Working with Folders in List Filter Online: Folder Navigation, Flat View and Breadcrumbs

Introduction

Folders are the most common way to structure a SharePoint document library, and they are also the most common obstacle to finding something in it. List Filter Online gives the page author a choice: show the library the way SharePoint shows it, folder by folder; flatten it into one list of documents that can be filtered and sorted as a whole; or show both the folders and all the documents at once.

This article explains the three folder modes of the web part, how users move between folders with breadcrumbs, how folders are created and colored from the web part, and what happens to filters, sorting, grouping and the Excel export in each mode. The web part appears in the toolbox as "List Filter"; the settings described here are in its property pane.

The three folder modes

Open the Folders group of the property pane. The choice Folders or Flat offers three options:

Internally the options map to the SharePoint view scopes: Show items inside folders uses the default scope, Show all items without folders the Recursive scope and Display all items the RecursiveAll scope. The scope is written into the CAML query that the web part sends to SharePoint, so it applies to every request — items, filter values and the export alike.

Navigating folders as a user

Opening a folder

In Show items inside folders mode, folders appear as rows with a folder icon in the Type column — a filled icon when the folder contains items and an empty one when it does not. A folder is opened through a column whose Linked to item option is switched on in the column configurator (usually the Name column): the folder name becomes a link, and a click on it loads the content of the folder. Paging restarts from the first page in the new folder.

Breadcrumbs

To let users return to a parent folder, switch on Navigation in the Appearance group of the property pane. A breadcrumb bar then appears above the table. Its first entry is the name of the list or library and stands for the root folder; each folder the user has opened is added after a chevron. A click on the list name returns to the root, a click on an intermediate folder returns to that folder; the current folder is shown as plain text.

In the two flat modes the breadcrumb bar shows only the list name. In Display all items mode a folder row can still be opened; the view then shows all items and folders below that folder, and the breadcrumb bar leads back.

Creating folders and uploading documents

The New command of the command toolbar is shown to users who have permission to add items to the list or library. Its content depends on the type of the list:

• in a document library, New opens a menu with Folder and Document; Document opens the SharePoint form for adding a document to the library in a new tab, Folder opens the folder dialog;
• in a list that allows folders, New opens a menu with New folder and New, the latter opening the new-item form of the list;
• in a list without folders, New opens the new-item form directly.

The Create a folder dialog asks for the Folder Name and creates the folder with the Create Folder button inside the folder currently shown — the current breadcrumb in folder mode, the root of the list in the flat modes. The view is refreshed after the folder is created. If a folder with the same name already exists, SharePoint rejects the request and the dialog shows its message.

Folder colors

Users with edit permission on a folder can change its color from the web part. Right-click the folder row and choose Folder color; a palette of 16 swatches opens — the same 16 colors that SharePoint Online and OneDrive offer: Yellow (the default), Grey, and dark and light shades of red, orange, green, teal, blue, purple and pink. The color is saved to SharePoint through the folder coloring API, so it is the same color that users see in the native library view, and a color assigned in SharePoint is shown in the web part.

The same context menu also offers Rename for the folder and, for users who can manage permissions, Manage access.

Filtering and folders

Every filter — the predefined filter of the Query Builder, the filter pane and the filter values in the column header menu — is combined with the folder scope in a single query:

• in Show items inside folders mode the filters are applied to the content of the current folder only; the result does not include matching items from subfolders;
• in the two flat modes the filters are applied to all items of the list or library, regardless of their folder.

The lists of values in the drop-down controls of the filter pane and in the column header menu are collected for the current folder — including the values found in its subfolders — and are reloaded every time the user opens another folder. Filters applied by the user stay active while the user moves between folders; opening a folder resets the paging but not the filters.

Sorting and grouping with folders

Sorting and grouping are part of the same query and are applied in every mode. Folder rows are treated like any other row: the web part does not pin them to the top of the list, so their position follows the order that SharePoint returns for the configured sort columns. With Display all items, grouping by a column gathers folders and documents under the same group headers; folders usually fall into the (No Title) group of a column they have no value for. The settings themselves are described in KB10260. Grouping, Sorting and Totals in List Filter Online.

Export and folders

The Export menu of the command toolbar exports what the current query returns:

• Current Page writes the rows of the page on the screen — in folder mode, the rows of the current folder;
• All Items reads all pages of the current query and writes them to one workbook: in folder mode all items of the current folder, in the flat modes all items of the list or library, always within the active filters;
• Selected items writes the rows the user has selected.

Folder rows are exported like other rows, with the word Folder in the Type column. The folder path of a document is exported when the Path column is part of the view. See KB50022. How To Export a SharePoint List to Excel for details on the export.

Limitations

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