Friday 12 August 2016

The SharePoint 2013 Service Brokers

The SharePoint 2013 service brokers, SharePoint 2013 and SharePoint 2013 Integration, play a key role in the integration of K2 for SharePoint. When instances of these brokers are generated via the Registration Wizard, the authentication uses either a high-trust, server to server (S2S) token for on-premises SharePoint 2013 servers, or a standard token along with an Azure AD token for SharePoint Online (Office 365) servers.
These brokers are OAuth-capable and are setup to use OAuth during the Registration Wizard. In the following screen you see that an administrative OAuth token is generated for this site collection. It is important to note that while the K2 for SharePoint App must be added to each and every site in the site collection, the Administrative OAuth token and the actual instance of the SharePoint 2013 broker is used per site collection.
The following is not supported:
  • OAuth is the only supported Authentication Mode for the SharePoint 2013 Service Brokers. No other Service Instance Authentication Mode (e.g. Service Account, Impersonate, SSO or Static) is supported.
  • Manually registering a Service Instance of the SharePoint Broker is also not supported. Any instances of the SharePoint 2013 service broker must be generated using the K2 for SharePoint App Registration Wizard
  • The SharePoint Online ADFS configuration is not supported.

If the K2 for SharePoint App is added to a subsite of the site collection, it is added to the service instance that already exists for the site collection. The structure of the artifacts generated, such as SmartObjects, View, Forms, Workflows and Reports, follows the structure of the site collection. For example, if you have a subsite called Subsite1 that was a child of your root site, and created a subsite under Subsite1 called Subsite1-1, when you add the K2 for SharePoint app to Subsite1-1 and generate at least a data app for the Documents Llibrary on Subsite1-1, the following structure is created automatically.

To generate just a data app for the Documents Llibrary on Subsite1-1 you would go to the library, click the K2 Application button, and then make sure Data is selected. This refreshes the service instance and generates the SmartObject in the corresponding category.

You can also use the SmartObjects link from the K2 for SharePoint Settings page to generate multiple SmartObjects at a time. This is especially helpful if you need to use data from other lists and libraries on your site but do not need to create additional artifacts, such as Views, Forms, Workflows and Reports, for those lists and libraries. You can also add line of business SmartObjects using this page.
Notes:
  • The scope of the SmartObjects on this page and the Create Solution page allows you to control if the methods of the SmartObjects appear in the K2 Workflow Designer. If you do not need these SmartObjects to show up in the designer you can select None. Note that selecting This site and all of its subsites allows the SmartObject to appear when designing workflows on sites that are direct descendants of the site.
  • It is highly recommended to allow the K2 for SharePoint app tomaintain the structure of the service instance and SmartObjects. You should not need to refresh the service instance manually or move artifacts from their existing categories as they are generated.
  • The SharePoint 2013 Integration broker is not meant to be used directly for K2 solutions that originate inside SharePoint or that originate from outside of SharePoint but use SharePoint data. Use the SharePoint 2013 broker for accessing SharePoint as a line of business app.

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