Using the share functionality in Infor Smart Office

The new data transfer framework in Smart Office enables sharing of different kinds of contents internally in the client and also to external applications. The standard and most common content types are text, link, image, and file. Content that is specific to Smart Office such as Widgets and Canvases can also be shared. In addition to the supported content types, applications in Smart Office are free to implement support for other content types.

The share functionality has the concepts of share sources and share targets. Different parts of Smart Office may be share sources or share targets or both. Sources and targets do not need to have explicit knowledge of each other, this is handled by the data transfer framework (sharing framework). As long as the source and the target have a common content type, data can be shared from the source to the target. The Smart Office taskbar for example can share an image of a running application. All share targets that support images can be a target for this, including the file system, the Windows Clipboard, the built-in Paint application, Outlook, etc.

The most common form of exposing the sharing functionality is through menus and context menus. There is a standard menu items called "Share" that is used in both regular menus and context menus. The Share menu item contains a sub menu where it lists the different types of content that can be shared. Each content type also has a sub menu that lists the available share targets. An example scenario is when a user wants to share an image of a running program to an Outlook mail. The first step is to right-click on the task thumbnail in the Smart Office taskbar, select Share in the context menu, then select Image and finally select Outlook. The result is that a new Outlook mail opens with an image of the selected program in the mail body.

In addition to the Share menu item, some applications use command bar buttons that directly triggers a specific share operation. MForms for example has a command bar button that shares a M3 bookmark to Ming.le.

Another thing to note is that share targets can be dynamic and only accept a subset of a content type. The Ming.le share target for example will only accept links that can be used in Ming.le. When a user tries to share a link that is not supported in Ming.le the Ming.le share target will not be visible in the list of share targets. There can be other examples of this so a share target might be available some times for a specific content types and some times not.

The sharing framework also contains an "Open with" dialog. This dialog is used to present a list of share targets that can handle a specific type of content. One example that uses the "Open with" dialog is the "Open file..." context menu on the canvas. When a file is opened, the "Open with" dialog is shown to let the user decide which share target that should handle the file. The "Open with" dialog is also used in Collaboration when users send files in chat session, etc.

These are some of the places where the Share functionality is enabled:

Task bar: Share an image of the running program or a link to the running program. If the running program does not support links this option will not be available.
Widget: Share image to all image targets. Share widget to Collaboration, File system or Outlook.
Canvas shortcut: Share a link or text (shortcut name + link).
Canvas folder widget: Share the widget to Collaboration, File system or Outlook.
MForms: Share menu item in the Tools menu. Share image to all image targets. Share bookmark to all link targets

These are some common share targets:

Link share targets: Clipboard, Collaboration, Favorites, Ming.le, Outlook
Image share targets: Clipboard, Collaboration, File system, Ming.le, Outlook, Paint, Printer
Text share targets: Clipboard, Collaboration, File system, Outlook