User’s Guide — LinkFixer Advanced

Chapter 14 — SharePoint

Requirements — Microsoft SharePoint

Supported SharePoint versions:

  • SharePoint Online
  • SharePoint On-Premises 2019
  • SharePoint On-Premises 2016
  • SharePoint On-Premises 2013
  • SharePoint On-Premises 2010

Required SharePoint Permissions

Every SharePoint user defined in LinkFixer Advanced’s Network Locations dialog box needs to be a Site Owner and also needs to be assigned the Site Collection Admin role.

Required SharePoint Modules

Web Services must be enabled and web services access to SharePoint must not be blocked or disabled by any firewall, proxy or security software or settings. Please confirm this point with your network administrator or SharePoint administrator.

Introduction to SharePoint

There are two LinkFixer Advanced processes for moving files into SharePoint while preserving the integrity of the links contained in those files:

  • Move/Rename or
  • Inoculate, then moving the files by various other means, followed by Cure

One option is to use the LinkFixer Advanced Move/Rename process to move the files into SharePoint. This will automatically preserve the links during the migration. In many cases this is the simplest and fastest way to move files into SharePoint. Moving the files and fixing the links in the files is accomplished in a single step.

If you wish to use LinkFixer Advanced to move the files into SharePoint, use the procedures described in the following section and in the “Move/Rename” sections of this user’s guide.

There are other utilities for moving files into SharePoint, but they will not protect and preserve your links. If you wish to use some other utility to move and rename files and folders, your second option is to use the LinkFixer Advanced Inoculate process before the migration and the Cure process after the migration. Using this method, links will be temporarily broken during the migration, but will be repaired by the Cure process. The steps of the Inoculate and Cure method are outlined in one of the following sections of this Appendix.

Adding a New SharePoint Site to LinkFixer Advanced

To add a SharePoint site to LinkFixer Advanced, go to {} | Network Locations | {Add…} | SharePoint…:

linkfixer advanced requirements

This will open the box below where you can now add the desired SharePoint URL.

linkfixer advanced requirements

Once you enter the URL, you will be prompted to add your SharePoint Credentials which as mentioned earlier are not your windows credentials. If the credentials you are adding fail to work properly, contact your Network or SharePoint Administrator.

The next step is to test the credentials that you are using to be sure they authenticate successfully.

This step completes by hitting {OK} and then pressing {OK} one last time in the right corner of the box. The new site will appear in the Network Locations Screen, each site will show under the “Type” column as SharePoint. Verify each time you add a site that the new site’s server has the correct server version showing in the “Server” column.

Continue this process until you have added all of your sites successfully. In some occasions, you may need to close the program and open it again to show changes that have been made in this Tab.

Once you have successfully added each of your sites, you may begin processing by browsing to the SharePoint section and “Select Folders” as below:

linkfixer advanced requirements

Note: If the SharePoint site does not show up in the “Network Locations” screen, click {Refresh All}.

Additional Note: When using Federated authentication, you must specify your SharePoint Online user name in the SharePoint configuration box as LinkFixer Advanced uses the user name to retrieve SharePoint Online account data from the Microsoft Online login server. This also requires that the computer running LinkFixer Advanced be able to connect to the URL https://login.microsoftonline.com.

If the account being used has MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) enabled, you will need to use an APP Password instead of your usual password.

Microsoft Office 365 Documentation:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/create-an-app-password-for-office-365-3e7c860f-bda4-4441-a618-b53953ee1183

Moving Files into SharePoint Using LinkFixer Advanced

Scanning Files

From the “Home” screen, select {Scan}, and step through the process of scanning all the files you intend to move to the SharePoint site.

Move/Rename Files

From the “Home” screen, select “{Move/Rename}”.

Preview Files

Review the displayed files for correctness and completeness.

Move and Rename Rules

Create as many rules as necessary to specify the files you want to move into SharePoint, using the “Define Rename Rule” screen as shown below.

Preview Files to be Moved/Renamed

Review the listed files to be sure they are complete and correct.

Perform Move/Rename

Click the {Run} button to perform the Move/Rename function.

Then review the Move/Rename Summary report for details of the process.

Using Inoculate and Cure when Migrating Files into SharePoint

If you choose to use a different software tool to perform your migration, then you will need to Inoculate the files first. Once you have successfully inoculated your files, you may use any techniques and/or software utilities you wish to move the inoculated files into the new directory structure in SharePoint. Then use the procedures described in the “The Cure“ sections of this User’s guide to restore (cure) the links in the files you moved into SharePoint.

Important Note: If “Require Check Out” is enabled for any of the SharePoint libraries into which migrated files are placed, those files will be received by SharePoint in a “checked-out” state. LinkFixer Advanced will not be able to cure the links in these files until after the files are “checked in” to SharePoint. Please ensure that you either disable “Require Check Out” in all target SharePoint libraries, prior to moving files into those libraries, or that you manually “check in” the migrated files yourself from within SharePoint.

To summarize, the migration to SharePoint using LinkFixer Advanced’s Inoculate and

Cure processes consists of these four steps:

Add the SharePoint as explained and illustrated in the previous section.

Prepare the files for the migration using the LinkFixer Advanced Inoculate process.

Move the files into SharePoint by any means you choose.

Re-link the files using the LinkFixer Advanced Cure process.

Using SharePoint Document IDs

SharePoint has an optional feature that allows documents within SharePoint to be accessed using a document ID address, in addition to the usual URL (https://) address. When this feature is enabled, SharePoint automatically translates any references to the document ID address to the actual URL of the file. It is therefore possible for links in documents in SharePoint to contain link paths that address the child file by its document ID instead of its actual URL.

LinkFixer Advanced has the optional ability to automatically translate and store link paths by document ID instead of by URL address. You can access and control this feature from the “Options | Web Access” screen, as shown below.

linkfixer advanced requirements

Choose “Use Document IDs in links” only if you are certain that Document ID Service is enabled on your SharePoint site, and only if you are certain that you want to store all links using their document ID instead of the full URL address of the child file.

ASPX files and “Lists” in SharePoint

 

ASPX files are web pages that are generated by a server — in this case, SharePoint. They contain VBScript or C# code. ASPX files are written with Microsoft Visual Web Developer and are designed to run under the Microsoft.NET framework. Scripts within the page are processed on the web server, and the resulting HTML is sent to your browser.

 

With the exception of ASPX files stored in Libraries by users, ASPX files in SharePoint are usually system files. Any links that appear to be “contained” in these files are dynamically generated by the server at “run-time” when the file is called by your browser. The data that the ASPX file uses to generate and present these links is stored in the SharePoint database, not in the ASPX files themselves. For this reason, LinkFixer Advanced will not detect links in ASPX files in SharePoint (because no actual, static links exist there).

By default, LinkFixer Advanced skips all ASPX files in SharePoint, and all files located in the “forms”, “_catalogs”, “_cts” and “_private” system directories. You can over-ride these defaults by changing the “SharePointExcludeFolders” and

“SharePointExcludeExtensions” settings in the “LinkFixer User Settings” file in the “\LinkFixer Advanced\Settings\” directory on your desktop.

In most cases, our users have found that it is not a good idea to modify system files in SharePoint. We recommend that you maintain the default settings that skip SharePoint system files.

Similarly, data contained in SharePoint Lists is stored in the SharePoint database, and is currently not processed by LinkFixer Advanced.

Links contained in documents attached to SharePoint Lists are recognized and processed normally by LinkFixer Advanced.

Document Properties within SharePoint

Check Out and Check In

LinkFixer Advanced automatically “checks out” files when necessary for processing the files and “checks in” the files when processing is complete. When LinkFixer Advanced encounters a file that is already checked out, it skips the file and reports it as inaccessible (“Unable to check out file.”). LinkFixer Advanced detects and cooperates with the “Require Check Out” setting, for files that reside in SharePoint libraries where this setting is enabled.

LinkFixer Advanced adds to the metadata of the file the following check-in comment: “Modified by LinkFixer Advanced.” This comment is intended to make it easy to identify in the future the revision or revisions at which LinkFixer Advanced modified links.

Important Note: If “Require Check Out” is enabled for any of the SharePoint libraries into which migrated files are placed, those files will be received by SharePoint in a “checked-out” state. LinkFixer Advanced will not be able to cure the links in these files until after the files are “checked in” to SharePoint. Please ensure that you either disable “Require Check Out” in all target SharePoint libraries, prior to moving files into those libraries, or that you manually “check in” the migrated files yourself from within SharePoint.

Require Checkout

LinkFixer Advanced can successfully Move/Rename files into or within SharePoint when the “Require documents to be checked out before they can be edited” setting is either enabled or disabled.

If you are using LinkFixer Advanced’s Inoculate and Cure functions to fix links in SharePoint, you will need to disable this setting before moving Inoculated files into SharePoint. Otherwise, files moved to SharePoint using, Windows Explorer, RoboCopy, or most other methods of moving files to SharePoint, will arrive in SharePoint “checked out”. This will prevent LinkFixer Advanced from being able to Cure the files in SharePoint until those files have been “checked in”.

Repairing and Maintaining Links within SharePoint

The following sections apply to files that are already inside SharePoint (migration completed).

Repairing Broken Links

Office 2007, 2010,2013, and 2016 coordinate with SharePoint to maintain links between Office file types in most situations. But even Office 2007, 2010,2013 and 2016 files that are inside SharePoint can have their links broken in certain circumstances. Links in files from earlier versions of Office (97, 2000 and 2003) will break if child files are moved or renamed. Links between Office 2007, 2010,2013, and 2016 parent files and child files of other (non-Office) file types will break if the child file is moved or renamed. And, links between other (non-office) parent files and other (non-office) child files will break if the child file is moved or renamed.

LinkFixer Advanced can therefore be extremely useful and valuable for systems administrators whose data has already been moved to SharePoint.

On-going Link Maintenance

The best solution for broken links is to keep all files within SharePoint inoculated using LinkFixer Advanced. When broken links do occur, they can then be easily repaired using the LinkFixer Advanced Cure process.

Office 365 Authentication Procedure

To provide support for modern authentication options with SharePoint Online, the Office 365 authentication option was added for SharePoint Online network locations. It can be selected by clicking the dropdown arrow in the authentication section:

linkfixer advanced requirements

{Admin Consent}

Selecting “Office 365 with document IDs” authentication requires your SharePoint Online global administrator to provide consent to allow LinkFixer Advanced to access your SharePoint Online data. To do this, they must click the {Admin Consent} button and sign in to Office 365.

After successfully signing in, the following box will be displayed which identifies the permissions required by this authentication option:

linkfixer advanced requirements

Permissions

LinkFixer Advanced requires the following SharePoint Online permissions when using “Office 365 with document IDs” authentication:

  • Have full control of all site collections

This permission allows LinkFixer Advanced to access all site collection data in SharePoint Online.

  • Sign in and read user profile

This permission allows users to sign-in using their Office 365 credentials and allows LinkFixer Advanced to read their profile data and basic company information.

If you attempt to provide admin consent and are not a SharePoint Online global administrator, you will not be able to continue as this will prevent you from signing in any users.

Once your global administrator has clicked the {Accept} button, you will be returned to the “Configure SharePoint” box.

Sign In

Click the {Sign in} button to sign in to Office 365. Upon successfully signing in, an access token will be created which LinkFixer Advanced will use to access your SharePoint Online data. The sign in process takes place securely with Microsoft servers and your password is never revealed or used by LinkFixer Advanced.

Once you have successfully signed in, you will be returned to the “Configure SharePoint” box where your user name and tenant ID is displayed.

Technical Note: An access token allows LinkFixer Advanced to access your SharePoint Online data without needing to know your Office 365 login credentials. The access token is stored in an encrypted file in your LinkFixer Advanced’s ProgramData folder (e.g. “C:\ProgramData\LinkTek\LinkFixer Advanced\”).

Sign Out

Click the {Sign out} button to sign out from Office 365. This will delete the access token and prevent LinkFixer Advanced from accessing your SharePoint Online data.

Normally, you would leave LinkFixer Advanced signed in to Office 365. Each time you start LinkFixer Advanced, the access token is checked to ensure it is still valid. If it has expired, you will need to sign in to Office 365.