Extending Microsoft 365 with custom retention controls - Part 2

some time ago, Joanne C Klein published a post on side effects of only using auto-applying retention labels. Based on that, I made a little Microsoft 365 extension that I blogged about here. This is a release notification that I followed up with some additional features.

Based on the last post I got some feedback. One very interesting feature that people would like to see in this extension is some security controls extending the basic security trimming of SharePoint. For example, wouldn’t it be better if an organisation could decide what team would be able to clear auto-applied labels? That would be awesome! Well, I haven’t gotten around to that quite yet, as I’m still thinking about the best way to go about that.

Selected items list view

The first thing that I did add is a list view, making it easier to have one overview of retention information for a list of selected items. Combined with viewing retention specific information, like the retention label, retention settings, event date or the label behavior, it’s also possible to lock / unlock specific records, or clear labels, all from one handy overview:

Library view

But aside from selecting multiple items, you can now also not select any items al all and just open the retention controls dailog. It will now load a recursive overview of all files and folders in that library:

As you can see in the screenshot, the list contains subfolders (and files) that have a retention label applied. Using the paging buttons you can quickly navigate through some of the items. Even if that’s not the main function. This extension wasn’t meant to replace the default listview of a library, which can also be used to view (at least some) of the retention settings. The idea is to show all the retention information together, eliminating everything else. A view specificically interesting for records managers and information managers.

Bulk actions

I’ve also added a couple of bulk actions that you can take on the list of selected items, or even the entire library. You can select the action you want to take from the dropdown:

So if your users have left records unlocked throughout a library. You can now relock those in one simple click.

Of course, the bigger the library, the longer such an operation will take. And you may come to the point where you’ll need some scripting after all, which can be better than these kinds of UI tools.

Conclusion

I hope to be adding more features. Do let me know what you think about this tool. Is it helpful? Or completely off the mark? Do let me know in the comments section below, or contact me through LinkedIn.

You can download the latest release over here!

Happy retention!

Sources

• Joanne C Klein - The Purview Retention Design Choice to ONLY Auto-apply Retention Labels
• Blimped - Extending Microsoft 365 with custom retention controls - Part 1
• Blimped Retention Controls repository
• Blimped Retention Controls downloads
• Microsoft Docs - SharePoint REST operations via the Microsoft Graph REST API
• Microsoft Docs - Microsoft Graph getRetentionLabel endpoint
• Microsoft Docs - Microsoft Graph Lock or unlock endpoint