Install the IBM Connections Plug-in for Microsoft SharePoint 

The IBM Connections Plug-in for Microsoft™ SharePoint brings IBM Connections features such as searching by tag, searching by profile, and viewing business cards, into the SharePoint environment.


Before starting


For information on supported versions of Microsoft SharePoint, see the system requirements on the download page for the plug-in: https://greenhouse.lotus.com/catalog .


Procedure

  1. Download the plug-in from the IBM Connections catalog web site:

  2. Log on to the Windows™ Server with the SharePoint administrator ID. The plug-in installer requires full access to the SharePoint directories. Usually, the SharePoint administrator ID also has system administration rights on the server.

  3. Run the installation program, lotus-connections-sharepoint-plugin.exe or lotus-connections-sharepoint-plugin-64.exe for 64-bit servers.

  4. After the installation program completes, the plug-in configuration program launches automatically. On the URL Settings tab of the configuration program, specify the Profiles Server URL, for example, http://connections.mycompany.com/profiles.

  5. Tab to the Federated Search URL field. It will be automatically filled in based on the Profiles Server URL, but you can change it if necessary.

  6. If you are installing on MOSS 2007, there will be two additional fields:

    • In the Shared Service Provider (SSP) field, enter the names of the SSPs that are active on the server (in a default installation of MOSS there is one SSP called SharedServices1). Separate multiple names by pressing Enter.

    • In the Search Center URLs field, enter the root URLs of any search centers that you want to enable for Profiles search. These search centers must be sites based on the "Enterprise Search Center with Tabs" template. Specify the root URL in the format http://<server>/<sitename>/Pages. For example, http://sp.mycompany.com/MySearch/Pages.

      The default installation of MOSS automatically creates one tabbed Search Center at http://<server>/SearchCenter/Pages.

  7. After you have completed the URL Settings fields, click Apply. The configuration program may take several minutes to execute. When it has completed, click OK to exit the program.

  8. If you are installing on MOSS 2007, you need to perform additional steps to enable the search centers for Profiles Search:

    1. Log on to the SharePoint site as the administrator and navigate to the first search center.

    2. Click Site Actions -> View All Site Content.

    3. Under the Lists category, click Tabs in Search Pages.

    4. Click New. Set the Tab Name field to any text you want, for example, Profiles Search. Set the Page field to lcpsearch.aspx. Click OK to save the new tab.

    5. Go back to the Lists category and click Tabs in Search Results.

    6. Click New. Set the Tab Name field to any text you want, for example, Profiles Results. Set the Page field to lcpsearchresults.aspx. Click OK to save the new tab.

    7. Go back to the search center and click the new Profiles Search tab. This will cause the aspx page to compile.

    8. Click Publish to make the page available to all users.

    9. Enter a search query. This will cause the results page to compile.

    10. Click Publish to make the page available to all users.

    11. Repeat the above steps for the other search centers.

      Note: The plug-in automatically adds a Profiles by Name search scope to the generic SharePoint search bar that is usually found at the top of every page. Profiles results from search bar queries display in the first Search Center that you specified.

  9. After you install the plug-in, if you get a Page Not Found error when you use Profiles search from SharePoint, it is because the lcpsearch and lcpsearchresults pages are not checked in. To correct this:

    1. Login as administrator.

    2. Click Search Tab.

    3. Select Site Actions -> View All Site Content.

    4. Click the Pages link.

    5. Find lcpsearch and lcpsearchresults from the drop-down menu and click Check In for each one.

    6. Click OK and Save.

  10. Your SharePoint users can now use the IBM Connections features integrated with SharePoint. For example, SharePoint site owners can add the tag cloud web part to their sites.

  11. If you cannot see the IBM Connections business card on Internet Explorer, follow these additional steps:

    1. Start Internet Explorer.

    2. Click Tools -> Internet Options.

    3. On the Security tab, click Custom Level for Internet settings.

    4. In the Security Settings list, change Access data sources across domains in the Miscellaneous section to Enable.

    5. Click OK.

    6. Click Yes when you receive the following message: Are you sure you want to change the security settings for this zone?

    7. Click OK.


What to do next


The Tag Cloud web part is installed during the plug-in configuration, but the SharePoint administrator must activate it for the site. For example, 

C:\Program Files\IBM\Lotus\Connections\Plug-in for Microsoft SharePoint\Features\TagCloud\deploy>tagcloudsetup /activate /weburl http://testsite.test.com

Note: If you create a new site collection after installing the plug-in, the profiles search and business card features are available automatically, but the tag cloud is not. To make the tag cloud available, launch the plug-in configuration program, go to the Plug-in Applications tab, deactivate the tag cloud, and activate it again. This will add the tag cloud to the web part catalog of all new site collections.

Let your user community know that the integration features are available for use. The Profiles Search bar is available at the top of the SharePoint site. Users can enter a name to search the Lotus Connection profile directory, or click a name to open the associated profile. The business card feature is also globally available, so users can hover over a person's name and see the person's associated business card. Site owners can add the IBM Connections tag cloud web part so that users can search IBM Connections content by tag.

The Profiles business card is available for person names that appear in tables and lists and other locations throughout the SharePoint user interface. The card looks up names in the Profiles directory by email address. In order for the card to work for a particular name, that person must have the same email address in both the SharePoint directory and in the Profiles directory. If SharePoint and Connections are using the same LDAP directory, this will not be a problem, but different directories can be used as long as the email addresses match.

To remove this plug-in, follow this procedure:


Parent topic

IBM Connections Plug-in for Microsoft SharePoint

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