Bruce:
This certainly sounds:
a.) pretty impressive; and
b.) more practical than alternative suggestions I've seen mooted, simply because most others always seem to take a very big effort which usually gets stamped on from on high as being too expensive/time-consuming etc. etc
Still sounds like a deal of work is involved, but looks like it could be built up in stages...
Might see if I can try it as a way of finding where the hell I've put all my files on my system....
Meanwhile, one suggestion I might make for finding things on various systems and indexing them...
There's a combination of free tools called "locate" and "updatedb" (developed originally under Unix environments, but available also in Windows -- look for "locate32" ) which can index whole disks including network-linked drives (updatedb) in compressed databases and which then permits fast searching and listing of files. It can handled different patterns (e.g. file types) as well as some regexes.
And you can give it a list of volumes etc to include in the search database, including network-mapped volumes.
The idea is you create a database using "updatedb" which locate then uses for searches. Ideally, you'd create an initial database and then schedule updatedb to do updates on a regular basis. The tools can be run from the command line, so batch processing and scheduling is no great hassle.
I don't know of a way of getting locate to generate its output as CSV files (which would be nice for Excel output) and suspect it only spits out cr/lf line endings in Windows so there's possibly a little extra manipulation needed there, but not a lot, considering. (It'd be a one-liner in Perl and probably pretty easy in awk and a few other tools.)
-Peter M
-Peter M
> Hi Ken,
>
> If you just want a resource 'map' and not the burden of
> developing and managing a central repository and then migrating all
> the docs there, I suggest you simply create an Excel spreadsheet
> that lists all documents in the various locations and then place
> the document in a central online environment (wiki, intranet page)
> that can be accessed by all. In the Excel workbook, you can
> import the filenames to a
> different worksheet per environment and then have a master sheet
> where all files in all worksheets are listed in alphabetical order.
> This can be done using VBA across all network folders, wiki
> pages and Web environments. I haven't tried it with SharePoint
> folders yet but there will be a process for extracting the
> filenames I'm sure. In the last one I did, I listed all documents
> in our
> network locations, wikis and Web environments, sorted by title,
> showed their location and hyperlinked from the filename to the
> document to allow them to be opened from the spreadsheet. I also
> created a 'master' page which grouped ALL filenames alphabetically.
> A side benefit was that it highlighted all the copies of all
> documents around the network. As for updating the document, I
> also set up a macro
> button that re-created the spreadsheet when the button was clicked
> on meaning it could be updated in a couple of minutes but this
> manual process could also be automated to update on a daily basis
> or whatever cycle you choose. This, I believe is your easiest way
> to have a 'resource map' as stated. Cheers, Bruce
>
> From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ken
> Fredric Sent: Monday, 20 September 2010 3:40 PM To:
> 'austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx' Subject: atw: Internal Resource Map
>
>
> Hope this request isn't too left-field for this list.
> If it is, and if there is a better place to ask this question,
> please let me know. I imagine we're no different from many
> companies
> (around 80 staff) in that we have thousands of commonly used
> documents & files stored in various locations such as network
> folders, intranet (SharePoint), the company website, customer
> portal that doubles as a resource for staff, etc. Because staff
> don't know where a particular
> resource is located, this leads to many requests along the lines of
> "where can I find the latest version of ABC.doc". And because I'm
> the techncal writer, it's assumed that I must be responsible for
> all documents, so all the requests come to me. We have staff
> based all around Australia, with head office here in Brisbane. I
> am in the initial stages of planning what I have
> called a 'Resource Map'. The purpose of this map will be to provide
> a single point where all staff members can come to search for
> resources such as documents and files that are stored somewhere in
> a location that is accessible to all staff. Haven't yet gotten to
> the point of deciding on the
> format, or decided whether it should be editable by all staff, e.g.
> a wiki. I'm wondering whether others on this list have faced
> this problem and come up with a workable solution. Also wondering
> if there is any software out there that could help with this.
> Thanks, Ken Fredric
>
>
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