This book covers a lot of ground including providing a history of SharePoint as well as a wealth of practical and often step-by-step information that will help organizations and end users get quickly up to speed on SharePoint in general and the new features and capabilities of SharePoint 2010 in particular.  One area that he spends a lot of time is on metadata, where he offers some excellent information on the use and benefit of metadata, specifically the new enterprise managed metadata (EMM) and term store functionality of SharePoint 2010.  One of the major benefits of Colligo’s SharePoint client solutions is around capturing and managing metadata, so it’s great to see the amount of space that Stephen dedicates to metadata tagging and taxonomy in his book.

Stephen provides an interesting, easy to read, and highly practical book on SharePoint 2010 and I highly recommend it. A big thanks to Stephen for his three pages on Colligo Contributor in Chapter 10 “Using SharePoint with Client Applications” where he gives an excellent summary of SharePoint client technology and the benefits of Colligo’s integration with Microsoft Outlook and Windows Explorer.

Get the book from Amazon here.

Dave Foster, our VP of Development, has created a short screencast that demonstrates a new feature in V4.2, the use of Keyword Metadata fields. This feature allows user created folksonomies to be accessible via the Colligo metadata editor. Users can set, edit, and modify terms from term stores on the server through a simple type-ahead interface from the Colligo Term selector.

Colligo Contributor retrieves potential term matches from the server and lets the users select the desired term. Selected metadata terms can then be used in filters and views to present items in a structure format.

View the screencast to see this new feature in action.

As a person who relies heavily on SharePoint for my work, I particularly appreciate the extensive support for metadata in Contributor File Manager, the new Windows Explorer extension. In addition to syncing document libraries and lists, it syncs the column definitions from the default view and displays them. Then I can use all the traditional sorting and grouping functions of Windows Explorer to organize the information. Accessing, editing and tagging SharePoint information is now extremely fast. Below is a screenshot to illustrate what I’m talking about.

Also, because Contributor now supports copying whole folder trees, including metadata, I can use the product to easily move files and metadata from one document library to another, or even one site to another. It’s much easier than doing it in SharePoint.

Q: If the SharePoint site is a hosted site and is authenticated via forms based authentication how will this affect the Outlook integration?

A: While Colligo does support Hosted SharePoint sites, at this time it does not support Forms based authentication. This is a feature we are actively looking in our roadmap for a future release of Contributor.

Q: When we work offline, where are the offline docs stored? Is it in the local .pst files?

A: Colligo Contributor does not store data in a .pst file. It stores information and the local cache outside of regular Outlook files and therefore minimizes any impact to Outlook. The SharePoint structure and metadata is stored in a SQL database and the SharePoint content is stored, in native file format, in the Windows file system.

The location of the cache is configurable but by default is located in the local users’ application data area e.g. c:\windows\users\USERNAME\Appdata\Local\ColligoOfflineClient in Microsoft Vista. The cache is shared and used by all of the Contributor interfaces – Client, Outlook Add-In and File Manager.

Q: Is there full support for Outlook 2003?

A: Yes, Contributor supports the use of both Office 2003 and Office 2007 – and the Outlook Attachment Handler feature is available for both Outlook versions. In addition, Contributor is supported on both Microsoft XP and Microsoft Vista installations and 4.0 will provide Windows 7 compatibility.

Q: How do you upload incoming email attachments directly to SharePoint WITHOUT saving to hard drive first?

A: The Colligo Contributor attachment handler is designed to automatically upload outgoing email attachments to SharePoint then replace them with a link. Attachments in incoming emails can be uploaded using a simple drag and drop. For example, using the Contributor Outlook Add-In, the destination SharePoint locations are revealed as Outlook folders in the users’ mailbox area. Users then simply drag attachments from an incoming email and drop them onto the desired folder. Contributor will upload the item to SharePoint. In fact, the complete email can be similarly moved and Contributor will create an .msg file including the attachments, auto-extract the email metadata and then upload it to the SharePoint site.

When users link SharePoint document libraries into the Outlook folder tree, they can choose whether the library is to be cached or not. If the library is cached, then all emails are saved to the local hard drive then synced to SharePoint. If the library is not cached, the emails are synced directly to SharePoint (though they are cached temporarily to enable offline operation), and are not saved on the hard drive.

Q: Can you only use Contributor for internal e-mails within a company or only those who have access to the SharePoint site?

A: No – the Contributor Outlook Attachment Handler facilitates the uploading of attachments to SharePoint without placing any restrictions or limitations on the SharePoint site. It does, however, require that the recipients have access to the SharePoint location or locations where the attachments are stored.

In addition, due to the wide variety of email policies, it was determined that the ability for enterprises to create custom rules engines to match their particular email business logic was the best extension to our solution. This enables enterprises to determine what they want to happen in any scenario and then use the rules engine to assist their email users in meeting those requirements.

Q: What about the email itself? Does this get stored in the library or just the attachment(s)?

A: The Colligo Outlook Add-In Attachment manager facilitates the uploading of attachments or the insertion of existing content as attachments into draft emails. Because the email is in draft form (it has not actually been sent through Exchange) the feature does not currently upload a complete .msg file.

The Colligo Contributor Add-In for Outlook, however, does support the uploading of complete emails as .msg files to SharePoint via a drag and drop to Outlook folders that are linked to SharePoint document libraries.

Q: Has any of this changed with SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint WorkSpace 2010?

A: Unfortunately until Microsoft publishes the final feature set of the 2010 products, we cannot comment about specific features or uses. However, as a Microsoft Gold Partner, Colligo works to align its products with the Microsoft roadmap and to extend their ease of use and functionality to meet current business needs. Contributor supports its feature set across a range of Microsoft product versions enabling customers to migrate freely while maintaining a consistent user experience.

Q: How do you handle security for the attachment location on SharePoint?

A: The Contributor Outlook Add-In Attachment Handler facilitates the uploading of attachments to SharePoint without placing any restrictions or limitations on the SharePoint site. In order to open and view attachments, it does require that the recipients have access to the SharePoint location or locations where the attachments are stored. A custom attachment rules engine may be developed to ensure such access permission exist for each recipient.

Q: How do you handle OWA users?

A: Contributor is a PC client application which uses the full Outlook email client. At this time the Attachment Handler feature is not available via the OWA client.

Q: How much of the rules code is already written? In other words, do I have to be a coder to use this?

A: No, you don’t have to be a coder. Contributor provides an out-of-the-box attachment rules engine which manages uploading based on limiting the total size of included attachments. This has configurable limits for both warning and blocking emails from being sent and requires no coding. Partners are available to develop customized engines if required.

Q: Can you use the plug in to upload received files or to force attachments to be stored in SharePoint?

A: The Contributor Outlook Add-In can be used to manage inbox content. The standard features in this product include ability to drag and drop emails and/or their attachments to SharePoint locations which are identified in the users Outlook folder tree. In addition the Add-in support the use of Outlook rules to provide a more automated method of moving emails into SharePoint. More information on using SharePoint to manage emails can be found in our Resource Centre.

The attachment manager in Colligo Contributor 4.0 can be used to force users to upload attachments to SharePoint.

Q: What if I am travelling and I get an email from a co-worker whose attachment is uploaded to SharePoint? Am I forced to connect using VPN to access SharePoint and thus the attachment?

A: Contributor will insert a URL to the storage location within SharePoint and the recipient will need to access the SharePoint site to examine the attachment. The actual connection to the SharePoint site will depend on the capabilities of the device used to receive the email and where and when such access is required. For example: this could be used to support corporate information policies where emails can be read on mobile devices but documents must be secured with the enterprise domain.

If you are using Contributor to cache the location where email attachments are stored (such as a team or department site), you would be able to access it when you are travelling (assuming the email was sent prior to your last sync).

Q: I want to restrict the reading of the attachment to just the recipients plus myself. Do I need to create document library and set the permissions accordingly to mail recipient list?

A: You could do that if you want. If the scenario is one where you are sending attachments to the same team members often, then you could set up the permissions beforehand. However, creating a document library per set of attachments may be too great an overhead if the recipients are constantly changing. Unfortunately we cannot enable users to set item level permissions through Contributor, since they are not directly available using client side APIs. A custom engine which combines the client side interface with a custom server side web service to set permissions could be a possibility. (This may have security and credential implications).

Q: Would there be any limitations imposed by my IT group that would limit the use of Contributor?

A: Colligo Contributor is a standard .Net application and is a client PC only installation which requires no server components or configuration. Generally if users are able to install software on their PC they can install and use Contributor. Contributor also uses the same SharePoint services as Microsoft’s products (Internet Explorer, Office, etc.) and it only extends whatever access has been configured on the SharePoint sites (i.e. it uses the same access and security configuration as the SharePoint site) so PCs which can access SharePoint are normally configured with sufficient access for Contributor. There may, however, be IT policies on information management, retention and storage, etc. which will impact the usability of Contributor.

Q: How does this work with SharePoint single sign on?

A: Contributor supports Active Directory credentials including NTLM and Kerberos but not Single Sign On at this time.

Q: When using the insert attachment link, how to search for content? Large lists should have search facilities (by doc type and wildcard)

A: The Attachment Handler is used in conjunction with the Outlook Add-in product which support filters and views to manage content and information. Your suggestion, however, for search type facilities will be added to our roadmap process.

Q: Any plans for Colligo to allow users to create rules to strip attachments from incoming mails and put them into the “Colligo for Sharepoint” folder based on set criteria (PDF from x address goes to this folder)?

A: At this time we have not formulated a specific plan for this type of feature although it is an item in our overall roadmap list.

Q: How is this licensed?

A: As a client application, Contributor is licensed on a similar basis to a Client Access License (CAL). Each user needs a license which is associated with the machine the software is installed on. Volume discounts are available.

Q: How can users quickly find the correct document library – if they are used to browsing the web front end and using bread crumbs?

A: In order to pick a document library destination for attachments, a user must first link it first to Colligo Contributor. They can do this from the browser (using the Connect to Outlook button on the tool bar) or by pressing the “connect” button in Outlook. Available document libraries are then shown in the list of locations when saving attachments in SharePoint. Contributor always remembers the last location picked and displays it as a favourite location.

Q: When will Colligo 4 be out?

A: Colligo Contributor 4 for Windows Vista & Windows XP is in the final stages of its beta program and is expected to be released the week of October 12.

Q: We use CRM 4.0, where e-mails and contacts can be archived. How does that fit that with Colligo and mails in SharePoint?

A: CRM has its own database of emails, contacts and information relating to customer engagement. There is no direct linkage of information between information stored in CRM and information stored in SharePoint. The decision whether information is stored in CRM, SharePoint or both would be a matter for significant IT analysis and would require a solution beyond the scope of Contributor, although Contributor could be part of that solution.

For those that missed the webinar, there is a reply available here. There you can also get a trial of the Add-In for Outlook with the attachment manager function and download the sample code that Eric demonstrates.

I will post the answers to the webinar questions in a few days.

If you would like to request a beta copy of 4.0 for testing, please fill out the Colligo Contributor Pro Beta Request Form. Once we’ve had a chance to sift through the requests, we will send out copies of the beta code next week (week of August 10th). We will even provide a nifty online form for testers to provide their feedback quickly!

Note: the Beta is now closed, but you can trial the latest version of Contributor here.

Version 4.0 offers major feature enhancements, increases the extensibility of the Contributor platform and expands our product line.

WHAT’S NEW IN 4.0 – NEW FILE MANAGER INTERFACE PLUS LOTS OF NEW FEATURES

Window Explorer Integration – Contributor File Manager exposes SharePoint Functionality through the well known Windows Explorer interface. Users may create, edit, and delete documents fully supporting Content Types defined in the SharePoint architecture. The Windows Explorer Integration extends the Explorer interface allowing users access to SharePoint features including Check-Out/Check-In and Metadata.

File Open/Save As – By exposing the SharePoint connection in Windows Explorer, SharePoint folders can be accessed from any application that uses the standard Windows File Open/Save dialog.

Attachment Upload Replace with Link – Contributor Attachment Manager extension to the Contributor Add-in makes it easy for a user to save their email attachments to SharePoint and send a link to the SharePoint item. Sending a link to the attachment reduces the network bandwidth consumed by both the email Sender and Recipients; reduces disk-quota space consumed in the email mail box; and helps maintain a single master version ensuring recipients are accessing the current version of the document at all times.

Send Rules for Attachments – Contributor Attachment Manager supports rules to restrict the ability to send emails with attachments. The standard rule can be configured to block sending emails with total attachment size larger than a configurable limit. Users are encouraged to use the ‘Attachment Upload Replace with Link’ feature to replace attachments with links to SharePoint items.

Custom Rules for Attachments – Enterprises may override the default ‘Send Rules for Attachments’. Rules may be designed to apply business rules specific to the business. Rules may reference the Email (recipients, subject, body, etc); the Attachments (Filename, Size, etc); or any other data source.

Drag and Drop Files and Folders between SharePoint Sites – Folder Drag-and-Drop allows you to recursively copy folders and their contents within a Document Library or to a new Document Library from an existing Document Library. Item metadata is retained during the operation. Optional metadata prompt is supported for folder drag-and-drop (including Custom Metadata Editor).

Drag and Drop Folders between Windows and SharePoint – Folder Drag-and-Drop allows you to recursively copy folders and their contents from a standard Windows folder to a Document Library. Office 2007 embedded metadata is maintained during the copy. Optional metadata prompt is supported for folder drag-and-drop (including Custom Metadata Editor).

Better Documentation and Updates – A new help guide makes it much easier to discover features and get the most out of Contributor. The check for update button will keep you up to date on new Contributor releases. You can also use this feature to determine if we have released any updates or critical enhancements.

I feel compelled to provide a preliminary response to the questions and comments. Frankly, it’s too early to be doing this as SharePoint Workspace is still in private beta, so no one can talk about the details publicly. And the devil’s in the details, as they say. While we’ve had a chance to play with the code, we are under NDA and cannot talk about it (and rightly so).

I will say one thing, though. As a Gold certified partner and managed partner of Microsoft, we work closely with the Office and SharePoint teams, and have developed some great relationships… including with people on the Groove / SharePoint Workspace team. We are getting our messaging ready for the release of Office 2010. By the time SharePoint Workspace 2010 is released, it will be really clear where Colligo fits in and where SharePoint Workspace fits in.

In fact, we are very excited that Microsoft is going to be raising the awareness of the “SharePoint client” product category – a category that we have been pioneering for almost four years.

While I’m not going to talk further about SharePoint Workspace, I want to provide a few points when you are thinking about Colligo. This should give you some idea what we will be talking about when Office 2010 is released:

1. Colligo Contributor is a platform that supports many SharePoint functions on a users desktop and exposes them through a .NET API. As we evolve our product line, we work to fill in the holes in the MS product offering – to ensure that specific scenarios (such as ECM, or email management, or network file share replacement, or Exchange Public Folder replacement) are supported well by the combination of SharePoint and Colligo Contributor. This is the key to our strategy.
2. In addition to the three standard interfaces (Client, Outlook Add-In, and Windows Explorer File Manager) that we offer today, many customers have developed custom SharePoint client applications using the Contributor SDK, so they can streamline and improve the user experience. This capability will be further enhanced in future releases.
3. The Colligo Contributor run-time engine is highly configurable for the management of metadata and content types. User-defined default metadata and automatic email metadata extraction are a couple of examples. This will be extended to support new capabilities in SharePoint 2010.
4. The Outlook Add-In interface is unique and unlike anything Microsoft offers. It provides a complete SharePoint experience in Outlook, again to fill an unmet need. One of the new capabilities is the ability to manage email attachments in SharePoint; something IT has needed for quite awhile.
5. Again, unique in Contributor is the File Manager, which provides a complete SharePoint experience in Windows Explorer, including the presentation and management of SharePoint metadata, templates, etc. It’s also integrated with Windows desktop applications, such as MS Office, so SharePoint functions can be performed right within the Open and Save As dialogs.
6. Contributor supports (and will continue to support) SharePoint 2003, 2007 (and 2010), as well as Office 2003, 2007 (and 2010). This provides our customers a lot of flexibility as they upgrade Office and SharePoint. In fact, even today many enterprises have still not upgraded to Office 2007. How quickly will they make the transition to Office 2010?
7. Colligo is super light weight and easy to use, with few dependencies.
8. Colligo Offers a sophisticated SharePoint download product, Colligo Reader, to the community completely free of charge. It doesn’t contain “nagware” or ads, either. It’s been downloaded and is being used by hundreds of thousands of people.
9. Thousands of organizations all over the World have deployed Colligo Contributor. It’s a battle hardened product with a feature set that has been honed through many customer deployments.

Notice I didn’t talk at all about offline. Sure, we do it, but Contributor is so much more than that now.

Humbly, we believe we are the leaders in the SharePoint client market today and offer the richest and deepest products and technologies. Others seem to agree with us, too. For example, a recent article in ReadWriteEnterprise proclaimed:

”When it Comes to SharePoint on the Desktop, Colligo Reigns Supreme”

I think we’ve achieved this position because we understand what people want to do with SharePoint. We believe we will continue to lead in the future. But we will do it by complementing, not competing with, SharePoint Workspace 2010.

Finally, I’ve been hearing about the imminent demise of Colligo ever since Groove came out of stealth mode in 2001. We were in the peer to peer space back then, but again our product was completely differentiated and served a different customer. We didn’t die. Then again in 2005 when Microsoft bought Groove, we were going to be dead… Nope, sorry. Then in 2007 when Office 2007 came out and Groove was positioned as the offline client for SharePoint. Nyet. Now again in 2009.

Well, we’re not dead now … in fact we are thriving. I don’t think we will be dead when Office 2010 comes out next year, either. I think it will be good for us… and, heck, who knows what we will build ON TOP of SharePoint Workspace in the future.

Colligo Contributor 4.0 is scheduled for release the week of July 13th, 2009. For a list of features, please read the press release.

The webinar spawned a lot of interesting questions. Unfortunately, due to the overwhelming number that attendees posted, we were not able to answer all of them live. So, below are the answers to those questions that didn’t get answered. Please feel free to post comments with additional questions and we will answer them here.

Q: Can you provide some information on how release 4 integrates with SharePoint calendars with custom fields?

A: Like SharePoint libraries and lists, Calendar lists can be synchronized into Contributor’s local cache. Contributor displays Calendars as a line oriented item list and not in a calendar or tabular format. As with other lists Contributor will synchronize the full list definition including any additional fields which have been configured.

Q: Is it also possible to add a File not just a link directly from SharePoint to an email to external recipients?

A: The standard interfaces provided in Contributor enable a simple drag and drop of a file from the Contributor interface into a draft email. This can be attached as a regular file. A new feature in R4 in the Outlook Addin product is the ability to manage attachments. This feature gives an additional method to simply browse to a file in the local cache and add it as either as a file or URL into a draft email. The Colligo Attachment Rules engine, which is used to determine if the attachments must be sent as SharePoint links, uses maximum combined attachment size to limit attachments. This rule engine is an open interface and, using the Contributor SDK, can be customized to any business logic an organization requires including examining the recipient list to determine if there are external addresses.

Q: Does the Explorer interface support CTRL+C and CTRL+V functionality?

A: The File Manager in R4 does not currently support these keyboard commands but we are investigating this feature for future releases.

Q: Does Colligo 4.0 work with Infopath Forms we have developed and does it synchronize them to the server?

A: Yes, Colligo Contributor has support for InfoPath forms, including offline access to form templates. There may be, however, conditions and restrictions which need to be managed depending on your forms and configuration.

Q: Will it be possible to add cascading listboxes (linked listboxes) in the metadata dialog?

A: The standard metadata editor does not support cascading listboxes, however, a custom metadata editor can be developed using the Contributor SDK. Design implications regarding the source of the list data, offline availability, etc. should be considered and further information is available through our developer support program and on our support site.

Q: Does Colligo support default views based on folder content types?

A: Colligo currently supports library and list default views.

Q: Does Colligo support folder level customized “New” buttons?

A: Colligo currently supports the default library “New” button and displays all of the available content types.

Q: Will Colligo 4.0 be a free upgrade or will there be any upgrade cost for existing/recent 3.2 users?

A: That depends on whether your maintenance and support is current. If so, you will likely receive a free upgrade. Colligo will be offering a number of upgrade programs for existing customers which will be announced shortly. Contact your Colligo Sales representative (or email sales@colligo.com) for further information.

Q: In what areas are Colligo v4 stronger than the upcoming Groove-feature in SP-2010?

Q: How do you differentiate yourself from the upcoming SharePoint Workspace release?

Q: With the repositioning of Groove as the ‘Sharepoint Workspace’, how will Colligo provide value above and beyond the features of the ‘new Groove’?

A: Unfortunately at this time, until the features of Office and SharePoint 2010 are finalized and made publicly available, we are unable to give a detailed response. However we can say that as a Microsoft Gold Certified partner, Colligo is working closely with the Office and SharePoint teams to ensure we provide features that enhance Office and SharePoint 2010.

Q: Can you schedule times where Colligo will go into a specific mailbox and move all e-mails in that mailbox to a specific folder in SharePoint?

A: The Outlook Addin will upload to SharePoint any emails deposited in one of its managed folders. Outlook or Exchange rules can be used to move emails into these Colligo managed outlook folders. Colligo will then move all emails in that folder to the corresponding SharePoint folder, automatically extracting email metadata and, using the Contributor default folder level metadata feature, additional fields can be set.

Q: Is the drag and drop option available in the standard version of Colligo Contributor (Not Pro)?

A: Yes, folder level drag and drop will be available in each of the Client, Outlook Addin and File manager interfaces.

Q: Are there any limitations with large SharePoint sites syncing with Colligo?

A: Contributor does not impose any limitations on the amount of content that can be sychronized to a users PC, however, there are a number of factors which will impact user experience including available resources (disk, network, etc.), site complexity (number of libraries, lists, folders and items) and content volatility (size of each item, its metadata and frequency of update). All of these will affect performance and may be different in each installation.

Q: Does the 4.0 version allow you to display sub-sites under the parent site?

A: Colligo R4 is based on connections at a single site level. Each site or sub-site has to be individually connected.

Q: When will this new version be available?

A: Colligo R4 is scheduled to be available during the week of July 13th. Upgrade information for existing customers will be available at that time.

Q: Is it possible to add an https SharePoint URL as a link?

A: Yes, Contributor uses the same links as it accessing the SharePoint site for synchronization. If the site is accessed through https then that link protocol prefix will be specified in the URL.

Q: Does Colligo offer any client side encryption?

A: Yes, Colligo Contributor supports the use of Windows Encrypting File System (EFS). In addition, all file based content is stored in native Windows file format in an open directory structure enabling other security technologies to be deployed.

Q: Does Colligo Contributor also work with other servers besides Sharepoint (e.g. Alfresco Share that supports the same server program interfaces and thus should be transparent for Colligo)?

A: Colligo has not performed an integration and verification with this particular product or other non-SharePoint services. We will certainly add this to the list of potential features we may offer in future releases.

Q: Does the SharePoint attachment management system work if the recipient of the email is external to the SharePoint system?

A: The Colligo attachment manager facilitates the uploading of attachments to SharePoint sites. Out-of-the-box, it does not dicriminate between internal and external email addresses. However, the attachment manager includes a rules engine which can be customized to match enterprise policies on how attachments should be handled. The treatment of an attachment when there is an external recipient is one of the considerations which can be incorporated into that business logic.