MatchPoint Technical Features Tutorial Colygon AG Version 1.0

Transcription

1 MatchPoint Technical Features Tutorial Colygon AG Version 1.0 Disclaimer The complete content of this document is subject to the general terms and conditions of Colygon as of April The client confirms to have received and agrees with the general terms and conditions of Colygon. This document or parts of it are the property of Colygon and must not be disclosed to third parties without written permission of Colygon.

2 Content 1. Introduction... 3 Optimize your development strategy... 3 Provide a better user experience... 4 Reduce maintenance cost and TCO MatchPoint Components... 6 Composite Web Part... 6 Data Grid Web Part... 8 Chart Web Part Form Web Part Search Definition Web Part Search result Web Part Refinement Web Part Workspace Editor Web Part Image Tag Web Part MatchPoint Services and API Configuration Framework Expression Engine Connection Framework Taxonomy Management Tagging Features Data Providers Data Adapters Entity Model Provisioning Framework Workspace Management Role Management Workflow Kit Office Template Engine MyMatchPoint MatchPoint Seamless Migration page 2 of 45

3 1. Introduction MatchPoint follows a long-term strategy to always fill the gap between SharePoint out-of-thebox functionality and customer requirements on a broad basis. Its benefits are not bound to single SharePoint features that might be improved in a future SharePoint release, but are related to the ever moving gap and our focus to constantly optimize MatchPoint and provide new components designed for the enterprise to fill that gap. MatchPoint solutions are implemented in a declarative way and maintained to a great extent without programming. All MatchPoint components are configured via a user-friendly, standard editor and the configurations are saved in XML format. The built-in Expression Engine allows access to the SharePoint 2013 object model in all configurations via an intuitive interface, which makes MatchPoint very powerful. A configuration can be stored in a central location, versioned and used anywhere within a SharePoint farm. As a result, maintenance of the solution is kept to a minimum and changes to a configuration are automatically applied within the solution. The same configuration can therefore be used in several solutions. Optimize your development strategy The flexible MatchPoint components cover a wide spectrum of solution scenarios. Thanks to the unique MatchPoint concepts, these components are very generic, they can be linked to each other and are flexible in their configuration, and can be extended in an infinite number of ways. Of course you can also develop your own components based on these concepts MatchPoint offers a documented API for this purpose. page 3 of 45

4 Provide a better user experience Users benefit from easy-to-use control elements that can be applied in a wide range of solution scenarios. Extendable context menus, limitless data aggregations and dynamically linked Web parts help end users locate the information and functions they need much faster. MatchPoint enables users to master even complex applications with a minimum of training. SharePoint content and external data can be maintained and a variety of processes supported with the intelligent MatchPoint forms. MatchPoint also makes it possible to extract data from any source and present it to the end user as information that can be filtered and sorted. The MatchPoint tagging functions minimize the effort required for manually maintaining metadata and content, thus significantly increasing data quality. page 4 of 45

5 Reduce maintenance cost and TCO Changing business needs can be accommodated in most cases simply by making MatchPoint configuration changes, eliminating additional cost and effort for expensive custom development. MatchPoint is a managed code framework, meaning that maintenance and further development of the product is provided and assured by Colygon and does not lead to further efforts for our customers and partners. With MatchPoint, unplanned cost can be excluded, and the TCO of the SharePoint platform will be optimized both short, middle and long term. Particularly, the central configuration management of MatchPoint offers a key advantage when changes need to be implemented, because no custom code needs to be maintained and redeployed. Also, the governance and the consistency of a SharePoint solution are improved through this central approach by keeping configurations under control. Last but not least, MatchPoint Software Assurance includes migration tools to migrate MatchPoint solutions to future SharePoint versions. page 5 of 45

6 2. MatchPoint Components Start with plug-and-play solutions and expand our highly configurable Web Part collection with your own components to fulfill any requirement blazingly fast and with a minimum of custom code. Composite Web Part The "Swiss Army Knife" data display and most used MatchPoint Web Part The MatchPoint Composite Web Part is the most versatile display Web Part for SharePoint, rendering data from any source into any UI. Whenever you need to display data that does not fit into a standard display or that should be displayed in a graphically appealing way, just take a Composite Web Part and create your own UI design. Then plug in a MatchPoint Data Provider and you are done. The MatchPoint Composite Web Part is connectable, centrally and easily configurable and supports expressions, data providers and tagging features. page 6 of 45

7 The Composite Web Part features a UI editor to define your own interface using HTML or XSLT Composites can be used for intranets as in this real-world customer show case page 7 of 45

8 Composites are a good foundation for any kind of special-purpose UI or information display Data Grid Web Part Quick and dirty? - No. Quick and clean. And powerful and flexible. Aggregating content and displaying it in a list is probably the single most important function in any portal, intranet or collaboration platform. The MatchPoint Data Grid Web Part supports cross site, cross site collection and even cross web application aggregation using various technologies ranging from CAML over Search to BCS and SQL queries. And should you ever need to render a custom column, you no longer need to go through the schema XML jungle. Just write a custom HTML pattern and deploy it within seconds. The MatchPoint Data Grid is the workhorse list view you always wished for in SharePoint. The MatchPoint Data Grid Web Part is connectable, centrally and easily configurable and supports expressions, data providers and tagging features. page 8 of 45

9 The MatchPoint Data Grid Web Part used as a filterable list with multiple views of workspaces in a collaboration scenario. The MatchPoint Data Grid Web Part used to list and filter records from an external database. page 9 of 45

10 Chart Web Part Render any data from within or outside SharePoint in a chart with the MatchPoint Chart Web Part The MatchPoint Chart Web Part supports all the basic MatchPoint functionalities to aggregate information using MatchPoint data providers and offers 35 chart types to create an attractive display. You can even render content from multiple sources into the same chart. The MatchPoint Chart Web Part is connectable, centrally and easily configurable and supports expressions, data providers and tagging features. Chart Web Parts can be used to visualize information based on SharePoint content or external data sources. page 10 of 45

11 Connected Chart Web Parts are used to interactively refine data in one chart by selecting a category in another chart. Form Web Part Build no-code custom forms and user interfaces with the MatchPoint Form Web Part The MatchPoint Form Web Part allows you to create no-code forms. Use them to create, edit and view your SharePoint list items, manage external data or implement your custom search form or forms-based user interface. MatchPoint forms support field validation, visibility conditions, conditional fields, collapsable sections, permissions management and many other useful features. The MatchPoint Form Web Part is connectable, centrally and easily configurable and supports expressions, data providers, data adapters and tagging features. page 11 of 45

12 The MatchPoint Form Web Part is used to insert records to a timesheet database using a MatchPoint Data Adapter. The MatchPoint Form Web Part is used to filter a list of workspaces in a collaboration scenario. page 12 of 45

13 Create a SharePoint 2013 list item with the MatchPoint Form Web Part and a List Data Adaptor directly on the page. Structure and style the create, edit and view form of SharePoint 2013 lists with icons, visibility conditions and sections. page 13 of 45

14 The MatchPoint Form Web Part is used to filter a news list in an intranet scenario. Search Definition Web Part The Search Definition Web Part allows you to define and manage highly sophisticated search queries in a single text field. The MatchPoint Search Definition Web Part is a wolf in sheep's clothing. It looks like a simple input field, but as soon as the user starts typing, it transforms into a powerful query generator, suggesting any context from MatchPoint tags, SharePoint terms, file extensions, authors and modifiers to date ranges. These search criteria - any metadata - can be combined into a search condition delivering a very exact result set. Search conditions can be saved for later use and even be published to your team or any group of users. The MatchPoint Search Definition Web Part is connectable, centrally and easily configurable and can make use of the MatchPoint tagging features. page 14 of 45

15 Search Definition Web Part with configurable find on type for fulltext, tags, terms, authors, modifiers, dates or file extensions. Search result Web Part Our plug-and-play display for any kind of search result - configurable, connectable and intuitive A search result is the starting point of many activities in SharePoint. The MatchPoint Search Result Web Part is a versatile display with actionable items so that users directly can start working on the result set. Supporting the FAST search as well as CAML, SQL and other queries, the Search Result Web Part can be used in any situation. Based on a Composite Web Part, it comes with a UI that you can easily modify to your needs and makes use of all MatchPoint features. The MatchPoint Search Result Web Part is connectable, centrally and easily configurable and supports expressions, data providers, multi-language scenarios and our tagging infrastructure. page 15 of 45

16 The Search Result Web Part displays actionable results from any data source that can be refined step by step (in combination with the MatchPoint Refinement Web Part). Refinement Web Part Drill down by context to quickly find what you are looking for Large search results are a very common and frustrating user experience. Usually, the requested item will be contained somewhere within the result set, but it cannot be located. The MatchPoint Refinement Web Part analyses the result set and displays all the metadata facets in a tree view. Users can browse the tree and use the extracted metadata to refine their search and drill down step-by-step. The MatchPoint Refinement Web Part is connectable, centrally and easily configurable and can make use of the MatchPoint tagging features. page 16 of 45

17 The Refinement Web Part allows drill downs and metadata filtering of search results and other queried data sets. Workspace Editor Web Part No-code toolset for self-service SharePoint site creation and editing Creating SharePoint sites is a responsible task. In collaboration scenarios, when business users have to manage workspaces, it often leads to problems due to inconsistent settings and permissions. The MatchPoint Workspace Editor Web Part empowers business users to intuitively provision SharePoint sites using a self-service form. On the other end, the Workspace Editor ensures site governance, compliance and consistency by providing configurable application logic and workflow features. The MatchPoint Workspace Editor Web Part is connectable, centrally and easily configurable and supports expressions, data providers and tagging features. page 17 of 45

18 The Workspace Editor Web Part is used for self-site provisioning in a collaboration scenario. The MatchPoint Workspace Editor Web Part in display mode shows important site properties in a workspace. page 18 of 45

19 Image Tag Web Part Apply governance information to your SharePoint sites with one click The MatchPoint Image Tag Web Part applies metadata to SharePoint sites via a graphical user interface. It offers multi or single selection and configurable images. It helps users to see which attributes they have to manage in a very intuitive way. Just imagine being able to influence important governance parameters such as content confidentiality, site status or progress information with one single click. The Image Tag Web Part makes metadata visible. The MatchPoint Image Tag Web Part is connectable, centrally and easily configurable and supports expressions and tagging features. SharePoint sites and site collections can be tagged graphically with our Image Tag Web Part. page 19 of 45

20 3. MatchPoint Services and API The MatchPoint API offers robust concepts for your SharePoint 2013 development. MatchPoint introduces a set of enterprise-class SharePoint concepts that enables best development practices such as centralized configuration management and true serviceoriented architecture, streamlines the deployment process and enables power users to access SharePoint features otherwise locked away for developers. The Matchpoint architecture supports multi-instancing and multilingual platforms. Configuration Framework Configure no-code solutions if you are a super user. Develop advanced applications if you are a developer - all with the same foundation MatchPoint uses a unified configuration mechanism for all configurable components. A powerful yet easy-to-use configuration editor supports you during the configuration process. All configurations, including Web Part configurations, are based on XML and stored centrally. This single-point-of-truth concept has several benefits: configurations are referenced with pointers and thus do not require to be redistributed after a change. They also can be reused throughout the whole SharePoint farm simply by pointing to them. You can even migrate or deploy them to other SharePoint environments by just copying the XML files. page 20 of 45

21 All MatchPoint configurations (including Web Parts) can be stored centrally and reused within the whole SharePoint farm or within a MatchPoint instance MatchPoint Web Parts can be configured in-place and configurations are stored either locally or centrally. page 21 of 45

22 One configuration interface for all purposes: Web Parts, provisioning templates, forms, timer jobs, workflows, roles, rules and many other components - including multi-language support Expression Engine Unleash the power of the SharePoint object model by injecting SharePoint expressions into your configurations MatchPoint Web Parts provide an expression mechanism that allows in-line use of dynamically evaluated expressions. Our built-in expression evaluator can be called on any SharePoint 2013 page for fast and intuitive evaluation of complex expressions. With these features, MatchPoint makes expressions available to power users, without the need to use VisualStudio, and without the effort for compilation, solution packaging and deployment that usually comes with it. page 22 of 45

23 MatchPoint Web Parts such as the Data Grid can consume expressions as filtering conditions as illustrated in this personalization scenario. Expressions used in a MatchPoint Composite Web Part to access and render data from within or outside SharePoint. page 23 of 45

24 Our built-in expression evaluator allows fast and intuitive evaluation of complex expressions to be used in MatchPoint configurations. Connection Framework Implement complex data aggregation scenarios within SharePoint MatchPoint Web Parts can be connected to each other by using our AJAX Connection Framework. This allows you to easily create master/detail views of your SharePoint content. Just use a selected value of one control as a filtering condition in another control. The configuration of a connection is very easy: controls are identified by their name; values in a dependent control are referenced using the MatchPoint expression mechanism. Connecting Web Parts even works across applications, which lets you overcome common SharePoint limits and build truly integrated application platforms. page 24 of 45

25 Connected Web Parts enable a dynamic user experience such as in this search scenario. Connected Web Parts help seeing relevant information across many workspaces when collaborating with other people page 25 of 45

26 Connected Web Parts can also be used for simple tasks such as filtering a list in an intranet. Taxonomy Management Connect your SharePoint taxonomy to line of business systems and minimize manual metadata management Taxonomy is cool, but taxonomy management sucks - especially when it is a manual task. MatchPoint taxonomy management includes term importers to continuously feed the SharePoint 2013 term store from external data sources such as your CRM, ERP or other line of business systems. All MatchPoint Web Parts and even MatchPoint expressions support SharePoint terms for filtering content and for displaying. Last but not least: To make the taxonomy more appealing to users, MatchPoint provides a unique icon mapping functionality to visualize SharePoint terms with graphical icons. page 26 of 45

27 Connect external data sources to the SharePoint term store. MatchPoint includes adaptors for SharePoint lists, Active Directory and SQL databases and an interface for custom adaptors. Create timer jobs to import and synchronize even multilingual terms and synonyms. MatchPoint term importers are centrally managed and supported by our intuitive configuration interface. page 27 of 45

28 Terms are periodically synchronized with the SharePoint term store. Existing terms are correctly updated and content remains correctly tagged. SharePoint terms can be displayed, sorted and filtered in all MatchPoint Web Parts. You can even browse them and use them for content refinement. Configurable term icons improve the visual orientation. page 28 of 45

29 Use the MatchPoint term condition to build highly sophisticated filters on your SharePoint content. Tagging Features Use your application logic to tag content and implement metadata-driven SharePoint applications In situations, such as in information governance or records management scenarios or if you want to use metadata to enforce compliance rules, you have to rely on metadata. To support this kind of advanced metadata usage, MatchPoint provides a set of tools, ranging from an ontology with enhanced metadata management features such as metadata relations, history and item level permissions, the possibility to tag SharePoint containers such as sites and site collections, lists, libraries and folders, metadata inheritance to automate locationbased tagging, to event handlers to trigger custom actions when tags are changed. page 29 of 45

30 MatchPoint tagging is fully integrated in SharePoint and extends its out-of-the-box range for metadata-driven scenarios. MatchPoint can tag any SharePoint container, not just content items. In this example, you see the tagging of a web. page 30 of 45

31 SharePoint content can be tagged automatically by using inheritance and default tags. Sites inherit from site collections, libraries and lists from sites, folders from lists and content and document sets from folders. Permissions can be defined to control which users can see or apply a tag. This item level security is an important foundation to meet governance and compliance requirements. page 31 of 45

32 The use of relations between branches of the MatchPoint metadata model reduces redundancy and improves manageability. True hierarchies and automatic tagging of related tags minimize the need for manual user interventions. Data Providers Data providers are pluggable interfaces to aggregate data from various sources and use them in MatchPoint Web Parts The MatchPoint display Web Parts (Data Grid, Composite and Chart) can consume data from various sources within SharePoint and external systems. MatchPoint comes with nine out-ofthe-box data providers and can be extended with your own custom data providers to connect to virtually any system: page 32 of 45

33 Access data in databases, SharePoint lists and sites, the FAST index, or any other data source with MatchPoint Data Providers. Data Adapters Build user-friendly forms for SharePoint lists and powerful user interfaces to feed data into line of business systems The MatchPoint Data Adapters in MatchPoint allow you to edit data in the MatchPoint Form Web Part. Many Data Adapters are available out-of-the-box with MatchPoint, such as the SharePoint list, SharePoint BCS, MatchPoint Entity Model and MatchPoint Workspace Data Adapters. You can even define your own. With the MatchPoint Data Adapters, you can define flexible and powerful forms for SharePoint list items or user frontends to edit data in line of business systems. Benefit from conditional views, user friendly input controls and powerful layout possibilities. page 33 of 45

34 Create SharePoint list items with the MatchPoint Form Web Part and a List Data Adapter directly on a SharePoint page or in a lightbox. Structure and style the create, edit and view forms of SharePoint list items with icons, visibility conditions and collapsable sections. page 34 of 45

35 Manage the configurations for your create, edit and view forms centrally and in a convenient way using the MatchPoint Configuration Editor. Entity Model Create powerful database frontends for your line of busines systems The MatchPoint Entity Model Provider offers a convenient way to display, edit and insert data in an external database directly from SharePoint. The straightforward configuration with the centralized Entity Model configuration allows you to map your database schema to a MchPoint Entity Model. All SQL commands which are used to display and edit the records are automatically generated and executed by the Entity Model Provider. Use MatchPoint Data Grid Web Parts or Composite Web Parts to display and format database content. Create, display and edit database records with the MatchPoint Form Web Part. You can access all database information with the MatchPoint Expression Engine and use expressions in any MatchPoint configuration. page 35 of 45

36 List database information in connected MatchPoint Web Parts Display and edit database records information in MatchPoint Form Web Parts. page 36 of 45

37 Provisioning Framework Snapshot your SharePoint sites and create provisioning templates without coding The MatchPoint provisioning framework provides an easy-to-use mechanism to implement custom SharePoint site templates. With a powerful snapshot feature, you can first compose your site template, take a snapshot and edit it in the MatchPoint configuration editor. The MatchPoint provisioning framework is based on regular SharePoint provisioning templates that can be deployed for use in the entire SharePoint farm. Furthermore, the MatchPoint provisioning framework is an export and import tool for entire SharePoint web structures including documents. This is a very useful feature to build up new portals or to migrate existing structures from one server to another, which can be done with a PowerShell cmdlet. This SharePoint site displaying various SharePoint and MatchPoint Web Parts has been created based on a MatchPoint provisioning template. page 37 of 45

38 Three easy steps to create SharePoint provisioning templates with MatchPoint: Design your web, save it as "Template" and publish it to your SharePoint farm. Workspace Management Self-site provisioning of role-based workspaces with advanced site governance and full control MatchPoint provides specific tools to empower end-users to create and manage SharePoint sites. Self-site provisioning is enhanced with the powerful MatchPoint Workspace Editor Web Part and based on centrally managed provisioning templates, role-based permission management and configurable site governance features (e.g. unique site ID generation, generic site title generation, generic URL generation, automatic site template selection, automatic site tagging, automatic location selection, inheritance of compliance tags). Role Management MatchPoint workspace management provides a farm-wide role management concept that allows administrators to define business roles for each provisioning template. Users who create and manage SharePoint workspaces do not need administrative privileges to manage permissions. Permissions within the workspace are set automatically based on the roles defined in the MatchPoint provisioning template. page 38 of 45

39 In the MatchPoint workspace template, workspaces are defined by defining fields for the Workspace Editor Web Part, governance parameters, edit and view forms and permissions to create, edit and delete workspaces. In environments with many site collections, the MatchPoint Workspace Data Provider allows the delay-free aggregation of workspaces information page 39 of 45

40 Workspace information can be displayed and edited in a MatchPoint form. Workflow Kit Create document and item-based workflows without coding The MatchPoint Workflow Kit enables you to easily create complex document or item-based workflows. Design workflows and user input forms using the familiar MatchPoint configuration interface, without writing a single line of code. Benefit from full MatchPoint functionality within your workflows. MatchPoint workflows are available farm-wide and can be deployed to other farms by just copying the workflow definition files. MatchPoint workflows can be seamlessly integrated into MatchPoint contex menus, as shown here in a MatchPoint Data Grid Web Part. page 40 of 45

41 Office Template Engine Demote any information created by MatchPoint into your Word templates MatchPoint integrates into Microsoft Office, thus improving template management and using SharePoint information in your documents. By making Matchpoint expressions available in Office documents, content can be demoted when a template is opened. MatchPoint also ensures correct save operations and metadata handling when documents are closed or copied to other locations. MatchPoint expressions can be used in Office documents to demote content from SharePoint page 41 of 45

42 ...and this is the result: Office document with SharePoint content rendered by a MatchPoint expression. 4. MyMatchPoint Use MatchPoint's extensibility to develop your own components and solutions In a typical solution scenario, MatchPoint covers 80% to 90% of all requirements by pure configuration. "MyMatchPoint" is our extensibility concept to even go beyond these limits. From custom MatchPoint Web Parts that derive from our base classes, to custom MatchPoint timer jobs and even custom MatchPoint expressions and context menus, your developers can provide their own components to your engineers, who then can use them to build solutions with the same ease as with standard MatchPoint components. With MyMatchPoint, you can even build entire solutions on MatchPoint and package them as a standardized offering. page 42 of 45

43 Use easy-to-configure MatchPoint custom context menus to enrich your applications. Easily implement your own custom timer job. Benefit from the configuration framework, the timer job management console and many other features. page 43 of 45

44 Extend your SharePoint with easy-to-implement custom expressions or expression extensions. Reuse these extensions in MatchPoint Web Parts, timer jobs or provisioning templates. Develop your own Web Parts and make use of the powerful MatchPoint Configuration Framework: Store your Web Part configuration centrally, provide the MatchPoint configuration editor and benefit from configuration versioning. page 44 of 45

45 5. MatchPoint Seamless Migration Migrate existing MatchPoint applications to future versions of SharePoint as smooth as possible. While the average migration cost for customized SharePoint applications to a new SharePoint version is between a widely spread 40% and 80% of the initial application development cost, we bring this cost down to a very predictable 10% to 20% with MatchPoint. MatchPoint acts as an abstraction layer between the SharePoint platform and your applications. This gives us the possibility to provide a MatchPoint version on a new SharePoint release (SharePoint vnext) that is feature-identical with the latest MatchPoint version of the old SharePoint release. In other words, it is built upon the new SharePoint API (SP vnext API) but still provides the same functionality and APIs on the solution-facing side. Hence, the migration of your MatchPoint applications is seamless. page 45 of 45