suite of awesome SharePoint Tools.  While using the tools internally, I came accross a subtle but cool technique to copy a SharePoint list with dependent content types to the right place in another site collection!

At first glance this task seems to be simple enough considering there are some tools on the market that can let user to grab a list and drag it / drop to the other site collections. Still, you must take into consideration the dependencies within the SharePoint architecture before doing this drag and drop; the list may have content types defined in the parent site, not within the source site itself.

Let’s, for the sake of simplicity, consider two sites: root site of the site collection (Publishing Portal in this case) and its sub-site (Hadrian's Site).

The tricky part is that the parent site (Publishing Portal) contains the definitions for content types. And the sub-site (Hadrian's Site) contains the list itself with all views and content.  We want to keep it that way in our new world to comply with our Content Migration Strategy.

If we continue with a simple drag and drop then we will end up with a list in our destination sub-site that has the content-types directly associated with it instead of the parent site. This is not ideal because acordding to our Content Migration Stragety all vehicle-based content types must be created in the site collection root with the intent to reuse them across the sub-sites.

A workaround to this dilemia would be to copy the list twice. First, to copy it to the root site of the destination site collection even if it ultimately should not go there. Unlike the first copy attempt, this time do not copy content, permissions, workflows or views related to the list. Instead just copy the list itself and all dependent content types. This way, all content types and fields will be automatically created together with the list in the right spot of the destination site collection. There are specific options in a Content Migration Tool like MetaVis Migrator for SharePoint to give the granular control to copy just list with content types.

After this, delete the list from the root site of the destination site collection. All content types created in the root site will still be there because they are defined outside of the list.

Finally to tie things up, copy the same list again but this time – to the right sub-site of the destination site collection. It will create the list and reuse all content types from the root site created during the previous copy. This time, select all options to copy content, permissions and views on the copy list wizard screen.  A helpful hint to preserve the architecture in your target site during your MOSS Migration.

This technique allows to preserve originally designed architecture of SharePoint site collection that involves complex taxonomies of site columns and content type hierarchies.  Make sure you also understand your architecture before you jump in; check out MetaVis Architect to get a complete view of your MOSS properties and build yourself a strong Content Migration Strategy.


 

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Content provided by MetaVis for Vamosa

MetaVis Migrator for SharePoint allows to use filters to copy content to new location or to tag existing content setting new values for the existing fields. These properties enable an interesting technique to perform a data migration strategy in a slow pace – at the same time as preparing new environment, training users or organizing the existing content.

Sometimes copying data from one SharePoint site to the other one is a quick process that could be done by copying the whole list or library from one place to the other one. However, in other cases this is more complex routine involving copying different items in different locations or migrating portion of data in one day and other portion of data in the other day when users of this content are ready to use new environment. In this later case it could be useful to use combination of some artificial field marking the migrated content in the source site, MetaVis Migrator copy filters and SharePoint views hiding the content that was already migrated to the destination site.

The idea of this technique is simple. First, we will create an artificial Yes/No field in the source list that will indicate that an item is copied to the destination site. By default this field will be “No” for all items / documents in the list.


Then we will go ahead with our SharePoint migration activity selecting portions of data to copy based on some filter condition. The filter will always include the condition to exclude the content which is already migrated based on the state on our artificial columns that we created earlier. Below in an example of such a filter (this time we copy all documents with MK Region equals to Netherlands):


After the copy is completed we use the very same filter that we just used to copy content but this time – to tag selected source data setting our artificial Migrated field to Yes – indicating that this content has been already copied to the destination site. Using the same filter will ensure that all items just copied using this filter will be marked as Migrated.

The fact that all copied content has been marked with certain criteria could be used in a variety of ways. First use is to skip the content which was already copied before when performing new copies to the other places. The second use it to create list view that will hide copied content from the viewers. Below is the example of such a condition in a list view.


Having this condition enabled for the list view will point out that the content is already located in the new destination.
















To learn more about how Metavis MIGRATOR can help you simplify yor SharePoint migration, download the MetaVis Migrator Business Results Sheet.

Content Provided by MetaVis for Vamosa

The issue of controlling content and privacy popped up in the news last week; as Facebook has reviewed its privacy practices after a new feature exposed private information and wrested control away from users as to what content was shown to whom.

Personally I find the amount of personal information on the public internet  astounding  and this is just the random non-sensitive information. If my birth date gets out on the web, at worst I might get an extra birthday card or two; but corporate entities cannot afford to let sensitive information become public without often facing heavy legal penalty; not to mention what it does to their reputations. Facebook is reported to be losing users as a result of their miscalculation. The more sensitive the information the larger the risk becomes. Structuring content leads to predictable data. Predictable data leads to predictable areas of sensitivity and predictable areas of sensitive material can be controlled and protected.

Now I am not saying that if Facebook had implemented a more cohesive content model and massaged their content into those structures that they wouldn’t have exposed this private information. But I am stressing the importance of understanding the content structure and which portions will be provided to whom. Content Management Systems are one part of this equation – they should control the content as expected so long as it is stored in the right place. That is the key; so long as it is in the right place.

Structure and predictability are cornerstones of any successful migration. Taking content that was once fragmented and moving all the like parts together into a common structure(s) is the first step. And it can be an undeniably complicated step. With complication comes the need for traceability/auditability; the need to understand where content is going and what that content is. This applies whether that content is within the content model or the content object itself.

Having an auditable process, addresses that need. The Vamosa methodology provides two reports, one of which audits where every object will end up and the second that details what content will exist where within each object. This became an invaluable tool even prior to the content migration for a recent project I was on. We used these reports to discover that two of the security parameters required to control user access to sensitive content were inconsistent in the source content! Without that insight we could have had a Facebook-like situation when it came to the migration execution.

Knowing where your information is, when and how it is being consumed and by whom is important and is an essential component in any smart content migration strategy.


To learn more about where your content may lie download the Five Steps to Discovering the Real Shape of Your Digital Content White Paper.