Resources for Interoperability with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

Introduction

Office SharePoint Server: A Platform for Managing Content and Integrating Line of Business Systems

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides enterprises with a scalable business platform for managing content and integrating line of business systems. IT benefits from centralized management of a single information management infrastructure while developers have the tools for building applications faster, without having to focus on the “plumbing” layer. In addition, there is a growing base of Office SharePoint Server partners driving solutions, services, and training around this new platform.

Interoperability with Office SharePoint Server

Microsoft’s goal for interoperability with Office SharePoint Server 2007 is to make it possible for users to aggregate and consume information from a range of different data sources and application platforms, in a familiar interface.

Click here to see the full-sized image

The primary scenarios where interoperability with Office SharePoint Server is relevant are:

• Integration with Business Solutions, enabling rich access and presentation of data managed in other systems.
• Enterprise Search, for indexing and full-text search on all business data (entity instances) from databases and back-end server applications such as SAP, Siebel and Lotus Notes applications.
• Composite applications, business dashboards and mashups, where a new business capability is created by assembling multiple existing software assets: Web services, APIs, Web feeds (e.g., RSS or Atom), gadgets, and screen scraping.
  
  Top of page

The technologies that enable interoperability with Office SharePoint Server are:

Single Sign-on

Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides a default single sign-on (SSO) service for connecting with third-party or back-end systems. SSO allows user to seamlessly access the LOB system after logging on to the portal site. SSO accomplishes this by providing a credential-mapping database to store user credentials in an encrypted format. This credential mapping works for Active Directory groups as well, so members of a group will experience the same seamless access. SSO also provides the means for custom Web Parts and other SharePoint Server 2007 services such as the Business Data Catalog, Excel Services, and InfoPath Forms Services to retrieve user credentials that are required when accessing various back-end systems.

For more information:

• MSDN Single Sign-on Guidance
• TechNet Single Sign-on Guidance
  

Top of page

Business Data Catalog

The Business Data Catalog is a new business integration feature in Office SharePoint Server 2007. It is a shared service which enables Office SharePoint Server to surface business data from back-end server applications without requiring custom code for managing connections and retrieving data. The Business Data Catalog bridges the gap between the portal site and your business applications, bringing key data from various business applications to SharePoint Server Web Parts, lists, search, user profiles, and custom applications.

The Business Data Catalog design is based on standardized metadata that describes the location and format of a back-end system and data entities defined within it. The Business Data Catalog also provides an execution component that is capable of reading metadata and that is able to retrieve external data from back-end systems and return that data to Office SharePoint Server in a standardized format.

Connectivity with traditional line-of-business systems is achieved by using standard Web services. Connectivity with database systems is achieved by using ADO.NET providers.

For more information:

• Plan for business data connections with the Business Data Catalog
• Configure business data search
• Enabling Users to Act on LOB Data with Business Data Catalog Actions
• Webcast: Business Data Catalog Overview (Level 200)
• MSDN Business Data Catalog Guidance
  
  

Top of page

WSRP and iView business data Web Parts

Business data Web Parts are used to display business data and promote business intelligence. Out of the box WSRP consumer and iView Web Parts are specialized business data Web Parts for rendering information and application logic from other portal systems “AS-IS” retaining their full functionality and ease of use. iViews are self-contained Web documents that are provided via a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) managed by the SAP portal framework. The resource itself can be anywhere on the Web.

For more information:

• Smart Clients: Build A Windows Forms Control To Consume And Render WSRP Portlets
• Plan business data Web Parts
  
  

IFilters for Search

IFilters are plug-ins that enable indexing different file formats so that they become searchable. Without an appropriate IFilter, contents of a file cannot be indexed. IFilters are used by several Microsoft products, including Windows Desktop Search, Index Server, Office SharePoint Server, and SQL Server.

For more information:

• Install iFilters (Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Search):File types and IFilter reference (Office SharePoint Server)
• MSDN introduction to iFilters http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms691105.aspx
• Filter Central Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/ifilter/
  
  

Protocol handlers

Custom Development

Office SharePoint Server 2007 is built on the .NET Framework 2.0 and includes native support for XML and Web services. Developers can create custom applications to capture data at the document level and integrate with back-end systems. These connections can be made using Web services technologies, other kinds of custom adapters, or potentially even Internet protocols such as RSS.

For more information:

• Office Business Applications: Building Composite Applications
• Introducing SharePoint Designer 2007
• SharePointDesigner 2007 Developer Reference
  
  
  

BizTalk Server and Host Integration Server

Microsoft BizTalk Server and Microsoft Host Integration Server can enable even richer and more flexible solutions with SharePoint by reducing the complexity of data integration with legacy assets.

For more information:

• BizTalk Server 2006 Tutorials
• Understanding BizTalk Server 2006
• Host Integration Server 2006 Product Overview
• Guidelines for Application Integration
  

Tested Operating Systems and Browsers

Office SharePoint Server 2007 has been tested on a wide range of client operating systems and Web browsers. Below is a list of client operating environments that have been tested.

Solution Providers  

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 delivers a complete set of functions and tools for interfacing with data and application logic provided by line of business systems, including many features that work right out of the box. Our partner community is also engaged in building connectors, protocol handles, and interoperability solutions using the Business Data Catalog and .NET technologies. Below is a short list of partners with solutions for Enterprise Search, data integration or data migration for specific Business Applications. This list will expand and change as new solutions are released.