Neoworks XML Suite for SharePoint

Overview

Microsoft SharePoint ships with many useful stand alone web parts. However some of the web parts that allow integration with external systems are lacking extensibility that would make them genuinely useful when building richer and more dynamic portal sites.

Neoworks XML Suite contains 4 new web parts, compatible with SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services, offering functionality that is not available through the "out of the box" web parts.

Advantages of using the Neoworks XML Suite

Neoworks XML Suite unleashes the power of SharePoint by providing a powerful XML based toolset to integrate SharePoint with other systems.

• The Neoworks XML Web Part can pass through the user credentials when loading XML and XSL documents, enhancing the security of your SharePoint solution
• The Neoworks XML Web Part can exchange data with other Neoworks XML web parts creating a powerful and dynamic framework for your SharePoint solution
• The Neoworks XML Web Part provides SharePoint orientated functions for use in the XSL processor
• The Neoworks PageViewer Web Part can be used to embed external pages or web applications in your SharePoint portal dynamically, based on information provided from the Neoworks XML Web Part
• The Neoworks PageViewer Web Part can verify the page being loaded, and present a custom message if the page is not available
• The Neoworks Document Library Helper allows documents to be added to existing document workspaces from the documents drop down menu

Neoworks XML Web Part

The XML Web Part is the hub of Neoworks XML Suite for SharePoint, providing and consuming data from external sources, XML documents and XSL transformations. This web part improves on the standard XML Web Part, making it possible to build dynamic XML/XSL based applications with SharePoint. XSL processor integration provides useful functions for working with SharePoint during XSL processing. Additionally, the current user's credentials may be passed when requesting both the XML and XSL documents.

Neoworks Page Viewer Web Part

The Page Viewer Web Part is an improved implementation of the standard Page Viewer Web Part, with additional functionality to consume parameters published by the Neoworks XML Web Part specifying the details of the page to display. This enables dynamic page selection based on XML data and XSL transformations.

Neoworks Document Library Helper Web Part

The Document Library Helper Web Part, when added to a page containing a Document Library Web Part, adds an additional menu item to the document drop down menu allowing documents to be added to an existing document workspace.

Neoworks URL Information Web Part

The URL Information Web Part publishes information about the URL of the containing site, in component form, to connected web parts.

Connecting the Web Parts

One of the most powerful features of SharePoint Portal Server is the ability to connect one web part to another enabling the interchange of data. This feature does not seem to be particularly well exploited by the standard web parts provided. The Neoworks web parts are designed to interchange data with each other and with other web parts (including the standard web parts provided with SharePoint). The data interchange relationships between the web parts above are as follow: