Referential containment of folders

In most cases, a folder is directly contained by its parent folder. This is the typical configuration as described in About folders in which folders belong to a parent folder.

However, a folder can also be contained in a folder other than its parent folder by referentially containing the folder in the target folder. This gives an application the ability to expose a specific folder in multiple locations.

Enterprise Manager shows that a referentially contained folder exists, but it does not open the folder if you double-click it. Enterprise Manager does, however, display the property sheet of a referentially contained folder if you right-click it and click Properties.

Applications such as Workplace do not expose referentially contained folders.

Use case: An insurance claim case involves multiple documents, all of which are placed in a single folder for convenient organization. The Claim class is a subclass of the folder class, and extends the folder class with properties such as Claim Number and Customer Number. All claims are stored based on entry date (directly, not referentially) in a folder hierarchy with a folder for each month of each year. An insurance claims adjuster works with multiple claims and stores them (referentially) in her "Home" folder. At the same time, claims that are high profile are placed (referentially) in a "High Profile Claims" folder at the root of the folder hierarchy.