This infoRouter best practices guide answers the question we hear most often from new and existing customers: "How do I get the most out of infoRouter?" The recommendations below reflect patterns that work well across organizations of every size, from 10-person businesses to enterprises with hundreds of users across multiple offices. Apply them from day one or use them to improve an existing deployment.
Key Takeaways
- infoRouter best practices recommend keeping documents under 30 MB, folders to not more than 500 documents, and folder depth to 5-6 levels for optimal performance.
- Well-structured custom metadata is the single most impactful infoRouter best practice for reducing search time from minutes to seconds.
- Assigning permissions to groups instead of individuals is a core infoRouter best practice that simplifies security management and audit compliance.
- Smart Folder rules enforce structural consistency across the repository, preventing the ad-hoc folder drift that degrades usability over time.
- Creating 5-50 Libraries organized by function or security boundary is an infoRouter best practice that improves search filtering and access control.
Document Size
Document management systems are designed for collaboration, version control, and controlled access. They are not meant for storing large binary files.
Recommendation: Keep documents under 30 MB. Avoid storing DVDs, ISO images, legacy database files, or other large binaries.
Why this matters: Large files transfer slowly over HTTP, degrade the experience for other users, and do not benefit from version control or collaboration features. Store them on a file system or specialized storage instead.
Metadata and Search
Fast, accurate retrieval is the primary reason organizations adopt a document management system.
Recommendation: Use metadata consistently. Define Custom Properties that match how your team searches for documents: by client, project, department, document type, or date range.
Why this matters: Well-structured metadata reduces search time from minutes to seconds. Users find the right document with confidence instead of guessing based on file names. Learn more about Custom Properties.
Document Expiration
Recommendation: Assign expiration dates to documents that have a limited useful life, such as drafts, time-sensitive notices, and superseded policies.
Why this matters: Without expiration rules, outdated documents accumulate silently. This creates three problems:
- Decisions get made based on obsolete information
- Backup size grows unnecessarily
- Users lose trust in search results because outdated content crowds out current documents
Document Naming
Recommendation: Use stable, descriptive file names that describe the content. Let version control handle revisions.
Avoid: Embedding dates, version numbers, or status terms like "final" or "latest" in file names.
| Poor naming | Better naming |
|---|---|
| Widgets-Summary-Jan2016.docx | Widgets-Sales-Summary.docx |
| Widgets-Summary-Jan2016-final.docx | Quarterly-Widget-Performance.docx |
| Widgets-Summary-Jan2016-final-final.docx | Widget-Pricing-Overview.docx |
Why this matters: Version labels in file names become unreliable within days. infoRouter ensures that opening a document always displays the current version, eliminating the guesswork that "final-final" file names are trying to solve. Learn more about version control.
Folder Naming
Recommendation: Use short, descriptive folder names arranged in a logical hierarchy.
Sales
+-- 2025
| +-- Q1
| | +-- Widgets
| | +-- Gadgets
| +-- Q2
| +-- Q3
| +-- Q4
+-- 2026
+-- Q1
+-- Q2
+-- Q3
+-- Q4
Why this matters: Long folder names combined with deep structures create path-length issues during export and make navigation unnecessarily slow.
Folder Depth
Recommendation: Limit folder depth to 3-4 levels. Users should reach commonly used documents in a few clicks.
Why this matters: Deep hierarchies are harder to navigate, more difficult to maintain, and more likely to cause path-length errors during export or file system integration.
Documents Per Folder
Recommendation: Keep folders to not more than 500 documents.
Why this matters: Large folders slow navigation, increase the chance of user errors, and make it harder to find documents visually. If a folder routinely exceeds 500 documents, break it into subfolders or use a time-based structure.
Configuration Management with Smart Folders
Recommendation: Use Smart Folder rules to protect your folder structure from accidental changes.
Why this matters: As repositories grow, structure tends to drift. Smart Folder rules let you restrict folder creation, deletion, accepted file types, and check-in/check-out behavior while still giving users broad document access. Rules can be inherited by subfolders, so you set them once at strategic points. Learn more about Smart Folders.
Library Design
Recommendation: Create 5-50 Libraries organized by security boundary, department, or function. Do not use a single catch-all library.
Why this matters: infoRouter uses Libraries as a primary filtering mechanism during search. When documents are distributed across well-defined Libraries, search scope is reduced and results are returned faster. Each Library is isolated to its members, making access control straightforward.
Within each Library, keep folders manageable. The same guideline of not more than 500 documents per folder applies.
Anonymous Libraries
Recommendation: Use Anonymous Libraries only for content that is genuinely intended for unrestricted access.
Why this matters: Information that seems "public" within your organization may not be appropriate for external users or visitors. Review the contents of any Anonymous Library periodically.
Security
Recommendation: Assign permissions to groups, not individuals. Avoid broad "Full Control" assignments.
Why this matters: Group-based security is easier to manage, audit, and scale. When someone joins or leaves a team, you update group membership instead of individual permissions across dozens of folders.
Role Delegation
Recommendation: Assign administrative roles to distribute responsibility:
- Library Managers
- Search and Category Administrators
- Portal Administrators
- User Managers
- Audit Managers
- Policy Managers
Why this matters: Centralizing all administration with a single person creates bottlenecks and operational risk. Role delegation improves accountability and response time.
Quick Reference
| Area | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Document size | Under 30 MB |
| Metadata | Use Custom Properties consistently |
| Naming | Descriptive content names; no version labels |
| Folder depth | 3-4 levels maximum |
| Documents per folder | Not more than 500 |
| Libraries | 5-50, organized by function or security |
| Security | Group-based permissions |
| Structure | Enforce with Smart Folder rules |
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the recommended maximum document size for infoRouter?
- Keep documents under 30 MB. Large files like DVDs, ISO images, and legacy database files transfer slowly over HTTP, degrade the experience for other users, and do not benefit from version control or collaboration features.
- How many Libraries should I create?
- Create between 5 and 50 Libraries, organized by security boundary, department, or function. Avoid using a single catch-all library. Libraries serve as a primary filtering mechanism during search, so well-defined Libraries improve search speed and access control.
- Should I assign permissions to individual users or groups?
- Always assign permissions to groups, not individuals. Group-based security is easier to manage, audit, and scale. When someone joins or leaves a team, you update group membership instead of modifying permissions across dozens of folders.
- Why should I avoid putting version numbers in file names?
- Version labels in file names become unreliable within days. infoRouter's version control automatically tracks every revision with a version number, timestamp, and author, so opening a document always displays the current version without guesswork.
- What are Smart Folders and why should I use them?
- Smart Folders let you set rules that restrict folder creation, deletion, accepted file types, and check-in/check-out behavior. Rules are inherited by subfolders, so you set them once at strategic points to prevent ad-hoc structural drift as your repository grows.
Try These Practices with Your Own Documents
Whether you are already running infoRouter or evaluating it for the first time, these best practices apply from day one.
Request a Free Trial. Install infoRouter in your own environment and see how Libraries, Smart Folders, Custom Properties, and version control work together. No obligation.