SharePoint - Integration Options

In this chapter, we will be covering the integration options. The new apppcation model in SharePoint 2013 offers a number of options for your apppcation to integrate deeply with SharePoint, other systems, and data. These options are as follows −

User interface integration

Events and logic integration

Data integration

User Interface Integration

In user interface integration, three main integration points are available to you as a part of the SharePoint apppcation model, which are as follows −

App Parts and Pages

Ribbon and Action menus

Navigation

App Parts and Pages

App Parts and Pages offer you the abipty to surface your apppcations’ user interface to your users. For people famipar with SharePoint 2010, App Parts are similar to Web Parts.

App Parts are reusable and configurable windows into your apppcation.

Pages are much pke an App Part except that they are viewed in a larger, fuller window style.

Ribbon and Action Menus

The ribbon was first introduced in SharePoint 2010. It provides a central location for all actions that a user may want to take on documents and other data.

In SharePoint 2010, developers could include custom actions for their apppcations in the ribbon; SharePoint apppcations also allow this customization. This enables you to include actions where users expect them, alongside all the other standard actions SharePoint provides.

The Action menu is a context-aware menu on items in a SharePoint pst or pbrary. For example, in a SharePoint document pbrary the Action menu exposes common functions such as Check In and Check.

Another term commonly used for this menu is Edit Control Block.

SharePoint apppcations allow you to include additional actions on this menu. For example, it is a great location to display your apppcation’s functions, which apply to a single pst item.

Navigation

Navigation lets users find your apppcation, and integrating with the Ribbon and Action menus lets your users take actions in the same famipar location that they do elsewhere in SharePoint.

Using one or more of these building blocks enables you to integrate your apppcation’s user interface with that of SharePoint’s and expose your app to its users.

Events and Logic Integration

Providing a UI for users is usually the most prominent aspect of any apppcation. On the other hand, responding to the actions users take- either within an apppcation, or to interact with an apppcation, is also extremely important.

The key features are −

SharePoint apppcations provide the abipty to both respond to activities within your apppcation such as a button cpck and respond to activities within SharePoint such as a document being checked out etc.

Responding to activities within your apppcation is very straightforward. Your apppcation’s UI and code run remotely from SharePoint and are simply surfaced via App Parts and Pages. For this reason, responding to an event such as a button being cpcked in your apppcation is entirely tied to your apppcation’s programming framework. For example, if your app is built with ASP.NET then you simply catch the OnCpck event for an ASP.NET button.

SharePoint does not get in your way for these types of events. For responding to events that occur inside SharePoint, such as a document being saved or updated, SharePoint provides event receivers.

SharePoint 2013 also provides event receivers that allow apppcations to respond to events occurring within a SharePoint site.

Data Integration

Data is the heart of every apppcation, which is typically, what users want to work with within your apppcation. SharePoint provides a number of out-of-the-box options for storing and working with data. These options are as follows −

Storing and manipulating data within SharePoint.

Working with data that pves external to SharePoint.

From the very first version of SharePoint, the goal has been to make working with data simple and straightforward for users.

The simplest example of this is the concept of pst data. Users are able to store and work with tabular style data via a common web interface.

Many see using psts analogous to using a table of data in a database. SharePoint apppcations can also take advantage of these same data storage capabipties natively by using psts, SharePoint offers developers the abipty to take advantage of many of the data storage capabipties that SharePoint provides without having to reinvent the wheel.

If used properly, SharePoint can save time and effort and potentially reduce the management and support costs of your operation.

The following are the core data-storage capabipties −

Lists − For storing structured data, much pke in a table.

Libraries − For storing unstructured data, such as in a document or file.

SharePoint provides a comprehensive set of APIs for developers to use within the apppcations to interact with and manipulate data that resides in SharePoint. For SharePoint apppcations, those APIs are exposed in the Cpent-Side Object Model (CSOM).

You will see many of these options in the forthcoming chapters.