All about “Explorer view” in SharePoint

The Explorer View is an excellent feature that is integrated with  Windows SharePoint Services that allows a user to access a document library as if you were accessing a file system through a Windows Explorer window.

Being end users , everyone might feel that this is very easy to use. But there are multiple complex interactions happening with different technologies to make documents which are not present in file systems to viewable using explorer.

The main protocols that are capable of directly manipulating file data stored in SharePoint are

- WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning)

WebDAV is a simple extension to the HTTP protocol based on a public specification. It provides an extended vocabulary that defines how basic file functions, such as copy, move, delete, and create folder, are performed across HTTP.

- FPRPC (FrontPage Server Extensions Remote Procedure Call)

FPRPC provides WebDAV capabilities using extensions to the HTTP vocabulary, but it also has the ability to embed more complex Remote Procedure Call (RPC) communications in the data portion of the packet.

WebDAV

FPRPC

Microsoft WebDAV implementation is based on a public standard for authoring and versioning via HTTP FPRCP is a Microsoft technology that is primarily used for its value-added FrontPage capabilities
Cannot work with SSL sites Can work with SSL sites
Can map the site as a drive (mapped drive) Cannot map the site as a drive (mapped drive)
Works only with site which are running under port 80 Works with any sites

Now, lets check how a document library looks when connected with WebDAV and FPRPC

Using WebDAV:-

This is how the document library looks like when opened using WebDAV protocol and in the next picture , we can see the address as \\servername when opening the document library with windows explorer (doc library->actions->open with windows explorer)

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Using FPRPC:-

This is how the document library looks like when opened using FPRPC and in the next picture , we can see the address as https://servername when opening the document library with windows explorer (doc library->actions->open with windows explorer)

image 

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To force explorer view to use WebDAV follow the below settings

1. Make sure you  have enabled and started the “web client” service on the client machine  (services.msc->web client)

2. Host sites only on port 80 ; If multiple sites need to be on port 80 , make use of host header with appropriate DNS settings

3. Host sites without SSL

To force explorer view to use FPRPC follow the any of the below settings

1. Stop and disable the “web client” service on the client machine  (services.msc->web client)

2. Host sites on any TCP port other than 80

3. Host sites with SSL

Important points to be remembered when troubleshooting explorer view issues

1. The Ports 137,138,139 and 445 should be opened between the client and the SharePoint server. We can verify it using telnet<space><the SharePoint server name/IP><space> 137 and it should connect properly. the same can be done for ports 138,139 and 445

2. If we trying to access an intranet site using FQDN, its good that we add the site to the Trusted Sites zone on client computers as a dot (.) in the URL will make IE consider that its Internet and accepts the security configuration for internet zone.

3. Follow the KB article https://support.microsoft.com/kb/888123 if the error is similar

4. Apply if this is applicable https://support.microsoft.com/kb/892211

5. If you restart the web client service on the client operating system , its always better to restart the O/S as there are some known issues reported. (operating system prior to longhorn)

6. Apply this if suitable https://support.microsoft.com/kb/841215/

7. Avoid using Basic authentication . Basic authentication will work fine with WebDAV but has reported issues with FPRPC. If used , force web browser to use WebDAV

8.The account BUILTIN\NetworkService  must have read and write access to “Temporary Internet Files folder” to successfully complete a drag-and-drop operation.

9. Proxies configured in LAN also can cause issues in getting access to the explorer view https://support.microsoft.com/kb/832161/

10. Errors with lengthy URLS , follow this https://support.microsoft.com/kb/329919/