Alterian Has Not One, But Two SharePoint Connectors

By Barb Mosher (@barbmosher) Aug 27, 2009

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Now some of you might ask why Alterian (news, site) would have two SharePoint connectors in their inventory content management connectors. If you knew the history of Alterian, you would know. It's because they have two web content management systems: Morello and Immediacy. And each one connects to SharePoint a little bit different.

Connecting SharePoint to Immediacy

With the Immediacy SharePoint Connector (SPC) you can pull SharePoint lists easily into Immediacy content managed websites.

Immediacy SharePoint Connector

Immediacy SharePoint Connector

Not only can this connector enable you to pull list data from SharePoint, it can also be configured to collect data via the Immediacy website and add it to your SharePoint list.

Preview of Immediacy SharePoint List Template

And if you are working with an Immediacy website that does not have a direct connection with SharePoint — as you may if your Immediacy website is external — then the Immediacy Deployment Server can take the data collected via the plug-in, and download it into SharePoint.

This connector works for both WSS and MOSS 2007. If you are wondering about connecting with SharePoint Libraries ~~or integration via SharePoint webparts, these are in the works~~, well it also supports two way synchronization with these as well.

As for web part integration, so support yet, but it's a .Net WCM, so it's possible.

Connecting SharePoint to Morello

Morello is Alterian's enterprise web content management system. The Morello MOSS 2007 Connector lets you create your content in SharePoint and deliver it to your Morello content managed websites.

With the Morello SharePoint Connector you have a wizard process that lets you select the data in SharePoint you want to display on your Morello website.

Morello MOSS 2007 Connector

This could be a list, a document, an image — you aren't restricted to complete lists or libraries of content. You can then take this selected data and publish it to one or more websites.

Morello MOSS 2007 Connector - Select Content

When you create the link between Morello and SharePoint for particular content, you state how often you want the data synchronized. As the SharePoint content is updated, it is then updated in Morello based on this synchronization schedule.

Here's a nice little video on how you publish content from SharePoint to Morello. In it you will also see how you work with Morello and Microsoft Word to view content.

One Way Connection to SharePoint

There is currently only a one way connection between Morello and SharePoint. According to Ian Truscott, VP of WCM Strategy at Alterian, there hasn't been a demand for two way communications between their enterprise WCM (Morello) and SharePoint.