Maintaining Invisible Workspaces

Applies to: SharePoint Workspace 2010 | Visual Studio 2008

After an invisible Groove 2007-compatible workspace is created and workspace members have been invited, the application is responsible for maintaining the workspace and providing access to the workspace similar to the access that is provided to visible workspaces by the user interface.

The specific maintenance tasks that an application performs depend on the application's requirements, but maintaining an invisible workspace typically includes the following:

  • Providing access to the data in the workspace.

  • Providing mechanisms to provide information about workspace members, create new members and delete existing members.

  • Providing mechanism to archive and delete the workspace when the task being performed by the application and workspace is finished or no longer needed.

An application that maintains an invisible workspace should provide a user interface for the workspace while the application is running. Typically, it lets the user query and view the data, create new data, and update or delete existing data. It uses the GrooveSpaces.Read2 to read the invisible workspace and the GrooveFilesBase64, GrooveForms2, and GrooveCalendar services to access the data in the workspace tools.

In some cases, the application monitors changes to the workspace made by other workspace members. Although each workspace member updates the data by using the application, SharePoint Workspace replicates the data to each member of the workspace directly without invoking the application. If the application has to reliably monitor these changes, it should create one or more long-term event subscriptions. These subscriptions are active when SharePoint Workspace is running. Subscriptions store the events in a queue. The application typically reads the events in a subscription using a timer.

If an application uses long-term event subscriptions, it should maintain status about the subscriptions that it persists across application startup and termination. At a minimum, the application must store the SubscriptionID and the CallbackURI. The application extends the lifetime and deletes the subscription using the SubscriptionID. The application reads the events in the queue using the CallbackURI.

An invisible workspace does not appear in the member's Launchbar. Consequently, a workspace member has no mechanism to invite other members or to uninvite members. The application can either provide a user interface that lets workspace members invite and uninvite members or it can automatically control the membership based on external data.

Workspace members have no mechanism to archive or delete invisible workspaces. Consequently, the application should provide a mechanism for doing this.

Note

If an invisible workspace is saved as an archive, restoring the archive creates a new workspace that is also invisible. The workspace can only be accessed through an application. An application can make the workspace visible by calling the GrooveSpaces.Update2 operation.

See Also

Concepts

Accessing Workspaces Exclusively Through Web Services