Web Part Connections

For the SharePoint Connector for Confluence, Web Part Connections are supported for the two web parts: Confluence Pages Tree View web part and the Confluence Page web part. The support allows either web part to consume information from another web part.

• In the case of the Confluence Pages Tree View web part it allows another web part to provide it the space key so that it can display the hierarchy of pages for the provided space.
• In the case of the Confluence Page web part it allows another web part to provide it the page ID so that id can display the Confluence page.

There are numerous scenarios for connecting web parts. A simple example is to use a List web part that contains space key and/or page ID information that can be provided to the SharePoint Connector for Confluence web parts. An example of this is shown below. The user simply clicks on the radio button to choose an item in the list and the corresponding space key and page ID are provided to the web parts below the list.

Screenshot: Web Part Connections

To reproduce the above sceanrio, do the following:

• Create a list that has a space key and/or page ID field.
• Create a web part page, go into edit mode on the page, and add the following to the web part page:
  • The List web part for your list
  • The Confluence Page web part
  • The Confluence Space Pages Tree View web part
• Edit the connection of the the Confluence Space Pages Tree View web part and set its provider to be the appropriate field from the list as shown below. You must be in edit mode on the page to make a web part connection.

Screenshot: Making a connection

Screenshot: Configuring the connection

There are many other scenarios for connections. Some other out of the box web parts that specialize in connections are the Filter Web Parts that come with the Enterprise version of MOSS. Each of these filter web parts allows you to configure it to obtain the space key or page ID from different sources and provide one of them to the SharePoint Connector for Confluence web parts. Here are some of the filter web parts in MOSS Enterprise.

• Business Data Catalog Filter - could provide a space key or page ID taken from a database or web service
• Choice Filter - can provide a hard-coded choice of space keys from which the user can choose
• Page Field Filter - looks at fields stored with the curren web part page document library item (in a Pages document library, for example) to provide their values
• Query String Filter - can provide values from the query string
• SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services Filter - can provide values from SSAS
• Text Filter - allows the user to type in a value that can be provided

From a technical standpoint, the SharePoint Connector for Confluence web parts consume the IWebPartField interface. This is one of the interfaces provided by the List web parts as well as the Filter web parts. You can create your own web part and have it provide data through this interface as well.