Choose Which Sites Forage Reads

Purpose: decide which SharePoint sites Forage reads, and in what order.

1. Open Records, then Sites. Every site on Squirrel's list is shown, read or not, with its file count, size, whether Forage reads it, its rank, and how far reading has got: not started, reading, done, excluded or not decided.
2. Find the sites you want. Type part of a site's address, name or ID in the search box, and narrow by Files and Size using their minimum and maximum boxes. Clear size and files resets those. Sort by the column headings.
3. To change one site, press Edit on its row. You can include or exclude it there, and set its rank.
4. To change many at once, tick the sites you want, or press Select all matching sites to take every site the filters show, then press Include to have Forage read them or Exclude to leave them out.
5. To choose the order, tick the sites, press Set rank..., type a rank and save. Rank 1 is read first, 2 second, and so on; leave it blank to remove a site's rank, and it is read after every ranked site. Each rank belongs to one site, so giving a site rank 2 moves the site that held 2, and every site after it, down one, and removing a rank or excluding the site closes the gap. Ranking several sites at once gives them consecutive ranks in the order the table shows them. It takes effect straight away: if Forage is part way through a large site when you rank another ahead of it, it pauses the large site, reads the one you ranked, then carries on with the large site exactly where it left off. A ranked site is read even while Forage is holding back new work to let its queue go down, and its files go to the front of the reading queue about a minute after your last change, so a series of changes is applied together.
6. To act on many sites by address, press Manage sites in bulk, type a pattern such as */sites/finance* (use * for any text) and press Include matching sites or Exclude matching sites. Forage says how many sites match with the current filters and asks you to confirm. To work from a list of addresses, press Upload a URL list.
7. Press Manage sites in bulk and, under Site settings, choose what happens to sites nobody has decided about. With New sites off, a new site waits as "not decided" until someone includes it; with it on, Forage reads new sites by default.
8. Also under Site settings, under When you exclude a site Forage has already read, choose what happens to what was read. Keep searchable leaves it in Search. Remove from Search takes the site's files out of Search and deletes Forage's records of them; it needs a reason, and including the site again reads it from the start.

Good to know: a new deployment reads nothing until sites are included. Forage follows each change from its next pass over the sites, and acts straight away on a rank change or on a site included while it is reading. Every change is recorded with who made it and when. Excluding a site never touches the site itself.

See what each page shows for the rest of the Records section, and limitations for what Forage does not do.

Questions go to sales@smikar.com.