Document sets vs folders/ Content Organizer/Doc Best practices

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/Blogs/GetThePoint/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=462

and

http://veerareddykolan.blogspot.in/2011/01/sharepoint-2010-document-sets.html

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Micheal for the article

1. Additional Information on grouped content 
2. Ability to assign default metadata
3. Synchronization of metadata  
4. Versioning of all content  
5. Versioning of individual content  
6. Running workflows on multiple items with SharePoint Designer:  
7. Provisioning of default content  
8. Records Management portability

Additional Information on grouped content

A common request is to be able to provide additional information on a collection of documents. Utilizing folders, this is commonly manifested by creating folders with a descriptive name, for instance RFP Proposal or Project Submissions. However, what if more than a single piece of information is necessary?

Document Sets provide a customizable Welcome Page that can contain additional Web Parts, metadata and other information that relates to the collection of content stored within. This Welcome Page is configurable per Document Set type defined, so that different Document Set templates can have their own unique Welcome Page.

In addition to allowing Web Parts, the Welcome Page can contain many different types of information. For instance, Welcome Page Columns expose the metadata relating to the set of content that resides within the set so that it can be easily seen.

The Welcome Page provides users with far more information than a folder name ever could. Users can simply navigate to a set and quickly ascertain not only the content stored within, but also the context with which the content is associated. 

Ability to assign default metadata

The ability to assign default metadata automatically is a new feature in SharePoint 2010. Put simply this is the ability for SharePoint to automatically assign metadata to an item when it is created or uploaded to a document library. This is a great way to start attaching metadata to your content since once it is defined user do not have to do this process manually - it will happen automatically.

Using Folders we can now specify default metadata on a per-folder basis using the new Column Default Value Settings configuration option available in the Document Library Settings:

With Document Sets you can achieve the same result but in a slightly different way. First you define a piece of metadata as a Shared Column and then set the default value on the Document Set. From then on all content that is uploaded or created in the Document Set will inherit the Shared Column values:

Shared Columns in Document Sets allow the ability to both share and synchronize metadata across a collection of content. So both are achievable by utilizing Folders or Document Sets; however, the implementation differs slightly. 

Synchronization of metadata

The ability to synchronize metadata allows users to change metadata on multiple items at once within a collection of content. Frequently users will want to do a bulk change of metadata stored within a folder. The most common way to achieve this using Folders is by utilizing the Datasheet View for document libraries, which allows users to bulk change properties quickly. However, this can be error prone and has limitations, such as the inability to change Managed Metadata fields.

In contrast, Document Sets allow the ability to configure a column as a Shared Column. Shared Columns then share metadata across the entire Document Set. By changing the column value at the document set, all content contained within the Document Set will be updated with the new value without the user manually having to change each individual document. Another advantage is that all columns types are supported, so users can also easily change Managed Metadata columns for all content as well.

Versioning of individual documents

The versioning of individual documents brings joy and happiness to many an end user. This is of course available by using versioning on documents contained within Folders.

Fortunately Document Sets also allow the versioning of individual content in exactly the same way, providing a familiar interface to users.

Versioning of all content

Continuing on from versioning individual documents, another frequent requirement is the ability to capture a version of ALL documents within a container. The vast majority of business processes consist of more than one document or artifact that goes through a process. Imagine a RFP submission that consists of multiple documents, for example. Although it is very powerful to be able to version individual documents, it is even more relevant if we can take a version of all documents that make up the submission. This allows users to say 'At this point in time all the content within the submission was at this stage'.

With Folders, this is difficult at best. Unless a user manually writes down and stores a version of all the contents within the folder, then this is virtually impossible.

However, Document Sets fully support the versioning of all content within a set. Users can easily take a snapshot of all the documents with some additional options such as only capturing the latest major version or any version of a document that is contained:

If you look at the version history for the Document Set you will be able to see all of the properties and contents stored within:

For me this is one of the most compelling reasons to use Document Sets. The ability to easily create a version of multiple documents can be leveraged in nearly every business process or task.

Running workflows on multiple items with SharePoint Designer:

Running workflows on multiple items is another commonly asked for requirement in many organizations. The ability to send multiple items through an approval process is something that commonly appears on a list of requirements when organizations are implementing SharePoint.

With folders there is really no other option than to manually start an Approval process on each item. Unfortunately even though you can now select multiple items to perform actions on within Lists and Libraries, you cannot do this with workflows. If you have ten documents that you need to send through an Approval process, then it's a rather laborious process. Of course you can create custom workflows in .NET code to solve this issue and it's a good example of where the new Site Workflow type may be used. However, if we are limiting ourselves to out-of-the-box or SharePoint Designer declarative workflows then we are out of luck.

With Document Sets we have new Workflow Actions available in SharePoint Designer 2010. This means that we can indeed send an entire Document Set through an Approval Process. Since a Document Set includes multiple documents, we are in effect sending multiple items through an approval process as we can see below:

There are also other actions that we can perform on Document Sets with SharePoint Designer such as capturing a version or sending a Document Set to a repository. 

Provisioning of default content

The ability to create a template and have this reused when a user is creating a document is commonly used in SharePoint. The power of Content Types within the platform can be harnessed very effectively to create these templates and deploy them across multiple sites. However, often we don't require just a single document to be created, but rather a collection of documents to be provisioned. For example consider a project submission pack or a RFP Response that consists of multiple documents.

In an ideal world, a user would be able to create collections of documents quickly and easily. If using the folder approach, you can only create single documents, one at a time. So if a user wanted to create a project submission pack then they would create the folder that would house these documents, and then create each individual Content Type one at a time. This is obviously a cumbersome approach.

In contrast Document Sets allow us to provision default content when the Document Set is created. So if we create a RFP Response Document Set we can choose to have default content created when a user creates the Document Set:

Now when a user creates a Document Set, not only is the set created but all the default content is provisioned as well!

This is another area where the Document Set excels! Imagine the time savings across the organization if users can provision sets of content so quickly and easily.

Records Management portability

It has been well documented about how far the new Records Management toolset in SharePoint 2010 has progressed. With organizations utilizing the platform for Records Management the question is often raised if users can easily declare multiple items as records.

If utilizing a folder approach, then users can now select multiple items and declare them as records. However the caveat is that this only applies to utilizing the In-Place records management features. If your Records Management implementation relies on sending items to the records center, utilizing a Send To Location, then users will still need to send each item individually.

Once again Document Sets provide an elegant solution to this problem. You can now send a Document Set to a Records Centre in one easy click. All of the content contained within the set will be sent to the Records Centre. You can now also take advantage of the Content Organizer feature in SharePoint 2010 to route your Document Sets according to your file plan.

 

Permissions

Permissions set at document level are, by default, inherited from the document set itself.

 

You can configure permissions on each individual document within the document set. Sometimes it is necessary to grant access to a document to a particular user but not all the other documents. That’s the same way to manage permissions within a document library.

Because there is a lot of other possibilities, we will just tell that every feature available at document level is available for document set level. Just remember that document set is considered as an item.

Conclusion

As you can see there are significant time savings that can be had when using Document Sets as opposed to folders. Although the familiarity of folders cannot be questioned, Document Sets provide a similar experience with far more capabilities. Obviously the question has to be raised if folders should be used at all in SharePoint 2010 or should Document Sets be used as the default way to group content. I think that it would take a brave person to say that folders should not ever be used, but in my opinion a combination of well-defined metadata, with the added functionality that Document Sets offer, provide significant capabilities over a folder only model. 

http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/uploadfile/anavijai/how-to-create-content-organizer-rule-in-sharepoint-2010/

Content Organizer  Rules :

In this article we will be seeing how to create Content Organizer rule in SharePoint 2010.

SharePoint 2010 introduced a new feature called Content Organizer. 

Activate the feature Content Organizer:

• Content Organizer is a site feature. 
• Go to Site Actions => Site Settings => site Actions =>Manage site features.
• Activate the feature Content Organizer.

 

Once you have activated this feature, you will see two options "Content Organizer Settings" and "Content Organizer Rules" in Site Actions => Site Settings => Site Administration.

A new document library "Drop Off Library" also will be created where you will be adding the documents. Those documents will be moved to the target document library based on the Content Organizer rule.

And also a new content type will be created for Content Organizer rule as shown in the following

Content Organizer rule:

• Go to Site Actions => Site Settings => Site Administration => Content Organizer Rules.
• Enter the Rule Name.
• In the Submission's Content Type section select the Content type Group and Type.
  
  
  
  
• Set the Property-based conditions for the rule.
  
  
  
  
• Select the Target location where you want to save the document based on the rule conditions.
• Click OK.
• A new rule will be created successfully.
  
  

Add a document to the Drop Off Library, and enter the title as Finance.

If the rule condition is satisfied (in my case if "Title is equal to Finance") a message will pop up as shown in the following

                    

and the document will be saved in the target library.

 

If the condition is not satisfied a message will pop up as shown in the following

                   

And the document will be added to the drop off library.

Information Acrchitechture and Search

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee424403.aspx

 

The corporate managed metadata service is the primary managed metadata service for all SharePoint Server 2010 sites in the company. The corporate taxonomy is represented by global term sets in the term store that is associated with the corporate managed metadata service. The content type hub that is associated with the corporate managed metadata service makes shared content types available to users of all site collections.
Every Web application has a connection to the corporate managed metadata service. The connections from the My Site Web application, the team sites Web application, and the legal sites Web application, numbered 2, 3, and 4 in the figure, all have restricted access to the corporate managed metadata service. Restricted access lets users of the sites in these Web applications use the shared content types and global term sets, add new enterprise keywords, and create local term sets, but it prohibits them from modifying global term sets.
The administrative Web application hosts the site collection from which authorized users manage the corporate taxonomy and the shared content types. The site collection's content type gallery contains the shared content types, such as the updated document content type that reflects the additional required properties. This content type gallery is the content type hub of the corporate managed metadata service. The connection from the administrative Web application, numbered 1 in the figure, has full access to the corporate managed metadata service.
The term store that is associated with the legal department's managed metadata service contains term sets that represent confidential information that the legal department uses. Only the legal sites Web application has a connection to legal's managed metadata service, so that users of the site collections in the legal sites Web application can manage their term sets.

Permissions

The following table summarizes the permission that each managed metadata service grants to the accounts that the connections use to access the service. Note that local farm is explicitly given reduced permission. If you do not remove or reduce the permissions for local farm, other local accounts will connect to the services by using the permissions that are specified for local farm.

 

Account	Corporate managed metadata service	Legal's managed metadata service
Local farm	Read permission	No permission
Administrative Web application's application pool account	Full permission	No permission
My Site Web application's application pool account	Restricted permission	No permission
Team sites Web application's application pool account	Restricted permission	No permission
Legal sites Web application's application pool account	Restricted permission	Full permission

Connection parameters

All connections to the corporate managed metadata service specify that the corporate managed metadata service is the default location to store keywords. Because the connection from the legal sites Web application to the corporate managed metadata service is the default keyword location, its connection to legal's managed metadata service is not the default keyword location.
The connections from the administrative Web application, the My Site Web application, and the team sites Web application to the corporate managed metadata service specify that the corporate managed metadata service is the place to store column-specific term sets. The connection from the legal Web application to the corporate managed metadata service specifies not to store column-specific term sets. The connection from the legal Web application to the legal managed metadata service specifies that it is the default location for column-specific term sets.

Note:
Either managed metadata service would be an acceptable location for column-specific term sets from the legal sites Web application. Because column-specific term sets are local to the site collection from which they are created, users of other site collections cannot see them.

Security Note:
Metadata publishing should not be enabled for any library that contains documents that might have metadata that other users should not see. Metadata publishing is disabled by default. For more information about metadata publishing, see Configure Enterprise Metadata and Keyword Settings for a list or library.

All connections to the corporate managed metadata service specify that they will use content types and that they will push down content type changes. Because legal's managed metadata service has no content type hub, the connection to legal's managed metadata service does not specify to use content types or to push-down content type changes.
The following table summarizes the connection settings for each connection to a managed metadata service. The connection numbers refer to the lines in the previous figure.

 

Connection	Managed metadata service	Web application	Default keyword location	Column-specific term set location	Use content types	Push-down content types
1	Corporate managed metadata service	Administrative Web application	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
2	Corporate managed metadata service	My Site Web application	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
3	Corporate managed metadata service	Team sites Web application	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
4	Corporate managed metadata service	Legal sites Web application	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
5	Legal's managed metadata service

 

 

Thanks to Ben English :

http://sharepoint.mindsharpblogs.com/Bill/archive/2010/04/02/Organizing-Information-in-SharePoint-Server-2010.aspx

Putability and the Managed Metadata Service

For all of the reasons discussed thus far in this chapter, the Managed Metadata Service (MMS) must be utilized if you're going to significantly improve the findability of information in your environment. It is the only way you'll achieve consistent application of metadata to your data within SharePoint 2010. Once your users are consistently applying metadata to information, they will be able to find information more easily and quickly. The MMS is all about putability in your information architecture.
Table 1 provides an outline of how content type syndication and the MMS achieves the metadata needs we've outlined thus far in this chapter.

Metadata Criteria	Managed metadata service	Notes
Discriminatory	ü	Though the central management of content types, metadata fields can be controlled and applied Closed choice fields can be promulgated across the enterprise, ensuring that metadata values selected have been vetted as being discriminatory
input accurately	ü	Closed choice fields can ensure that metadata is selected, not input and thus reduce, if not eliminate, misspellings, undefined synonyms or other extraneous data input
input consistently	ü	By setting the metadata fields in the content types to require population, you can ensure that metadata is applied consistently
Defined	ü	Baseline your end-user education about metadata with the glossary that defines the metadata fields and possible values

1>The first scenario is about consistency: Is the description of the data (the content type) the same across the enterprise? Do the metadata fields and the values input into those fields contain consistency in both structure and application? When you stop to think about it, content types and metadata are really about consistent governance, management and standardization of information descriptors in the enterprise. In other words, if I build out content type "A" in site collection 1, is it the same construct as when it is used in site collection B? The MMS answers this question in the affirmative and yet provides localized extensibility for greater usability of the content type in specific scenarios.

2>When it comes to the enterprise, is this content contain the same type of data and metadata? Understanding the construction of the content type helps us understand its focus, purpose and meaning.

3>CT HUB : The third scenario is about location: Where is this content type and how can I use it? The MMS will allow you to pull down the content type from the hub and ensure that it is located in your site collection.

4>This scenario encompasses the creation, consumption and disposition of the content type in the enterprise. More specifically, the content type can be mapped to a document's lifecycle and then utilized across the enterprise in distinct ways using the content type's information policies and workflow associations. So, we can use workflows to move the document from one lifecycle stage to the next, ensuring that compliance is enforced, tracked and audited.

Using the content type along with the MMS (mgd metadata service ) helps us in creating a information policy for our org.

Information Architecture (IA) is the art and science of structuring and organizing information systems that support business goals and objectives.All you're doing with an IA is specifying the systems that will hold the data that support the business. Within the IA, a Content Taxonomy (called an Operational Taxonomy in Figure 10-4) will provide the organization of the various types of content, relative to the business needs, user needs, technology support and relationships between the various types of content.

Content Types can be viewed as putability tools whereas search web parts can be viewed as Findability tools. Table 3 offers some additional ideas on how SharePoint tools can be leveraged. This is not an exhaustive list.

Tool/Feature	Putability	Findability	Both
Sites Directory			X
Managed Paths		X
Content Types	X
My Site Personalization		X
Audiences		X
Scopes		X
Records Center			X
Site Columns			X
Folders		X
Metadata Managed Service	X
Search web parts		X
Indexing		X
Breadcrumbs		X
URL and Site Design	X

SharePOint tool	Information Organized by the tool
Sites Directory	Links to the root sites of site collections
Web applications	Root URLs and Managed Paths
Managed Paths	Site collections that act as end-points of the "path"
Site Collections	One or more sites that host lists and libraries related to a common project or collaboration effort
Site	Lists and libraries
Lists and libraries	Documents and content items
Content types	Metadata that is related to a content element, such as a list item or document
Filtered views	List data based on pre-selected metadata, sorting and/or grouping rules
Web Part Zones	Web parts and their display
Audiences	Reveals information based on audience membership
Records Center	Official records that meet compliance requirements
Managed Metadata Service	Tagging of information via content type syndication
RSS (Really Simple Syndication)	Information that is delivered via the RSS standard

 

Phase 0: Information Organization Assessment

In the first phase, you'll want to gather information about the scope of the project and who the main stakeholders will be. You'll want to inform yourself about the environment in which you're working. Don't be fooled into thinking that you can bypass this stage because your working on your own environment. Doing this questionnaire will enable you to cover all the bases up front, loop in everyone who will be involved and set proper expectations on how the IOPS will flow.
The questionnaire should cover the following topics:

• Definition of the documents that are in-scope vs. out of scope
• Definition of the systems that are in-scope vs. out of scope

Phase 1: Business Requirements Development

In this phase, you'll do essentially two things: build out the business requirements based on stakeholder interviews, the problem definitions from Phase 0 and an overall grassroots survey. You'll want to document the requirements and then hold a series of requirements workshops to vet the requirements and ensure that everyone agrees on the definition of the problem as well as what is required in the solution.
This phase is an important phase that involves much writing and consensus building. This phase is illustrated in the next figure. But this phase will not complete the groundwork for your IOPS. Instead, you'll need to complete this phase in order to be prepared for Phase 2. It could be argued that the business requirement effort should be moved into Phase 0 and in some environments this will be the right way to conduct the IOPS. The placement of the effort to develop business requirements is in Phase 1, after the project has been approved and funded (which occurs after Phase 0), because of the cost and time consumption required to develop requirements.

Phase 3: Audit and Analysis

Taking the outputs from Phase 2, it's time to inventory the documents and records that are in-scope for the project as well as their security assignments. This is an exhaustive inventory and will require the purchase of third-party tools that can enumerate both the complete list of documents and well as their security descriptors.
This part of an IOPS can be rather difficult, because you're trying to discover old, outdated or irrelevant data that can be discarded.

Phase 4: Development of Putability and Findability

This phase is where you're developing the operational taxonomies, user interfaces, tagging policies and educational materials for users to utilize in their ongoing management of information. This is a busy phase and involves high "touch and feel" for your end-users. This is a highly visible phase that needs to go well in order for your project to complete successfully.

Phase 5: Governance and Maintenance

This phase is the ongoing phase that supports and maintains not only the SharePoint implementation, but for the discussion here, the ongoing organization of information within the SharePoint implementation. It should be noted that information will change over time, so how information is organized and tagged may need to be adjusted accordingly. Engaging in a regular review of how information is managed, tagged, input and found will help ensure your efforts to organize information in SharePoint will not have gone to waste.