What metadata gives you
Section titled “What metadata gives you”A file's name and folder say little about what it is. The columns around it say the rest, and carrying them across keeps that knowledge.
Find files by what they are about
Nextcloud indexes the MetaVox columns, so a search finds a file by its values — a customer, a case number, a document type — wherever it sits in the Team Folder.
Keep the library people know
The same columns, filled in, and the library's views recreated with their columns and sort order. People find their way the day after the migration without learning a new structure.
Classify instead of nesting folders
A column sorts and filters files across the whole Team Folder, so a library does not need deep folder trees to stay in order: one folder, many views.
Keep the evidence
[SP Created By], [SP Modified By], [SP Content-Type] and, if you choose, the retention and sensitivity labels are kept as columns: who made a file, when, and how it was classified stays readable years later.
Found by Nextcloud's search
Section titled “Found by Nextcloud's search”The MetaVox columns are indexed by Nextcloud, so its search reads them as well as file names and contents. Type a customer's name or a case number into the search at the top of Nextcloud and the files carrying that value are found, in every folder of the Team Folder. That is often the biggest gain of a migration with metadata: files were filed by column in SharePoint, and they can be found by column in Nextcloud.
Without MetaVox
Section titled “Without MetaVox”MetaVox is not required: files and folders migrate exactly as they should without it, only without their SharePoint columns and views. The metadata then stays behind in the source, and nothing in Nextcloud can search, sort or filter on it.
Install MetaVox before the migration runs
The columns are created and filled in while a job runs. Install MetaVox first, so the metadata comes with the files the first time — the Settings tab shows whether it is installed and enabled.
On MetaVox's roadmap
Section titled “On MetaVox's roadmap”MetaVox's makers plan to take the metadata further. These are plans, not features of today — MetaVox's own release notes say when they arrive.
Planned for MetaVox
- Metadata embedded in the files themselves, so it travels with a file when it is downloaded, copied or shared outside Nextcloud.
- Metadata in Euro-Office, so the values can be read and used from inside a document opened in Euro-Office.
Get started
Section titled “Get started”Install MetaVox
From Nextcloud's own Apps page. The Settings tab of the app shows whether it is installed and enabled, and links there.
Migrate into a Team Folder
MetaVox holds its columns on Team Folders, so the job's destination is a Team Folder, and its source a SharePoint library or a OneDrive.
Map all and create the missing columns
On the job's Metadata step, Map all and auto create missing columns carries every column across — the default.
Check it on one library
Run a Migration of one small library first and look at the columns, the views and a search for a value in Nextcloud.
Read more: Metadata, MetaVox and SharePoint views · Destinations · Settings