M-Files Template Placeholders Not Updating in Web

As someone who manages a lot of content using M-Files, I recently encountered an issue affecting our users who primarily rely on the M-Files web client. Our users noticed that placeholder properties in templates were not populating correctly when using the web client, including the Web Companion.

Here's what was happening: in the preview pane, the properties would display correctly but as soon as the users opened and edited the document, the placeholders reappeared, and the properties were empty again. This was frustrating, especially since it was hindering our workflow.

After some investigation, we discovered that an Advanced Vault configuration needed to be enabled in the admin settings to allow M-Files web to populate the placeholders properly. Here's the fix:

1. Open Configurations.
2. Expand Advanced Vault Settings.
3. Expand File Operations.
4. Click on “Extension Filters for Embedded Metadata Update on Check-In.”
5. Add the extensions of the document types you use placeholders in templates, such as Word (DOC, DOCX) and Excel (XLS, XLSX).

One last thing to note: the changes inside the physical document will only be reflected after the user has checked the document into M-Files for the first time. This little tweak made a significant difference, and our placeholders are now updating as expected in the web client.

This experience reminded me of the importance of understanding the intricacies of the tools we use daily and ensuring configurations are set correctly to support our workflows.