Microsoft Dynamics SharePoint Integration with Microsoft Dynamics 365

Microsoft Dynamics SharePoint integrations are famous and known to be highly effective with one of them being with Microsoft Dynamics CRM and another one being with Microsoft Dynamics NAV, one of the most popular ERP Software for Small Business enterprises.

Another integration, which will have companies thrilled, is with Microsoft Dynamics 365. The software giant’s newly launched application suit promoting complete digital transformation can be integrated with its premier document management software and this will have companies everywhere benefitting big time.

SharePoint Development on the SharePoint Server gives to organizations secure access to documents and information necessary to take successful business decisions. An integration with Dynamics 365 will help store and manage documents well, besides organizations getting access to SharePoint document management abilities such as checking it in and out, viewing version history and changing document properties.

There are 2 types of integrations that Microsoft Dynamics 365 supports with SharePoint. The first one is client-to-server and the other one is server-to-server.

Organizations can use the SharePoint Site and SharePoint Document Location entities to store and manage the SharePoint Server location records n Dynamics 365. They can use the User Mapping entity to define custom claim mapping to use a value other than the default one used by Dynamics 365 (online) to authenticate and authorize Dynamics 365 users in SharePoint.

Companies begin with Setting up Microsoft Dynamics SharePoint Integration.

1. It is the job of a system administrator to set up a SharePoint Server environment. He selects those Dynamics 365 entities for which the document management feature has to be enabled. Then he goes onto specify the target SharePoint Server. The Dynamics 365 Administrator then specifies the SharePoint Server site collection of the SharePoint Server Site URL by using the SharePoint Site entity.

The next thing to do is to Create and Manage SharePoint Document location records. Dynamics 365 users can create and manage SharePoint Server document location records after the integration has been enabled. This can be done using the SharePoint Document Location entity. Dynamics 365 also allows for the automatic creation of folders on the server running the SharePoint Server. However, automatic creation of folders is not possible through Dynamics 365 SDK.

The next step in such as Integration is Enabling of Document Management for Entities. Such entities are generally the ones that can be customized. These would be Account, KbArticle, Lead, Opportunity, Product, Quote and Sales Literature.

Actions on SharePoint Location records include:

1. Creating, Retrieving, Updating and Deleting Location Records

2. Setting a Site Location as Default

3. Associating a Document Location Record with an Entity Record

4. Retrieving Absolute and Site Collection URLs for a Location Record

The next step in the integration is to set a site location record as default. This is usually done so that all the document locations created using Dynamics 365 are automatically created under this site. To create a site location record as default, one has to use the SharePointSite.IsDefault property and then set it to be true. A site location record is set as default while creating or updating a site location record.

Next comes associating a document location record with an entity record and the moment this is done, all documents for the entity record get stored at this location on the SharePoint Server. The SharePoint Document Location record can be associated with an entity through SharePointDocumentLocation.RegardingObjectID property.

Then comes retrieving absolute and site collection URLs for a location record. When it comes to storing records, the SharePoint Server follows a hierarchical model and if you wish to retrieve the absolute URL of a location record in the hierarchy, you use the RetrieveAbsoluteAndSiteCollectionURLRequest message. This message works on only 2 conditions. The first one is when the microsoft dynamics crm List Component for the SharePoint Server is installed on the SharePoint Site Collection and the other one is when the Location Record for the parent SharePoint Site Collection Exists in Dynamics 365. If not for these two, you draw a Blank or Incorrect value for the SiteCollectionURL property.

Next comes defining Custom Claim Mapping for SharePoint Server-based Integration. For this, Dynamics 365 uses claims to authenticate and authorize Dynamics 365 users to access documents stored in SharePoint. Claims used by Dynamics 365 while integrating with SharePoint include NameID (PUID), SMTP (email) and Security Identifier (SID). The UserMapping entity can be used to specify custom claim mappings in Dynamics 365 to use a value other than the default one used by Dynamics 365 to authenticate as well as authorize Dynamics 365 users in SharePoint. Some of the claim types supported by SharePoint include NameID (PUID), SMTP (email) and UPN (user principal name).

SharePoint entities in Microsoft Dynamics 365 allow the storage of information about SharePoint locations, where documents are stored and custom claims mapping information to authorize and Dynamics 365 (online) users with SharePoint.

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