I'm trying to upload files and folders to a library using SharePoint Designer 2007 (on a WSS 3.0 SharePoint site).
It's giving me an error when I try to upload empty folders or folders that have an & in their name.
OS: Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008.
Can someone please assist?
There are certain characters that SharePoint does not allow in the filename. Unfortunately the ampersand character is one of them! Here is a list I've found, I'm not sure if there's an official list somewhere:
char[] InvalidFilenameCharacters = new[] { '\\', '/', ':', '*', '?', '"', '<', '>', '|', '#', '{', '}', '%', '~', '&' };
Just to pile on to the existing answers, this seems to be the most comprehensive answer [formatted for better readability]:
You cannot use the following characters anywhere in a file name:
- Tilde
- Number sign
- Percent
- Ampersand
- Asterisk
- Braces
- Backslash
- Colon
- Angle brackets
- Question mark
- Slash
- Pipe
- Quotation mark
You cannot use the period character consecutively in the middle of a file name.
You cannot use the period character at the end of a file name.
You cannot start a file name by using the period character.
If you use an underscore character (_) at the beginning of a file name, the file will be a hidden file.
File names and folder names may not end with any of the following strings:
- .files
- _files
- -Dateien
- _fichiers
- _bestanden
- _file
- _archivos
- -filer
- _tiedostot
- _pliki
- _soubory
- _elemei
- _ficheiros
- _arquivos
- _dosyalar
- _datoteke
- _fitxers
- _failid
- _fails
- _bylos
- _fajlovi
- _fitxategiak
In addition, file names and folder names cannot start with the “vti” string, such as the followings:
- _vti_cnf
- _vti_pvt
- _vti_bin
- _vti_txt
All of the above is from:
Here is a list of restrictions in SharePoint. The characters it lists as not being able to be used in a folder name are ~ # % & * { } \ : < > ? / | "
It's still true in SP2010 unfortunately - even though you can now upload, behind the scenes when you need to use functions such as
System.Web.HttpUtility.UrlEncode(item_url) and
SPEncode.UrlEncode(item_url), they will then unwantedly encode the forward slash as well as ignore ampersands, so it seems not worth the hassle. Same with SP2013 RTM too.
You can show any client/users it's not your fault currently by confirmation here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/905231 (covers up to SP2010).
for checking, if a file name is valid in SharePoint, you also must prevent consecutive dots in the filename and a dot at the beginning or at the end of a filename.
Please see also here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/905231/en-us (there is also the plus sign "+" and a starting "_" mentioned as forbidden, but that works for SharePoint file names.
These are rquirements "on top" of being a valid Windows file name. To check for a valid windows file name, you can use Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars()
c# code (without the dot checks)
var invalidChars = Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars();
var additionalInvalidSharePointSpecialCharacters = new char[7] { '~', '#', '%', '&', '{', '}', '+' };
invalidChars = invalidChars.Concat(additionalInvalidSharePointSpecialCharacters.AsEnumerable()).ToArray();
var failingDotsRemoved = Regex.Replace(new string(invalidCharsRemoved), @"\\.+", @".");
if (failingDotsRemoved[0].Equals('.'))
{
failingDotsRemoved = failingDotsRemoved.Substring(1);
}
if (failingDotsRemoved[failingDotsRemoved.Length - 1].Equals('.'))
{
failingDotsRemoved = failingDotsRemoved.Substring(0, failingDotsRemoved.Length - 1);
}
Even easier, go to the site in question, go to the library, change the view to explorer view("View:" dropdown at top right of document view pane).
Then you can drag and drop the folder/subfolder/documents directly into sharepoint...maintains structure and will even allow empty folders
