Uploading Multiple Files to SharePoint in Mac OS X

We recently had a Fpweb.net hosting customer inquire about uploading multiple files to SharePoint 2007 using a Mac (with drag and drop functionality). We all know that you can map a network drive to your SharePoint document library in Windows Explorer. It utilizes the WebDAV protocol to retrieve SharePoint data and to upload files into SharePoint.

The problem:
The default web interface for shared documents on macs doesn’t give me the option of multiple uploads or explorer view.

We tested a couple different options on Mac OS X. Here are our findings:

Creating a network WebDAV share to the document library (Command + K)

• We could connect and see the contents
• Once we tried a drag and drop upload, the files appeared in SharePoint but were 0K in size.

We also found a utility application called Mucommander

• Download Mucommander
• Install and connect to the SharePoint site
• The interface looks like that of an FTP program on Windows
• We were successfully able to drag and drop multiple PDFs over to the library and then view them from within Microsoft SharePoint
• This worked with PDF files which had spaces in the file names as well as document libraries with spaces in their names

Instructions for creating the connection

• Install mucommander
• Hit Command + K to bring up the connect to server dialog
• Type in the URL to your SharePoint document library
• Click Connect

• Enter in your credentials to your Windows authenticated SharePoint site on the next Dialog
• Click OK

• Now, open mucommander
• You should see “Shared Documents” as a folder option as seen in the following screen shot

• Now, just drag and drop files into the left window to upload them to SharePoint!

Being that Mucommander was the first and only tested application for integration between Mac OS X and SharePoint; we recommend this application as a replacement to the Microsoft Windows Explorer WebDAV option if you are using a Mac. In both Windows and Mac scenarios, you’ll need to update the document metadata from within SharePoint after the uploads are complete.

That’s it! Happy SharePointing!