Seeing Folder Structure without Sharing Folder

Hi Emily, thank you for your feedback. :) The thing is, Folders and Projects can belong to tens of other Folders and Projects (thousands, theoretically), and displaying all the different Folder paths from Folder structures not shared with users would make things pretty confusing. Perhaps a solution to this will be thought up eventually, but the only thing I can suggest currently is including the Folder paths into the Description field of the Folder/Project Info Panels. Let me know what you think, I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Hi Victor,

I'd like to explain how I feel this could work, based on some basic (but I'm guessing not immediately easy to program) logic.

1. Provide two different kinds of sharing for folders - Structure Sharing and Content Sharing (i.e. what Wrike already calls Sharing). For maximum flexibility, Structure Sharing should enable one to include or exclude Subfolders (but that ventures into Inherited Sharing territory)
2. When Structure Sharing is enabled on a folder by User A for User B, User B can see (depending on the level) the selected folder and folders within it, but not necessarily the Projects and Tasks within it
3. When Structure Sharing is enabled on a folder by User A for User B, User B can only see the Projects/Tasks within it if the Projects/Tasks themselves are shared with User B, or if a subfolder containing the Projects/Tasks has Content Sharing with User B
4. When Structure Sharing is enabled on a folder residing in an unshared parent folder, present that shared folder as top-level for all users lacking access to the parent folder (i.e. in Company Folders/Departments/IT, if User B has Structure Sharing access to "Departments" but not "Company Folders", present "Departments" as a Top-Level folder for User B, rather than "Company Folders")
5. When a Project/Task is shared with User B, it would present within all Folders whose Structures have been Shared with User B. If the Project/Task shared exclusively resides within folders not shared with User B, present it as top-level (as currently is the case when a Project/Task is shared with someone lacking original Folder access)

I hope this makes sense. I truly feel that if executed exactly this way, this would not cause any confusion. I can also tell you that you will overcome a major on-boarding hurdle with your platform: companies that want to give a strong foundation in Wrike by setting up best practice folder structures, while not giving consent to see everything within them. I'd be happy to chat more about this, whether on here or on a phone call, if your company sees value in it. 

Hi Ben, thanks for taking the time to expand on this topic, it adds so much value to the Product Team's internal conversations to see this level of detail. We'll make sure the relevant time is made aware of it 👍

Our team has been really struggling lately with no solution for this in place.

Thinking through this it'd be really great if you could provide permission to view folders separate from viewing the contents of the folders. Or an even simpler solution to this would be to show the full folder tree above the item that someone has permission to view. So if the folder tree is Department -> Team -> Client -> Project -> Task. So if you're added to a Project you already see all the Tasks inside of it but you'd also see the Client, Team, and Department folder the Project is in, but if you click those folders you can't view anything in them other than what you already have access to.

I commented on another thread but saw that there was more activity here so I've included my message again below:

We desperately need this as well. We have a fairly intricate folder structure:

-> Client Projects

- - > Account Manager 1

- - - > Client 1

- - - - > Client 1 Project 1

- - - - > Client 1 Project 2

- - - > Client 2

- - - - > Client 2 Project 1

- - - - > Client 2 Project 2

- - > Account Manager 2

- - - > Client 3

- - - - > Client 3 Project 1

- - - - > Client 3 Project 2

- - - > Client 4

- - - - > Client 4 Project 1

- - - - > Client 4 Project 2

And this is only for projects, doesn't include other things we use Wrike to keep track of. The big challenge is that most people are assigned access at the project level for projects they're working on and don't have permission to view the Client folder or folders further up the folder tree. So when most users login they see a bunch of random projects and folders scattered in an unmanageable, unorganized list. Those of us who have the top level access have no issues, but once you're access starts to go further down all organization is lost.

Is this something that's in the pipeline for development soon?

This is a huge struggle for us.  We have to align our folder structure a certain way to accommodate for budgeting and project alignment, so permissions get tricky.  When we start granting permissions, it destroys the users view.  Since they cannot have access to the base folder, their subfolders get thrown all over.  We really need a "view only" option to help keep the folder structures intact and organized for all users.

@Angi Hi, I completely understand your need for this feature. Our Product Team constantly review the feedback posted here when discussing developments internally. This particular feature is not currently on their short-term roadmap but we have made our Product Team aware of this thread. Thank you for sharing.

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

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I mirror these comments. We are planning on sharing tasks with contractors, but as they won't have access to the entire project, or other folders, their tasks are not easily identifiable by project/client. Even if the different projects could remain it would go a long way to help

We also DESPERATELY need this ability to allow shared users to see the tree structure.  Without it, they have no structure, context, or organization to their tasks.  When I go to their desks to assist, or reference a project during a consult, I can't help them without doing a "search".  Instead I should be able to conduct an organized, logical journey down a hierarchy tree ending at the task in question.

The other related feature we need to accompany this enhancement would be some sort of "Lock Folders & Priority" checkbox when sharing the Structure.  Users sometimes change the order of tasks, or the folders they are stored in for their own preference.  That's OK, unless management wants the contributors to stick to the pre-defined order of tasks and the folder hierarchy determined to be the most appropriate.  We also use Wrike as a knowledgebase / wiki.  Some of those wiki entries have checklists/protocol and the tasks should not be re-ordered, nor moved into other folders. It needs to be consistent across the company for training.

I agree with the last several posters.  I don't really understand the workarounds here, for example with Ben's, how do you create a Structured Sharing arrangement?

It would be hugely helpful if the folder structure/hierarchy existing by team owners who establish them, would trickle down to users who can only see tasks in these folders.  I don't see the harm in allowing what would be largely "empty" folders and projects to be visible to users with permission to see tasks in those groupings.  Otherwise I agree fully with the others that this just creates a flat task list out of context, and you lose a lot of the benefit of Wrike.  This really underscores the importance of this as in most teams I think, as they grow more users with limited permissions are added, so over time most of the users of Wrike don't see the great hierarchy that Wrike offers, and that is really compromising things since this one one great feature isn't even able to be made available to most users, really too bad until there is a solution here.

Hi Guys. We signed up to Wrike yesterday and I am beginning to set up the Workspace for my team.  Could the solution help to tag folders in groups? So for instance if a person has access to a folder they will see the tags that say what project or folder its associated to?

I am thinking that my system could set up like this: Here's the scenario. I am setting up Q1 Operations/Goals for my company and I'd like to oversee everything and have departments be able to access certain portions of other departments Projects like visual and communications assets created for use across the company during the entire Q1 Marketing Campaign. 

I started to set up this via SPACE and I began to work from there. So this would be the structure for a Departments (Digital Marketing:Project 2020 Swimsuits Launch) which would create all digital visual assets the entire company can use. So here's what I'm trying using Tags to help everyone know where they are in that folder or task and what Team it belongs to even if they have access. Tags will be used in all tasks, folders, and projects.

• I'm going to use Tags for all folders, tasks, projects, assets, files

Space: Brand Development Q1 (Tags: Q1, 2020, Brand Development)

----->Folders:Resources:Engineering, Supply Chain, Marketing, Finance (Tags: Q1, 2020, Brand Development) [**I create the resource Folders outside of the department folders so all departments will use the Resources Folders on a Top level and then Tag the relative Folders. These folders will then be where all departments will have assets that are used and the Levels of privacy will be given in each child folder within the departments. The tags will allow anyone to know what phase or group the asset belongs to and it doesn't throw anyone off when they see this folder on the side of their dashboard. So all people will see there is a folder there and whatever is relevant to them will show up on their dashboard. The tags allow them to have a reference point)

---->Folders: Departments: Engineering, Supply Chain, Marketing, Finance (Tags: Q1, 2020, Brand Development)

------------->>Sub Folders:[Marketing]:Digital Marketing (Tags: Q1, 2020, Brand Development, Marketing, Digital Marketing)

---------------->>Project: Miami Swimsuit Photoshoot (Tags: Q1, 2020, Brand Development, Marketing, Digital Marketing, Miami Swimsuit Photoshoot, 01-12-2020)

---------------------->>Folders within Project: Visuals, Copy, Approved Assets for publishing

So I know this will require further tweaking so anyone have suggestions😉 please chime in. l 

I'm trying to figure out how I can force people to work within the structure I set up and see all folders created by every person under me that is for the company? (except their personal folder of course)

Hey everyone, apologies for the delay in response, and thank you for sharing your use cases and feedback! They've been passed on to the Product team.

There are currently no plans to implement this suggestion into Wrike. If anything changes in regards to the status of this suggestion, I'll be sure to let you know.

Hi, are there any news on that? It would be very helpul for the acceptance of Wrike in our organization. It is very tiring to work in a confusing "shared with me" section. Thank you very much!

Hi Pia T, thanks for checking in here and welcome to the Community! 🙂 

There are no plans for this at the moment, but we do appreciate your interest and feedback here. Can you share some more information about what you're trying to achieve? We may be able to come up with some ways to help 👍

Elaine Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Learn about Wrike’s killer features and best practices with our Online Training Webinars

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Hi Elaine,

I'm working on finding a good solution for all of our Wrike users. Most of them only have access to the space/folder of their respective departments, not to others.

Simultaneously, we have many request forms. Two examples:

• Request Form 1 for cost applications
• Request Form 2 for tickets regarding maintenance.

Users who frequently make inquiries see every single cost application and every single ticket listed in "shared with me," along with all other projects and folders they have access to.

Sharing the entire space/folder is out of the question; users are not allowed to see everything.
Asking them to create their own structure in their personal spaces is also out of the question; there would be no overview of where the elements are linked, and unrestricted access would always be necessary.
Selectively sharing each individual element is too cumbersome.

At the moment, I don't have a solution that I can offer our users to provide them with a structured and neat tree structure.

Thank you for sharing your use case Pia T! I'll now share it with your account's Customer Success manager in case they may be able to help 👍

Please let us know if there's anything else we can help you with. 

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover