Preserving folders metadata when copying content between SharePoint sites
Sometimes folders in SharePoint may be not strictly folders but something else. While regular folder has just one property that could be defined – Name - these other folders may have different content type and even custom fields. In all other respects they behave like the regular folders: a user may create items, documents or other folders inside them.
Information architect may add support for such folder by extending standard out of the box Folder content type with the new content type. This new content type may have regular SharePoint custom fields and could be also extended with other children content types. Below is the diagram graphically depicting such a folder content types which in this case is named DCF Car and has a custom field called Subject.
When such custom folder content type is added to SharePoint list, the user will see the option to create this special folder by selecting regular SharePoint New menu item in the list toolbar. On the picture below we can see that user has an option to create a regular folder or a special DCF Car folder.
When folder is created its metadata looks like the one of a regular SharePoint item. We named a folder Garage and defined a value for Subject column as World Race. Take a look at the content type of this item on the picture below.
This is how this folder looks in the list browsing mode. We can even add Subject field to the default view to see it while browsing the list, to filter or sort by it.
Using some third party tools like MetaVis Folders for SharePoint it is even possible to make all items or documents created inside these folders to get values for their fields from the folder. In this case all documents created inside our DCF Car folder will get their Subject as World Race unless it is defined somehow differently by the user.
When MetaVis Migrator for SharePoint copies folders between SharePoint sites it gets all properties assigned to folders with custom folder content types and copies them to the destination system along with folder content. This functionality works by default when copying lists or sites. To enable this behavior during item level copy select <Keep Original> Content Type on the Properties page of Copy Wizard like shown on the picture below.
Note that in the case when some specific content type is selected on the Properties page of Copy Wizard MetaVis Migrator for SharePoint still uses the source folder content type when copying folders but it also uses field mapping defined on the same Properties screen to map folder related fields.
