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All About SharePoint - S.S. Ahmed - MVP Microsoft SharePoint

All About SharePoint, as the name suggests, is all about SharePoint. It has articles, tutorials, source code, FAQs, and tips about SharePoint, InfoPath, C#, Microsoft Office, SQL Server, XML, etc.

SharePoint Document Puller v4.0

SharePoint Document Puller v4.0

Download SharePoint Document Puller v4.0

Introduction

SharePoint Document Puller is a tool to extract documents from the SharePoint's DB. It works with SharePoint Portal Server 2003 (and WSS 2.0).

I have made several changes in this version. There were requests for new features. I have tried to include everything that people requested. The only thing you will find missing is a progress bar or a status  bar that displays the download status.

History

Version 1.0
Version 2.0
Version 3.0

Details

You see a configuration screen when you run the application for the first time.

Use this screen to add your database connectivity details. Select server from Server dropdown. Click (Re)Load to populate the Server dropdown if it's empty. Add Username and Password and click Connect. This will populate the Database dropdown. There is a possibility that some one is using different databases for different instances (portals) of SharePoint. Select the database from the Database and click the Save button. This will save the configuration and next time, you start the application, you will be taken directly to the Download Documents screen. You can also add a connection string. Select the second radio button to enable the text box and add the connection string and click the Save button to save the configuration.

Shortcut keys

Key Functionality Screen
Ctrl+1 Download Documents  
Alt+O Download Documents  
Ctrl+2 Download Libraries  
Alt+E Download Libraries  
Ctrl+3 Configuration  
Alt+C Configuration  
Ctrl+4 About  
Alt+A About  
Alt+S Select All Items Download Documents
Alt+D Copy Directory Structure Download Documents
Alt+B Browse Download Documents
Alt+V View Documents Download Documents
Alt+P Pull Document(s) Download Documents
Alt+S Select All Items Download Libraries
Alt+D Copy Directory Structure Download Libraries
Alt+B Browse Download Libraries
Alt+V View Sites Download Libraries
Alt+P Pull Document(s) Download Libraries
Alt+L (Re)Load Configuration
Alt+C Connect Configuration
Alt+S Save Configuration

Download Documents

Click View Documents to populate list box with the documents. Select a destination and click Pull Document(s) to download all documents to your hard disk. Check Copy Directory Structure checkbox if you want to copy the directory structure of each file. Similarly, if you want to download complete libraries, select Download Libraries from the menu bar. List box will show you all the libraries that have documents. Select the libraries you want to download, select a destination and click Pull Document(s). Application searches almost all types of files including .doc, .xls, .mdb, .pdf, .gif, .jpg, etc.

Download SharePoint Document Puller v4.0

Published Friday, December 29, 2006 9:41 PM by ssa

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Comments

 

Krishna said:

Exactly what i was looking for! Thank you so much!

Krishna
December 29, 2006 8:52 AM
 

Neha said:

Excellent tool! Its so easy to use. Can I download PPT files with this tool?

TIA

Neha
December 29, 2006 8:53 AM
 

grayghost said:

Interesting.  So it's a GUI version of the export tool included in Keith Richie's SPUtiliSuite?
December 29, 2006 9:17 AM
 

William V. said:

I am setting up my company's departments in MOSS. This tool will come in handy for downloading and archiving documents uploaded by thousands of users across the company that is scattered in 5 countries. I just tested it with 2003. I like the directory structure feature. It helps when archiving documents as separate zip files. Excellent tool! Thank you.
December 29, 2006 9:47 AM
 

ajaxspider said:

I need a similar tool for MOSS
December 29, 2006 9:48 AM
 

ssa said:

Hi Grayghost,

I didn't know that Keith's utility suite had a similar tool included. Although i tested a couple of utilities from his suite months ago but didn't notice the tool you are talking about. I would like to check that out! :)

Thanks,

SSA
December 29, 2006 9:51 AM
 

Ramba said:

Hi
I just need a list of all files in the sharepoint. It would be nice if you include a feature to publish a list of files available in sharepoint.

Thanks

Ramba
December 29, 2006 9:53 AM
 

ssa said:

Hi Ramba,

I wrote an application years ago :) that did exactly what you are looking for. That application is still available somewhere on my blog. Just search my blog for keywords like explorer, sharepoint explorer. That application generates an excel sheet as an output.

Thanks,

SSA
December 29, 2006 9:56 AM
 

David Moore said:

Nice tool!
December 29, 2006 9:58 AM
 

David Moore said:

Nice tool!
December 29, 2006 9:58 AM
 

Geena said:

I dont know password to the sql server. how can i use the connection string?
December 29, 2006 10:12 AM
 

David Moore said:

Geena,

Try using the trusted connection in the connection string. See the second figure in the post. It contains the connection string! ;)
December 29, 2006 10:14 AM
 

Geena said:

Hey

Thanks for the help. :) you r genius!
December 29, 2006 10:16 AM
 

Joseph said:

can we archive these documents without downloading?
December 29, 2006 10:17 AM
 

grayghost said:

I want to say that the utility is named SPExportWeb which goes and basically dumps the site to the filesystem.  Comes in handy :)
December 31, 2006 12:45 AM
 

ssa said:

Thanks for the info grayghost!
December 31, 2006 1:41 AM
 

Remco Ploeg said:

Good job, great tool!
January 3, 2007 9:30 AM
 

decatec said:

Thanks .... this tool will be perfect for content migrations
January 7, 2007 8:33 AM
 

ssa said:

Thanks Remco!
January 9, 2007 5:48 AM
 

ssa said:

Thanks Decatec!
January 9, 2007 5:49 AM
 

Alberto said:

Fantastic! Thanks!! Is a great tool!
Now, i have a question... and if someone (I... for example) wants that the documents in a site are download and after delete from the site every 5 days... do you know a method for do it?
January 11, 2007 3:02 AM
 

ssa said:

Alberto,

Thanks for liking the tool. You are suggesting a new feature! :) Yes, of course, you can do it. With some extra programming this can be done! I will try to incorporate this feature but it will take time.

Regards,

SSA
January 12, 2007 12:40 AM
 

Alberto said:

Thankt to you.
If you want a help perhaps I can avail you.
I don't know the SharePoint architecture but I have knowledge of SQL Server and some language of programming (Java, VB, C, ASP) ...
In each case i attend your new solutions. :)

Regards,
Alberto
January 12, 2007 4:25 AM
 

ssa said:

Thank you very much Alberto! Thanks indeed for the help offer! My next goal is to create a similar tool for the latest SharePoint server (MOSS 2007).

Regards,

SSA
January 12, 2007 9:03 AM
Published Dec 29 2006, 07:14 PM by ssa
Filed under: , , , , ,

Comments

 

aks_bharathi said:

I need to pull all the documents from Sharepoint server 2007 (with MSDE installation).

Please help buddy?!

September 19, 2007 4:46 AM
 

ssa said:

I have yet to see a tool that downloads all the documents from the SharePoint 2007. I thought there would be lot of them available so discarded the idea of upgrading this tool (SP DocPuller) for MOSS 2007. May be I will upgrade it for use with MOSS in future.

Regards

SSA

September 19, 2007 9:39 PM
 

FxProgrm said:

Source would be handy as well... there are a couple of issues when working with large document libraries... like it takes 6+ hours to export 1400 documents thus far.

September 20, 2007 3:49 PM
 

dthomson said:

This tool looks first class, can you release this for MOSS 2007 as soon as possible as this would be a life saver as far as disaster recovery is concerned. I am in the middle of a Enterprise Rollout of MOSS 2007 and I am considering hourly database backups. This tool could get documents back in no time for me.

Well Done!!!!!!

October 31, 2007 10:48 AM
 

Fierlafijn said:

Great tool, but with a lot of bugs left. The list of checkboxes need a multiselect possibilty.

The paths and documents need to be "escaped". We have a lot of documents with a quote "'" in it and the tool stops with an error.

January 16, 2008 2:19 AM
 

ssa said:

Fierlafijn,

Thanks for your valuable feedback! I agree there are bugs in the application. I kept working on this tool until people stopped giving their feedback and lost interest in the tool because of the arrival of MOSS 2007. There was no point in spending time on a tool that was no more in demand. I had some great ideas for this tool. Script to download files from the MOSS content DB is also available on the net so I did not make an effort to create a similar tool for the MOSS and WSS 3.

Regards

SSA

January 18, 2008 9:26 PM
 

mjk said:

I get the eror "Invalid column name 'Full URL' everytime iI launch the utility or try to download docs.

I have resored a SQL.bak file from  backup and restored to a serve that is not running sharepoint. Is this why can't get it to work?

Thanks

January 20, 2008 10:31 AM
 

ssa said:

mjk,

Which version of SharePoint are you using? You need a SharePoint content DB for the application to work!

Regards

SSA

January 20, 2008 4:04 PM
 

Kim said:

The download link on this page doesnt work anymore. Is it available somewhere else? Many thanks.

February 20, 2008 12:57 PM
 

harry said:

Does the metadata stay in tact?  ie, will the last accessed/modified dates change when using this utility?

March 24, 2008 11:25 AM
 

ajay28patel said:

ssa,

your tool futures are excellent..  please share some link to download it..  given link is not working anymore..

Thanks

Ajay

April 17, 2008 4:45 AM

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About ssa

MOSS MVP - Over 8 years experience. 4 years SharePoint experience!
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Posts (c) their respective authors. Everything else (c) 2007 SharePoint Experts