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SBM Connect for SharePoint 11.2 Online Readme
This readme file contains known issues and other important information for SBM Connect for SharePoint. This file also contains information that might not be available in other SBM Connect for SharePoint documentation. Last updated on 2016-11-09.

Contents

Welcome

SBM Connect for SharePoint® contains the necessary pieces to enable your Microsoft Office SharePoint Server® installation to integrate with your Serena® Business Manager installation. This integration enables you to leverage the business process management capabilities of SBM with the documentation management of your SharePoint Server.

Note: This version of SBM Connect for SharePoint® requires SBM version 11.0 or later. This is the first release of the connector that supports SharePoint 2016. This version does not contain any new features.

With SBM Connect for SharePoint®, your SharePoint sites become more than merely document repositories; they become places where team members can truly collaborate: tracking the progress of a project, managing the documentation approval process, and managing change requests. The site becomes both a portal to your business processes and a repository for your project documentation.

SBM Connect for SharePoint® contains three main pieces:
  • Serena Web parts to Create a SharePoint Portal – Using the Serena Web parts and the default SharePoint Web part, you can modify your SharePoint site into a portal to your SBM Server. This enables you to create a place where end users can get the complete view of your project status without having to leave the SharePoint site.
  • SbmDocument Content Type to Allow for Documentation Management – SbmDocument Content Type enhances the communication between your SBM Server and your Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. This enables users to create, view, and update documents on SharePoint Sites from Serena business process applications. After documents are uploaded to SharePoint, users can interact with documents within SharePoint or from SBM business process applications, thus facilitating easy collaboration among various stakeholders. The documents are versioned using SharePoint, giving you access to previous document revisions.
  • Project OnBoarding Solution for Managing SharePoint Site CreationProject OnBoarding Solution enables end users to review, approve, and create SharePoint sites. Additionally, it associates these created SharePoint sites to SBM projects. After a project and site are associated, the SBM project can leverage the documentation management features of SharePoint.

Upgrading

The following sections contain information about upgrades.

After you install the new connector, note the following important steps that apply to all versions:

  • As part of the upgrade, you must update your SharePoint web pages that contain SBM WebParts by performing the following steps:
    1. Edit your current SharePoint web pages and remove the existing WebPart widgets.
    2. Add new WebPart widgets and configure them as needed.
  • After installing the upgrade, you must configure SbmDocument events. For details, see the Integration Guide for SharePoint.
  • You must ensure that the Allow Login Page to be Embedded in Another Web Site option is enabled on the Base Project in Application Administrator. For details, see the SBM Application Administrator Guide.

Upgrades to SharePoint 2016

You must upgrade both SBM and the SBM Connect for SharePoint® connector to version 11.2 in order to use SBM Connect for SharePoint® with SharePoint 2016. The 11.2 connector only works with SBM 11.2—you cannot use the 11.2 connector with an earlier version of SBM and SharePoint 2010 or 2013. However, you can upgrade the connector and SBM to 11.2 and still use the older versions of SharePoint.

Upgrade SBM Connect for SharePoint® with SharePoint 2010 or 2013

If you are using the SBM Connect for SharePoint® with SharePoint 2010 or 2013, you must uninstall SBM Connect for SharePoint® and then install the new version. After the install is complete, you must re-deploy the process apps.

Run Uninstall<version>.bat as administrator on your SharePoint server; then run Install<version>.bat to install the new version of SBM Connect for SharePoint®.

Note: Uninstalling removes the SBM Connect for SharePoint® Web parts and Web services.

Upgrading SBM Connect for SharePoint® with MOSS 2007

If you are using the SBM Connect for SharePoint® with MOSS 2007, upgrade SharePoint to 2010 or higher and then run the SBM Connect for SharePoint® installer. The new SBM Connect for SharePoint® installer will prompt you to overwrite the old version. You do not need to uninstall anything first, and there is no special "upgrade installer" or upgrade option. After the install is complete, you must re-deploy the process apps.

Updating the SbmDocument Content Type

There are two new fields (SBM Item Title and SBM Item Submitter) that you must manually add to any existing view from the Site column list. These new fields are not automatically added to any existing library view. To add them, perform the following steps:

  1. Go to Site Library and Lists under Site Settings.
  2. Select the library that uses the SbmDocument content type.
  3. In the columns section of the library configuration page, use the Add from Existing Site Columns feature to add the new fields to your library. Be sure to clear the add to all Content Types check box before you add the new columns.

Known Issues

This section describes known issues in SBM Connect for SharePoint®.

Tip: For help troubleshooting problems not described here, refer to solution S137970.

Working with Process Apps

This section describes known issues when working with process apps.

  • If you modify the Global Process App and then upgrade SBM, you must re-import the Global Process App into SBM Composer before working with the Project Onboarding (POB) process app; otherwise, you will get validation errors pertaining to the POB process app.

    After the upgrade, use Application Administrator to get the Global Process App using the Get Process App From Application Engine command, and then open the Global Process App from the repository in SBM Composer.

Working with Attachments

This section describes known issues when working with attachments.

  • If you click an image that is not part of a transition form, the image covers the transition form, making it impossible to complete the form. (This problem does not occur on the Submit transition because the link is disabled.)

    The workaround is to use the browser's back button and then re-perform the transition without displaying the image.

  • If an SBM item's title changes during the item's lifecycle, the title entered in the Item Title field for the SbmDocument content type does not get automatically updated.

  • If you move a project to another SharePoint Site after uploading file attachments, you can no longer work with those attachments. The workaround is to upload the attachments again; however, there might then be duplicate entries in the SBM item.

  • If you add a file to an item during the Submit transition in an SBM project that is associated with a SharePoint Site and select the option to keep the file checked out, the item has blank fields when viewed in SharePoint. As a workaround, you can delete the attachment, delete the item's folder in SharePoint, and then re-attach the item without selecting the option to keep the file checked out.

General Issues

This section describes general known issues with this release of SBM Connect for SharePoint®.

  • Support has been added for high ASCII characters in this release; however, high ASCII characters such as the German 'ü' character and double-byte characters generate errors when passed to the SBM Connect for SharePoint® Web services in SharePoint document library names. To work around this problem, do not use high ASCII or double-byte characters in your SharePoint document library names or Project Name (a project folder is created under the document library).
  • Creating a SharePoint site fails in SBM if the SharePoint site contains double-byte characters and the browser uses Flash 10.1.x or earlier. You must upgrade your browser's Flash version to at least 10.2.x to successfully use SBM Connect for SharePoint®. To determine your current version of Flash, see http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/.