Sharepoint + Shared Documents?

T

TechieSooner

Supreme [H]ardness
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Has anyone kindof merged both of these together?

Basically I'd like to setup a folder structure (A folder for each customer, and sub-folders in that), as well as has inter-company folders (finances and whatnot). I could use a VPN or something to grant inter-company folks access to what they need, however I'm not sure how to grant customers access to their stuff...
My thought would be to use Sharepoint (I've just dabbled- nothing serious in it before) and create the structures there. But it seems that Sharepoint folder structures aren't as advanced (for permissions purposes).

Anyone have any methods they've used for something like this in the past?
 
I've done something similar purely using the OOB Sharepoint pages.

Assuming users are connecting to your Sharepoint site and are authenticating through Active Directory, you could take your folder/file idea, and change it to a webpage/file idea. Use Sharepoint pages to house the links to the files themselves, and create subpages within to categorize the files further as you need. Let Sharepoint handle the user/role permission checks on page load of the Sharepoint pages, and simply setup the role(s) and permissions on each page however you need.
 
You can set up nested folder structures containing documents, but it's a pain in the ass. Sharepoint works much better if you think of it as Sites and pages, give each customer access to a site, and put their stuff in pages with links to actual docs stored in libraries.

Tbh, I hate sharepoint for pure document stuff, you may even be better off with an ftp setup or some shiz.
 
MartinX said:
Tbh, I hate sharepoint for pure document stuff, you may even be better off with an ftp setup or some shiz.
Click to expand...

I agree with some of the sentiments there. The SP option does have some benefits, though: simpler interface for non-savvy users, built-in document versioning, etc.
 
Well the problem with the pages/links thing is that's really too much trouble for USERS to update. I have no problem showing them how to do it but I just want something these folks can save docs to a folder (Let's say- a new invoice or something) and the customer just can access everything in that folder as stuff gets added.
 
Techie I am with you on this, I want people in the office to save Documents to Folder X, then those remote people can look on Sharepoint site at home and see those documents. Dont want em to have to upload own stuff if they dont need to
 
Any comments on something like THIS?
http://www.hezser.de/blog/archive/2008/03/30/access-fileserver-data-via-sharepoint.aspx
I always hesitate as I'm no programmer and I have no idea what third party code might be doing. But this seems like EXACTLY what I want.

There's just some stupidly simple stuff I just have no idea why Microsoft doesn't implement (like some sort of built-in LogMeIn type app you can deploy and manage centrally yourself, instead of RWW), and then obviously THIS exact situation.
 
Lots of companies are switching to Sharepoint for document storage. You can get very granular with permissions at both the folder and individual file level. If you need something beyond the basic read, read/write, and owner type permission then you will need to create custom permission levels but that is pretty easy.

Your best bet would probably be to setup a separate site collection for each customer. The reason I push for a site collection is that it is more of a hard security boundary then just a regular subsite. A site admin could accidentally switch a subsite to inherit permissions from the parent site. You don't have to worry about that with a site collection. Also should a particular customer's site become very large (say 15-20 gigs), the current best practice is to separate that site out into it's own content database. You cannot split subsites of a site collection into multiple content databases, so this is much easier to do if you start out with a site collection to begin with.

The same recommendation goes for your internal departments. Create a site collection for finance, HR, etc.
 
That'd sure make permissions easier... I like that idea.

But the question is again though, how does one generate a type of folder-level structure within Sharepoint?
 
TechieSooner said:
That'd sure make permissions easier... I like that idea.

But the question is again though, how does one generate a type of folder-level structure within Sharepoint?
Click to expand...

Create a document library. In said document library create folders. Or create multiple document libraries. Several ways to design it. To save time you can create them in Explorer view.
 
Alright guys... More input.

I've created myself as suggested... I created a site collection for one customer.
Now what? Do I create a document library inside of each site collection?
 
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