How to create multiple folders using a JSON template

1. Introduction

In the 4.25 release of WorkPoint we introduced the "Create documents, folders and items" step to the WorkPoint Automate collection of steps.

As the name suggests this step allows users to create documents, items and folders in a couple of different ways. In this article we will focus on how to create a folder structure using a JSON template.

2. Requirements

You should be well versed in the WorkPoint Automate product, and know how to create both user and system processes.

You should be familiar with the JSON syntax and how to declare objects in lists using JSON.

CoPilot is quite good at writing JSON, so use it or another AI Agent to help you define your JSON objects if you are unsure of how to do it.

3. Configuration

In this scenario we want to provision a folder structure when a project site is created.

Start by creating a new system process.

Add a "When an entity site is created" trigger and configure it to suit your needs.
Add the "Create documents, folders and items" step.

Go to the options tab and configure the business module and list settings.

Define the business module you are targeting.
Specify the ID of the entity, in this case we can simply use Entity.ID.
Specify the list or library you want to create items in. In this case we want to create folders, so we select our document library.
What do we do if the folders we are trying to create are already there? It is not possible in this case, but we select "Overwrite" nonetheless.
Normally we would use the fields here to define the name and title of our folder, but not in this case.

Switch to the "General" tab.
Click on the advanced button for the "Step input".

Now we finally define our folder structure by creating an array of JSON objects.

Title: The title of the folder.

FileLeafRef: Write the path of the folder you are creating.

If it is a root level folder, just write the name of the folder again. But if your are creating a nested folder, then you need to write the path of the folder from the root of the library.

ContentTypeId: The ID of the content type you are creating. "0x0120" is the content type for folders.

The entire array is too large to see in the editor without scrolling, but I have included it below:

[
	{
		"Title": "2025",
		"FileLeafRef": "2025",
		"ContentTypeId": "0x0120"
	},
	{
		"Title": "2026",
		"FileLeafRef": "2026",
		"ContentTypeId": "0x0120"
	},
	{
		"Title": "Reports",
		"FileLeafRef": "2025/Reports",
		"ContentTypeId": "0x0120"
	},
	{
		"Title": "Financial",
		"FileLeafRef": "2025/Reports/Financial",
		"ContentTypeId": "0x0120"
	},
	{
		"Title": "Contracts",
		"FileLeafRef": "2025/Contracts",
		"ContentTypeId": "0x0120"
	}
]

4. Result

The result is that whenever a new project site is created, this process is triggered and the specified folder structure is created.

It is also possible to use metadata from the context, items, entities, etc.

In the example below the project id from the project entity is used in the name of the folder.

[
  {
    "Title": concat(Entity.wpProjectID, ' - 2025'),
    "FileLeafRef": concat(Entity.wpProjectID, ' - 2025'),
    "ContentTypeId": '0x0120'
  }
]

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Contents

1. Introduction

2. Requirements

3. Configuration

4. Result

Comments

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Requirements

3. Configuration

4. Result

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