Is there a SharePoint plugin/tool like this?

Question

I am fairly new to SharePoint. This is for a design-build construction company. Currently our design team and office staff create/update files on a network drive. Once they are ready they have to upload them to SharePoint for the field staff and external contractors. So basically they store the files in two separate locations and anytime they update one they have to copy over the other to make sure both are up to date. I am wanting to move all files to SharePoint but upper management hates the idea of changing what we currently have in place. They have always used a network drive and do not want to move away from it.

My question is, is there a tool that we can put in place that allows SharePoint to pull documents from a network location. When a change is made either on SharePoint or on the network share it is updated in both places?

Answer 1

Why don't you use SharePoint for that. You can have a site where it has a your document library, and then from SharePoint you can configure "Send To" connection to copy these documents to another location, which is where the documents will be shared with other people. So SharePoint is your tool for doing so, and keep the documents in SharePoint, that way your upper management will benefit from the document management capablities of SharePoint (Check out Check in/versionning..etc..)

Answer 2

If you need to get files off SP there are many ways to do it, for example syncing with OneDrive (for SP Online)- or, in Windows 10, you can access a SharePoint on-premises library as if it were a regular folder by typing its absolute URL into the address bar of any Explorer window:

Below is a method for sending files to SharePoint. If you are allowed to use PowerShell you can write a simple script to get specific files and upload them to corresponding locations in SharePoint, using the [PnP PowerShell library][1].

For this you must have an account with administrator access to the destination SharePoint site. In my case I am using SharePoint 2016 on-premises.

The relevant command is Add-PnPFile -Path ... -Folder ... -Checkout, where Path is the location of a local file, Folder is the destination library in SharePoint, and Checkout means that, if the file already exists, we will check it out, upload a new version, and check it back in.

This script is meant to upload two files (main.js and main.css) to the SiteAssets/project directory on the default Web. You could easily expand it to include more files or upload to multiple locations in different passes.

Upload-Files-To-Library.ps1

param (
    [Parameter(Mandatory = $true, Position = 0, ValueFromPipeline = $true)]
    [String]$HostName = "https://www.mysite.sharepoint.com",
    [Parameter(Mandatory = $true, Position = 1, ValueFromPipeline = $true)]
    [String]$DestinationPath = "SiteAssets/project",
    [Parameter(Mandatory = $true, Position = 2, ValueFromPipeline = $true)]
    [String]$LocalPath = "./build",
    [Parameter(Mandatory = $true, Position = 3, ValueFromPipeline = $true)]
    [String]$EditorId = "479"
)

# Get the local files
$LocalFiles = Get-ChildItem -Path $LocalPath -Include "*.js", "*.css" -Recurse -Exclude "service-worker.js"

# Connect to SharePoint 
$Connection = Connect-PnPOnline -Url $HostName -CurrentCredentials -ReturnConnection

if ( $LocalFiles -and $Connection) {

    Write-Host Uploading to $DestinationPath -ForegroundColor White

    # Upload the files
    ForEach ($file in $LocalFiles) {
        Write-Host "Uploading $($file.Name)" -ForegroundColor Yellow

        Add-PnPFile -Path $file.FullName -Folder $DestinationPath -NewFileName $FileName -Checkout -CheckInComment $file.Name -Values @{Editor = $EditorId} -Verbose 
    }
}
else {
    Write-Host "Error getting files or connection." -ForegroundColor Red
}

# Disconnect from SharePoint
Disconnect-PnPOnline -Connection $connection -Verbose

Usage e.g. .\Upload-File-To-Library.ps1 -HostName 'https://mysite.sharepoint.com' -DestinationPath 'SiteAssets/project' -LocalPath './build' -EditorId '479'