Utility for Renaming Files and Folders for SharePoint Import
from the author of DelinvFile and PurgeIE
Great for OneDrive and OneDrive for Business
SharePrep 4.00 Beta is now available
SharePrep 3.07 supports VISTA, Win-7 thru Win-10 [32 & 64 bit]
Version 3.07 implements a much improved message display function.
This significantly improves the processing speed for the Scan, Preview and
Repair functions when the display exceeds a few thousand lines.
We have seen times for the Scan function drop from hours to under a minute. Current customers that process large numbers of files
should upgrade to the new version.
If you had tried an earlier version
and found processing speed to be a problem, please try the new
version. Consider requesting a full trial (below).
Assistance & Resources for Computing, Inc., has released
OneDriveRx.
OneDriveRx is a limited and less expensive version of SharePrep.
OneDriveRx is limited to processing only the OneDrive,
OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online "SYNC" folders and files.
Beginning with version 3.03,
SharePrep provides for designating filenames to be skipped.
Also implements functions for
importing and exporting the
'Options' file and the newly implemented 'Skip Files' file.
Beginning with
version 3.02,
SharePrep provides for Multi-Select of files for the Delete function.
and makes available an option to check total (Path + File) lengths
which should prove quite useful for OneDrive users.
Beginning with
version 3.01,
SharePrep includes UniCode logic to enable processing of file and folder
names
containing characters from other languages.
SharePrep is a special-purpose utility program
for SharePoint that you can use to correct file and folder names in preparation for importing
data into Microsoft's SharePoint Server and MOSS. The folder and
filenames
within SharePoint have more restrictions than for normal
Windows operation. These restrictions are for both special
characters and length of the file names and folder names.
If you are seeing either of the following SharePoint messages, SharePrep can help...
| The
file or folder name <name> contains invalid characters. Please use a
different name. Invalid characters include
the following:
~ " # % & * : < > ? / \ { | }. The name cannot begin or end with a dot and cannot contain consecutive dots. |
| The specified file or folder name is too long. The URL path for all files and folders must be 260 characters or less (and no more than 128 characters for any single file or folder name in the URL). Please type a shorter file or folder name. |
In addition to truncation, SharePrep provides for user-defined character string substitutions which you can use to abbreviate common words in the file and folder names. This can help you retain usable names.
If you are seeing either of the following OneDrive messages, SharePrep can help...
|
A file or folder can't be created because the path is too long
...file name contains characters that aren't allowed... |
The current version of SharePrep is 3.07.
The following are the currently known File and Folder name
restrictions for SharePoint:
1. The name can not contain any of the following characters:
|
"
|
-
|
Quotation mark |
#
|
-
|
Number sign |
|
%
|
-
|
Percent Sign |
&
|
-
|
Ampersand |
|
*
|
-
|
Asterisk |
:
|
-
|
Colon |
|
<
|
-
|
Less than Symbol |
>
|
-
|
Greater than Symbol |
|
?
|
-
|
Question Mark |
\
|
-
|
Backslash |
|
{
|
-
|
Left Brace |
}
|
-
|
Right Brace |
|
|
|
-
|
Pipe |
~
|
-
|
Tilde |
|
/
|
-
|
Slash |
2. The name can not begin or end with a period
3. The name can not contain a double period
4. The folder name and file name length depends on the SharePoint / OneDrive system used
Separate documentation for determining your maximum folder name and file name
lengths is available at
SharePrep provides a convenient user interface to allow you to search your file names and folder names for the above restrictions and provides functions for automatically renaming the file and folder names to replace the restricted characters.
SharePrep is configurable. You can define the action to be used by the rename function for each of the restricted characters. For each, you can choose to delete the character, replace with a blank or replace with a character or string of characters you specify.
You can add additional entries to Options table. A string of characters can be used for both the search and the replacement characters. This gives you a means for abbreviating portions of file and folder names for the purpose of shortening their names to meet the SharePoint name length restrictions.
SharePrep provides a convenient User Interface for selecting the folder for processing, setting the Options table and Repairing the file and folder names.
SharePrep is not just for SharePoint and OneDrive.
Some
customers are
using SharePrep in their routine maintenance procedures to bulk rename invalid files and folders.
For example, some backup / recovery programs have name restrictions.
These customers are dealing with files downloaded from the Web and files
from non-Windows systems.
The current version of SharePrep implements batch
execution. This incorporates use of a command file and provides for
use of an alternate options file.
The current version also provides for user override of the 128 byte length
tests. This is to give non-SharePoint customers a means for
avoiding the name length error messages.
Truncation
Recent changes include functions for truncating long file and folder names to user specified lengths. This is available for both Auto Repair and manual renaming. This should facilitate getting your names under the 128 character limit.
The Resolve Duplicate Names function can be used to resolve any
duplicates created by truncation, etc..
Note that the optional truncation is applied after performing the
designated character substitutions.
Trial Period and Limitations
SharePrep is currently distributed only as a Limited-Trial.
The rename and delete functions are available, but limited, in Limited-Trial mode.
The reason for this marketing approach is that
many organizations may need SharePrep for only a single one-day conversion.
The Limited-Trial
is limited to
However, this approach permits you to use SharePrep as a
diagnostic tool to check the lengths of file and folder names as well as
to identify the quantity of names that require renaming. In short,
you can determine whether you need the rename functions of SharePrep
before committing to the purchase of a license.
Upon purchasing a license, you will be sent a Registration Code which
you enter into SharePrep to complete the registration process. This
will enable all of the program's functions.
Site Licenses or Multiple-use Licenses are available for larger organizations
that need them. These licenses are priced based on the number of computers
that would make use of the program. An additional 25%
discount is available for Site Licenses for educational
institutions, public libraries and government facilities.
If your company requires you to fully test software prior to purchase
and you are likely to purchase if you could verify that SharePrep
would work on your projects and systems,
SharePrep
makes use of the short form of file and folder names to perform the
renames. This is the older 8.3 format of the names that are normally
maintained in the directories of the drive volumes. Some have modified
their systems to avoid the creation of the 8.3 names on NTFS
volumes. This can cause some renames to fail.
Further, some larger data centers have transferred MAC-created files
to their servers. As MAC systems allow filenames considered invalid
to Windows systems, SharePrep may have trouble with these
particularly when the invalid character occurs within the short name.
Therefore, Assistance & Resources for Computing, Inc. will refund
the license fee upon receipt of proof that SharePrep is unable to
perform as advertised. Any request for a refund
must be made within 30 days of the purchase.
Credits
The credit for the idea to create SharePrep belongs to Göran Husman.
He is an author, SharePoint MVP, Consultant & Trainer residing in
Stockholm, Sweden. Göran is president of HumanData Inventus AB
- http://www.humandata.se/
He has published several SharePoint books.
Göran first requested a change in the scan function of Delete
Invalid Files, to search for additional characters. After
receiving a pre-release copy of the program with the enhanced function, he
requested that the program be enhanced to automatically rename files to
replace the given characters.
He explained that he had a client with
a project containing over 55,000 files to be imported into SharePoint.
The scan revealed that there were over 1,000 files with restricted
characters that would have to be manually modified before importing into SharePoint.
Development of SharePrep began the next day.