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Outlook and SharePoint – Linkage in 2010?

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So we’ve had Outlook integrated with SharePoint since 2003, what’s new in 2010, you may ask? And we do have an answer!

Here’s one of our engineer’s who’s done some great work with write-up and screenshots to show-off this functionality. Another things I was researching.

This is the functionality in 2007:

https://blogs.msdn.com/outlook/archive/2007/09/28/sharepoint-outlook-the-perfect-link.aspx

 

We’ve got more in 2010, and here’s just a document covering the fullness of the experience:

Business Productivity At Its Best Whitepaper (PDF)

 

However, some interesting capabilities exist – such as building forms in Outlook, that access external data and can update it too!

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee819909(v=office.14).aspx

And here’s what’s in store:

What Kind of Customizations Can You Perform?

By using an intermediate declarative Outlook solution, you can do the following:

  • Show native or custom external data parts in the Outlook task pane  You can define custom task panes and present external data to users by hosting external data parts (either those provided by Business Connectivity Services or custom external data parts created by a developer) in a task pane.

  • Include custom ribbons and actions   You can define ribbon files and custom actions that are exposed in the ribbon or in an external data part that either trigger code or launch a browser that points to a specified URL that can take Business Data Connectivity (BDC) service fields as parameters. Actions can be URL-based or can point to code actions created by a developer.

  • Create a custom view definition in Outlook  Starting with basic Outlook elements, you can customize the view that is shown for a folder of external data. Business Connectivity Services provides a command to save the customized view as an Outlook View Definition (.ovd) file, so that it is available to users who install the declarative solution. 

  • Customize Outlook form regions to present external data in Outlook  You can create customized Outlook form regions that show external data by designing new form regions in Outlook.

How Do You Create an Intermediate Declarative Outlook Solution?

You create an intermediate declarative Outlook solution by creating the following artifacts: a BDC model, solution manifest (oir.config), a subscription for each external content type, and optionally, a custom ribbon, one or more task pane layouts, custom form regions, and custom Outlook view definitions. Then, you can package these solution artifacts into an Office development tools in Visual Studio 2010 ClickOnce package by using the BCS Solution Packaging Tool. After you package the solution artifacts, users can install the package in Outlook.

How Do Intermediate Declarative Outlook Solutions Work?

An intermediate declarative Outlook solution takes advantage of the Business Connectivity Services Client Runtime to interpret the solution artifacts and tells the runtime what external data to show, from where to show it, how to show it, and what users can do with it. The Business Connectivity Services client cache on the client maintains the metadata and the cached external content types that are of interest to the user. A declarative solution uses the native Business Connectivity Services Outlook add-in that presents the elements defined in the solution artifacts at run-time within Outlook. This architecture enables experienced users and developers to focus on solving business needs, instead of managing the complexity of interacting with the Outlook and Business Connectivity Services APIs to perform common and repetitive tasks.