Document naming automation

Applies to JungleDocs for SharePoint 2010-2019.
For a similar tutorial for JungleDocs for Office 365, click here.

With JungleDocs, you can automate the naming of newly created documents to follow your company's file naming conventions, make your database more searchable and, of course, to save time. Once you have set up a document template, you can automate the document naming process.

To configure document naming automation

1. Go to the library where you want your new documents to be stored, and open JungleDocs from the ribbon.

3. On the New tab, click on the drop-down menu arrow next to the rule, and select Edit Base rule.

4. Under New file name, select Specify new file name. Read about document naming best practices in this blog post.

5. To use default file naming conventions, click on one of the three examples on the left, and the code will be entered in the file name field automatically. You may then modify this code to fit your preferences.

Here are some examples of the formulas you can use to automate file names:

• Standard Proposal Result: Standard Proposal .
• This is a copy of {BaseName} Result: This is a copy of Test Document .
• {GetNextNumberedValue("BaseName"; "INTE-" & FormatDate(Now(); "yy") & "-"; "PadLeft($NextNumber; 3; \"0\")"; "")} Result: INTE-11-001 .
• {GetNextNumberedValue("BaseName"; "INV-"; "PadLeft($NextNumber; 4; \"0\")"; "")} Result: INV-0001 .
• {GetNextNumberedValue("BaseName"; "P" & FormatDate(Now(); "yyyyMMdd") & "-"; "PadLeft($NextNumber; 2; \"0\")"; "")} Result: P20120601-01 .

Find more examples and document naming best practices in our blog post.

6. Click OK. From now on, when you use this rule, the file name will be generated automatically.

Example: creating a business letter

In some cases, it is more convenient to create a new document not in the library, but from a selected SharePoint list item. A good example is creating a business letter for a selected company on the Companies list. To be able to do this, you need to create a new From Existing rule on this list.

1. Navigate to the list, select a company and launch JungleDocs from the ribbon.

2. In the New tab, click New rule.

3. Under Save location, click Browse and specify the library to save newly created documents. Under Base rule, select the Base rule to be used for a new document. Note that this rule has to be created in the target library (not the source library). Read more about creating rules here.

4. Under Rule display name, enter the rule name.

5. Set column values. The target column is the column in the target library where the document will be created. In the example, we've configured the business letter title using a combination of static text and the Company Name column value of the selected item.

• "Business letter for" - static text
• & - AND operator to combine values
• Company Name - column name in Companies list

6. Save the rule. 

7. Select a company in the SharePoint list, open JungleDocs and run the rule to generate a new document. Note how the document metadata is automatically filled according to your rule settings.

8. Click Save and your new document will be generated in the target library.