Workflow to change title of uploaded documents?

Question

Ok so I have a request from a user and I'm not sure how I can achieve this...I'm thinking workflows but not sure.

Basically what she wants is to have a Document Library where she can upload documents. Each document will have a file name like this "ClientA - Customization.docx". Now you can imagine that a she will upload many documents that will have an identical name so what we want to do is number the files automatically. So if she uploads the first document, SharePoint will add a number after the name so the file will be called "ClientA - Customization - 1.docx" and then if she uploads a second document and it will be called "ClientA - Customization - 2.docx".

So basically SharePoint needs to check if the name of the current document exists in the list and if it does add a number next to it, but the number must be 1 greater than the current highest document so it will just increase.

Is there any way to do this? I looked into workflows but couldn't really get anywhere since I could not find an action to change the file name. Any ideas?

Thank you!!!

EDIT: I have gotten this far by posting on forums and adding my own code but I can't seem to get it working, is he code ok? Basically it does not rename anything that I upload to the document library so maybe my event receiver is not attached? At the bottom is also the code I am using in a console app to attach the EventReceiver to my Document Library.

//--This code is in the EventReceiver 
public override void ItemAdded(SPItemEventProperties properties)
    {
        base.ItemAdded(properties);
        SPListItem item = properties.ListItem;

        if (item["Name"] == null)
            return; //or better yet, log 

        string oldFileName = item["Name"].ToString();

        int positionOfPeriod = oldFileName.LastIndexOf(".");
        string tempFileName = oldFileName.Substring(0, positionOfPeriod);

        SPQuery query = BuildArbitraryQuery(properties.List, "Name", tempFileName, true);
        int count = properties.List.GetItems(query).Count;
        String fileName, fileExtension;

        if (positionOfPeriod == -1)
        {
            fileName = oldFileName;
            fileExtension = "";
        }
        else
        {
            fileName = oldFileName.Substring(0, positionOfPeriod);
            fileExtension = oldFileName.Substring(positionOfPeriod);
        }

        string newFileName = fileName + "-xx" + count.ToString() + fileExtension;

        item["Name"] = newFileName;

        Console.WriteLine("New File Name: " + newFileName);

        try
        {
            properties.Web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;
            EventFiringEnabled = false;

            item.Update();
        }
        finally
        {
            properties.Web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = false;
            EventFiringEnabled = true;
        } 

    }
public static SPQuery BuildArbitraryQuery(SPList list, string columnDocumentName, string value, bool deepSearch)
    {
        if (list == null)
            throw new ArgumentNullException("You cannot pass a null list to Helper.BuildArbitraryQuery.");

        if (!list.Fields.ContainsField(columnDocumentName))
            throw new ArgumentException("The SharePoint List \"" + list.Title + "\" does not contain the Field \"" + columnDocumentName + "\".");

        string internalName = list.Fields[columnDocumentName].InternalName;
        SPQuery query = new SPQuery();
        query.Query = "<Where><Eq><FieldRef Name=\"" + internalName + "\"/><Value Type=\"Text\">" + value + "</Value></Eq></Where>";

        if (deepSearch)
            query.ViewAttributes += "Scope='RecursiveAll'";

        return query; 
    }
//this is the code in the console app to add the EventReceiver to the doc library
using (SPSite site = new SPSite("http://servername:port/teams/dps/"))
        {
            using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb())
            {
                SPList list = web.Lists["Requests"];

                SPEventReceiverDefinition def = list.EventReceivers.Add();
                def.Assembly = "DocumentLibrary_ClassLib, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=Neutral, PublicKeyToken=611205b34d18f14d";
                def.Class = "DocumentLibrary_ClassLib.EventReceiver";
                def.Type = SPEventReceiverType.ItemAdded;
                def.Update();

                Console.WriteLine("Registered");
                Console.Read();
            }
        }

*I really want this working so I am giving my reputation points away to someone that can help me get it working, pleeeaase :)

Answer 1

ItemAdded event should do this The below would give you an idea

Here it's a bit of code that you can use in ItemAdded:

To get the file:

 SPFile spf = properties.ListItem.File;
 string url = properties.AfterUrl;

This url should be like:

sharepointlist/filename (for example: books/mybook.doc)

Then change the string and make a new url (for example: books/ ID_mybook.doc), and called it "newurl".

After that use the following code:

string newurl = myNewUrlString;
DisableEventFiring();
spf.MoveTo(newurl);

spf.Update();
EnableEventFiring();

Answer 2

A few ideas...

One alternative is the content organizer. You can enable the duplicate files settings which will automatically have a unique characters appended at the end of the file, but you can't change the behavior. Then you could have a workflow rename that document accordingly.

Your other options are to look at SPD extended activities, and use a combination of renaming and copying items (to prevent the risk of duplicate names).Also an EventReceiver would do the trick pretty nicely.

If you don't want to crack open visual studio, you could actually create a custom uploadpage (with a custom list form) and insert your own JavaScript validation. You can use the webservices to verify whats in the list and force the user to select the correct name (or change it) there. The downside is you need to include explicit link to the form you want users to use, and probably not direct them back to the library after they have uploaded the form.

Answer 3

Hi another alternative is to create your own custom upload control field, this would cut out event receivers totally and get around the issues you have.

Setting up a custom field control to do this would be pretty straight forward (Infact for example creating a upload control for blogs which isn't OOTB without enterprise)

This is a good resource if you haven't done them before:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb684919%28v=office.12%29.aspx

http://sriramkunapuli.com/2011/05/18/file-upload-custom-site-field-control-sharepoint-2010-part-2/

I hope this helps.

Answer 4

a couple of things that I'd consider:

You're looking at the ItemAdded event receiver. In the case where you've added a second item with the same name this has already overwritten the existing item.

You should maybe look at the ItemAdding even receiver and look for an upcoming conflict rather than trying mop up after you've replaced the existing file.