Folders and Metadata

Andreas Strothmann has an excellent post about using metadata on folders in SharePoint 2007, in combination with content types.

I know there are many good reasons not to use folders and stick to metadata and views, but large libraries might require the use of folders for performance or manageability reasons. It is always recommended to use metadata on your documents in the first place, but using this tip you can also apply this metadata on a folder.

Check it out: http://www.mindbusiness.de/blog/2007/05/02/sharepoint-folders-and-metadata/

BDC Definition Editor

Microsoft has released a tool to assist in the creation of a BDC (Business Data Catalog) definition file. More information can be found here: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb736296.aspx

The BDC Definition Editor is also available in the latest SharePoint 2007 SDK: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms550992.aspx

Hiding Site and List Templates

There may be occasions where you want to disable certain site templates or list templates to prevent site administrators to create specific lists or sites.

The mechanism for hiding a Site template in SharePoint 2007 is still the same as in 2003:

• Look for the file webtemp.xml in "web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\1033\XML"
• Make a backup copy of this file first
• Open the file in notepad and look for the site template you want to hide
• Change Hidden="FALSE" into Hidden="TRUE" (case sensitive) and save the file
• Do an IISRESET

This will hide the specific site template from the list of templates available when you create a site.

Hiding a List template in SharePoint 2007 works slightly different due to the new Features concept but is equally simple:

• First find the template/feature you want to modify in "web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\FEATURES"

If you want to be able to show or hide the list through the Site Features option in a site, do the following:

• Make a backup copy of feature.xml
• Open the xml file in notepad and change Hidden="TRUE" into Hidden="FALSE" (case sensitive) and save the file
• Do an IISRESET

If you want to hide the list alltogether, do the following:

• Open the subfolder ListTemplates
• Make a backup copy of the .xml file
• Open the xml file in notepad and add this line somewhere around the Type or BaseType line: Hidden="TRUE" (case sensitive)
• Do an IISRESET