Link Related Folders in SharePoint with harmon.ie

This harmon.ie feature allows you to define a relationship between folders that reside in the same document library, even if they aren’t nested.

After connecting one or more folders to a parent folder, you can right-click the parent folder and launch a “Show related items” command that opens a view with all the folders you defined as related.

To implement related folders in a certain document library:

1. Create a new folder content type that will be assigned to the parent folders. Add a Single Line of Text column to store the object ID.
2. Create a new folder content type that will be assigned to the linked folders. Add a Single Line of Text column to store the parent object ID.
3. Add the ShowRelatedItems registry key and set its default value to True.
4. Define the following String Values:
   • ParentObjectIDKey: Set value to the internal name of the column you added to the parent folder content type, for example “ParentID”.
   • ObjectIDKey: Set value to the internal name of the column you added to the linked folder content type, for example “ObjectID”.
   • RelatedActionName: Set value if you wish to replace the name of the action that shows the linked folders (default: “Show related items”).
   • RelatedViewName: Set value to if you wish to replace the name of the added view that shows the linked folders (default: “Related Items”).
5. Provision the registry key to all users. [Download registry key sample.]
6. Create the parent folder using the new parent folder content type created in step 1.
7. Edit the properties of the parent folder, and give the parent folder an object ID.
8. Create the related folders using the new related-folder content type created in step 2.
9. Edit the properties of all related folders, and set the parent object ID in the Parent ID column.
10. Restart Outlook when done.

To navigate between related folders:

1. Right-click the parent folder and select Show related items.
   
2. This opens a new view, called “Related Items”, displaying all the folders with ParentID column set to the value in the ObjectID column of the parent folder.