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SBM Connect for SharePoint 2009 R4 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 2011-09-07.

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 2009 R4 or later. This version of SBM Connect for SharePoint® is compatible with SBM 2009 R4, 2009 R4.01, 2009 R4.02, and 2009 R4.03.

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 Creation – Project 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.

What's New in SBM Connect for SharePoint®

In addition to defect fixes, this release of SBM Connect for SharePoint® contains the following enhancements:

  • Enhanced Web services to update metadata – The key benefit of this enhancement is that it enables you to pass additional information about an SBM item to SharePoint. The end user working in SharePoint can then learn more about the item without switching to SBM.

  • New AssociateSPAttachment and UnAssociateSPAttachment Web services – With these Web services, you can create an orchestration to associate or unassociate SharePoint attachments with SBM items. An updated version of the sample Contract Approval Process App is included to demonstrate this functionality.

  • Improved SbmDocument content type configuration – Configuration is now in the SharePoint Central site. This is more convenient and makes use of the SharePoint interface and built-in features. Configuration has also been enhanced to support connecting to SBM using a signed certificate.

  • Additional SharePoint content type fields – The following new content type fields are now available: SBM Item Submitter and SBM Item Title. These fields can now be displayed as part of a document's metadata.

Important: The following changes are only applicable to SBM Connect for SharePoint® in combination with the upgrade to SBM 2009 R4.01 or later. You must upgrade the SBM platform to at least 2009 R4.01 to take advantage of the following changes.
  • Extended support for high ASCII and double-byte characters – High ASCII characters (such as the German 'ü' character) and double-byte characters no longer generate errors in the SBM Connect for SharePoint® Web services. The Web services now support high ASCII and double-byte characters for use in project names, attachments names, and SharePoint document library descriptions; however, high ASCII characters are not supported in SharePoint document library names.
  • 64-bit support for SBM Connect for SharePoint® – The integration now supports the 64-bit version of SBM. Note that you must upgrade SBM to version 2009 R4.01 to use SBM Connect for SharePoint® with a 64-bit version of SBM. Support for MOSS 2007 on a 64-bit operating system is now available as well. For specific installation instructions, see Installing SBM Connect for SharePoint® on MOSS 2007 (64-bit).

Installation

Restriction: This version of SBM Connect for SharePoint® requires SBM version 2009 R4 or later.

Depending on your version of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, the installation process is different. This section provides a high-level overview of the steps you follow to install SBM Connect for SharePoint®.

There are five steps for installing:

  1. Install SBM Connect for SharePoint® on your SharePoint server. The instructions depend your version of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server:

  2. Configure the SbmDocument Content Type, which you installed in step 1. See Configuring the SbmDocument Content Type for details.
  3. Configure your SharePoint Web server to allow access from your SBM Server. See Allowing Access for SBM Server for details.
  4. Populate your Web part gallery with the Serena Web Parts. See Enabling the Serena Web Parts for details.
  5. Deploy either the Project OnBoarding or Configuration Process App to allow you to link SharePoint sites with SBM projects.

About SBM Connect for SharePoint®

SBM Connect for SharePoint® refers to the pieces of SBM Connect for SharePoint® that must be installed on your SharePoint server. These pieces are required for handling events, using Serena Web parts, and selecting templates when using the Project OnBoarding Solution.

The main components of SBM Connect for SharePoint® include:

  • The SBM Web Services for SharePoint® are custom Web services that are created for SharePoint. These Web services emit events to SBM, which allow you to monitor when items are checked in or altered in SharePoint.

  • The Serena templates are custom SharePoint templates that can be used when you create a new SharePoint site using the Project OnBoarding Solution. These templates create a SharePoint site that is tailored for relating with an SBM project.

  • The Serena Web Parts are custom Web parts that are available to you when you construct a site using the Serena templates.

Installing SBM Connect for SharePoint® on MOSS 2007 (32-bit)

Prerequisites:

To perform this procedure, you must have the permissions to copy files to your SharePoint server, the permissions to run SBM Connect for SharePoint® on that machine, the permissions within SharePoint to configure Web parts and templates, and SharePoint Administrator.

SBM Connect for SharePoint® requires Windows .NET Framework 3.51. MOSS 2007 requires only .NET 3.0, which means that you may have to install 3.5.1 before being able to run the installer.

To install SBM Connect for SharePoint® on MOSS 2007 (32-bit), perform the following steps:

  1. Copy the SBM Connect for SharePoint® executable to your SharePoint server.
  2. Run the executable on your server using an administrator account or using Run as Administrator.
    Important: The Windows SharePoint Services Administration service must be running when you run the installation process. You will receive a message that tells you to start the process before running the installer. You can start this service under Administrative Tools | Services.

    Note you will also receive the warning message if the user account under which the installer is running does not have the permissions to run the installer on the server.

    1. Accept the End User License Agreement.
    2. The installation directory is detected automatically based on your SharePoint installation.
    3. Click Install to complete the installation.
    The installed files include SBM Web Services for SharePoint®, Serena templates, Serena Web Parts, and the Integration Guide for SharePoint.
  3. After the installation completes, configure the Web services to point to your SBM Server as described in Configuring the SbmDocument Content Type for details.
  4. Configure your SharePoint Web server to allow access from your SBM Server. See Allowing Access for SBM Server for details.
  5. Populate your Web part gallery with the Serena Web Parts. See Enabling the Serena Web Parts for details.
  6. Deploy either the Project OnBoarding or Configuration Process App to allow you to link SharePoint sites with SBM projects.

Installing SBM Connect for SharePoint® on MOSS 2007 (64-bit)

Prerequisites:

To perform this procedure, you must have the permissions to copy files to your SharePoint server and the permissions within SharePoint to deploy the solutions, Web parts and templates.

SBM Connect for SharePoint® requires Windows .NET Framework 3.51. MOSS 2007 requires only .NET 3.0, which means that you may have to install 3.5.1 before being able to run the installer.

To install SBM Connect for SharePoint® on MOSS 2007 (64-bit), perform the following steps:

  1. Extract the contents of the zip file onto your SharePoint server.

    The files include the necessary pieces to deploy and install SBM Web Services for SharePoint®, Serena templates, and Serena Web Parts.

    Note: If you have a previous version of SBM Connect for SharePoint® installed, you must uninstall it before you can install the new version. To uninstall, run Uninstall<version>.bat.
  2. In the files that you extracted, run the Install<version>.bat install script.

    This script deploys the SBM Web Services for SharePoint® and Serena templates. The script deploys the solution using the stsadm.exe utility. Unlike the MOSS 2007 installer, the .bat file attempts to activate the SbmDocument Content Type feature on the site collection at http://localhost. A different site collection URL can be provided for activation. See Install<version> –help for details. You can only activate one Site Collection this way. If you have multiple Site Collections, the SbmDocument Content Type feature must be activated on the Site Collection using the SharePoint Site Collection Administration pages.

    Important: The Windows SharePoint Services Administration service must be running when you run the bat file. Stsadm must be in your path. If it is not, you must edit the bat file to point to the correct installation path for stsadm.exe.

    The script runs the deploy commands for the solution and copies the necessary files to your IIS server. The script aslo deploys the Serena Web parts using the stsadm.exe utility. The deployment forces an update if you have deployed a previous version of the SBM Connect for SharePoint® (that is, it sets the force flag for the deploy command).

    The files that are copied during installation are placed in the virtual folders of IIS. If these files already exist, the installer tries to replace the existing files with new versions. Because the existing files are in virtual directories of IIS, these files can be locked by IIS. If this is the case, the install script does not copy the new versions of the files. You must manually stop IIS, replace the existing files with the new ones, and then restart IIS.

  3. After the installation completes, configure the Web services to point to your SBM Server as described in Configuring the SbmDocument Content Type for details.
  4. Configure your SharePoint Web server to allow access from your SBM Server. See Allowing Access for SBM Server for details.
  5. Populate your Web part gallery with the Serena Web Parts. See Enabling the Serena Web Parts for details.
  6. Deploy either the Project OnBoarding or Configuration Process App to allow you to link SharePoint sites with SBM projects.

Installing SBM Connect for SharePoint® on SharePoint 2010

Prerequisites:

To perform this procedure, you must have the permissions to copy files to your SharePoint server and the permissions within SharePoint to deploy the solutions, Web parts and templates.

To install SBM Connect for SharePoint® on SharePoint 2010, perform the following steps:

  1. Extract the contents of the zip file onto your SharePoint server.

    The files include the necessary pieces to deploy and install SBM Web Services for SharePoint®, Serena templates, and Serena Web Parts.

    Note: If you have a previous version of SBM Connect for SharePoint® installed, you must uninstall it before you can install the new version. To uninstall, run Uninstall<version>.bat.
  2. In the files that you extracted, run the Install<version>.bat install script.

    This script deploys the SBM Web Services for SharePoint® and Serena templates. The script deploys the solution using the stsadm.exe utility. Unlike the MOSS 2007 installer, the .bat file attempts to activate the SbmDocument Content Type feature on the site collection at http://localhost. A different site collection URL can be provided for activation. See Install<version> –help for details. You can only activate one Site Collection this way. If you have multiple Site Collections, the SbmDocument Content Type feature must be activated on the Site Collection using the SharePoint Site Collection Administration pages.

    Important: The Windows SharePoint Services Administration service must be running when you run the bat file. Stsadm must be in your path. If it is not, you must edit the bat file to point to the correct installation path for stsadm.exe.

    The script runs the deploy commands for the solution and copies the necessary files to your IIS server. The script aslo deploys the Serena Web parts using the stsadm.exe utility. The deployment forces an update if you have deployed a previous version of the SBM Connect for SharePoint® (that is, it sets the force flag for the deploy command).

    The files that are copied during installation are placed in the virtual folders of IIS. If these files already exist, the installer tries to replace the existing files with new versions. Because the existing files are in virtual directories of IIS, these files can be locked by IIS. If this is the case, the install script does not copy the new versions of the files. You must manually stop IIS, replace the existing files with the new ones, and then restart IIS.

  3. After the installation completes, configure the Web services to point to your SBM Server as described in Configuring the SbmDocument Content Type for details.
  4. Configure your SharePoint Web server to allow access from your SBM Server. See Allowing Access for SBM Server for details.
  5. Populate your Web part gallery with the Serena Web Parts. See Enabling the Serena Web Parts for details.
  6. Deploy either the Project OnBoarding or Configuration Process App to allow you to link SharePoint sites with SBM projects.

Configuring the SbmDocument Content Type

The SbmDocument Content Type can raise events and must be configured. These events can be used by SBM to trigger actions in the workflow.

Note: You must activate the SbmDocument Content Type for each of your site collections; however, the same configuration information will pertain to all of them.

To activate the SbmDocument Content Type:

  1. Activate the SbmDocument Content Type for your site collection:

    MOSS 2007 (32-bit/64-bit):

    1. Go to Manage Web Applications.
    2. Under Web Application, select Central Administration.
    3. Click Activate next to SbmDocument.

    SharePoint 2010:

    1. Go to Manage Web Applications under Application Management.
    2. Under Web Application, select Central Administration.
    3. Click Manage Features.
    4. Click Activate next to SbmDocument.
    Tip: You must activate SbmDocument on each site collection where you plan to use the SbmDocument Content Type.

  2. If you want to enable SbmDocument events, add the connection information to point to your SBM Event Manager.

    Important: The SbmDocument Configuration page requires that you enter a password. The password field always displays as blank even if there is a password currently set. You must supply the password to change the configuration. To use an account without a password, select the check to allow blank passwords check box.

    1. In SharePoint, go to Application Management under Central Administration.

    2. Click the SbmDocument Content Type Configuration link under SBM Connect.

    3. On the SbmDocument Configuration page, enter the requested event management information, enter the connection information for your SBM Orchestration Engine, and then click OK.

      Note: If you are upgrading from the SBM 2009 R3.02 release and running SharePoint 2007, your previous settings will be brought forward. On SharePoint 2010, this is not possible due to tighter security and you will need to re-enter the settings.

      The SBM user account that you entered must have access to the projects where the orchestrations will be running. If you have installed the SBM Orchestration Engine on a separate Web server from your SBM Application Engine, remember to enter the host name for your SBM Orchestration Engine and not your SBM Application Engine.

      The default port is 8085.

      Tip: If you are upgrading from a previous version of SBM Connect for SharePoint®, 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. For details, see Upgrading.
  3. Configure your orchestrations to make use of these events, such as performing transitions on the SBM item that the document is attached to.

Allowing Access for SBM Server

You must configure your SharePoint Web server to allow access for requests from your SBM Server. This configuration is performed by modifying your crossdomain.xml file on your SharePoint Web server.

The file usually resides in the following directory on your SharePoint server: C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\80.

Add lines like the following to the file, changing server.domainname.com to the server name of your SBM Server.

<allow-access-from domain="server.domainname.com" />   
    <allow-http-request-headers-from domain="server.domainname.com" headers="*" />
Tip: A sample crossdomain.xml is included in SBM Connect for SharePoint®, which demonstrates a completed crossdomain.xml file.

For more information, refer to the following page: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/articles/crossdomain_policy_file_spec.html.

Enabling the Serena Web Parts

Prerequisites:

To perform this procedure, you must have the permissions within SharePoint to populate a Web gallery.
Note: The Serena Web parts are included with SBM Connect for SharePoint®. Installing SBM Connect for SharePoint® will install the Web parts.

After running the SBM Connect for SharePoint® installer, you must populate the Web parts into your Web part gallery before they are available when creating a page in SharePoint.

To enable the Web parts for use in SharePoint sites by populating them to the Web part gallery:

  1. Log in to SharePoint.
  2. Edit the Site Settings for the SharePoint sites that will use the Web Parts.
  3. Select Web Parts under Galleries.
  4. Click New and select which Serena Web parts to enable.
    • Choose SBM Reports to enable the reporting Web part.
    • Choose SBM Applications to enable the solutions Web part. Note that this Web part requires SBM 2009 R3 or later.
    • Choose SBM Selected Applications to enable the selected solutions Web part. Note that this Web part requires SBM 2009 R3 or later.
  5. Click Populate Gallery to make the Web parts available for user sites.

Uninstalling

Uninstalling requires that you run the uninstall program for your version of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) or Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and then manually remove the Web parts from the gallery.

To uninstall:

  1. Run the uninstall program:
    • For MOSS 2007, select to uninstall under Windows Add or Remove Programs.

    • For SharePoint 2010, run Uninstall<version>.bat.

  2. (MOSS 2007) If desired, manually remove the Web parts from the Web part gallery:
    1. Log in to SharePoint.
    2. Edit the Site Settings for the SharePoint sites that will use the Web parts.
    3. Select Web Parts under Galleries.
    4. Click Edit for the Serena Web part to delete.
      • SBM Reports
      • SBM Applications
      • SBM Selected Applications
    5. Click Delete Item.
      Note: If the Web parts were previously added to a page, they will remain in the page; however they will not be available for selection from the Web part gallery.

Upgrading

The following sections contain information about upgrading from a previous version of SBM Connect for SharePoint®.

Upgrade Steps for SharePoint 2010 Users

If you are using SharePoint 2010, you must uninstall SBM Connect for SharePoint® and then install the new version.

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

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®.

Important: After installing, you must configure SbmDocument events. For details, see Configuring the SbmDocument Content Type.

Upgrade Steps for MOSS 2007 (32-bit) Users

If you are using MOSS 2007 (32-bit), 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.

Important: After installing, you must configure SbmDocument events. For details, see Configuring the SbmDocument Content Type.

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.

  • Unused temporary folders containing files can accumulate in SharePoint consuming space when a user neither submits nor cancels an SBM form that has a file attachment. You can safely delete these folders; however, the best practice is to always click Cancel when not submitting a form that has been partially or completely filled out.

  • 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.

  • A user can submit an item without an attachment even when attachments are required. This scenario occurs when the user submits an item and then adds and deletes an attachment before completing the submit form.

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/.
  • When you have configured SBM to run under default authentication (internal passwords), you will experience a problem when changing a Web part to point at a different SBM server. The Web part will continue to connect to the old server. A workaround is to set-up SBM connect for SharePoint with SBM in NTLM authentication mode.
  • When you attempt to create a SharePoint site with a document library using a template that already has a document library named "SBM Document," the site creation will yield an error saying that a document library cannot be created since one already exists with that name. The workaround is to not create a document library or to change the name of the document library that is hard-coded in the orchestration.
  • The create site operation does not return template names if the SharePoint site collection contains high ASCII characters and you use FireFox or Safari browsers on a Mac OS. To workaround this problem, use a supported browser on a Windows OS.

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