Redux: Folders in SharePoint Document Libraries?
In an earlier post, I lamented the use of folders in SharePoint document libraries as a way to organize large quantities of documents. I've had some good comments on the entry, and a little time to think about them. Here's what I think today:
In it's current implementation, SharePoint is NOT the place to store large numbers of documents for posterity. Mike Walsh said something to the effect of “...problems come when MS suggest the SharePoint products as a modern way of storing data...”, and this pretty much hits the nail on the head.
About 8 years ago, I participated in a SDR at Microsoft's Redmond Campus. The focus was on Exchange 2000 and an exciting little thing called WSS... not Windows SharePoint Services, but the Web Storage System. A couple years later, they rolled WSS into the first version of SharePoint and later it went on to lose its identity to SharePoint. Anyway, at the time, sitting in some numbered building with a bunch of the Exchange and Office team demonstrating the feature set of WSS (the Web Storage System), I said something to the effect of “this is what the file system SHOULD have been“. In a small way, I was wrong (it was nowhere near robust enough) but in a bigger, more important way I was right. The idea is correct, and that's why WinFS is cooking... It's interesting to watch too... back around the time of that SDR, when the Web Storage System was getting built, I believe it was the work of the Exchange Team, and I think Tom Rizzo had something to do with it--- now, he's involved with WinFS. Seems pretty natural to me. But I digress. My point is that (as we seem to be perpetually as Microsoft customers), we're just around the corner from something that will be better (WinFS). In my opinion, SharePoint Document Libraries should not be used to house more than a small number of documents for ad-hoc collaboration purposes. This makes the use of folders unnecessary. I mean think about it... Document Libraries live in something called a Team Site right? Team Sites in most cases should have a finite life span shouldn't they?
So, I see SharePoint Document Libraries as a temporary “melting pot” if you will, and something better and more robust, like WinFS as the place where we'll keep permanent archives of documents. I hope the WinFS team is thinking about a way migrate documents and their metadata from SharePoint Document Libraries to WinFS... that'll be a home run!