copying including associated metadata

There is some good news on this issue.

Basically if you copy a document library item that is a certain content type and contains certain meta-data to another location, using ECB >> Send To >> Other Location, the entire content type will be copied providing that the destination document library has content types enabled as well as the "copied from" content type.

In my tests, if the content type management is not enabled in the docuement library, only the document gets copied and it truncates the metadata. The fact that no message is issued on loss of dat is a bug IMO.

To test this do the following steps:

• optionally create any needed site columns
  
• create a content type (using those columns)
  
• create the target document library
  
• enable content types (List Settings >> Advanced Settings >> Allow management of content types)
  
• include the source content type in the target doclib (List Settings >> Add from existing site content type)
  
• save a copy of the target document library URL
  
• go to the source document library
  
• navigate to the folder or view containing the item to copy
  
• use the Edit-Control-Block to perform the copy (ECB >> Send To >> Other Location)
  
• paste in the target document library URL (strip off Forms/AllItems.aspx)
  
• hit OK twice
  

This should do it. Note that there are several additional capabilities this should have, including:

• let the user pick the doclib from a screen
  
• let the user select folders
  
• let the user select several items to copy simulatneously
  
• the system should strip the URL for the user
  
• reduce the number of clicks!!
  

Other needed tests include:

• content type mis-match but meta-data match (using doclib list columns
  
• built-in content types and complete meta-data match
  

Anyway, at least it works for the center-of-the-street case.

Regards..

Roger Williams
Franklin Laboratory