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EPiServer 7 Connect for SharePoint – Virtual Path Provider Configuration

This document describes how to configure Virtual Path Provider for Microsoft SharePoint.

Configuration 

Virtual Path Provider for SharePoint is configured in the EPiServerFramework.config file. Provider configuration elements should be placed in the /configuration/episerver.framework/virtualPathProviders/ path. The configuration can look like this:

<configuration> 
...
<episerver.framework> 
...
<virtualPathProviders>
...
 <add name="SharePointFiles2010" 
    virtualPath="~/SharePoint/2010/" 
    virtualName="SP 2010" 
    showInFileManager="True" 

    isMOSS="True" 
    wssSiteUrl="http://SharePointServer/SharePointSite" 
    wssRootFolder="Shared Documents" 
    wssDomainName="ep.se" 
    wssLogin="Administrator" 
    wssPassword="Pa$$w0rd" 
    useImpersonation="False" 
    bypassAccessCheck="False" 
    serverTemplates="101,109" 

    customFileSummary="~/WSSFileSummary.config" 
    useCache="True" 
    cacheExpirationTime="30" 

    type="EPiServer.VirtualPathWssProvider.VirtualPathWssProvider,
     EPiServer.VirtualPathWssProvider" />
...

Each Virtual Path Provider can either have useRouting="true" attribute or a corresponding location element in web.config, in the /configuration/ path. The location element should contain a static file handler in order to enable file download for the VPP virtual path. The corresponding location element can look like this:

<configuration>  
...
<location path="SharePoint">
    <staticFile expirationTime="-1.0:0:0" />
    <system.webServer>
      <handlers>
        <clear />
	<add name="wildcard" path="*" verb="*" type="EPiServer.Web.StaticFileHandler, EPiServer.Framework" />
      </handlers>
    </system.webServer>
</location>  
...

Virtual Path Provider Parameters

Here is a list of parameters that can be specified for each Virtual Path Provider for SharePoint:

  • name - internal name of the Virtual Path Provider. This is a mandatory parameter for any VPP and it should be unique for the site.
  • virtualPath - root virtual path to the files provided by VPP. It should be a virtual path relative to the site root, and it should be unique for the site. If you are planning to use several Virtual Path Providers for SharePoint, it is recommended to choose a common root for them. In that case you will need only one location element in the web.config for all your VPPs. For example: a single location element can be configured with path "SharePoint" and several VPPs can be configured with paths like "~/SharePoint/MyVPP1/", "~/SharePoint/MyVPP2/" and so on.
  • virtualName - the name of the provider displayed to the user in EPiServer CMS File Manager. The name should be unique.
  • showInFileManager - indicated whether VPP should be shown in the File Manager. By default this is set to "True". VPP can also be hidden from users, but will still be accessible over its virtual path.
  • isMOSS - if set to "True" it indicates that a full version of Microsoft SharePoint is used. If set to "False" it indicates that one of the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation versions are used. Affects the file search functionality.
  • wssSiteUrl - URL to the target Microsoft SharePoint site. The URL can contain a path to the root SharePoint site or to any subsite.
  • wssRootFolder - contains a name of the target Microsoft SharePoint library that should be provided by the VPP. Can be empty, in which case the VPP will display all available libraries.
  • wssDomainName - the name of the Active Directory domain that should be used for authentication to the target Microsoft SharePoint site.
  • wssLogin - a user name for authentication to the target Microsoft SharePoint site.
  • wssPassword - a user password for authentication to the target Microsoft SharePoint site.
  • useImpersonation - If set to "False", the wssLogin and wssPassword are used to login to the target Microsoft SharePoint site. If set to "True" it indicates that the credentials of the current logged in user should be used when connecting to the target Microsoft SharePoint site. Note that this option requires additional configuration described in Security and Delegation tech note.
  • bypassAccessCheck - if set to "True" the access rights specified in the EPiServer CMS File Manager should be ignored. If set to "False", the access rights specified in the File Manager are taken into account when granting access to the users.
  • maxFilesCountPerFolder - the maximal amount of files per folder that the VPP can return. Since the File Manager in CMS does not support paging, it is recommended to limit the amount of displayed files. By default this value is set to 1000 files.
  • serverTemplates - specifies the list of Microsoft SharePoint library type IDs that should be available over the VPP. This parameter allows controlling the list of libraries available to the user when a wssRootFolder parameter is not specified. There are two library types supported by default: Documents (type ID 101) and Pictures (type ID 109). The full list of type IDs supported by Microsoft SharePoint is available on MSDN.
  • customFileSummary - the virtual path to the custom file summary. File summary is an XML configuration file describing the meta data of files stored in the VPP. More details about the File Summary are available in the File Summary Configuration tech notes.
  • useCache - if set to "True" indicates that requests to the target Microsoft SharePoint site should be cached. It is highly recommended to use caching.
  • cacheExpirationTime - the amount of time in seconds that should pass before a cached item expires.
  • cachedFilesTempFolder - a location where cached files content can be stored. If omitted, a default system temporary files path is used.
  • checkOutInfoExpirationTermInDays - the amount of days before the information about the user that checked out a file in VPP is expired and deleted from DDS. By default it is set to 365 days. More details available in this blog post.
  • systemAccountName - the name of the System Account that is used by SharePoint 2013 to identify administrative accounts. This value is used to detect if information about a user that checked out a file should be substituted by information stored in DDS. By default this value is set to "System Account".

Document last saved: February 27, 2013