What is the plan for "modern" Document Sets?

[Brent Ellis]

So it's been asked many times in the old network and never answered, so want to ask it here in the hopes that people are actually thinking about this.

What is the plan for "modern" Document Sets in the new modern SharePoint?

Right now, the experience is you are in the modern UI for the doc library, click the document set and it takes you back to the old UI, in a very disjointed experience.

Document Sets are the most used feature in our environment (and I think one of the most powerful/useful tools in all of SharePoint).

Critical success factors in my opinion:

1. Don't take away functionality (do no harm)
   • this includes modifying the welcome page
   • documents inheriting metadata
   • multiple document content types
   • default views
2. We HAVE to have the ability to keep modifying the landing page for each document set (including adding web parts) - we have so many solutions that add script web parts to build on the capability - (if things go the way they are now with the rest of modern SharePoint and we lose that it would be a major business impact for usability)
3. Update the actual document view to be modern like the new doc lib

Things we typically add in code:

• We typically add some buttons via script editor web part that are specific to the current document set the user is looking at
  • could be something like going to a start a workflow screen
  • likes to external systems based some metadata on the screen
• We add a button / scripts to hide/show the document metadata view at the top, allowing users to focus on the document view and expand the metadata summary only when they want to see it
• Custom branding (via image web parts and other OOTB capabilities) based on the type of document set
• Analytics Event Tracking code - to see what users are doing while viewing document sets

[#2]

Mine looks like that too ... but when I go into the Doc Set, its the old interface ... nothing really new here.

[#3]

But the second screenshot is from inside the doc set. ( The doc. set creates a folder structure when it is created.) But I never get the old interface in this library. Thats my point.

[#4]

Hi @Chris McNulty! Just wanted to ping you on this and see if there's any more word on this since it's been a few months. Didn't see anything on the official roadmap yet and this is oh-so-critical. Thanks! 

[#5]

I have also tried to get a response but failed. Last week I had to stop using document set for one of the projects because moving from classic to modern (much easier) is a real pain for the end user. I am actually surprised that this hidden gem in Sharepoint is not getting enough attention.

Having said this, I think the best way to get attention is through user voice. It is unfortunate to see only 320 votes have been registered so far. I have voted as much as I could and would requests others to vote. Thx

[#6]

I fear that the plan is to drop them - classic Microsoft process is to fob you off with some promise, then pretend to forget all about them and then hope that enough users give up that they can claims there was no call and not bother.
Not a word from MS for nearly 2 years now. And as you rightly say, nothing in the endless stream of announcements.

[#7 · Accepted solution]

Its too early to put specifics on the roadmap - but we will update document sets. We are not being "classic Microsoft" here - there is a steady stream of requests for docsets (along with other parts of classic ECM) and I've never pretended otherwise. Fear is not part of the plan. I hope to be able to give roadmap updates at SPC or Ignite this year, if that helps.

[#8]

And that is why you are now my Current Microsoft Favorite, @Chris McNulty. :) Can't wait to hear what's in store. I feel better steering clients toward document sets if I know for sure they'll eventually be migrated to modern. Like everyone else, I just don't want to encourage users to adopt a deprecated technology. 

[#9]

Please keep communicating - we're shepherding our users with solutions based on what we *assume* is happening next, and it's an unpleasant spot to be in. The more we know in as timely a fashion as possible the more effective we will be and the smoother user acceptance and engagement will go. Thanks in advance!

[#10]

Thanks for that - but I would say nearly 2 years after you launched modern UI (and promised something shortly for document sets) it still alarming to hear that you haven't thought about this enough to even put it on the roadmap.

It is till a huge issue that I can't explain to my users why the world turns upside down every time they use a document set. Sharing is weird - the easiest way to share a set of documents is to make a folder - you can't even share a document library "properly" [from a user point of view] and document sets are the same - transferable skills don't exist.

I am pleased to hear something but you will forgive my cynicism. I own a windows phone which probably says enough (and most of the previous abandoned versions - which probably says I am stupid. Indeed as everyone else in the world was showing me the tiny phones and laughing at my Jornada [very early HP smartphone] people said I was stupid fro believing in any kind of large format phone; OK in that case it turns out I was right and they were wrong).

Many years ago I went on all the training for what I think was called blackbird but was the development tool for the Microsoft Network (the one didn't run on the internet but was Microsoft's alterative to the of TCP/IP - I developed one of the world's first online training operations - all wasted and all with promises of continued support until it wasn't'. I have taught people to use all kinds of futures (I had a v- name for more than a decade) that failed and the pattern has always been "promise the world", your "bit" isn't in the new product "go very quiet", a few "we haven't forgot you" messages and then abandoned.

I am sure that you may have grander plans for Doc Sets that will involve deeper thought but for many of us just fixing the UI to match the rest of product would be a reassuring start and render what we already had usable if still not giving us the confidence to recommend further adoption.
I had a significant investment in using sharepoint fields in word documents (worked neatly with documents sets) - but lookup fields return their index number in Word not the data in them. Waited forever for a fix - now told it won't be fixed. (I ma guessing something else exits in the future) but from my point of view 100s of hours wasted building a solution that was planned around a feature as advertised with regular promises of fixes until suddenly it wasn't.
Let's have something on the roadmap?

[#11]

Hi,
Regarding the "minus 1 day" in World Online, it could be explained if the date was been shown as UTC instead of the one in your time zone. It is only my theory, but this is a bug that I have as well in Sweden.

--------------

EDITED:

Sorry. I see now that you had already a conversation with Matt about this.
Did you get some response from Microsoft support or have some workaround? It is painful to have additional Text fields (and update them via t.ex. Webhooks when the source Date field changes) only because of this bug.

[#12]

Thanks but we just abandonned our plans in the end. Elected Councillors are generally older people with lower IT skills. Many would prefer paper;. as it happens we have persuaded them to accept windows tablets and have some success using email with scqnned attachmenrs. Trying to move them into a sharepoint world whereven the experts have to admit it doesnt work properly (randomly varying UI) bodged word documents etc. would probably bring back arguments to abandon IT in favour of paper.

It's sad that we were nearly done 18 months ago and have been able to make no progress; even sadder that signs of a promised fix haven't even appeared on a roadmap.

My credibility as the IT advocate has been damaged; the idea that we migth offer our solution to the hundreds of other town & parish councils that could benefit from document sets (with connected word templates for collating meeting documents) has complwtely disappeared;  a dcoument for each meeting would mean that each document shared metadata  such a datenof meeting, committe, clerk etc.

[#13]

Another month - did I miss an announcement or has nothing happened? (well into our 3rd year waiting for anything). [Please just make the UI consistent before worrying about other things you might like to do]

[#14]

To make matters a little more worse ... the new SharePoint Search experience does not properly recognize Documents Sets.
- No Custom Icon
- Wrong Name (ID instead of DocSet Name)
- truncated description (first word left out)

[#15]

We are working on a revised design, and I'm sure you will hear about it prominently when we have a roadmap item to share.  We understand that everyone has favorite or needed enhancements, and addressing all of them across the service doesn't always perfectly match collective customer expressed priorities.  Nonetheless, we hope to have information to share soon.  Thanks.

[#16]

Trusting what a product manager tells you is never a good strategy. You know they only follow company lines, and will tell you whatever makes sense that quarter.
You are spot on it that it is becoming harder to justify SPO to users, and management. We will have to resort to using price as a justification (ugh)

[#17]

Chris, we are the ones on the front line, trying to push a product to users that designers are turning into a Frankenstein. Your designers are 20-year olds, our users are 40+, see the problem?
Consistency, predictability, and not a hodpodge of "coolness", and "awesomeness" that three years later looks more like "nothingness"

[#18]

Sorry Chris - this isn't a favourite feature this is serious failure. You have been at this for 3 years surely by now I could have the same share interface as the rest of the product?

to update a product and leave a major component out of even any roadmap is desperately poor thinking.

To promise people a timely solution (look back a couple of years in this thread) is simply deceitful - why were we given messages abut soon if you haven't even got it in any roadmap document you can share.

A quick facelift to the UI would have satisfied most of us for now - the user experience is dreadful. OneDrive, SharePoint (most) etc. have a moderately consistent UI but document sets used by customers who understood the SharePoint concept and clearly invested effort are just left to rot.

[#19]

That would be great Chris. I have deployed Doc Sets on many client solutions. Training is always a challenge because Tasks, Doc Sets and Announcements still using the ribbon. The new Copy feature for moving documents is GREAT and users love it, but now we have 1 more drawback to Doc Sets - no easy copy (from) option. I know MS wants us to use Group sites and Teams so tweaking these old features isn't the priority, but the reality is that those new interfaces are just not the right user experience for many clients yet. 

[#20]

This is such an interesting topic and discussion thread because it highlights the need for Microsoft not to rely on large scale announcements such as next week’s SharePoint Conference but effectively address roadmap shortfalls here and show how remediation is being approached. Hopefully Document Sets for modern SharePoint will be one of the Content Services improvements coming but this is far from clear yet. It’s not glamorous but by sharing the plan ‘in context’ such as here Microsoft would do themselves a world of favours.

[#21]

Groups are great  but have two issues:
1) the main one is in local government we have files that can't be edited by many users (policies.  - there's no meaningful security in groups all are equal
2) Minor the confusion between files and library minutes) in the web interface is unhelpful - especially as it doesn't happen in desktop outlook. That means that staff (desktop users) helping committee members aren't even seeing the same thing.

Teams only seem to be useful to those who live in teams pretty well all the time. NOt good for us. There are full time officers, less frequent (office365 account holding) councillors and then random other people form outside the organisation who join committees and working groups.

Document sets are the way to go as documents relate to meetings (so committee, date are key metadata).
Ideally, I'd want to link document sets (with their appropriate security) into groups (as links) so that committee members can freely share, post an edit their documents and officers can create documents of records in a document set which they link to the group. But currently I cannot imagine explain to a councillor (or a visitor) why when you open the document set files the interface changes dramatically and incomprehensibly and feels like the 1990s.

Very disappointing approach by MS - but being let down by promises made by MS is hardly new - I own a Windows phone