LDN - Luminis Developer Network

Integration Theory

As our Portal is not meant to be Sharepoint or exchange we must look at how we integrate those applications and how users are going to be able to travel between these applications. Our current methodology is to provide a summary of the external application and deep SSO links. This is the same as we see with the Email channel (Inbox summary with links to the email), Groups Activity channel (summary of the latest groups activities with links to the item - Thanks William), and our WebCT channel (Summary of the students WebCT classes and new activity, with deep links).

I don't think there is a need to change our approach when we talk about exchange and Sharepoint. Saying that here are two theoretical channels:

Exchange Inbox

Much like our current Inbox, a list of the top contents in your inbox with links to the email. Plus some links to common Inbox functionality. (I have no idea if the current inbox works with Exchange.. anyone?)

Sharepoint Sites

A list of the Sharepoint sites that you have access to. Plus a link into said sites.

These could be expanded into things link "new share point content", "Group X's File Share", or "Exchange Address book" but I want to keep it simple first.

So what do you think? Please comment! tell me I'm off my rocker, or that you have already done this, or that you do this and no one uses it...

Technology

This is where the fun starts. I have read a couple articles on connecting Portlets to exchange and Portals to Sharepoint and so on. So far from what I have seen, the SOAP/Web services methodology seems to be the best approach, however, I know that some community members have been working on things like .Net applications that create XML for consumption by the Portal. So far I'm thinking that if I use the standard SOAP connectors and translate the results into the channel, I will require minimal code, and the connector should be maintained by Sungard and by M$ so I should not need to worry about schema changes and things.

Has anyone used these WSDL connections? Again please comment and let me know. I'm hoping to create some generic channels that anyone in the community here can use to integrate their instances.