Installing the SharePoint widget for Communities

Install the Microsoft™ SharePoint widget so that Community owners can make it available for members to use.

Before you begin

This widget requires that IBM® Connections Plug-in for Microsoft SharePoint be installed before you use the widget.

Before you begin, familiarize yourself with how to install apps for the Communities application. For details, see this topic: Adding custom apps to a community

About this task

Install the SharePoint plug-in so that community owners can make the widget available in a community. Community members can then upload and share documents from a SharePoint server.

Procedure

  1. Follow the steps for checking out the widgets-config.xml, in the article Using the widgets-config.xml file for Communities.
    1. Add the xml definition for the SharePoint widget to the Communities section of the widgets-config.xml:

      Connections 5.5:

      <widgetDef defId="SharePointFiles" description="SharePoint Documents" modes="edit view fullpage" uniqueInstance="true"
url="/SPWidgets/SPFiles/SPFiles5.xml?version={version}" themes="wpthemeThin wpthemeNarrow wpthemeWide wpthemeBanner"
helpLink="http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSYGQH_5.5.0/connectors/enduser/sharepoint_widget/t_sharepoint_using.dita"
iconUrl="/SPWidgets/SPFiles/images/spSite.png">
</widgetDef>

      Connections 5.0:

      <widgetDef defId="SharePointFiles" description="SharePoint Documents" modes="edit view fullpage" uniqueInstance="true"
url="/SPWidgets/SPFiles/SPFiles5.xml?version={version}"
helpLink="http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSYGQH_5.0.0/connectors/enduser/sharepoint_widget/t_sharepoint_using.dita"
iconUrl="/SPWidgets/SPFiles/images/spSite.png">
</widgetDef>
      Connections versions prior to 5.0:
      <widgetDef defId=defId="SharePointFiles" description="SharePoint Documents" modes="edit view fullpage" uniqueInstance="true"
url="/SPWidgets/SPFiles/SPFiles.xml?version={version}"
helpLink="http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSYGQH_5.0.0/connectors/enduser/sharepoint_widget/t_sharepoint_using.dita"
iconUrl="/SPWidgets/SPFiles/images/spSite.png">
</widgetDef>
    2. Check in the widgets-config.xml file as documented in the custom apps topic.
    Note: In a migrated environment, make sure that you use exactly the same widget definitions that you used in older versions of Connections.
  2. Install the SharePoint ear file on the same server as the Communities application, as follows:
    1. Log into the Websphere Application Server console.
    2. Select Install New Application and browse for the name of the SharePoint ear file you downloaded from the IBM Connections catalog web site: https://greenhouse.lotus.com/catalog.
    3. Accept the installation defaults, but select the cluster where the Communities application is installed. If you are using an IHS server, select that as well or you will not be able to access the SharePoint widget after you install it.
    4. Save the configuration changes.
      A confirmation screen will confirm that the application SharePointContent is installed.
    5. Select Applications -> Enterprise Applications and start the application SharePointContent.
      Note: If starting the SharePointContent application produces errors in the WAS console, wait and try again. The installation might not be distributed to each application server.
  3. To see the widget on the Customize palette for Communities, restart the Deployment Manager, restart the server cluster, and restart the Communities application.
    Note:

    If your SharePoint Server and IBM Connections hosting the Communities application are not in the same domain, add the domain of the SharePoint server to the DNS settings of the IBM Connections server. Otherwise, your users will get an error when trying to create a new community on a server with the SharePoint widget deployed.

  4. If IBM Connections is configured to use single sign-on with IBM Tivoli® Access Manager, you must configure a transparent path junction for the Sharepoint plug-in if you want to get Sharepoint documents in Connections communities under TAM. Follow the steps for configuring a transparent path junction in the topic Enabling single sign-on for Tivoli® Access Manager. Run this server task to enable the TAM junction: 
    'server task <WebSEAL-instance-name> create -t ssl -h <backend-server-name> -x -p <backend-server-port> -i -b ignore -f -A -2 -F <ltpa-token> -Z <ltpa-password> /SPWidgets'
  5. If IBM Connections is configured to use a reverse proxy that directs all IBM Connections traffic to a single server, you must add some mapping rules so that the SharePoint widget will be accessible.
    1. Refer to the topic Configuring a reverse caching proxy for instructions on adding mapping rules.
    2. In the Mapping Rules section, add the following reverse pass rules for the SharePoint widget:
      ReversePass http://<httpserver>/SPWidgets* http://<proxyserver>/SPWidgets* 
ReversePass https://<httpserver>/SPWidgets* https://<proxyserver>/SPWidgets*
      where <httpserver> is the host name of the HTTP server. The HTTP server is usually IBM HTTP Server, but could be a load balancer or another proxy, depending on your deployment. <proxyserver> is the host name of the proxy server.

What to do next

Once the SharePoint widget is available for the Communities application, a community owner can click the Community Actions button for the community and add the SharePoint widget to the community from the Add Apps panel. After adding the SharePoint widget to your community, the community owner configures the app by specifying the hostname for the SharePoint server, a user name and password, the type of authentication to use, and the SharePoint Document Library to access. Interacting with the widget is described in the topic Using the SharePoint widget.

You can configure the widget to change how users interact with SharePoint. To make configuration changes:
  1. Copy the sharepoint-library-config.xml and sharepoint-library-config.xsd files from the configuration folder where the SharePoint widget is installed into the LotusConnections-Config directory on the IBM Connections server.
  2. Edit any of the variables in the sharepoint-library-config.xml file.
    Variable Description
    maxUploadSize The maximum size in MB of a file that can be uploaded through the SharePoint widget to the SharePoint server.
    Note: This does not apply to SPNEGO and TAM configurations.
    uploadTimeout Number of seconds before an upload will timeout. For an infinite timeout, specify 0 seconds.
    authenticationType Specifies the default authentication type that will be selected during widget configuration. Possible values are: Windows™, SPNEGO, SiteMinder, TAM, Forms, Web single sign on.
    hideAuthenticationOptions Prevents the community owner from changing the default authentication type by hiding the authentication.
  3. Save the changes and synchronize the nodes.
  4. Stop and restart the SharePointContent application.
If you want to support file uploads from SharePoint to Connections that exceed 50MB, you must edit a supplemental web configuration file. Perform these steps on all front end web servers.
  1. Copy the webconfig.IBMConnections.xml file from the configuration folder where the SharePoint widget is installed to the SharePoint CONFIG directory. For example: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\CONFIG.
  2. Open webconfig.IBMConnections.xml in an editor and change the value of the MaxRequestSize variable. Note that the value is defined in KB, not MB.
  3. Save the changes and apply the changes to the web server.
    1. Open a command window and navigate to a BIN directory. For example:
      c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\BIN
    2. Enter stsadm -o copyappbincontent
    3. Click Run.