Teams/Groups/SharePoint Document Library Metadata

[Christopher Florian]

[Updated] My company has an extensive set of document classifications and content types. 

Is there any way to create a custom SharePoint site template for the new Team/Group to use to create the associated SharePoint team site so we can incorporate the required metadata?

Basically, so the site content types will already be present when the Team/Group SharePoint site is created.

[#2]

+1

[#3]

Currently, you can pin your existing Sharepoint site to a channel, or use Open in Sharepoint to view all your Teams' folders. We are always looking for ways to improve our integration with Sharepoint. I want to be sure I understand your scenario - do you want to apply a custom Sharepoint template every time you create a new Team?

[#4]

This is not a question of linking to the site. It is a question of having site columns and additional metadata already present in the document library for all Team/Group SharePoint sites when they are created.

[#5]

Yes, it would be great if you could create custom templates and then apply those when you create a new team. 

Example:

RFP/Proposal Management: we use the same content types, metadata, folder structure for a team site on SharePoint - if we could apply these to the Team Site that is created when you create a team that would be ideal.

Product Marketing: Same as above.

So the use case would be when you create the team - you have the option to apply a custom SharePoint template.

[#6]

This functionality is not available, yet. For the moment being their is a workaround that links your SharePoint Document Library into a tab. You then have access to the full document library experience as you would be using it from a browser, but then in your Teams as an extra tab in your channel.

I blogged about it here: http://laurentschoenaers.be/2017/05/30/microsoft-teams-has-no-document-management-features-no-proble...

I hope this helps you out for the time being.

[#7]

Agree this is a work around, but it does not allow you to show the file title in the team view.  We have followed Microsoft's previous best practices and created short file name, with no real meaning in most cases, and use the title field to communicate file information along with the associated metadata.  So in the Team view, the informaiton the user sees does not provide them needed clues as to what file to open.  They have to go to the SharePoint view. 

This is a BIG issue.

[#8]

Any updates on this? I am researching the same thing.  We would like to modify the Document Library template for the SP Site Teams creates, to include specific columns and Views so we don't have to recreate them each time.

[#9]

I have not seen any updates or news from MS on this topic.  It is still a pain point for us and one of several deterrents to rolling TEAMs out within our company. 

[#10]

Thank you for the quick response.  If I find out anything in our research I will post here.

[#11]

It really is an epic fail on MS's behalf. We have all spent a lot of time and effort defining and refining our metadata, but with Teams they have thrown all that out the door. We have project libraries with hundreds of files and all staff are extremely comfortable with metadata filtering, tagging etc.

We have also avoided Teams to date because of this; so many other great features, but without metadata functionality - sorry without the ability to build document library templates and use data from homesite tenant its essentially a non-starter for us.

Its crazy that the whole point of teams is to integrate tasks, emails, documents etc, they have done a great job at that, yet its not integrated at the most fundamental level, the homepage tenant. So all that extremely valuable List information accumulated over years of work which resides on our home site is not available at Teams - what were they thinking!

[#12]

First of all, I have to say that I love Teams and the collaborative experience is provides for my company and clients. It seems like every day there are cool new features coming out.

Apologies for piling onto what might already be a redundant thread. The ability to manage the terms store, library columns, and content types—along with its ability to easily create custom views—has been a very good thing that SharePoint has offered us for years.

Currently, MS Teams spins up a SharePoint site in a fashion that I was always taught was a bad practice; i.e., it limits architecture, scalability, cross-population, and, to speak abstractly, general content management strategy. The prioritization of directories over metadata favors convenience over scalability, at least as far as I can tell. And to be fair, there are times where this prioritization is the way to go.

Am I correct in that MS Teams Team sites are treated like sandboxes? If so, this makes it very difficult for someone like me (Content Strategist) to most effectively deliver taxonomies and metadata strategy to clients. If my assumptions are correct, this feels more like a regression than feature, at least in the short term. I hope Microsoft gets this worked out soon.

[#13]

I'm also very disappointed. We've worked extensively with SharePoint libraries for our Document Management System and the lack of synergy between Teams and SharePoint document libraries is seriously breathtaking (*not in a good way). 

Here I am trying to figure out how in the world our teams are supposed to be using Teams when it's this difficult to simply upload a document and fill in the metadata.

Please Microsoft, stop releasing Beta products for us to test for you. Thank you.

[#14]

HI all,

I am constantly amazed by the negativity around on these forums, yes I get the frustrations of things not working as we would all like them to.  However in this space there was some great news starting in May this year when Jeff and the team gave us advance warning on how these issues will be resolved and Ignite shows some awesome live demonstrations on how Lists and libraries will look in Teams over the coming months.

Lets try and remember that change takes time and that new products are at least released more regularly than every 3 years like it used to be.  Yes some functionality is missing but these kinds of forums allow us to direct MS in their direction.  So no more complaints but put in some great guidance on how you would like MS to meet your challenges.

Steve

[#15]

Yes, indeed. Microsoft Teams is lacking a lot of features when it comes to the "files" area! Microsoft HAS been working on this for a long time and a better unity between Teams and SharePoint will be released soon.

Basically you will be able to do the things you had to click on the "go to Sharepoint" button to do!

I'm not entirely sure Teams will ever or for a long time support the more advanced document features and that has never been the purpose of Teams either..

If you're still mad about it go to https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com and let your voice be heard there to make a difference!

Adam

[#16]

You're right, complaining doesn't really change much. I guess I'll just stick to the older, more mature products. At the end of the day, nobody is forcing us into the newer less complete software released, ohhh wait...

[#17]

Meanwhile, check out the new features regarding teams/sharepoint integration coming soon!

https://twitter.com/mkashman/status/1056963629763850240?s=12

Adam

[#18]

When wanting to connect a SharePoint document library in a tab in Teams to display that document library and display the metadata, use the Website option for the tab.  When asked enter the URL of the document library (the entire URL) and it will display all of the documents in the SP library including the metadata columns in the tab on the Team Site.

HTH

[#19]

Badly needed.

[#20]

I is a must