Web Parts Product Overview

Web parts is a term used to describe functionality such as that provided by basic portlets, similar to the Content Portlet Suite currently available. Web Parts product technology enables users to interact with a Content Server using Microsoft's SharePoint technology by using these web parts.

The major components involved in a typical installation include:

UCM: Universal Content Manager, which allows organizations to manage their documents in a central repository known as a UCM Server.
Content Server: A storage repository for content from various sources. It provides a solution for archiving and managing email, files, and other data types.
SharePoint Repository: A storage repository for content using SharePoint technology and interface functions.
Web Parts product: A way to communicate between UCM and the Enterprise Vault as well as the SharePoint Repository. The Web Parts product enables corporations to control content in the Enterprise Vault and the SharePoint Repository.

Two primary use cases exist for the combination of the Web Parts product and SharePoint:

Using SharePoint to collaborate on documents then 'promoting' them to a Content Server for storage or use on the enterprise system. This allows users to manage content in SharePoint, including in workflows, collaboration projects, and so forth, but use Content Server for storage and retention.
Using a SharePoint front end but storing the content behind SharePoint in a Universal Content Management (UCM) system. This allows users who are familiar with SharePoint to use that interface for many tasks.

The web parts also provide for the use of both a SharePoint content repository and a Content Server repository. Content items can be moved between the two systems. This allows consumers who are familiar with SharePoint to interact with the Content Server through a known interface, thus making it easier to contribute and search for content.

After installation, the Web Parts product provides a navigation tree on the SharePoint system with functionality available through web parts. The following is a brief description of this functionality. See Chapter 3, "Using Web Parts" for details on using each of these options.

My Saved Queries: Displays a user's saved queries and subnodes, allowing the user to open a Content Server search form.
My Saved URLs: Provides access to the user's saved URLs. After clicking the URL title, a new browser window opens with the URL target displayed.
My Workflow Assignments: Provides information about the user's current workflow assignments.
My Checked-Out Content: Provides access to the user's currently checked out content. This is only available if the user is logged in with the contributor, admin, or sysmanager role.
My Subscriptions: Provides access to the user's Content Server subscriptions.
Contribution Folders (available if the Folders component is enabled): Provides access to folders and subfolders.
Trash (available if the Folders component is enabled): Provides access to the Trash folder.

The following menu items are also available to those users logged in as an Administrator:

Administration: Provides access to Web Support Server (WSS) settings.
Content Server Users: Allows access to a listing of all content server users.
External Mapped User: Allows access to a list of all externally mapped users.
Search Form Definitions: Allows administrators to design custom search forms for queries.

Many of these menu options have additional options available. For example, if a user clicks an item's icon a menu is displayed with actions available for that option. See Chapter 3, "Using Web Parts" for details about the functionality of each option.