A Groove Mobile Workspace for SharePoint is a special type of Groove workspace in which tool data is synchronized between the workspace and a specific SharePoint site. It extends the value of a SharePoint site by essentially adding the Internet as an alternative information-sharing engine, and removing the constraints imposed by a corporate intranet. It offers the following key benefits:
Offline access to data. While accessing SharePoint in a Web browser, users can view, add to, or update site data ONLY while online within their corporate intranet. With the Groove mobile workspace, this data is always available for viewing or updating, even without the Intranet connection.
Access to site data for selected people either within or outside of corporate boundaries. Access to a SharePoint site is normally restricted to people (typically, employees) within a corporate intranet. With the Groove mobile workspace, people who don't have access to the corporate intranet can be selectively invited to view and contribute to the SharePoint site.
The Groove mobile workspace provides users with two means of working with synchronized data:
Data is synchronized between the SharePoint site and the Groove mobile workspace either manually or automatically, according to a schedule.
Synchronization of data within a Groove mobile workspace works the same way as for any Groove workspace: all data updates are automatically synchronized for all online members.
In addition to the standard Groove system requirements, Internet Explorer 6.0 is recommended for Groove® Mobile Workspace for SharePoint™. Internet Explorer 5.5 is supported provided that you have MSXML 3.0 installed on your system. Note that MSXML 3.0 is installed as part of the Internet Explorer 6.0 installation. You can also download and install it directly from Microsoft's Web site.
To create a mobile workspace from a SharePoint site, you must have Administrator or Advanced Author privileges for the site. During the mobile workspace creation process, you will be required to supply a valid user name and password for connecting to the SharePoint site.
The creator of the mobile workspace is assigned the workspace Manager role, and owns exclusive privileges for changing synchronization settings, or initiating a manual synchronization. This means that other members of the mobile workspace, even if assigned the Manager role, cannot synchronize the mobile workspace and SharePoint site.
Note: Synchronization tasks can be done only on the computer on which the Groove mobile workspace was originally created, and not on a computer on which an account is imported. For example, if you create a Groove mobile workspace and then fetch this workspace on another computer on which you have the same Groove account, you cannot initiate synchronization events with the SharePoint site on the other computer.
Groove may not support SharePoint sites in which the design templates for content pages have been modified outside of SharePoint.
The mobile workspace creator as well as any other workspace Managers have exclusive permission to invite new members to the workspace. The Invite button is disabled for all other members. The workspace creator is also the initial workspace Manager, and therefore determines the roles of all other contacts invited to the workspace.
Invitees to a mobile workspace must be running Groove 2.5 or higher. The mobile workspace toolset will not function with earlier versions of Groove. To determine the version of Groove a contact is running, open their contact information.
Unlike with a standard Groove workspace, member roles can be set only during the invitation process. That is, the ability to change member roles is disabled.
For security purposes, Groove recommends against assigning the Manager role to people invited to the mobile workspace, as this practice makes it more difficult to control who might get access to the workspace and SharePoint site data. By default, new members are invited to the workspace as Participants.
Synchronization between a mobile workspace and the SharePoint site can take place only when the following is true: The server hosting the SharePoint site is running, the computer on which the mobile workspace was created is online and logged into Groove, and the two machines are connected via a network. The reason for this requirement is that the workspace creator's computer is always used to send all mobile workspace updates to the SharePoint site. Thus, the mobile workspace creator must bear in mind that invited members rely on the creator to run the synchronization process regularly so that they can work with current data and send updates to the SharePoint site.
Note: You cannot do other Groove activities while synchronizing a mobile workspace with a SharePoint site. You must wait for the synchronization to complete. Keep in mind that if you're synchronizing large amounts of data, this may take some time.
The picture below shows a sample setup for a group of people using a SharePoint site, including a mobile workspace creator who takes SharePoint site data offline into Groove and then invites three new people outside the company firewall to participate in the space.
Once in Groove, the four workspace members (the mobile workspace creator and three invited members) work with data in the workspace just as they would in any other Groove workspace, and they share all updates within the space, provided that they’re working online within Groove.
However, all members who want to send their updates to the SharePoint site or who want to see updated content from the SharePoint site in the space, must wait for one of the following events to occur: The mobile workspace creator must initiate a synchronization between the mobile workspace and the SharePoint site, or if synchronization is set for automatic, scheduled synchronization, the next scheduled synchronization time must arrive.
Mobile workspace creators should be aware that the default synchronization setting for a mobile workspace is manual, which means that no synchronization can occur unless they take a direct action.
The Home tool in the mobile workspace provides status information that tells invitees the time of the last successful synchronization of the space. It also informs invitees about when the mobile workspace creator is currently logged off Groove or offline, meaning that no synchronization can currently occur, regardless of synchronization schedules. The Home tool does not currently tell invitees about whether the mobile workspace is currently set for manual versus automatic synchronization. Invitees may sometimes need to ask the mobile workspace creator to synchronize the workspace with the SharePoint site.
If possible, it’s recommended that mobile workspace creators change the workspace to a scheduled synchronization if they’re not going to be available to manually synchronize the space. This is especially true for mobile workspaces that include invited members. For example, a mobile workspace creator who’s leaving for a two-week vacation, should, if possible, leave his or her computer online and logged into Groove, with the mobile workspace set with scheduled synchronization. Manual synchronization can be restored later at any time.
As noted in the previous section, all data updates must get routed through the mobile workspace creator's computer to be synchronized with the SharePoint site. Thus, regardless of which member makes updates to data in the mobile workspace, it's the mobile workspace creator who actually sends these updates to the SharePoint site. To do so, the mobile workspace must have the required editing permissions for the SharePoint site.
Any mobile workspace creator who's role in the SharePoint site is Administrator has full editing privileges. In this case, all updates regardless of who made them get synchronized with the SharePoint site.
If a mobile workspace creator's role in the SharePoint site is Advanced Author, then their ability to synchronize updates to Discussions or Lists depends on the permission settings for the Discussion or List in the SharePoint site. In this case, the Discussion or List permissions must be set to allow users to "edit all items" in order to send updates that were made by other members. If the Discussion or List is not set with this permission, then the SharePoint site will not allow the update when the mobile workspace creator runs a synchronization.
As a general guideline, it's recommended that all Discussions and Lists that you plan to take offline to Groove get set with the "edit all items" permission in SharePoint.
A mobile workspace for SharePoint functions much like a standard Groove workspace, with the following essential differences:
New tools can be added to the workspace only if the "Allow Groove users to add new tools to this workspace" option was selected during mobile workspace creation. Otherwise, all workspace tools correspond to content pages on the SharePoint site.
Tools cannot be deleted from
the Groove mobile workspace. The Delete Tool command is disabled.
SharePoint users who have the required permissions can delete content
pages within SharePoint; these changes will be reflected in the mobile
workspace after the next synchronization. If a content page is deleted
from the SharePoint site, the corresponding tool in a mobile workspace
remains in the mobile workspace, and is renamed "toolname
- List deleted from SharePoint".
A mobile workspace cannot be saved as an archive or template, or duplicated. The File - Save Workspace As command options as well as the Duplicate Workspace command are disabled.
A mobile workspace contains
tools designed to correspond with tools in the SharePoint site.
All tools requiring user input (Discussion, Announcements, Events,
Contacts, Links and Tasks) are based on Groove 2.5 Forms tools, and provide
specialized forms for data entry and selection with fields that match
the fields from the equivalent tools in the SharePoint site. If a site
administrator updates fields in tools in the SharePoint site, these changes
are reflected on the forms in the Groove mobile workspace tools.
Some user-input tools may be associated with forms created in Microsoft
InfoPath, and then published to SharePoint for use in a list tool. When
users create new records in Groove with these tools, the Infopath application
opens and displays the associated form. Users who don't have Infopath
installed can view records but cannot create new or edit records. For
more information, see About
Infopath forms in Groove Mobile Workspace tools.
All Document Library tools are based on Groove 2.5 Files tools, with
all standard features supported in that tool.
Finally, the Groove mobile workspace includes a unique Home
Page tool that provides status information about data synchronization
with the SharePoint site, and an option for the workspace creator to initiate
synchronization.
As noted above, only workspace managers have permission to invite new members to use the workspace.
Workspace permissions cannot be changed by any member of the space, including managers and the mobile workspace creator.
Tool permissions can be changed
but only by workspace managers. Default
permissions apply for all tools. All workspace members can display the
permissions dialog boxes to review available permissions.
Note: In the case of list tools (that is, tools based on the
Groove Forms tool, such as Discussion or Announcements), the "Designer
Access" permission is effectively disabled: a
workspace manager can check this permission to enable it, but the Forms
Manager drop-down menu will not appear in the toolbar.
A SharePoint site typically contains a Home page, a set of "lists" including Announcements, Contacts, Events, Tasks, and Links, a Document Libraries, Discussion Boards, and Surveys. A SharePoint site administrator can create and add any number of additional lists, which are stored according to their type: for example, a new Discussion Board is accessed on the Discussion Boards page; a new custom list is stored on the Lists page.
A Groove mobile workspace maps tools using the same categories. In addition to the Home page, which is always the first tab in the space, Discussion Boards is a toolset that includes all Discussion Board items synchronized from the SharePoint site, Document Libraries includes all Document Library tools, and Lists contains all list tools including custom tools.
Note: You cannot currently take SharePoint Surveys offline into a mobile workspace.
When creating a Mobile Workspace for SharePoint, you're prompted to specify a label to be appended to the description of content pages you take into Groove. This label is intended to remind other SharePoint users that pages from the site may now be available to Groove users.
Additionally, a new column titled "OnBehalfOfGrooveUser" is added to all content pages that are taken into Groove. This column is used to display names of mobile workspace members who add to or edit SharePoint site data in Groove, which then gets sent to the SharePoint site during synchronization via the mobile workspace creator's computer. For example:
As mentioned above, you cannot archive a Groove mobile workspace using the standard Groove workspace backup features. You can use standard Groove account backup features to archive an account that includes a mobile workspace. However, when you restore an archived account, you cannot restore the connection and synchronization for any Groove mobile workspaces.
Mobile Workspace creators are encouraged to take steps to synchronize with the SharePoint site frequently, and thus minimize the risk of losing changes made in the mobile workspace.
A conflict occurs when the same item is updated and saved by at least two users and then synchronized. When such a conflict occurs, both Groove and SharePoint take actions to ensure that no data is lost. Conflicts can occur with any type of item, including files in document libraries, discussion entries, and list items.
Note In addition to conflicts between Groove and SharePoint, it's possible for conflicts to occur exclusively in Groove, especially with files in a Document Library tool. In this case, conflicts are handled the same way as in any other Groove Files tool. See About editing conflicts in the Files tool for information.
The table below describes actions that result in a conflict between Groove and SharePoint and how this conflict is handled.
|
Cause of conflict |
Result |
|
The same item is edited and saved in Groove and SharePoint and then synchronized. |
Both items appear in Groove and SharePoint. The item that was edited in SharePoint retains its original name. The item that was edited in Groove appears with the string "Edit Conflict" appended to the original name. For example:
|
|
Files with the same file name are added to Groove and SharePoint and then synchronized. Note: Unlike files, discussion and list items can have the same name without causing a conflict. |
Both files appear in Groove and SharePoint. The file that was added in SharePoint retains its original file name. The file that was added in Groove appears with a number appended to its file name. For example:
|
|
An item is edited and saved in Groove but simultaneously deleted in SharePoint (or vice versa). |
The edited version of the item is re-added in SharePoint (or Groove). |
When conflicts occur, members of the mobile workspace should communicate to determine how to resolve them. For example, you might want to merge different versions of the same file, or rename a conflict version of a file (if you want to keep the conflict version).
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