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

@Sihuss

I also find the custom Welcome Page very useful to be able to separate the document sets' contents per content type: 1 view for emails, 1 view for invoices and 1 for any other content type, all stacked below each other. It doesn't make sense to have columns 'To', 'Subject' and 'From' visible in a document set that contains both emails and other types of content - likewise, it doesn't make sense to have a column 'Amount' (with total) visible in a document set that contains invoices next to other content types.

Sure, you could setup specific views for each content type, but using 3 views requires 2 additional steps for the user just to get an overview.

I'm crossing fingers that this functionality would be made available in the modern layout as well.

@Lincoln DeMaris What's the go with folders inside document sets not inheriting changed metadata from the set? The files inside the document inherit properly but not the folders?

 

Is anyone else having this issue and is there a workaround for now? I contemplated running a flow overnight to repopulate all my metadata but I have a "last modified by" requirement and this would stuff that up.

 

@Lincoln DeMaris Can you help me understand how I can trigger a power automate flow to notify a team when a document set is created?  I'm struggling with this

Would an Alert on new items work for you?

@Jan Klooster , One way I found to move document set between librairies is to create a folder into the source library, move the document sets into the folder. Then you can move the folder into another library (document set content type needs to be available) and then you can move the documents sets inside the folder at the root of the library.

UPDATE: I found however that the document set metadata does not get transfered. It sets back to folder (even if we see the document set icon). Need to set the content type back to document set and fill the metadata. 

@Lincoln DeMaris This has been a long going discussion, but for what I have read no one has mentioned the problem I'm experiencing when I search within a library with Document Sets.
The search works fine. I can find my document set, but as I then select the document set to open it it does not switch to the configured view for that one.
My views for showing the document sets and the one showing the content inside the document set is quite different, and I end up seeing nothing inside the document set even though it has content.
To see the content I have to switch the view manually.

This works just fine when not doing a search.
I have tried configuring the views so the document set one is only shown at the top level, and the one showing the content of the document set is shown only for the proper content type, but this does not work when your searching either.

Anyone that has seen this and managed to find a way around?

@KaiAtleI can confirm the behaviour you're describing. I didn't find a workaround so far (except for relying more on the searchfunction of the Harmon.ie Outlook plugin rather than SharePoint-in-browser. That comes with other downsides, as it is more focused on files than on document sets/views - but in the end, it is much faster to find the right document and access its properties.

 

Kr,

Vincent

@Lincoln DeMaris, when updating a document set content type (like adding a new allowed content type), here is the behavior:

 

For existing documents set folders created before the update:

  • The new content type will only be available at the root of the document set folder. It will not be available for folders inside the document set folder.
  • To be able to get the new content type inside these subfolders, I need to switch to classic, open the document set folder and perform an "Update documents set". This command is not available in Modern. I want to make sure we will get this option in modern unless adding a new content type will be reflected in subfolders without performing an update.

For newly created documents set folders: It will work as expected.

 

There are still other issues with documents set and it looks like there is no more tuning on this. Can you give us the status for modern documents set development? Is this completed for Microsoft?

 

Thanks.

@SarahTurnerI created a Flow that only runs if the Content Type is equal to DocSet, in this case, DocSet is the document set Content Type.   I have two Flows that are triggered by my document set library and both use Trigger Conditions to filter on what they should process.

Example
Flow Document Set:
   Trigger Condition:  @equals(triggerBody()?['{ContentType}']?['Name'], 'DocSet')
Flow Process Documents in Library:
   Trigger Condition: @not(equals(triggerBody()?['{ContentType}']?['Name'], 'DocSet'))

You can use Trigger Conditions or Conditions in the Flow.

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@Zenlord 
Agreed, not having the Welcome Page in a document set is a dealbreaker.  I can already see a case where users are looking for the metadata on the welcome page and forget to open the "details pane" to view the info. In the end, it might be easier to create a custom Power App with a parent-child form layout.

@SarahTurner 

I also do not see "document set' triggers in power automate.  we are on the gov network.

 

@Martin Coupal  I'm having the same problem with moving sets around to other libraries. No metadata transfer.

 

@KaiAtle Im having same problem.  View switches on opening folder.

@Lincoln DeMaris 

I have found that if I have, for example, three different custom content type Document Sets added to the same library, then, after creating new Document Set and saving it, Details Pane shows additional columns as not filled, but that columns belong to other Document Set content type in the same library.

If I go back to the document library and reopen the same newly created Document Set again, then all columns are displayed correctly.

The same wrong columns are displayed when link to document set is opened from Flow dynamic content called "Link To Item".

I have noticed that CORRECT columns are displayed when URL in browser has "viewid=".

And INCORRECT columns are showed when URL doesn't have "viewid=" - just after saving the document set, or reaching it from MS Teams Dynamic content link.

I have already reported the issue, MS has opened the ticket, but still waiting for an answer.

Also it looks like when I add first custom Document Set content type to Document Library, everything is correct. But when I add second one or third one, and try to create new Set, the additional fields from first content type is show as not filled out.

@Jan Klooster It appears your assumption may be wrong. I am currently researching if "Copy To" works with DocSets and in my experience and in an experience of another, it does not work. 

@Lincoln DeMaris @Michael_Silverstein 

How about the Document Set Welcome page in the Modern setup.    Many will prefer the classic setup, where the folder picture and document set attributes are displayed on top.... instead of the document set info displayed to the right (info pane)@Lincoln DeMaris 

Do you know how to change this without changing to classic. 

@Lincoln DeMaris 
When pushing new document sets from the CTH, they always seem to be classic for some reason. In our brand new development environment new document sets are modern.
Is there a way to modernize existing document sets in the CTH?
If not, how can I make a modern document set in the CTH that I can use to replace the old one's?

Folders do not have custom metadata so nothing to inherit... unless you added custom metadata to your folder content type (not recommended). Items will inherit the metadata across (sub-)folders as you have seen, so no problem there. One unformtunate exception: enterprise keywords, if used. Note: you cannot use document sets within documents sets.