How to export all files from a Sharepoint site?
We have a SharePoint site with several subsites and our customer wants that every month we export all the files (PDF, DOC, XLS ...) and put this on a CD-ROM for them. What is the best approach to do this? Are there any good tools for this?
March 3rd, 2008 5:19am

How about using the stsadm cmdline tool like this: stsadm.exe -o backup -url http://server/site -filename backup.dat You can schedule it with "Scheduled Tasks".
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March 3rd, 2008 8:27am

This customer is really only interested in the standalone files. They want a simple directory with all the .PDF, .DOC, .XLS files ... In the command line you suggested we are going to create a backup.dat file. But this would be unusable by our customer.
March 3rd, 2008 8:31am

Maybe you can use WebServices in your own program? Good links for information about Sharepoint and Webservices: http://www.developer.com/tech/article.php/3104621 and http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa159897(office.11).aspx I think you should use the DWS.asmx
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March 3rd, 2008 10:15am

Okay here is the deal. We are for Customer A working on Project X on a remote location thus not at the location of Customer A. We use Team Foundation Server and a SharePoint portal. In this SharePoint portal we upload all our architecture documents and other information. The Customer A wants to get a CD every months of all updated versions of all our documents. Due to technical reasons it is not possible to give Customer A remote access to our Sharepoint portal. I just can't imagine that it is not possible to extract all the documents from the sharepoint portal to the file system and then burn a CD from these files.
March 3rd, 2008 10:37am

There's lots of ways to do this - one approach is to use the custom stsadm extension exportlistitem2 found here: http://stsadm.blogspot.com/2007/08/stsadm-commands_09.html This custom command will dump all the files from a list out to your file system and will mirror the folder structure - it will also create a manifest file containing all properties associated with the documents.
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March 3rd, 2008 5:33pm

While I always like Gary Lapointe's custom extensions, and there are many different ways to accomplish what you are trying to do, I think I would try to synchronize the document library folders witha local folder using Microsoft SyncToy. You could set it up to run as a scheduled task every x days, and then when you are ready to burn the files to CD you havea recent set of them to work with.Theonly limitation that I could think of would begetting files that are saved as attachments to lists, butI think you can find those in the folder structure as well. Download and install SyncToy: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/prophoto/synctoy.mspx Then create a mapped drive to the UNC path of the sharepoint site's document libraries, and save a local copy of the files. Hope this helps. SharePointDave2007
March 4th, 2008 5:49pm

Relating to Synctoy Is there a way for me to find out the UNC path of my document libraries - do I need to contact my network administrator for this? Craig
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March 5th, 2008 7:29am

Hi,You can develope a simple app which will use SharePoint's built in Webservie Lists.asmx. You can use a method of this web service to download all attachments.ThanksSohel Rana
March 12th, 2008 5:25am

Your can try mapping a network drive from your local machine to the URL of your document library, just leave off the /Forms/AllItems.aspx part of the URL.
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May 1st, 2008 5:03pm

Create a WEBDAV view of the SharePoint site-- to do this go to Network Places (on your Windows computer) and "Add a new Network Place" to the http URL. As long as you do this with admin credentials that can see everything, you should be able to copy all the files relatively easily this way as you'll just be accessing the files through Windows Explorer as if it was a network share.
May 2nd, 2008 12:45am

Check out "Exporting documents from SharePoint using RoboCopy / RichCopy utility" article to do just what you need: http://www.paulgrimley.com/2010/03/exporting-documents-from-sharepoint.html And of course you can always user this Codeplex utility: http://spiefolder.codeplex.com
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February 28th, 2011 1:48am

Hi I prefere a simple way using Sharepoint Workspace. it supports CTRL+C, CTRL+V
February 10th, 2012 4:21am

Hi I came across this thread while trying to figure out how to extract multiple files from a SharePoint library all at once. When selecting more than one file, the download a copy button became unavailable on the SharePoint Website, as well as the extract option from the SharePoint Designer. None of the answers here worked for me (or were simple enough), but I finally came in contact with a SharePoint expert who showed me a simple button to get this done. In the SharePoint website, go to the library which stores the files you wish to extract. Click the Library option at the top of the page. Among the many confusing buttons is one that says "Open with Explorer." Click this to open the library in Windows [File] Explorer. From here you can select multiple files and drag&drop or copy&paste into a folder on your local machine! Hope this helps someone!
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March 21st, 2012 6:31pm

bgreatbri1...that method worked very well I must say
June 13th, 2012 2:47pm

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