Feature
With all the fuss around Office 365 and the potential for cheap, remote communication and collaboration, not a lot has been said about mobile access. SouthLabs, the maker of SharePlus, however, has announced that, as well as an upgrade to v2.7, it is also making SharePoint Online in Office 365 accessible from mobile devices.
SharePoint, SharePlus
To recap, SharePlus is a native mobile app that connects to SharePoint, and currently available in Apple’s app store. It is also available for Mac, and soon Android and WP7.
It overcomes the problems of trying to connect to SharePoint from a mobile device, and allows users to synchronize locally the contents of lists, enabling offline access and edit support.
SharePlus v2.7 Upgrades
While the new mobile app for SharePoint for Office 365 will only become available in the coming days, the upgrade to SharePlus is available now and, after being approved by Apple, is available from the App store.
SharePlus sorting and grouping in SharePoint
According to SouthLabs, the major improvement in this upgrade is data protection. This means that, from this version onwards, data stored locally will be encrypted using standards recommended by Apple -- hence its approval for the Apps Store.
It also comes with dynamic sorting and grouping of list items by tapping at the view settings icon, and selecting which fields to sort, either individually or using more than one field.
The Wi-Fi possibilities have also been upgraded so that, once you have connected to the Wi-Fi network, you will be able to share documents with teams by giving them access to your iOS deviceand browse local files using a regular web browser. File upload is also disabled by default for security reasons, and is only enabled while the dialog stays open.
SharePlus: Browing SharePoint's picture library
The final upgrade here is browsing pictures in SharePoint using SharePlus by providing thumbnail views of the contents in SharePoint’s picture library.
The upgraded version comes in three editions: Lite version, for free, with read-only access, a Pro version at US$ 14.99 with read, write and offline edit support and an Enterprise version, pricing for which was not revealed. SouthLabs also says it has developed a PlayBook-native version of SharePlus that is available in RIM's app world.
