SharePoint Online DMS extension

The SharePoint Online DMS Extension allows integration with SharePoint Online.

• Vertec-generated Legacy Office Reports and Office Reports can save their output directly to Sharepoint. The result is shown in Office Online and can be processed directly.
• Documents and emails can be sent via Vertec Explorer add-in via Vertec directly to Sharepoint. This takes into account the document paths in Vertec, as explained below.
• Documents can be opened and edited from within Vertec in Microsoft 365 Online.

The following operations are not possible:

• Save Office-generated legacy reports to SharePoint
• Using report templates from SharePoint

The following steps are required to start up the extension:

Prerequisites

For the operation of the extension a Sharepoint Online is required. There must be at least one main user / administrator with login. Here in the examples we use a Microsoft Office 365 with Sharepoint Online.

It can: several document libraries via Sharepoint interface The maximum quantity is 200 sites in Vertec versions prior to 6.4.0.21.

Installing the extension in Vertec

To install the extension, open the Sharepoint Online DMS Extension in the settings folder and click Install.

The extension creates the following CRM/Activity system settings:

After changing the values in the system settings, Vertec must be restarted or clicked on the Reload button in the Sharepoint Online DMS Extension.

Document Path

The system settings General > Document storage  must be on Filesystem oder DMS be set.

The base path (System settings General > Document Path  is specified with Sharepoint: followed by the directory in which the Vertec documents are to be saved in the Sharepoint, e.g. Sharepoint:\mydir.

The documents generated from Vertec or via Vertec Explorer add-in saved in Vertec are saved directly in Sharepoint Online.

The Vertec Document management  is designed in such a way that the SharePoint: Prefix can also be used individually for objects or objects. Classes It is therefore also possible to save only certain documents in Sharepoint without changing the general document path to Sharepoint.

User authentication

The Sharepoint Online DMS extension provides two different operating modes for user authentication:

“As Vertec app” mode

Here, Vertec always loads the documents for all users under the same user account, or the name configured in the app registration, as “Vertec app”. User rights cannot be used to distinguish who has uploaded the document.

“Individual user” mode

Starting with version 6.5.0.1. For the system settings to be visible, an already installed Sharepoint Online DMS extension must be uninstalled and reinstalled.

Prerequisite: The initial activation of the user logins can only be done by means of a cloud or web app. After that, all Vertec apps can be used.

Vertec also logs in to Sharepoint as a “Vertec app,” but the files are stored with the corresponding user’s Sharepoint account. For this to work, each user must log in once via a browser. The credentials are sent back to Vertec and the documents are uploaded under this user account. This shows which user uploaded the documents.

To activate individual authentication, the checkbox must DMS SharePoint OAuth individuelle Anmeldung verwenden in system settings > CRM / activities. In addition, in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center under app Registration > Vertec (name of your registered Vertec app) the URL of your company access with /callback at the end (e.g. https://demo.vertec-cloud.com/callback ) and the user rights, see further down .

Connect multiple document libraries via the SharePoint interface

Several different document libraries can be accessed. The different libraries are distinguished by the path.

It is possible that the library URL is only partially specified in Vertec, in such a way that all library URLs to be used can be generated by completing this path.

Vertec first checks the Library URL stored in the system for completeness. If it is, this directory is used. If Vertec does not yet find a library with this step, the first directory from the Vertec document path is successively appended to the Library URL until a library is found. The rest of the document path is used to define the path of the file within the library.

If you want to use several document libraries and save documents per class, you have to consider the following:

• Under system settings General > Document Path, the root DMS path must be defined, e.g. Sharepoint:\MultiSite2\Shared Documents. This is the default path and is used for all objects that have not defined a different path (see next item). The default path must be valid as a stand-alone path.
• In the folder Settings > Class Settings, an absolute Sharepoint path must be entered for all classes that differ from the default directory, e.g. Sharepoint:\MultiSite1\Shared Documents\contacts\%if oclistypeof(Contact) then oclastype(Contact).company.name else name endif%.

Register Vertec application in Microsoft 365

This process must be carried out once per company.

• https://portal.azure.com/ open and click on Manage Microsoft Entra ID
• Click App Registrations on the left

Creating an application

1. Click on + New Registration
2. Enter a name, e.g. Vertec
3. Click on the Register button
4. After that, Home > customer AG | App Registration > Vertec should be open, with Vertec = name of newly created app
5. Enter the Application ID (Client) (not the Object ID) in the Vertec system settings under DMS Sharepoint Application ID (see extension in Vertec).

Setting and granting accepted rights

1. Click API user rights > Add user rights
2. Select Microsoft Graph from the list
3. Set user rights:
   • For the mode “As Vertec app” mode all user rights of type Anwendung Add:

     API/Permission Name	description
     Files.ReadWrite.All	Read and write files in all site collections
     Sites.FullControl.All	Have full control of all site collections
     Sites.Manage.All	Create, edit, and delete items and lists in all site collections
     Sites.ReadWrite.All	Read and write items in all site collections

   • For the “Individual user” mode all user rights of type Delegiert Add:

     API/Permission Name	description
     Sites.FullControl.All	Has full access to all site collections
     Sites.Manage.All	Create, edit, and delete items and lists in all site collections
     Sites.ReadWrite.All	Edit or delete items in all site collections
     User.Read	Log in and read user profile

4. Click Add user rights each time. This step activates the rights you just selected, administrator permissions are required. This step must be successful, otherwise the connection will not work later. If you have problems, Azure will report an error.

Create a key

1. Links to Zertifikate und Geheimnisse click
2. Under Client Secret Keys, click New Client Secret Key
3. In the Description field, enter a name for the key, e.g. Verteckey
4. Select the period of validity of the key (maximum 24 months) and remember the corresponding expiration date to create a new key before it expires and replace it with the old one.
5. Click on Add
6. The key in the column Wert appears, must be entered in the Vertec system settings under DMS Sharepoint Application Secret (see Instal the extension in Vertec). The key will no longer be retrievable later.
7. Close client or reload the Sharepoint extension

Create or designate a SharePoint Site

This process must be carried out once per company.

At this point, there are 3 cases:

1. A new SharePoint site is created (please follow appropriate Microsoft instructions) or an existing SharePoint site is used.
   • Open this site in your browser
2. A new team with TeamSite is created (please follow the corresponding instructions from Microsoft) or an existing TeamSite is used in which the documents are to be stored.
   • Open Microsoft Teams Web App
   • Navigate to the corresponding team or open the corresponding team
   • show files
   • Select Open in Sharepoint
3. Create a new Microsoft 365 Group with Group Site (please follow the instructions provided by Microsoft) or use an existing Microsoft 365 Group with Group Site.
   • Open the Microsogt 365 Group site in your browser

All 3 cases lead to the same result: There is now a SharePoint site and it is open in the browser.

Now in the Settings menu, click on the menu item Website settings:

A list of the document libraries of the site will appear. In the action menu of the corresponding document library, click on Settings:

Under Web address you should now see a link in the form https://kundenoffice365.sharepoint.com/sites/KundenTeam/Freigegebene Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx?.

Copy the first part of the link, without /Forms/Allitems.aspx etc. (i.e. https://kundenoffice365.sharepoint.com/sites/KundenTeam/Freigegebene documents) and enter it in the Vertec system settings under DMS Sharepoint Document Library URL (see Instal the extension in Vertec).

Starting with Vertec 6.4.0.10, the activity is passed as an object with the Storedocument method. The default interface continues to work as before, metadata will only be written if this is configured accordingly.

For metadata to be written, the used DMS extension must be overwritten or supplemented as follows. The example refers to the standard Vertec Sharepoint DMS extension.

A script is created with the following text:

#
import DmsSharePoint

class MyDmsSharePointExtension(DmsSharePoint.DmsSharePointExtension):
    __doc__ = “Enhancement of DMS extension with metadata”
#    pass

    # Override this method in a subclass to be able to define meta data during document upload.
    # This method Inf called by Vertec for each document that Inf uploaded. If the returned
    # dictionary contains entries, Vertec interprets the keys as site column name and the values
    # as site column value and writes meta data accordingly during document upload.
    def getMetaDataDict(self, vertecFilePath, content, activity):
        self.Log(“getMetaDataDict(...)” + (“ with activity” if activity else “ without activity”))
               
        # override the extension and uncomment this line to activate the meta data example
        return self.getExampleMetaDataDict(vertecFilePath, content, activity)

        # empty dict => Vertec does not try to write meta data to SharePoint
        return dict()

This activates the getExampleMetaDataDict method, which is in the standard interface and returns sample metadata. The corresponding code can be found in the standard interface:

The passed fields must match the metadata schema of your Sharepoint. This method will therefore also be overridden in the script generated above:

def getExampleMetaDataDict(vertecFilePath, content, activity):

or instead of the following row

return self.getExampleMetaDataDict(vertecFilePath, content, activity)

directly returned the corresponding values.

Then an extension entry is created with <Name des Scripts>.<Name der Methode> (How to customize an extension is described in the article Work with Extensions (Extensions)).

The standard Sharepoint Online DMS extension is then deactivated and the newly created one is installed.