MCMS-SharePoint integration/connection interest?

From other previous posts (here and here) you may gather that I'm working on a project that involves combining MCMS & SPS more so than what the MS Connector for SharePoint Technologies does.

I've had some success already with our implementation. One thing I've been surprised with is the lack of docmentation or articles on this subject. I'm thinking about writing a series on the integration and my experience with my project, but I'm not sure if anyone else would be interested. Please drop me a line (via a comment to this post) if you would be interested in such a series.

posted on Friday, September 24, 2004 12:46 PM

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# re: MCMS-SharePoint integration/connection interest? 9/24/2004 2:56 PM Patrick Gaul

Andrew, I think this is a GREAT idea. IMHO one of the most significant limitations of the connector is the lack of capabilities to on a remote MCMS host (i.e. where SPS and MCMS are not both installed on the same serever). I've been thinking of working on some remote services to this end as well. It's easy enough to get content coming into the portal from MCMS, but not so obvious how we can get content and functionality going the other way...

# re: MCMS-SharePoint integration/connection interest? 10/12/2004 12:22 PM Steve Hicks

Yes, I am very interested. I haven't tried out the connector, but the literature and reviews show that it has some shortcomings. I may result to writing my own controls. In particular I was thinking of writing a control that accesses a WSS/SPS library via a webservice and displays the listing using XSLT. As for being able to upload/manage to the repository via the placeholder, that would be great too, but I would need to do some more research before proposing a solution.

# Forward: Integrating SharePoint 10/24/2004 7:05 PM andrew connell

# re: MCMS-SharePoint integration/connection interest? 11/24/2004 10:50 AM Arpan Shah

I definitely think there's a lot that can be built for greater SharePoint Products and Technologies & CMS integration. But before you go ahead and do so, a couple things to keep in mind:

1. Mark's pointer to Mint is a great one. Mint has spent a considerable amount of time developing some great integration. I believe they have posted a sample on GotDotNet. I had a good chat with Grant (from Mint and speaker at TechEd South Africa) about the work they've done, and it sounds very promising.

2. The CMS Connector for SharePoint Technologies is free. Sure, you may not use all of it, but you should absolutely consider using parts of it. For example, the Web Parts that ship with the Connector do NOT require having WSS/SPS & CMS on the same box. So, if you already have WSS or CMS deployed in an organization, you can use those web parts as is to make an immediate impact and improve productivity.

3. Understand what you are trying to do; scope it out. I'm all for great technology, but unless you scope it out and plan it, you'll end up creating something feature rich that might end up costing a lot of time and money. So unless you are doing it for fun, make sure you outline your scenarios... and of course, share them with other folks so they can focus on other components.

4. Along the lines of 3, I strongly believe in the KISS fundamentals. "Keep it Simple Stupid". For example, I had the honor of speaking to the CTO of a small organization who wanted to integrate CMS and his SPS Portal. At the end of the day, all he really wanted was to have listings pointing to CMS pages... so his team is currently changing the CMS workflow to create a listing in a specific area that points to the CMS page. Simple, huh?

# re: MCMS-SharePoint integration/connection interest? 12/2/2004 8:56 AM Andrew Connell

That looks like it's trying to access CMS on the local SharePoint server. Try pointing it to the full path of the CMS server. That web part may require CMS and WSS/SPS to be installed on the same server though.

# re: MCMS-SharePoint integration/connection interest? 12/2/2004 8:46 AM Vamsi

I am currently working to get the CMS, SPS 2003 integration installed on different servers.
I get this 404 error when I configure web parts:
/Cms/WssIntegration/Dialogs/TasksAssistant/ApprovalAssistant/ApprovalAssistant.aspx

Does it require to install WSS on CMS server?

# re: MCMS-SharePoint integration/connection interest? 9/24/2004 4:37 PM Rob Rohr

As a CMS developer who is about to leap into SharePoint development and integration, I'd be interested in seeing what others have done beyond the Connector.

# re: MCMS-SharePoint integration/connection interest? 9/24/2004 4:48 PM Andrew Connell

Patrick - My current focus is working on MCMS & SPS on the same server... as the integration I'm talking about has to do with creating a single application/site that leverages the powers of both products. However, there are plenty of aggregation topics associated with leveraging the capabilities of both applications hosted on different servers and two different sites. That's actually the approach Microsoft has taken with some things... their website (microsoft.com) is MCMS enabled, but when you hit certain pages, it pulls documents and files from a SPS doc lib to show links to files in the right column.

I'll try to focus on a discussion of both topics: using MCMS & SharePoint to implement a (1) single application or (2) multiple applications... leveraging features of both products.

# re: MCMS-SharePoint integration/connection interest? 9/24/2004 4:50 PM Andrew Connell

Rob - If you see anyone else talking extensively about this topic, please pass it along. I haven't found many resources outside of Lamont Harrington's blog (link in my Dev - WSS/SPS2003 list). Hopefully I'll be able to drag some other bloggers into the fray!

# re: MCMS-SharePoint integration/connection interest? 9/24/2004 9:00 PM Mark Harrison

Im interested in such discussions.

BTW ... MINT http://www.mint.co.za/ have a some SPS placeholder controls for CMS that they are making freely available ... just contact "grant @ mint.co.za"

# re: MCMS-SharePoint integration/connection interest? 9/25/2004 12:52 AM Angus Logan

Hi Andrew,

I've been doing some integration work as well with our new offerings; so I would love to see/hear about your experiences.

Cheers

# re: MCMS-SharePoint integration/connection interest? 9/28/2004 12:04 PM Edward Wilde

I have found using the SharePoint connector quite unsatisfying. Why should you have to install it on a server with SPS/WSS on it?

Also the document library placeholder doesn't support selecting more than one document for association with a posting. It also seems wierd that it makes a copy of the document and places it in the MCMS database, why not just link to the original SPS document?

I do however like how you can customize the controls rendered output using a simple (although badly documented) xsl file.

# re: MCMS-SharePoint integration/connection interest? 9/28/2004 12:15 PM Andrew Connell

Ed- I couldn't agree more... the connector is very limiting. Yes, it's nice how you can customize the rendered output wiht the XSLT file, but you can only do 3 custom views per farm... very limiting.

# re: MCMS-SharePoint integration/connection interest? 4/16/2007 12:33 PM Wayne Riske

Will you be publishing parts 3 & 4? If you have already done so, where are they? Thanks, Wayne

# re: MCMS-SharePoint integration/connection interest? 4/16/2007 10:28 PM AC [MVP MOSS]

Wayne-
No... I have no plans to publish the other parts... they became part of my Advanced MCMS development book (by Packt Publishing).

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