Forum Discussion
How to make "Site Column" changes to propagate to sub-site lists
We have a parent site "site column" listing all hardware devices as a multi choice selection. That is used by many different sub-site "lists" to identify dependencies. Adding new devices propagates just fine, but now we realize that we will periodically have a need to change an existing device name on the site column and when we do that it fails to propagate. Same thing occurs if a device is deleted from the site column. The deleted or changed device is no longer a checkbox choice in the sub-site list, but it remains in the previous results until manually deleted. Obviously we could add the new name, edit all the sub-site lists manually by checking the new name and unchecking the old name, then deleting the old name from the parent site column.
Surely there is a better way to automate propagation of changes.
Just to make it more challenging our O365 (and SharePoint online) is administered by a government agency so no scripts and no access to the O365 admin console.
2 Replies
- Content Types:
Create Content Types at the top level (parent site) to bundle related site columns together.
Train sub-site administrators to use these content types when creating lists. By doing so, any changes made to the content type (including site column modifications) will automatically apply to all lists using that content type1Created two site columns, bundled the in a content type, and added that content type to my list.
Additions and deletion propagate, but a "change" to the site column creates an orphan until the list is refreshed, then the previous choice disappears.
When I change one of the choices in one of the site columns I need the choice in the list to change to match and that doesn't happen.
I remember doing this many years ago in SP 2010 using an event handler, but I cannot remember how we did it. I need some way to propagate changes (replace existing choices) in the site column down to the lists that use that site column.
Alternately is there a way to create a list choice item where change and replace works?
For example: Our choices are technology resources; Cisco, Avaya, IBM, HP, etc. So if we need to make a global change of all IBM entries to be Azure we change the site column choice from IBM to Azure, then have to open every list item showing IBM, check the Azure choice and Save.
Need a way to make the global change and have it "replace" the previous entry in all list items!
