SharePoint 2010 : Office 2010 Client Applications (part 1)

The user interface in SharePoint 2010 is great, and many people work directly in their Web browsers. But what if you’re going to be offline or you prefer to do your SharePoint work right in the context of the document you are working on? Maybe you’re somewhere with very low bandwidth and you’re working with large files? Good news: Office 2010 has a few different options to help you out.

SharePoint 2010 has increased the integration with various 2010 Office clients. The SharePoint ribbon browser interface now directly links you with the following Office and Windows clients, which offer you the choice and flexibility to work with SharePoint in the context of the client tool that best supports the task you are performing:

• Access. Enables you to work with SharePoint list data offline in a read/write fashion. Also great for mashing up SharePoint data with other data sources (databases, spreadsheets, and so on) and creating queries and polished reports. This fits in great with the overall SharePoint composite application strategy and provides you with another alternative for migrating local Access databases to a shared and managed platform, including the new Access Services SharePoint capabilities. Access Services enable you to publish an Access database and have the data, forms, macros, queries, and reports usable via a Web browser.

• Excel. Continued support for browser-based Excel Services. New Office Web Application companion for browser-based viewing, editing, and coauthoring of spreadsheets. Continued integration of Excel with SharePoint for saving documents, adding metadata, checking-in/out, and workflow. Great for taking a list offline and performing advanced analysis using capabilities such as charts, graphs, slicers, and pivot tables.

• InfoPath. Tool for making advanced forms that can then be reused across SharePoint (via InfoPath forms services) and other Office applications (SharePoint Workspace, Access, Outlook). InfoPath 2010 now supports the creation of InfoPath forms services Web Part controls so you can now mash up InfoPath controls on the same page as other SharePoint data and Web Parts.

• Office Upload Center. Performs per-document level caching and central access to see all SharePoint files you have viewed recently and which items are pending check-in, regardless of which SharePoint site the content originally came from. Synchronizes changes only between the client and server applications across the Office suite.

• OneNote. Advanced wiki capabilities for collaborating, brainstorming, and sharing information. New Office Web Application companion for browser-based viewing and editing of information, including coauthoring support in both the browser and rich desktop client for concurrent editing.

• Outlook. Primarily used for Personal Information Management (PIM) and to show how team-based data in SharePoint relates to you. Examples include read/write access to SharePoint calendars, tasks, contacts, and discussion boards—even while offline. Outlook 2010 also adds the new Outlook Social Connector (OSC), which displays news and activity feeds for your contacts from SharePoint 2010 as well as other social systems (such as LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, and Windows Live) in a centralized view to help improve your collaboration experience.

• PowerPoint. Continued integration of PowerPoint with SharePoint for saving documents, adding metadata, checking-in/out, and workflow as well as slide libraries. New Office Web Application companion for browser-based viewing and editing of presentations. Client supports coauthoring so multiple people can edit the same presentation concurrently. New features to add videos directly from SharePoint and to edit the videos (for example, change display, trim, or resize). Also added the ability to broadcast a PowerPoint presentation by publishing it to SharePoint or Windows Live and then sending a link via e-mail for others to view the slide show via their Web browser where they can still see slide transitions, builds, and other advanced display features.

• Project. Supports exporting SharePoint task lists into Project for more sophisticated reporting on project tasks, milestones, dependencies, resources, and so on.

• SharePoint Designer. A free desktop application provided by Microsoft for advanced SharePoint site customization including HTML page design and creating and managing reusable Workflows and Business Connectivity Services.

• SharePoint Workspace. Used for taking SharePoint site content and data offline—either at the site or per-list level. Synchronizes changes only to efficiently use network bandwidth.

• Visio. With Visio 2010 you can now create workflows that can then be imported and used with SharePoint. You can also create browser-based Visio diagrams (using Visio Services as part of SharePoint 2010) and export SharePoint task lists to a graphical Visio diagram.

• Windows Explorer. SharePoint continues to have integration with Windows Explorer both for uploading and copying documents between SharePoint and another file storage location such as your local PC or a network fileshare.

• Word. Continued integration of Word with SharePoint for saving documents, adding metadata, checking-in/out, and workflow. New Office Web Application companion for browser-based viewing and editing of documents. Client supports coauthoring so multiple people can edit the same document concurrently.

Table 1 summarizes the level at which each client application can be used from directly within the SharePoint 2010 user interface:

^[*] = Calendar, contact, task, document library, and discussion board lists only.

^[**] = Task list types only.

2. SharePoint Workspace: Taking a SharePoint Site Offline

SharePoint Workspace (SPW) is the evolution of the product that was formerly known as Groove and supports working with SharePoint data offline. SPW has a number of key benefits for working with SharePoint data:

• Extended offline capabilities. It’s more than just documents now! Prior to SPW, Groove only allowed you to take documents offline from SharePoint. You can now take documents and list data offline. While most SharePoint lists can be taken offline, calendars, wikis, blogs, and Web Parts cannot be taken offline with the initial release of SPW.

• Business Connectivity Services (BCS). As mentioned earlier in this chapter, with BCS integration via SharePoint lists you can now use SPW to work with external data lists offline. Examples of this include working with CRM, ERP, or custom line-of-business systems. You make your updates, add new items, and delete items locally, and SPW will sync your changes back via the SharePoint server when you reconnect, which will then update the back-end system that the data resides in.

• Conflict resolution. SPW manages conflicts (cases where more than one person updates the same thing at the same time) at the item level. This means that if two people edit the same row in a list at the same time, SPW will identify the conflict and allow the user to select which version to keep. This also allows multiple people to edit the same list concurrently without the need to have people serially check-in/out a spreadsheet.

• InfoPath forms integration. SPW uses InfoPath for its forms. This enables you to have very rich forms offline, including the ability to perform data validation. Using InfoPath enables you to learn a single forms designer technology regardless of how the form will be used to view or input data: SPW, SharePoint, Outlook, or Access.

• Binary differentials. When the SPW syncs data, it only syncs changes since the last sync. For example, if you have an 8MB PowerPoint file synced locally in SPW and someone makes a change to one slide, SPW will only sync the parts of that single slide that changed. This is great in general and especially when you’re on a slower network, wireless, or mobile connection.

• Desktop search. SPW now enables you to use desktop search to locally search for and find content that has been taken offline within the tool.

• Classic Groove workspaces. These still exist in SPW and can be used for primarily non-SharePoint-based collaboration and information exchange both within the organization and externally with customers and partners. The classic Groove workspace continues to have the SharePoint Files Tool for synchronizing individual document libraries between the Groove workspace and SharePoint sites.

Taking a site offline with SPW is straightforward:

1.	Click Site Actions in the ribbon of the SharePoint site that you want to take offline and select Sync to SharePoint Workspace from the menu (see Figure 1). Figure 1. Synchronizing an entire site with SharePoint Workspace
2.	Click Configure to choose what content to synchronize (see Figure 2). Alternatively, clicking OK at this step uses the default choice, which is to synchronize all available content. Figure 2. Optional ability to configure list level settings
3.	For each library or list that is available to sync, determine whether to download (see Figure 3) the following:   All content. Downloads the full contents of the selected library or list. Headers only. Only downloads the basic information for each item. For example, for document libraries it shows the basic file properties (name, modified date, and so on). You can later select to download the full library or just individual folders or files when you are online. No content. Does not bring the library or list offline. This can be brought offline later if desired. Figure 3. Determining what content to synchronize per list or library
4.	Click OK to begin synchronizing the selected content (see Figure 4). Figure 4. In-process synchronization with SharePoint Workspace
5.	When synchronization is complete, you can view the status and see if any errors occurred (see Figure 5). Figure 5. Summary of synchronization results within SharePoint Workspace
6.	Clicking Open Workspace lets you access the new workspace that has been created (see Figure 6). Figure 6. Viewing the site offline in SharePoint Workspace

You can also selectively bring a list offline with SPW. To do so, navigate to the list using your Web browser, and then click the List tab under the List Tools section in the SharePoint ribbon and choose the Sync to SharePoint Workspace option (see Figure 7).

Figure 7. Selecting a single list to take offline in SharePoint Workspace