Question

An anonymous visitor asked "I heard that the Microsoft SharePoint connector doesn’t work with SharePoint 2010. Are there any other connectors out there for FileNet and SharePoint 2010?".

Answer

You are indeed correct. Microsoft’s “Microsoft Enterprise Search Indexing Connector 2008 for IBM FileNet” does not work with SharePoint 2010 due its 64-bit architecture. In fact, the connector does not work for SharePoint 2007 64-bit environments as well. You can read more about know issues with the Microsoft Enterprise Search Indexing Connector 2008 for IBM FileNet at http://office.microsoft.com/download/afile.aspx?AssetID=AM102769721033.

All is not lost. There are two alternative connectors for you to try. IBM has a connector called “IBM Content Collector for Microsoft SharePoint” that supports WSS 3.0, SharePoint 2007, and SharePoint 2010. Since SharePoint 2010 only comes with a 64-bit architecture this mean that this connector should work for SharePoint 2007 64-bit environments as well. As the IBM’s website states, their connector:

• Collects and archive content from Microsoft SharePoint document libraries, wikis, and blogs; collects and archive SharePoint documents into Content Manager Enterprise Edition as well as FileNet Content Manager.
• Enables common rules and policies from a common administration console - across all content including Content Collector for eMail and Content Collector for File Systems
• Classifies documents and content using metadata, rules or Classification Module
• Optionally maintains original document properties in Microsoft SharePoint libraries when replacing collected content with a shortcut and automatically removes shortcut documents from Microsoft SharePoint once those documents have been deleted from Content Manager Enterprise Edition or FileNet Content Manager.
• Optionally maintains Microsoft SharePoint security settings when storing collected information in Content Manager Enterprise Edition as well as FileNet Content Manager.
• Dynamically declares collected content as a record using Enterprise Records
• Adds agility to the ability to respond to litigation, investigations, audit and information inquiries using eDiscovery Manager and eDiscovery Analyzer

The second connector for you to explore is called “Longitude FileNet Connector for SharePoint and FAST Search” that is offered by BA Insight. As the BA Insight’s website states, their connector:

• delivers a feature that allows organizations to replicate content from any source repository into a SharePoint site, SharePoint list or SharePoint document library. The replication preserves the integrity of the source data, and allows administrators to apply appropriate governance over legacy content via SharePoint.
• enables the instant, fully-formatted preview of any and all content returned in a search, regardless of its file-format or source location. Full hit-highlighting and a dynamic graphical hit-map make assessing the relevance of these search results swift and efficient, while a fully-integrated, Silverlight-driven workspace empowers knowledge workers to act upon relevant search results with speed and precision.
• maps users, groups, and role-based identities and security schemas from any non-Active Directory based system, and also optionally enables real-time security checking to ensure rigorous adherence to all permission and access protocols.
• maintains a calculated-change log that securely monitors activity on connected systems. By leveraging this index, connected systems are prevented from being over-burdened by repeated search queries and full-crawls, thereby ensuring optimal performance and real-time accuracy of search results.
• can quickly merge and link metadata from multiple systems based on common keys to create a single, data rich record.
• enables 'simulated' crawls, which provides the administrator the ability to test the impact of any configuration change, and see the result as the simulated crawls runs.

For more information about IBM's Content Collector for Microsoft SharePoint visit http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/content-management/content-collector-sharepoint/. For more information about BA Insight's Longitude FileNet Connector for SharePoint and FAST Search visit http://www.bainsight.com/sharepoint-ibm-filenet-connector/Pages/features.aspx and http://www.bainsight.com/sharepoint-fast-search-connectors/Pages/features.aspx.

I hope that I was able to provide you with some options to investigate. If you come across any additional connectors or solutions for SharePoint 2010 integration with FileNet please let me know in the comments below.