Issue with Content Organizer Rule for Document Sets in SharePoint 2010

Question

I have created a new custom content type for document sets in SharePoint 2010. This content type is published via a Content Syndication Hub. I have also created a Record Centre site on the same web application. This uses a Content Organizer rule to route all document sets based on the custom content type to a specific library in the Record Centre.

I have successfully tested this Content Organizer rule. But when I update the custom content type to include a very simple validation on an existing string column (a simple check to make sure that a specific string column contains a 10 character string), the Content Organizer rule won't process any document sets that use the content type. This is despite the test document sets all having a 10 character string that should successfully pass the validation. Any document sets sent to the Record Centre are held in the drop-off library, and an automatic email is generated, telling the Content Organizer administrator that documents "were submitted to Record Centre that are missing required properties or did not match any of the defined rules". When I remove the validation from the column, and republish the content type via the Content Syndication Hub, the Content Organizer rule successfully routes the same document sets to the correct library in the Record Centre.

Has anyone came across this problem before? If so, do you know a workaround that would allow me to have the necessary column validation and still send the documents to the record centre?

Thanks, MagicAndi

Answer 1

I've came up with a possible workaround. Previously, the column validation was applied to the content type. However, if the validation is removed from the content type, and is applied at the (source) list level instead, the document set is correctly routed to the correct target document library in the Record Centre.

For completeness, we also tested applying the column validation on both the source and target (Record Centre) lists. In this case, the document sets were again held up at the drop off library, and were not processed by the content organizer rule. Obviously, the column validation on the target list in the Record Centre fails when it is applied to the packaged document set zip file.