Update: Document Sets in Modern Document Libraries

Microsoft

I am pleased to announce some updates on the plan and timeline for improving the Document Set experience in modern document libraries.

 

In January, we communicated a March delivery date for these improvements.  We apologize for missing that date.  We’re now planning on rolling out this change in May.  We will be making the official announcement to the Message Center very soon with exact dates.  Thank you all for your patience!

 

This change allows organizations to use the power of document sets to group related documents together with consistent metadata and structure without having to go back and forth between classic and modern experiences.  

 

DocSet2.gif

Document sets now look and feel like ordinary folders in modern libraries, and benefit from all the cool new features in modern.  This means that users can drag and drop content to upload to document sets, link to content that lives outside the document set, pin files to the top of the document set, start flows on document set items, and define conditional formatting on document set items.  It also means that the Document Set experience can be customized using SharePoint Framework Extensions, just like all other modern list views.

 

All the content management rules you can define on document set content types are still supported.  No business processes were harmed in the making of this change!  Document set metadata can be viewed and edited in the details pane while in a document set.  Shared metadata specified in a document set content type continues to work as it always has; values inside shared columns will be copied to items inside the document set.  Columns that are identified as Welcome page columns in the content type are sorted to the top of the details pane, so that users can find them easily.  Content and structure rules specified in the document set content type are also supported, including the default content and default view settings.

 

Document set versioning functionality will appear under the context menu on document set items in the modern list view, include “Capture Version” and “Version History.”  Other document set-specific actions from the Document Set ribbon are still there, but only in classic.  Just like any other modern list view page, you can click “Return to classic SharePoint” in the lower left hand corner to go back the classic document set experience back.

 

The one caveat is that customized document set welcome pages are not supported in modern.  This change will not affect document sets that use welcome pages that have been configured with custom HTML or web parts; those welcome pages will still be displayed in classic mode, as they are today. 

 

200 Replies

@sjakester This functionality will be available.  You can trigger Flows on document sets the same way as other folders and items.

@Simon Rawson Are you using content types that are syndicated from a content type hub?

No, Linc, not in this case. This was a quick test in a stand alone site collection. Good observation!
Done. I've forwarded the link to my network, too.

@Lincoln DeMaris

 

If you are using custom folder content types within the modern document set they use the classic form similar to the classic welcome page that is used when creating new document set.  This in combination with the classic welcome page results in a fragmented experience for our organization.  The very thing one would have though would have been eliminated by the modernization of the Doc set sill exists. 

Another thing, The welcome page does not seem to respect which columns you are actually showing and not showing within the Document set settings. It simply shows all columns after the modernization regardless if they are selected or not selected. I am trying to stay positive here however whats the point on releasing something with a key component such as the welcome page not working correctly. You use the welcome page to create a document set so it's not like this is an optional feature that you can simply disregard.

@Lincoln DeMaris  I've read through this whole post and all of the replies so I apologize if I missed something.   It seems to me that the default view of the Document Set is simply the list view that the docs set came from.  When I change the columns, the list view changes too.   Seems simplified from your perspective but a document set is very different that a list view and needs special attention so a user can differentiate.   

First of all, you need to clearly differentiate that container (Document Set) metadata from the individual document metadata.  Right now it looks indiscriminately mixed and you can even falsely edit the container metadata at the document level without effect.  My understanding is that this is even true in classic mode with is really bad.   Why not fix this?   You could color the container metadata in the in the individual document context and make it read only?   

Also, it seems you really need to be able to configure different columns in the document set view than the list view?  They simply don't suit each others purpose.  

Am I missing something?   What's the best way to independently configure the document set list view and individual document property editing within within the document set?   It should be completely independent of the list view that the document set is coming from. 

 

@Lincoln DeMaris  @Lincoln DeMaris  I've read through this whole post and all of the replies so I apologize if I missed something.   It seems to me that the default view of the Document Set is simply the list view that the docs set came from.  When I change the columns, the list view changes too.   Seems simplified from your perspective but a document set is very different that a list view and needs special attention so a user can differentiate.   

First of all, you need to clearly differentiate that container (Document Set) metadata from the individual document metadata.  Right now it looks indiscriminately mixed and you can even falsely edit the container metadata at the document level without effect.  My understanding is that this is even true in classic mode with is really bad.   Why not fix this?   You could color the container metadata in the in the individual document context and make it read only?   

Also, it seems you really need to be able to configure different columns in the document set view than the list view?  They simply don't suit each others purpose.  

Am I missing something?   What's the best way to independently configure the document set list view and individual document property editing within within the document set?   It should be completely independent.

@lotz-hellerau same thing for me. Seeing the Welcome Page columns is vital to the process my company uses that involves document sets. This update had great intentions but came up short with basic functionality. 

@Lincoln DeMaris When I create a new document set in a document library (having added the document set content type as an option for the library), it open in a new tab in the classic experience. janafam.sharepoint.com and wreim.sharepoint.com

@Lincoln DeMaris 

Here the answers on your post from Wednesday:

  • Opening in a new tab.  Yes we are on the new modern document set view and we have the behavior, that every document set is opening in a new tab in modern view. So what can we do?
  • Document set metadata.  We see no Document set metadata  appearing in the details pane when inside the document set!  What can we do?
  • Document set views and content types. As I wrote, the document set opens with the right view setting! But the view isn't automatically switching by using the breadcrumb. This is very confusing for our employees. 

@Lincoln DeMaris Hello, in our tenant we have received this update recently but the behavior is not consistent. In modern view we are not shown the content types added in the document set if we create a document set and navigate into it to add content. But, in classic view this is working fine.

1. Document Set content type in 'New' Menu1. Document Set content type in 'New' Menu2. Created a new document set2. Created a new document set3. Go inside the newly created document set3. Go inside the newly created document set4. Content types under the document set is now shown4. Content types under the document set is now shownAs you can see in the last screenshot, here the menu should show all the content types available under the document set, but, it is still showing the actual document set content type!

 

Now, if I go back to 'classic experience' at this point, I can see all those content types shown properly.

5. Classic exp shows all content types under document set properly5. Classic exp shows all content types under document set properly

Weird thing is, if I now chose to go back to "modern view", then all these content types will show up.

 

6. All content types show up now in modern view6. All content types show up now in modern view

At this point, you can upload/ create documents from the above content types. In the properties section you can see the 'Content Type' property as editable.

 

But, if you close the window and open a new session, all goes back to original state. Any idea how to fix this behavior apart from moving to classic experience completely.

 

Note: I have a demo tenant created few days back, there also I can see modern document set published, but the experience is not buggy, there it is working fine.

 

What happend? We were very happy with modern in Document Sets because of the use of Flow and today suddenly Document Sets are all classic again, in multiple tenants ...
@JustSpoor Same in my tenant. We received modern document sets last Friday, now four days later they’re gone without warning. Very frustrating - hopefully this is resolved quickly.

@Ryan_McConville 

same here in my company! Hopefully the next rollout is a way less buggy :)

We really need Modern in Document Sets for Flow, more important at the moment than the issues with the content types …

@Lincoln DeMaris 

 

What happened? This was live in our Office 365 tenant a couple weeks ago and now it is gone. The new icon and copy/move functionality is there at the top level of the library but when navigating into a Doc Set it is back to classic. Help! We already sent an announcement to all our users. :( 

@JustSpoor 

 

Same here, Seems like the updated icon is still there however they have reverted back to classic experience.  Far to much stumbling for such an important update.  I question if Microsoft really understood those that use these depended on them in their ECM processes.  

@Lincoln DeMaris 

It sure would be nice to get an update on what the current status of Modern Doc sets are.  Have they officially been pulled?  Sounds like many are saying including the organization I work for had them and now they are gone.  

@Dudditz They have not been pulled.  We had a temporary rollback because of an issue with the flight - it was not any of the issues being discussed here, it was a backend thing.  Sorry about the confusion.

 

Additionally, we have internal confirmation that the following issues have been fixed in production:

  • Opening in a new tab
  • Properties not showing
  • Some of the breadcrumb click issues - we're still working on this
  • New button not showing the correct items in a document set

If anybody's still having difficulties with the above, please let us know.