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Introducing the Upload Wizard

Here's another free utility courtesy of Bamboo Media: the Upload Wizard provides a client-side approach to uploading complex folder structures from your desktop to SharePoint libraries. This one has been in my toolbox since early 2005, and it's proven useful in scenarios where uploading through Windows Explorer frequently fails. For example:

  • A user has a unknown number of files to upload from their desktop Documents folder
  • File names include verboten characters like & and # -- for example "PO# 1023.PDF"
  • Resulting file names exceed SharePoint's maximum URL length
  • Very large files may be hidden in sub folders
  • The connection to the server is over a WAN where large batch uploads may be interrupted

In each of those cases uploading through Windows Explorer can fail in mid batch and it's almost impossible to know where to resume the upload. The Upload Wizard solves these problems by allowing you to scan for potential problems before uploading as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Upload Wizard Step 1: Scanning for Potential Upload Issues

Upload Wizard Step 1

Very large files, very long file paths, and files that will be renamed are automatically flagged. You also get a count of the files to upload that you can verify once the upload is complete. To begin the upload, click Next and go to Step 2 as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Upload Wizard Step 2: Uploading Files

Upload Wizard Step 2

Fill in the SharePoint site address and library name, then click Upload Files to start uploading. The Wizard uploads files one at a time, automatically renames files if needed, and logs success or failure for each so you can easily verify the upload and retry any file that fails.

The Wizard searches folders up to seven levels deep. If you have extremely deep folders, you should consider restructuring them before uploading since SharePoint has a limit on how long file URLs can be and it is easy to hit that limit with long folder paths. The Wizard uses Windows Authentication; you must be authorized to upload files to the destination library.

If you have questions, comments, or feature requests please let me know. Thanks!

Click Here to Get the Upload Wizard Now

Posted Oct 29 2008, 01:12 PM by jeff.webb
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Comments

Mark MIller wrote re: Introducing the Upload Wizard
on Thu, Oct 30 2008 9:06 PM

Jeff,

How is mandatory metadata handled? As you know, the multiple upload feature in SharePoint completely ignores required metadata, making each file 'checked out' as it is inserted, with no warning.

If you've got that working here, I've got a couple thousand people interested.

Nice work.

Mark

jeff.webb wrote re: Introducing the Upload Wizard
on Fri, Oct 31 2008 7:45 AM

Well, to be honest, it's not handled. The purpose is simply to get around problems with OOB batch upload failing. If you target a library with required fields, I think the files will probably show up checked out until you populate the fields.

I have written variations of this tool to infer meta data from the file paths on disk. That always seems to be a one-off situation dependant on how users have named/organized their data.

I'd be interested in hearing your specific requirements.

Mark Miller wrote re: Introducing the Upload Wizard
on Sat, Nov 1 2008 3:17 PM

Jeff - By default, when a single item is uploaded to a library with required fields, the 'Edit Properties' dialog screen is automatically exposed so that those fields can be filled in.

My requirement would be that some notification needs to be given the End User that files have not been checked in because required fields have not been completed. It could be as simple as giving a list of the files that have not been checked, all the way through exposing the file's required fields, one file at a time.

I've received too many panic calls... "Our files are missing!" just because of this scenario, no substantial warning that files were not checked in upon initial upload.

Mark

jeff.webb wrote re: Introducing the Upload Wizard
on Sat, Nov 1 2008 9:10 PM

Yes, I've seen that problem too. I suggest not requiring fields for any library that allows batch uploads -- at least temporarily. The other OOB solution is to use default fields for every required field. That's a good practice for batch uploads but a terrible one for one-at-a-time uploads, since you don't want users to ignore required fields.

The bottom line is that the requirements are different for libraries that receive batch uploads than from the ones that receive interactive uploads.

Here's a compromise I suggest: create a parallel library for batch uploads that includes a simple worflow to populate meta data and then copies files to the final target library -- a sort of clearinghouse for batch uploads. I hope that helps.

Good luck,

Jeff

Keep going, keep your head down… I’ll walk point and do the grunt work. : End User SharePoint wrote Keep going, keep your head down… I’ll walk point and do the grunt work. : End User SharePoint
on Mon, Nov 3 2008 2:01 AM

Pingback from  Keep going, keep your head down… I’ll walk point and do the grunt work. : End User SharePoint

Paul wrote re: Introducing the Upload Wizard
on Mon, Nov 3 2008 10:18 AM

Jeff,

Great tool!  However I am getting this error upon uploading to an existing library

Couldn't upload file C:\Documents and Settings\pakerlind\Desktop\test for document upload\Registration_Gap_Document.doc, error: The remote server returned an error: (409) Conflict.

Any thoughts?

Paul

jeff.webb wrote re: Introducing the Upload Wizard
on Mon, Nov 3 2008 6:25 PM

You'll get a conflict (409) if the library doesn't exist. Check that first.

I can also reproduce your issue if I target http://localhost -- however the same upload works fine with a remote server. Is that your scenario?

Thanks, Jeff

Paul wrote re: Introducing the Upload Wizard
on Tue, Nov 4 2008 11:26 AM

USER ERROR:

I got it.  The problem was that I was inputting the complete URL like this to the library

http://strussh/sites/WSSDemo/Shared%20Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx">strussh/.../AllItems.aspx

Instead of this

http://strussh/sites/WSSDemo/

Thanks for the reply and great work with this utility.

Paul

Lynn Ash wrote re: Introducing the Upload Wizard
on Wed, Nov 5 2008 4:44 PM

Will this work with Vista Operating System?

jeff.webb wrote re: Introducing the Upload Wizard
on Thu, Nov 6 2008 8:01 AM

Yes. It should work on any OS that has .NET installed. Vista comes with .NET.

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About jeff.webb

Jeff Webb helps companies of all sizes plan, deploy, customize, and maintain SharePoint and related technologies. He has published a dozen books in 30 languages. O’Reilly Media’s “Essential SharePoint 2007” is his third book on SharePoint. Jeff is also a member of Bamboo Solutions Technical Advisory Board. For more information, see http://www.essentialsharepoint.com 
Bamboo Solutions Corporation, 2002-2008