Who’s excited for SharePoint Conferenceand SharePoint 2013 this week?Well I know I amI’m Brett Grego, Director of Engineering at KnowledgeLakeToday, I’m going to talk to you about 3 different topicsSome focus areas of our next version of KnowledgeLake Imaging which supports the SharePoint 2013 platformIntroduce everyone to the new SharePoint App Model for SharePoint 2013Microsoft’s new way to develop and distribute applications for SharePointThen I’m going to talk about the future of KnowledgeLake Imaging into 2014 and beyond
So, our next version of KnowledgeLake Imaging will be version 4.5 which will fully support SharePoint 2013In a minute, I’m going to talk about our 2 key focus areas for this version, which are:The upgrade experience (and)The configuration experienceBut before I get started doing that…
So for those of you that have not seen SharePoint 2013, notice the new clean modern look that closely matches Office 2013Demo Document Library in SP 2013Demo SearchDemo Hover PanelDemo ViewerNotice SharePoint 2013 look and feel adopted throughoutSame great features as Imaging for SharePoint 2010
Our most import focus area for Imaging 4.5 was around upgrading to SharePoint 2013By a show of hands, who remembers upgrading Imaging for SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010?Not so simple right?Saved Searches needed to be recreated and Document Classes had to be migrated to Content Type BehaviorsWell, in SharePoint 2013, this isn’t going to be the caseBecause of the investments made in Imaging for SharePoint 2010, we have been able to make upgrading to SharePoint 2013 simple, painless, and easyAnd most importantly, you will be able to reuse all of your existing assets
Upgrading Imaging and SharePoint involves 5 simple steps, which are so simple, I am going to list them right here…First you will move SharePoint 2010 databases to SharePoint 2013Second, you will use the PowerShell Scripts that WE provide to upgrade your Service Applications such as the Search and Managed Metadata for exampleYou will recreate your Web Applications in SharePoint 2013 to host your upgraded sitesNext, you will install KnowledgeLake Imaging 4.5And finally, you will initiate the SharePoint Upgrade process using PowerShellThe result of these 5 simple steps is a fully upgraded SharePoint Farm running KnowledgeLake ImagingAnd as I said before, you will be able to reuse all of your existing assetsSo Saved Searches will not need to be recreatedContent Type Behaviors will continue to existAnd any configured KnowledgeLake Web Parts will remain in placeWe’re very happy with the SharePoint 2013 upgrade experience and we think you will be also
The second most important focus area for Imaging 4.5 was around configurationThe first thing you will notice when installing Imaging is how much simpler it is to install and configureWe really stepped back and reviewed pain points, support tickets, and our own first hand experiences to resolve any areas that seemed difficult or unclearWe updated documentation for any commonly missed stepsWe improved layout and wording of configuration screens for added clarityAnd most importantly, we looked for places where we could simply automate this process for youNow when you go to install Imaging you will be prompted with the option for automatic configuration
If you choose to go this route, the installer will handle:Solution DeploymentThe Provisioning of KnowledgeLake Service ApplicationsAppropriate security will be automatically appliedSoftware Activation will occurAnd Final Configuration will be completed all without any manual intervention on your partThis will result in fully ready SharePoint farm running KnowledgeLake ImagingOf course, the Manual configuration method will continue to exist for those of you that want more control over this processBut I think you find configuration experience much easier that before
Now I am going to talk a bit about the SharePoint App ModelFirst, by a show of hands, who’s heard of the SharePoint App Model?Well, it’s a big topic, and I know you’re going to hear a lot about it this week, but I will do my best to explain in the short time I have availableTraditionally, SharePoint has supported the solution deployment model to extend SharePointThis model involves SharePoint components running directly on the SharePoint Server themselvesThis often caused many pain points in SharePoint such asComplicated upgradesPutting extra strain on SharePoint infrastructureAnd difficulties scaling solutions independently from SharePointTo alleviate these problems, Microsoft created new extensibility model called the SharePoint App ModelThis provides a new way to extend SharePoint by creating SharePoint AppsSharePoint Apps are essentially applications that install and integrate with SharePoint but run on their own servers
SharePoint Apps can provide 3 basic types of components to display and interact with SharePointImmersive Pages which are full web pages that feel tightly integrated with SharePoint but live on another serverApp Parts which are just like web parts except the content they display comes from another serverUI Custom Actions which are ways that apps can extend the built-in SharePoint UI such as custom ribbon buttons to launch an immersive page for example
This all sounds a bit scary, an application that lives on another server but can reach into and interact with SharePoint data directlyBut this fear is quickly alleviated by understanding how SharePoint implements security for SharePoint AppsSharePoint implements industry standard authentication by using OAuth 2.0 much like Facebook or TwitterImagine using an application that interacts with your Twitter feedTypically, this application will first redirect you to Twitter where you are asked whether you trust this application to interact with Twitter on your behalfIf you choose to accept, then you are redirected back to the application and now this application can interact with your Twitter feedWell SharePoint provides a similar model, allowing administrators installing the SharePoint App to decide whether they trust the App to do things on the user’s behalf
SharePoint provides 2 ways to obtain and install AppsThe first method is the SharePoint StoreMuch like an app store on your phone, the SharePoint Store allows you to search a catalog of applications that are available and then purchase and install them directly to your SharePoint FarmThe second method is the App Catalog.The App Catalog is a location hosted locally on your SharePoint Server where SharePoint Apps can be manually installed and more tightly managed
So that’sa brief overview of SharePoint AppsAnd the reason I wanted to provide some details about SharePoint Apps is that in the future, KnowledgeLake will be providing a version KnowledgeLake Imaging as a SharePoint AppAnd by providing a version Imaging as a SharePoint App, Imaging will be able to run on its own servers, providing a number benefits such asThe ability Scale and Upgrade Imaging independently of SharePoint and vice versaAs well as allowing us to install Imaging NOT ONLY On-Premise and in Hosted Environments, but to ALSO install Imaging onto Office 365 which in the past weren’t able to do
When thinking of KnowledgeLake Imaging as an App, you can think of the major components that I listed beforeYou can imagine KnowledgeLake View to be hosted in an Immersive PageWhile you can imagine KnowledgeLake Search to be created as a series of App PartsAnd a great example of a custom UI action would be a ribbon button in a document library to launch KnowledgeLake View
Demo Installation (using VS)Demo UI Custom ActionsDemo Search App PartsDemo Viewer Immersive PageFull HTML 5-based viewer, no Silverlight in useNotice URL of viewer, this application feels like it is running inside of SharePoint but it is running on its own server
So let me wrap things up by reminding you of the things I discussedI started off by providing a demo of KnowledgeLake Imaging 4.5 and spoke about the key focus areasOf upgrading and configuration, making it simple for you to quickly move to SharePoint 2013I briefly introduced you to the SharePoint App Model which will become a big part of SharePoint 2013 in the futureAnd I hope you enjoyed seeing the prototype of KnowledgeLake Imaging as a SharePoint AppThis is going to open up new possibilities for us and is definitely something that you should be excited about as wellQuestions?Thank you, I hope you enjoy the rest of the User Conference
