SP 2010 Modifying the "Last Modified By" column in SQL Management Studio

Question

Let me preface by saying that I have read this page by Microsoft: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/841057/en-us

I have not understood it completely which is why I am here, We are currently in a tough migration Phase and due to the nature of the migration we are using some metadata is being lost. So when files are uploaded from one server to another using a webclient method and a service account it is obvious that some data will either go missing (due to a multitude of reasons) or simply be wrong.

One of these cases is "Last Modified/Edited by" for certain items. Assume I had an item called "Yearly_Review123.docx" and the last person to touch or modify that file was called "John Snow". After the upload to the 2010 server that data will become missing, i could open the SQL Management Studio, lookup the file by its uniqueid or other properties and simply edit the "Last Edited/Modified by" to say John Snow or link to that Username.

Question: Would this violate Sharepoints/Microsofts continued support policy or would this be okay? I have been told by many times by people far more senior than me that as long as you don't manipulate the DB Schema you are allowed to edit files. But reading that article and especially the:

Adding, changing, or deleting any data in any table of any of the databases for the products that are listed in the "Applies to" section

Adding, changing, or deleting any columns in any table of any of the databases for the products that are listed in the "Applies to" section

part is kind of saying not to touch anything. I mean essentially it also says that doing read-only activities such as querying the database is prohibited.

So essentially my question is this:

1) If i modify the "last edited/modified by" value in the database then Microsoft is allowed to cancel their support to this product correct?

2) Is there an alternative and or recommended way to make these changes?

Answer 1

You can update system properties (Created, Created By, Modified, Modified By) using code like that:

 using (SPSite site = new SPSite("Your site url"))
            {
                using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb())
                {
                    var list = web.Lists.TryGetList("Your list name");
                    var query = new SPQuery()
                                    {
                                        Query = "Your CAML query",
                                         ViewAttributes = "Scope=\"Recursive\""
                                    }
                    var items = list.GetItems(query); 
                    var userID = web.EnsureUser("Your User Login").ID;
                    foreach (var item in items)
                    {
                        item[SPBuiltInFieldId.Created_x0020_By] = userID; //<SPFieldUserValue>
                        item[SPBuiltInFieldId.Modified] = DateTime.Now;
                        item[SPBuiltInFieldId.Modified_x0020_By]= userID; //<SPFieldUserValue>
                        item.UpdateOverwriteVersion();
                    }
                }
            }

link to source

Answer 2

Simple answer: Yes it is forbidden. From my point of view you have following options:

1. Do a proper database migration from 2007 to 2010. Metadata will remain untouched.
2. Do the webclient migration and you can create a PS script that will modify the Created and Modified By fields for you and it will be supported.
3. Look up a third party migration tool that will support you in that process.

Answer 3

I highly recomend you work to migrate that data and then use supported methods via the API to make those changes (you can change created by/modified by via API) to fill in the gaps, such as what @andreyungar proposed.

That being said once the data is inside a supported database structure, you can query and pull data from the old database as needed. So you could write a direct query or PowerShell to pull information about your data and then use the API on the new 2010 farm to write that back to the documents. Certainly not a quick solution but it will bring you back into the supported state.

A note about supportability. This doesn't mean Microsoft won't try to help you, but it does mean, if you were to open a premier ticket they would not promise a resolution, it's best effort and if you are in that position you would probably be right back here looking to do the same thing.