Sharepoint: Making Sharepoint (MOSS 2007) easier to use in non-windows enviroments

In my opinion, Microsoft Sharepoint Server (MOSS 2007) is an amazing tool for enterprise document management, communications and collaboration. Sharepoint is not software, it is a platform for business. The tool is almost a "fix all" for corporate users if they are using a windows machine as a client. If you are not using windows but are using mac os x or linux, you will find that sharepoint is lacking some very basic features. This is due to all web browsers other then Internet explorer are labeled as class 2 browsers. Although I understand that Microsoft is going to fine tune MOSS for active x and Internet explorer, some of the features they left out of level 2 browsers are inexcusable. Out of the box, in order to use some of the most basic features of sharepoint, you will need to use Internet explorer. I have found a few workarounds that make sharepoint a product which can be used by cross platform clients. Here are some of those workarounds:

Problem: Some key feature of sharepoint are blogs, discussion groups and wikis. All of these features allow the user to create and edit formatted text using the built in "what you see is what you get" (WYSIWYG) editor... that is if you are using Internet explorer. If you are using any other web browser software, all you will see is raq html. This happens when replying to a discussion group post, editing a wiki page, creating a blog, posting a comment, etc. This makes it hard to believe that Microsoft thinks people will use sharepoint as an Internet web server.

Solution: RadEditor by Telerik. http://www.telerik.com/products/aspnet-ajax/sharepoint.aspx Telerik has a group of tools which come for a fee but you can download and use radeditor lite for free. It is a server add-on which will give you a wysiwyg editor for all browsers.

Problem: Accessing document libraries with non-IE browsers and non-win os. If you are not running windows you are forced to use a web browser to checkout, download, edit, upload and check in your documents and you can only upload one file at a time. If you are using Windows and Internet Explorer you can open a document library in an explorer window just like you would a network share. On any other OS you do not have this option from the actions menu in Sharepoint through the web interface.

Solution: Use a Webdav file client which is similar to a ftp client. In fact, some software provides both webdav and ftp connections. In mac os x I am using cyberduck. In linux I am still evaluating different ways to mount a webdav site (sharepoint document library). I am working on this using davfs but there seems to be a common problem that davfs sometimes does not support folders or files with spaces. I.E. "Shared Documents". I am still trying to figure out the exact details but I have recreated this problem in different linux distributions.

In order for you to use most webdav programs make sure your sharepoint site has basic authentication enabled as most programs wont use NTLM auth. This results in a login failed error when trying to authenticate. You can enable basic authentication under IIS admin, your sharepoint site and authentication. One other note that is helpful is to make sure your document library settings are set to have "Require documents to be checked out before they can be edited" set to "no". This way in your webdav client, you can easily drag and drop files into the document library. If you overwrite a file it will create a new version automatically as long as you have versioning enabled.

Problem: When using Microsoft Windows and Office 2007, you can work with sharepoint items directly from the Office programs. Some examples are editing sharepoint calendars within outlook or saving word documents directly to a sharepoint site without the use of 3rd party tools or a web browser. If you are on a Mac, Office programs have no interaction with sharepoint. This is very depressing especially that Entourage, Microsofts mac mail client comparable to Outlook, does not tie in at all to sharepoint. For linux users and open office there is no way working directly with sharepoint other then through the web interface or using 3rd party apps.

Solution: For mac os x, Microsoft Mac Business unit is working on a program call Document Collaboration Companion (DCC). Microsoft says DCC will provide:

• Integrated (offline/local) access to Office Live Workspaces and SharePoint Websites
• Document upload
• Document check-out/in
• SharePoint Workspace and Doc Library access & browsing
• An independent application with File Menu integration

Right now DCC is in private beta and I cannot figure out how to get on the list. Even MacBU cant give us a status update. The last update they gave was that the beta would be available in Feb of 2009 which has come and past. The website for DCC is http://www.microsoft.com/mac/itpros/dcc.mspx


In conclusion, I hope this helps with some the larger incompatibilities of a base install of Sharepoint when working with non-windows client machines. There are still other setbacks that I have not mentioned here but will post updates on in the future. Sharepoint is an AMAZING tool for enterprise content management and collaboration. It's just too bad it has taken me days and a lot of research to put these solutions together to make it a viable option for my business which is 50% pc, 25% mac and 25% linux.

Comments are appreciated!

Links to things mentioned in this blog:

• Cyberduck (note, only version 3.1.2 seems to work. 3.2 does not seem to work: http://update.cyberduck.ch/Cyberduck-3.1.2.dmg
• Davfs: http://dav.sourceforge.net/
• DCC: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/itpros/dcc.mspx
• RadEditor Lite: http://www.telerik.com/community/free-products.aspx