Explorer

This section describes specific features of Explorer.

Upload documents/folders
Simply drag and drop documents or folders from File Explorer into the Explorer tree, select a Content Type and click “Proceed”. The upload progress for each item is shown. Item names are greyed out when they have been uploaded successfully. Uploaded items will keep the original modify date (instead of the standard SharePoint / OneDrive behaviour to create a new item with a new modification date). Explorer supports incremental uploads by excluding existing items and offers a “retry” feature to only upload failed items.

Sorting
The Explorer tree by default shows the same columns as File Explorer (Modified, Type and size) and provides the same sorting functionality.

The tool can be configured to show custom SharePoint columns like GPS location, presence of an email attachment or the document version number. This allows for the use of SharePoint metadata by Explorer which is not possible with File Explorer or the OneDrive for Business client.

Quick Search
The option “Quick Search” in the context menu allows for quick selection of items by name without using search.

Copy/Move folders and documents
Explorer supports copying/moving folders/documents using the context menu (e.g., cut + paste) or using drag and drop. Folders and documents can be copied/moved within a library, to a different library in the same site or to a different library in a subsite or another site.

View/edit Office files
Users with SharePoint Online can choose to view/edit office files using Office Online or use a local Office application.

Browse zip file
The contents of zip files is shown by clicking the expand icon. This shows the zip file’s contents without downloading the entire file and individual files (incl. Office and pdf files) can be directly opened / previewed.

Context menu
Each item in the tree has a context menu with relevant options. It behaves in the same way as File Explorer and contains options to preview an item, copy, move, rename, delete, etc… The menu options are configurable.

Edit non-Office files (e.g., PDF or DWG)
Explorer extends SharePoint functionality by simplifying the process to edit non-Office files such as PDF and DWG files. The option “Edit in app” downloads the selected document with a unique name to allow editing of the file using local client applications (e.g., Adobe Reader DC). Explorer provides instructions to the user and shows a form to simplify uploading of the modified file to SharePoint.

The “Edit in app” functionality can also be used in libraries configured with “Require Check Out”, files are automatically checked out / checked in by the Explorer tool.

If the user has forgotten to upload the locally modified file (or has closed the browser window) then Explorer will show a dialog with files being edited by that user during the next startup of the tool.

Email support
Explorer can extract email metadata from emails (To, From, Subject, Conversation, …) and capture the values into SharePoint columns for filtering, viewing and advanced searching. The tool also supports previewing emails in a browser and view/open email attachments (docx, xlsx, pptx, pdf, jpg, …) directly in the browser without downloading emails to a local computer. This has a positive effect on the adoption of SharePoint and increases user productivity. It also allows use of SharePoint on a devices without Office applications (e.g., iPad) and reduces compliance risk by keeping the attachments in the cloud instead of storing a local copy.

Office email attachments (docx, xlsx, pptx and vsdx) can be directly viewed in the browser without downloading. This increases user productivity, has a positive effect on adoption and also reduces compliance / security risks by not downloading content to local machines where it is out of control.

The attachments are also listed in the email’s context menu under “Attachments”:

The tool also supports attaching SharePoint document(s) (of folders) to a new email.

Search
Explorer also provides a search bar at the top of the page (only for SharePoint Online, OneDrive and Teams) to provide users will a fast and robust way to access their content. The search bar provides easy access to your content and works in the same way as File Explorer by only searching from the current location downwards. The search result list contains search results for folders and documents (using full text and metadata). The “Sort by” drop-down list offers common sorting options such as “Modified Date”. The filter pane enables users to perform advanced searches by filtering on “Name”, “Type”, “Size” and/or “Modified Date”.

The “CSV” link allows for downloading of the search results in CSV format. For files a link to open the file location is shown.

Document properties
The tool can extract properties from different file types (msg, eml, jpg, pdf, docx, dwg, doc, xls, …) during uploading and capture the values into SharePoint columns. The following document types are supported:
– email file formats (msg and eml)
– PDF file format
– image file formats (jpg, png, gif, tiff, bmp, svg, psd and dng)
– Office files (docx, xlsx, pptx, vsdx, docm, xlsm and pptm)
– Binary Office files (doc, xls and ppt)
– HTML files (htm and html)
– Audio files (mp3 and wma)
– Video files (wmv, mp4 and mov)
– Drawing files (dwg)

The context menu option “Properties” shows all properties present within the document.

The tool caters for metadata from different schemes: EXIF, XMP, IPTC and ICS.

By default documents and folders are uploaded using the “Document” Content Type and the “Folder” Content Type respectively. Explorer allows the user to select different Content Types and also to set values for metadata fields used in these custom Content Types. Properties in source files (e.g., keywords in PDF files, GPS coordinates in jpg files, ..) can also be mapped to columns in the Content Types. The tool can also be configured to skip the “metadata form”.

Explorer supports commonly used metadata types like single line of text, choice, dates, … but also managed metadata (incl. Enterprise Keywords), lookups and location columns. The tool can be configured to skip the metadata dialog and upload the documents using the default content type.

Edit Properties
This is an optional feature. The “Edit Properties” option is added to the right-click menu and allows for editing SharePoint columns on documents.

Explorer supports the following column types: Single line of text, Multiple lines of text, Choice, Currency, Number, DateTime, Lookup, Person or Group and Yes/No. Support for Calculated, Location and Image will be included in a future release.

Check in / Check out
Explorer will automatically detect if a library uses Check in / Check out functionality. Checked out documents are marked and indicate which user has checked out the document. The context menu contains options to check in, check out or discard check out per document. The tool also supports bulk actions. Site collection administrators can also use discard check out on documents checked out by other users.

Sensitivity labels
The sensitivity labels can be displayed as custom columns in the Explorer tree.

The ellipsis option “Properties” also shows the sensitivity label.

Thumbnail view (only available for SharePoint Online and OneDrive)
SharePoint content can also be viewed using thumbnails.

The bread crump at the top of the page allows for easy navigation through your content. The thumbnails can be sorted by name, modified date, type and size. Clicking on a thumbnail opens a dialog window with the full file.

Google Maps
The integration with Google Maps allow organization to combine the power of SharePoint Online with the capability of Google Maps. The tool can automatically populate a location column when the uploaded documents (e.g., photo) contain GPS coordinates. The Google Maps integration allows showing of one or more items on a map. The marker preview shows a thumbnail preview and key properties plus allows viewing of the file.

Items in the same location can be previewed using the previous or next links or by using the keyboard’s left and right arrows. The thumbnail preview provides a link to view the full item with all metadata.

Explorer also supports extracting GPS location details from mp4 and mov files.

Using Google Maps in SharePoint is made simple by removing the need to add web parts or scripts for individual libraries. The tool will automatically detect if a library contains a location column and then show the Google Maps option in the context menu.

Geotagging
This feature allows adding GPS location details to existing SharePoint documents. The coordinates can be added to any document format (pdf, msg, docx, jpg, dwg, …) and allows for associating document(s) with an object or location.

Explorer functionality will be extended with geosearching capabilities in the next version. This allows drawing a polygon on a Google Map and then searching for all documents within that polygon.

Hub sites (only SharePoint Online)
Explorer support hub sites. Hub sites have a different visual appearance and the associated sites are shown as nested sites. Search will automatically search in the hub site and associated sites.

Reporting
The tool allows users to create a basic inventory of the content of a SharePoint Document library, Picture library or Asset library. For example, list the number of documents, the number of folders, content types used, number of major versions, diskspace consumed by document versions, … The inventory of documents and folders can be exported as a CSV file. Major and minor document versions can be deleted in a controlled way. For example, delete all major document versions apart from the 3 most recent versions. Explorer also allows a user to create an inventory report of source system (e.g., file share) which can be downloaded as a csv file.

Technical characteristics
Explorer supports migration of large document volumes (10’s of GB’s). Larger data sets can be easily split into smaller parts by excluding folders. The maximum file size supported is 100 GB on SharePoint Online, 15 GB for SharePoint 2019 and 10 GB for SharePoint 2016. For SharePoint 2013 the maximum file sizes are browser dependent (see release notes at the bottom of the page). Unlike many migration tools there is no limit in terms of the data volume uploaded or downloaded.

Downloading content
The SharePoint modern view allows downloading of folders. This functionality is not available when using the classic view or SharePoint on-premise. Explorer allows downloading of multiple documents and/or folders into a zip file. Very large document volumes are supported (e.g., 10’s of GB’s) by using multiple zip files. The “Export” feature extends the functionality of “Download & Zip” by including the metadata for each document as a separate json file into the zip file(s).

5000-item List View Threshold (Large Lists)
The 5000-item List View Threshold prevents access to content unless special measures (e.g., views using indexed columns) are used. Explorer caters for Document (and Picture and Asset) libraries that exceed this limit. The content is retrieved in chunks and does not require any changes to SharePoint. Using Explorer it is possible to browse through large lists, download the list’s contents or report on the list’s content.

SLIM Companion Explorer App

The optional App adds an “Explorer” button to the standard SharePoint ribbon of Document, Picture and Asset libraries.

This way the Explorer tool is easily accessible for users across an entire site or tenant. The App is available for Office 365 Business and Enterprise plans.
NB: Microsoft has announced that IE11 will no longer be supported with Office 365 as of 21 August 2021 and Microsoft will no longer support Internet Explorer from 15 June 2022 onwards. Organizations need to find alternatives ways or start educting their users to use the standard SharePoint browser interface.

Supported configurations

Explorer supports SharePoint 2013, SharePoint 2016, SharePoint 2019, OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online.

The tool can be used with Document Libraries, Picture Libraries and Asset Libraries. The latest versions of Chrome, Opera, Firefox, Edge and Safari are supported (on Windows clients, macOS and iPadOS).