SharePoint CMS Connector: contentXXL - The CMS for SharePoint

The Business Content Management System contentXXL publishes content from your Windows SharePoint Services or SharePoint Portal Server based Intranet/Extranet to the Internet - without the need for multi-capture and programming, even automatically upon every modification if you want.

What is it?

• The contentXXL SharePoint Connector offers several advantages which enable closely integration of the Business Content Management System with the Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services or the Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server respectively.

What can it do?

• Provision of any contentXXL data for display within SharePoint portal  using XML-Web Parts or the RSS Newsfeed Web Part
• Display of SharePoint lists in contentXXL using the SharePoint placeholder module
• contentXXL SharePoint module uses WYSIWYG templating for depiction. No XSL programming is required.
• Data is transferred server-sided during runtime.
• Alternately, data import and optional XSL transformation of any SharePoint lists in existing contentXXL modules such as News.
• Optional XSL transformation can comprise logical operations or even formatting of the WYSIWYG area.
• Following import, the data and functionality of the contentXXL modules are available in their full scope; e.g. search, content relationship management, multilanguage capability, language fallback …
• Import can be carried out per per webservice as batch or even automatically upon modification to the SharePoint side. An event handler is available for automatic synchronisation.
• Only the current versions of released contents are transmitted.
• XML-documents can be created, versioned, discussed and released in SharePoint. Upon release, transformation to content XXL module will take place.
• Communication is rendered via Web Services (Port 80)
• Thereby, contentXXL and SharePoint can run on different servers.

What can I do with it?

• SharePoint can be used as an alternate backend for contentXXL.
• Presentation of product information and data sheets, which are internally maintained in SharePoint, on the Internet.
• Secure provision of defined elements of contact information, tasks, announcements, etc, that are maintained in SharePoint for the Internet.
• Image data can be transferred from SharePoint into the contentXXL Resource Manager .
• Set-up of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) on the basis of Microsoft .NET – expandable user controls, e.g. with BizTalk Server or Web Parts
• Ideal combination of the benefits of both applications: intuitive cooperation with Office programs on the SharePoint side – safe handling of CI/CD on the contentXXL side.

What are the benefits?

• Fast and cost-efficient provision of existing information without the need for multi-capture or laborious transferring in HTML. Data can be maintained by the departments themselves.
• Editors work in the Office environment they are already familiar with, e.g. with Microsoft Word.
• Use of Microsoft InfoPath for data capture possible, giving you all the advantages of an easily adaptable rich-client application: offline capture, less recording errors due to vast validation possibilities, spell check, and much more.
• Programming possible – however not required
• Save on license fees: User licenses are only required on the SharePoint side. contentXXL is licensed per CPU. Several websites are possible within a company.

Description

The free-of-charge Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services provide the infrastructure for the simple creation of numerous small sub-webs. These websites can be used, for example, for departmental communication, for preparing a meeting or for organising a project. They enable – at least in connection with Office 2003 – e.g. direct filing, check-in/check-out and versioning of documents, the display of presence information (Microsoft Messenger) as well as the simple creation of any desired lists, for example a telephone or project list. Tasks or contacts can be managed in Outlook. The data is thereby stored in full on a  Microsoft SQL Server. In order to meet certain demands, various Web Parts are offered. The integral search function is limited to one sub-web each.
If you wish to carry out a spanned search, and the sub-webs have to be consolidated and managed, then the
Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server (for a server and client license fee) is needed. It can index sub-webs along with any other data sources such as exchange mailboxes or even other websites and integrate them into a spanned search.

The creation of Internet or Extranet sites, however, is not the primary concern of these solutions.

If, however, in turn the Business Content Management System contentXXL, which is based 100% on the same technology (ASP.NET) is used as a CMS on the Internet, then a series of synergies results which extend beyond the technology.

A frequent demand in such projects is the easy publication of selected contents, which are maintained on the Intranet, for the website in CMS without multi-data-capture.

This is a piece of cake with the contentXXL SharePoint Connector. It allows for the addressing of any random SharePoint lists and their depiction via the customary contentXXL Templates. Thereby, the lists are provided via Web Services during runtime. It is a snap to create the templates for depiction in the WYSIWYG layout editor contained in contentXXL. For this, no programming, XML or Microsoft FrontPage skills are necessary. However, via these templates you can control which list fields are to be presented to the visitor.

Fig.: Business Content Management with Infopath, SharePoint and contentXXL.

Often times, displaying lists for an integration is just not enough. In this case, contents have to be imported or exported. This is made possibly by the contentXXL SharePoint Connector and the contentXXL Import Services via different servers and without the need for programming.