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 priority, 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 priority.
4. To change many at once, tick the sites you want and press Bulk Site Management. In the window that opens, under Selected Sites, press Include to have Forage read them or Exclude to leave them out, or set a priority for all of them together.
5. Priority is a whole number from -1000 to 1000, and higher is read first. It takes effect straight away: if Forage is part way through a large site when you raise another above it, it pauses the large site, reads the one you raised, then carries on with the large site exactly where it left off. A site with a priority above 0 is read even while Forage is holding back new work to let its queue go down, and its documents go to the front of the reading queue. Sites with the same priority keep their order.
6. To act on sites by address, use By URL Pattern in the same window: type a pattern such as */sites/finance*, where * matches anything, and press Include pattern or Exclude pattern. Under Sites Matching the Filters, Include ALL Matching and Exclude ALL Matching act on every site your filters currently show. To work from a list of addresses, use Bulk Update by URL List and press Upload URL List.
7. Under Site Settings in that window, New sites decides what happens to a site nobody has decided about. Switched off, a new site waits as "not decided" until someone includes it. Switched on, new sites are read by default.
8. Excluding a site already read, in the same place, decides what happens when you exclude a site Forage has already read. Keep searchable leaves what was read in search. Remove from search takes the site's documents 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 priority 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.