The Momentum 2010 session about SharePoint integration was on my list, because I’m currently working on an RFP where this is the major requirement. Some of the client’s requirements are pretty steep, so I was really looking forward to what’s in this product’s future.
Well, there was a lot of good news. The Documentum SharePoint integration products 6.6. versions will be released in a matter of weeks. My Documentum for SharePoint 6.6 will bring some more webparts and support for SharePoint 2010.
Repository Services for SharePoint 6.6 will provide a slightly different model from the previous version. Repository Services sits between the SharePoint UI and its storage in SQLServer. In the 6.5 version Repository Services would take the contents of any SharePoint documents and store the in Documentum, along with a copy of the meta data. In 6.6 the content is initially stored on a filesystem. A new journaling mechanism will then move the content from the filesystem into the Documentum repository batchwise.
There are 2 advantages to the journalling mechanic:
- You can add business rules to the journalling, so for instance only documents with a certain status will be moved into the Documentum repository
- It will improve SharePoint performance, since content retrieval from a filesystem is generally faster then from a docbase.
Disadvantage: an extra filesystem component to manage
There is a new product/developer option in this field: SDF (SharePoint Documentum Framework). This is a framework that EMC has been building and using in projects since 2007. There are already 40.000 people using this in production.
SDF is a customization framework that enables you to leverage most Documentum functionality from within a SharePoint site. It is based on DFSX, so it can use all the DFS webservices. Many have already been turned into SharePoint webparts, such as Browse, Search, Inbox, Query, WorkQueues, Records Management and IRM.
SDF also enables us to add custom menu items to SharePoint that can call DFS, or your own custom webservices. This can be configured using XML configuration files (it start to feel like WDK for SharePoint). SDF is also integrated with Sharepoint workflows. It adds an activity template that calls DFS a webservice, so you can add Documentum functions to your workflows. Lastly I saw a screenshot where a form built with FormsBuilder was displayed inside SharePoint, using picklists from Documentum. Very nice !
Thanks to Micheal Mohen for saving my RFP.
