SharePoint
2010 Products and Technologies give organizations unprecedented
document management capabilities, allowing knowledge workers to
collaborate more efficiently and share ideas more freely. In addition to
its robust document management capabilities, SharePoint 2010 allows
organizations to integrate with a presence management platform to help
users of the platform to easily tell whether the author of a document is
online and available, allowing for instant collaboration with that
individual.
SharePoint integrates with
this type of online presence information if used in collaboration with
Microsoft’s presence platform, Communications Server 2010 and its
predecessors, Office Communications Server 2007 R2 and Live
Communications Server 2005. Using one of
these platforms, SharePoint users can more easily collaborate with
knowledge workers real-time, using an instant messaging client such as
the Communicator 2010 product.
Configuring Presence Within SharePoint
Microsoft SharePoint Server
2010 allows for the ability to readily determine the online status of
fellow co-workers and other members of a SharePoint site through the
concept of online presence information, displayed to the user through a
construct known as a smart tag next to the user’s name.
The color of the smart tag
enables a user to quickly identify if the user is available (green),
busy (yellow), or not available (blank). Right-clicking these smart tags
allows for a sequence of options to be displayed, such as sending an
email to the user or instant messaging with them directly. This makes it
easier for users to collaborate with the owners of documents, allowing
for quick and easy communications.
Enabling and using
presence information within a SharePoint environment requires presence
to be enabled on the web application within SharePoint, and also
requires the correct version of instant messaging software on the
client. In addition, for enterprise instant messaging functionality, an
enterprise IM solution such as Communications Server 2010 is
recommended.
Enabling Presence Information on a Web Application
Online presence information
is enabled by default on a SharePoint web application. In certain
circumstances, however, it may be necessary to disable online presence
information for troubleshooting. It is subsequently important to
understand where in the SharePoint administrative hierarchy the presence
information is stored and how it can be turned on and off.
To toggle online presence on or off an individual web application, do the following:
1. | From
the SharePoint Central Administration tool on a SharePoint server,
navigate to the Application Management link in the navigation bar.
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2. | Under Web Applications, click the Manage Web Applications link.
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3. | Choose the web application to toggle the settings on, and then choose General Settings, General Settings.
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4. | From the General Settings page, shown in Figure 1,
select either Yes or No under the Enable Additional Actions and Online
Status for members, depending on whether you want to turn presence on or
off.
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5. | Click OK to save the changes.
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Note
Online presence info can only
be turned either on or off for the entire web application. It is not
possible to toggle the setting for any subcomponent of a web
application.
Examining Presence Functionality within a SharePoint Site Collection
By
default, any time a user’s name appears within an Office 2010
application such as SharePoint, Exchange, Word, Excel, and so on, online
presence information appears next to that user via the user’s smart
tag. The status information must be fed to the application from an
instant messaging client, however, or else the smart tag will not be
able to display the status of the individual and will appear blank.
The following instant messaging clients are supported for viewing presence information in a SharePoint 2010 site:
Office Communicator 2007/2010
MSN Messenger/Windows Live Messenger version 4.6 or later
Microsoft Windows Messenger version 4.6 or later
By default, SharePoint
2010 will only show presence for users who are a member of the user’s
contacts within the IM client. If a user is a contributor to a
SharePoint site, but is not in contact list of another user, that user’s
presence information will not be displayed by default. To display a
user’s presence when he or she is not in the contact list of the other
user, a centralized enterprise instant messaging platform must be used
in conjunction with SharePoint 2010.
SharePoint 2010
supports both the Live Communications Server (LCS) 2005 server software,
Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007, Office Communications Server
(OCS) 2007 R2, and Communications Server 2010 software to provide for
this additional layer of presence information within a SharePoint site.
