So, what is it?
In sum, the SharePoint Connector for Confluence does exactly what it sounds like it would do: allows customers to bridge the products together. Two separate collaboration repositories can live separately yet be used together. First generation features of the new plugin include cross-product search, content sharing, and linking. Single sign-on between the products is accomplished via Atlassian Crowd.
Why build a connector?
For us, the work we’re doing with Microsoft is important for a number of reasons:
- You, our customers, had requested it. Around eight or nine months ago, after Microsoft started marketing SharePoint Server 2007 to their customers, the SF office was deluged (only slight exaggeration) with calls from our customers asking how they could use the two solutions together… or if they competed? We didn’t have a good answer for them. Now we do.
- Even though MOSS 2007 has wiki capabilities, some SharePoint customers will want a dedicated enterprise wiki solution. Now there’s an awesome solution that doesn’t obviate their SharePoint investment.
- There are a lot of terrific wiki solutions available on the market today. We’re delighted that Microsoft picked Confluence as the one they wanted to work with for their inaugural launch of the SharePoint platform for Web 2.0 solutions. (And whoever said Java and .NET, the lion and the lamb, couldn’t lay down together?
More details: Overview, FAQs, Features, Download, etc here. The SharePoint team will be contributing their $.02 on the official blog of the SharePoint product group.
The product is in beta now and there’s a slew of people to thank for building a very brilliant Connector in a short time, but none more so than Jonathan Nolen and Brendan Patterson… seriously, you guys rock!
If your company is using SharePoint but you think they could benefit from a full-time, full-featured wiki, try Confluence and the new Connector.
UPDATE: Here’s Robert Scoble’s interview with Mike and Jeffrey about the announcement:
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Click below to read the complete press release.
Atlassian Integrates Confluence Enterprise Wiki with Microsoft SharePoint
Connection of Market-Leading Products Lets Customers Share Content and Collaborate
O’REILLY WEB 2.0 SUMMIT, SAN FRANCISCO (Business Wire) October 17, 2007—At the O’Reilly Web 2.0 Summit today, Atlassian announced the integration of Microsoft (MSFT) Office SharePoint Server 2007 with Atlassian Confluence, the world’s most popular enterprise wiki. Users of SharePoint and Confluence will be able to access and share content across these two popular technologies.
“Both Confluence and SharePoint are popular with our users. Currently the data is separate and people can only collaborate in one or the other,” said Geoffrey Corb, IT Director at Johns Hopkins University. “Bridging these can only help the loyal Microsoft users and the committed Confluence users.”
The connector will feature:
- Search: Users can search SharePoint and Confluence content together from one place.
- Content sharing: From within SharePoint, users can embed Confluence page contents allowing users to blend content.
- Linking: Within Confluence, users can access SharePoint document facilities. By including SharePoint lists and content within Confluence, users, in a single click, can edit Microsoft Office documents.
- Single Sign-On and Security: With one login, users can access both systems while seeing only what they have permission to view.
“Many of our customers have asked us how to get Confluence and SharePoint Server 2007 to work together better,” said Atlassian CEO and co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes. “Starting today we can provide them with a complete solution.”
“In the enterprise, customers want integration,” said Derek Burney, SharePoint General Manager at Microsoft. “This integration further validates our strategy to design SharePoint Server 2007 as a platform for best-of-breed Enterprise 2.0 solutions. By combining the market leading collaboration, social computing and enterprise content management capabilities of SharePoint with the Confluence wiki, customers can now integrate the two products together to achieve their business goals.”
The SharePoint Connector for Confluence is available now on the Atlassian website at www.atlassian.com/sharepoint.
About Atlassian
Atlassian Software Systems is a global company that builds lightweight enterprise software to help distributed teams collaborate. Atlassian’s affordable, enterprise software products include Jira, one of the world’s most popular issue trackers for IT project management, and Confluence, widely recognized as the most-advanced enterprise wiki. The company has more than 8,500 customers in 95 countries, including 30 of the world’s top 50 corporations, spanning the Fortune 1000, public enterprise, government, academic, science and technology sectors. All products are free to qualified open source and non-profit organizations. For more information, please visit us at http://www.atlassian.com.