In order to concentrate all CRM entity related documents in SharePoint, and minimize the growth of the CRM database footprint we have decided to store CRM tracked email attachments in SharePoint, but there currently is no out-of-the-box mechanism to do so. To work around this, we are manually populating the SharePoint document library with the email attachments and appropriately updating metadata (related entity name, user, date, tags, etc.). To see the documents and attachments from within CRM, we have created an IFrame on the associated CRM entity forms that links back to a custom SharePoint view into the document library. This view is filtered on the entity name via URL parameters. This is working much better for us than the out of the box document management in SharePoint which is not flexible enough in how it stores documents, primarily because it uses folders and can't easily update metadata. However, the documents still remain as tracked email attachments within CRM (and Exchange mailboxes, but we don't really care about this). What we would like to do, is copy/or move the attachments into SharePoint, updating the metadata as appropriate, and then replace the attachment in CRM with the URL of the new SharePoint document.
With that as the background, we would appreciate some guidance from more experienced CRM and SharePoint experts in this forum. Our questions are these:
-Which makes more sense as a mechanism for getting the attachments from an email into SharePoint: an Outlook plugin with an action that can be triggered manually by the user, or a workflow that is triggered when the set-regarding action is used within CRM or Outlook? Is there another solution that we are missing? We do always use the Set-regarding action on an email to point to the entity that the attachments should be associated.
-We also have a need for bulk document uploader that associates the documents to an entity via an added field in the document library in Sharepoint containing the entity’s name. Currently we use SharePoint’s bulk document loader, and then manually update the metadata as best we can using a data grid view. It seems like leveraging the code needed for handling the email attachments could be readily used here, but again I am not sure what vehicle to use: an Outlook plugin, CRM workflow/dialog process, SharePoint plugin or stand alone app.
-Finally, at this time the relation between an CRM entity and its associated documents in the SharePoint document library is completely dependent upon the entity name. This is not robust, because the CRM entity name could change at any given time, and then the associated metadata would need to be updated. The correct solution is for the relationship to be based upon the CRM entity ID field instead. What is the best way to get access to CRM entity data from within SharePoint? Note that we are currently using Office 365 for email and SharePoint, and Dynamics CRM 2011 Online, so direct access to the databases is not available.
Any guidance that you provide would be greatly appreciated!
Related
I have a SharePoint calendar which users can connect to and view/edit in Outlook. I want to be able to create a workflow that is fired when an item is changed or updated and then use an If statement to determine whether the change was made in Outlook or via the user's browser. Is this even possible? I cannot use a code based solution (much as I would like to) as I do not have access to use one.
Having scoured the net, it would appear not. The only way that I have used before, but it is clunky, is to create a field that can only be edited in SharePoint and an identical table that holds the previous version. The workflow can detect if the SharePoint only field has changed in relation to previous value held in the other table, and use this to direct to SharePoint only or Outlook only code as required.
Hope this is not a strange question.
Can you attach files to a document item in a document library as you can in a list.
Short answer is no.
With SharePoint 2010, you might want to investigate the use of Document Sets which, without knowing what you're trying to do, could be a way to resolve a need for keeping grouped documents together.
OOTB SharePoint does not support attachments with Document Library.
You should create custom field type or find some commercial add-ons like Sparqube Document Column. You can add the Sparqube Document field type to any SharePoint list including Document Library and attach different files within a document item.
i am a Sharepoint administrator of a small farm. One of our solution provider has created a huge amount of WebSites at an SharePoint 2010 that have a hierachialy order. And every WebSite has a Custom list with the name "User. Now i want to extract from every WebSite this list into one csv file. The best would be to also extract the Name of the WebSite directly as a new column.
I understand that i have to use the SPSiteDataQuery Class but i am new to developing for sharepoint so i am not sure where to start. Also i would like to have it to run weekly, like some kind of service.
I should note that i have some knowledge in c#
Can someone help me please ?
MG,
Using SharePoint Timer Job you can execute you code weekly base then fetch User data from all webs.
All my googling returned only information related to how to add additional right click features.
I swear somewhere I saw screenshots of MSS2010 being used where right clicking provided the menu to do various operations, versus having to use the ribbon, or worse that awful menu pictured here.
I was expecting this to all be drag drop... :(
I'm really disappointed with the lack of ajaxy-ness built into mss2010. I can't believe every save/apply reloads the whole page.
SharePoint is a massive product. Microsoft appears to be adding and improving as much functionality as it can in each release.
A high priority of Microsoft for SharePoint 2010 was to redo the HTML for the end user pages. And it is much improved. The poorly formed, table heavy HTML of SharePoint 2007 now has more divs and unordered lists. However, you have stated that you do not like their design choices of the ribbon and full page refreshes. And you also do not like that UI improvements did not extend to system pages in the layouts directory.
SharePoint 2010 was released almost a year ago. Functionality changed during the beta, but it is unlikely that big changes will be introduced at this point. Your two best bets for getting your desired functionality are:
Create a CodePlex project that provides the functionality you want. If the project becomes popular, Microsoft might include it in the next release.
Based on Sharepoint Feature Request, post your request to the SharePoint forums with a subject of "FEATURE REQUEST". If Microsoft agrees to your request, it could be included in the next release.
MacroView specializes in document management, email management and knowledge management solutions based on Microsoft Office and Microsoft SharePoint.
MacroView DMF and MacroView Message add a new pane to Outlook which displays all the areas of the SharePoint environment for which you have access permission. The new pane in Outlook provides:
Searching across the SharePoint DM store with results displayed in Outlook
Formatted previews of files in SharePoint, without the need to download and open
Extensive right-click menu for files and areas
Right-click to create new Libraries and Folders
One-click access to your Favorite document libraries and folders in SharePoint
Automatic creation of Favorites – e.g. for Projects for which you are a timekeeper
Drag & Drop from everywhere to anywhere to save emails or attachments to ANY area where you have permission
Go here for more information
I'm working with Visual Studio 2010 and Sharepoint 2010. I would like to know if there's a way to have a web part that crawls all the data within a SharePoint site so I can save it into a custom db.
You can certainly create a custom web part that will do this. I do not know of an out of the box web part that will work. I began writing something like this when I found SharePoint List Source and Destination. It's a CodePlex project for an SSIS SharePoint adapter. We did not need a user interface for the extract, so we used it successfully last year for transferring data between SQL Server and SharePoint.
Sounds like all you need to do is use the API, OOB web services, or the Client OM to write some code and access the lists directly. Which approach you take depends mostly on where the code will run.
Well I found this article - Document Library Tree View Web Part for SharePoint - it is a Web Part that shows all the info of any of the document libraries within a site. At least I know how to crawl that kind of library.