Just Released: EPiServer Connect for SharePoint - the second edition

We've just released the new, improved second edition of EPiServer Connect for SharePoint.

This new and improved version of our SharePoint connector contains new and enhanced functionality that will be crucial for common integration scenarios between SharePoint and EPiServer CMS.

The connector is contains three main feature areas:

• File integration (new!): bi-directional file integration between EPiServer CMS and SharePoint libraries
• Web Parts (new!): simple yet flexible Web Parts that will display EPiServer CMS content directly in SharePoint sites
• Push-to-CMS: push files and content items from SharePoint to EPiServer CMS

File integration

In the connector you will find that we have created a really powerful file integration with SharePoint. It means that CMS users can work on SharePoint files within the EPiServer file manager - check in/check out and versioning implemented as well as security. Also, we have also integrated file search capabilities on the SharePoint assets using the file search inside the CMS file manager.

The file integration is built around the Virtual Path Provider (VPP) concept which means you plugin a VPP in CMS which integrates with SharePoint web services. Deployment and configuration is really simple, the package comes with a MSI installer which makes installation really easy. For integrated security you need to configure your servers to use Kerberos authentication and also have an Active Directory that allows account delegation between CMS and SharePoint.

Integrated security means that authenticated users in the CMS will also authenticate against the SharePoint server (using delegation). You can also configure the connector to use a service account (all requests to and from the Sharepoint server will be called using this account credentials).

Web Parts

We provide developers with two basic web parts which can be used to display CMS data inside SharePoint. We ship one tree control that renders EPiServer page trees from a selected start page. This web part is connected to a data displaying web part that shows page data inside SharePoint depending on the configuration (which properties to show etc).

The web parts are shipped with full source code for developers to customize and modify in a customer solution. These web parts are shipped to help EPiServer and SharePoint developers to kickstart their integration projects.

Push-to-CMS

This functionality allows SharePoint users to easily do one way pushing files and content items from SharePoint to EPiServer CMS. List items will be published in EPiServer CMS as pages and library items will be saved as files in the CMS file system. You can setup channels which will monitor a SharePoint list or library for updates and then send the content to EPiServer where it is mapped to a destination, page type and properties which is configured using the content channels in EPiServer CMS.

For more information, head over to www.episerver.com or go directly to the download section on EPiServer World.