Programmatically set default column values based on folder in SharePoint Online

Question

I'm working on enhancing metadata in our SharePoint online (O365) environment. Since a portion of my user base is used to foldering (explorer style), I've started using default column values to automatically set values on any files added to that specific folder (we have content organized categorically by folder currently). An example is our HR documents library - we have separate folders for recruiting, payroll, personnel files, etc. that automatically categorize files added to that folder with the same categories (recruiting, payroll, personnel, etc.). This supports both "search" and "click" users and makes adoption WAY easier while getting important metadata.

I want to implement this in a larger, more dynamic fashion, so manually setting default column values on each folder is not going to be scalable.

How can I reference the top level folder within the library (or even the current folder) for each newly added file and populate the "category" field for that new file with that folder name? I can do some very basic C# or Java code copy/paste, but bonus points for non-coding solutions =)

Answer 1

Have you checked out Document Sets? These behave like folders when you open them in explorer, but give you the ability to set metadata. And the best part, you can configure your documents to inherit the metadata of your Document Set.

https://sharepointmaven.com/document-sets-hidden-gem-sharepoint/

I use this quite often and always set it up like this (mostly through code by the way)

1. Create site columns
2. Create a document set content type and add the site columns from 1
3. Create a document content type and add the site columns from 1
4. Configure the document set to make the documents inherit the metadata from the document set
5. Remove the default document content type from the list of available content types for that document set.

Answer 2

You could create a workflow for your library, when a file got uploaded, check folder name check here, based on folder name, update file item field value.