MS Sharepoint problem - any suggestions ?

[vanHunks]

In the process of updating Sharepoint, the geniuses in our IT department chose the follow the MS standard (so I'm told) and change the name of the folder containing the "team sites" from 'TeamSites' to 'Sites', thereby invalidating all the existing URLS, wherever they may be, that point to documents in the lower level folders. They have no ideas (and no intention !) about providing relief to the users who are obliged to store documents in this dumb facility. Their sole recommendation (!) is that each user updates personally all his/her documents. It's not practical now to rename the folder and I gather there's some hassle with maintaining the site if one departs from the MS convention - after all these years they still don't understand how real people do things !

Is there some way of redirecting requests that use the name of the old folder to open files so that they point to the new folder on the Sharepoint server - in other words, replacing on the fly the string 'TeamSites' in the URL with the string 'Sites' ?

 

[qdada]

I dont know if it would work on sharepoint but surely if you drop into command prompt and MKLINK /J TeamSites Sites ?

 

[vanHunks]

Thanks for the suggestion. I've never used MKLINK but the help instructions suggest it's a file-system command relevant to i/o operations to a local (or server ?) drive but I will certainly try it with a URL. It's probably not practical for us because every user would need to run it. The solution I'm after would ideally be applied at a central point, presumably the SharePoint server itself. I have no technical knowledge of setting up or operating (in this case) a Windows server, thus my query.

 

[scudsucker]

You can set up rules in IIS to redirect all requests to */TeamSites/* to */Sites/*

In fact if your IT dept didn't suggest this immediately it is time to get a new IT Dept.

 

[Necuno]

Just rename it back?

or go with #4

 

[vanHunks]

@scudsucker - Thanks, I was hoping there would be something simple like this. There is a slight complication in as far as the 'TeamSites' folder is still active for one or two "team sites" but I reckon this can be handled by the rule set. As to your suggestion about the IT department, I believe the problem is not so much the lack of technical ability but more the blind complacency of the people who made the decision in the first place. I think there's a terrible tendency amongst IT professionals to assume their priorities are shared faithfully by their (internal, in our case) customers. As an ex-IT person myself who has latterly had a fair amount of contact with the "field" I've come to realize how far from reality is this attitude. One rarely comes across users for whom IT is anything more than a mild irritation.

@Necuno : Thanks for the suggestion - it's not practical to rename the folder. As I said I gather this is an MS convention from which IT won't deviate. The "new" folder has moreover been in place for a while so it's a toss-up which change would cause more hassle.