Microsoft SharePoint on the iPhone

17. Jul, 2008 Comments

The Odd Couple?

I recently discovered what appears to be a “killer application” for mobile productivity:  using and managing fully-featured SharePoint sites from an iPhone.  No, not the dumbed-down, “/m” DOS-like simplified SharePoint views.  We’re talking about the full, richly formatted and designed SharePoint user experience, including logging in to the back-end and configuring sites.  Accessed from an iPhone, SharePoint now allows business workgroup teams to collaborate while truly “on the go”, potentially speeding up the tempo of team workflow on critical projects.

I would not have understood how compelling using SharePoint from a pocket-sized mobile device is, but actually using SharePoint on an iPhone is a bit of a “wow!” experience.  SharePoint could open up a whole new universe for iPhone users: the Microsoft universe, which is a very large one.

iPhone’s Safari mobile browser renders many sites as well as a notebook or desktop computer; some even better.  Site designers at Amazon.com, BofA.com, LinkedIn.com have developed and are dishing up iPhone-optimized web pages, with stunning results.  But SharePoint sites really require no such modifications when accessed from an iPhone.  Authentication can be an issue, however; we are still sorting out exactly what the technical and configuration issues may be.

SharePoint challenge screen on a 2nd-generation (3G) iPhone

There are now scores of iPhone-resident business productivity applications bursting onto the scene for the iPhone, based upon AAPL’s software developer’s kit (SDK).  During the first three days after the 3G iPhone’s launch July 11 2008, 1 million new 3G iPhones were sold and over 10 million applications were downloaded from Apple’s iPhone applications store.

That is a lot of activity downloading individual applications; but Microsoft’s Office SharePoint Server platform is a much bigger suite of fully-featured Microsoft applications than any individual iPhone-resident application.  Being a server resident Microsoft CMS ecosystem complete with an application development universe, app extensions, API, and add-ons there is no comparison to stand-alone, resident iPhone applications in terms of power, extensibility, and potential for scalability and robustness in many business enterprise environments – whether it is a large Corporation, or a startup company looking to execute at breakneck speed.

Why is using SharePoint from an iPhone compelling?

SharePoint on the iPhone may simply be the most promising and robust combination of mobility and a powerful server-based application out there.



Using a SharePoint site from a 1st generation (2.5G) iPhone

Running SharePoint from an iPhone, workgroup team members can be liberated to do these sorts of things “on the go” from anywhere, without needing a laptop computer:

  • Centrally host documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in a secure environment
  • Edit those documents, spreadsheets, and presentations collaboritely with change control
  • Maintain, publish, and distribute group calendars and events
  • Schedule and update group meetings and events efficiently
  • Share photos/graphics using project-specific albums
  • Create internal/private social networks for sub-topic discussions
  • Create and share internal web content and media privately
  • Track issues, milestones, and Gantt charts for projects
  • Conduct internal opinion polls
  • Create and post internal announcements

… and that’s just the start of it. SharePoint running on an ultra-mobile device, could potentially  change a lot of corporate lifestyles, and make a major impact on team productivity.

Logged into full-screen SharePoint application with the new 3G iPhone

We have found that having full remote to SharePoint access can be even more useful than having access to email — allowing you to do real substantive work; more than just “knocking down email”.  It’s a very robust private project work portal for teams which has allowed our clients as to enhance team visibility and communications, speeding the pace of workflow.

SharePoint is massively deployed, and growing exponentially

How widely used is SharePoint with Corporate users?  VERY widely, and growing like a wildfire:

“Today at the Microsoft Office SharePoint Conference 2008, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates noted that SharePoint is one of the fastest growing products in the company’s history, having reached the milestone of a US $1billion-dollar business with 100 million licenses sold, and growth of more than 50 percent in the second quarter of the current fiscal year”.

“A recent report by IDC found that 61 percent of users surveyed said they were deploying SharePoint enterprise-wide. Another 28 percent of those using SharePoint in departments today are expected to expand usage to the enterprise within the next 12 months”. [source: Microsoft; IDC]

“Bill Gates showed in terms of growth in revenue, growth in adoption — 100 million users, that’s a phenomenal number. Another number is three-quarters of the Fortune 100 now have SharePoint. That’s just a very impressive number, people seeing the impact that it can have in their businesses, how they do business; just very, very gratifying for us”

[source: Kurt DelBene, Sr Vice President, Microsoft Office Business Platform Group]

Can it really be better than Windows Mobile?

Apples’ ‘Safari mobile’ browser is the first mobile browser to render many websites nearly as well as a notebook computer running fully featured browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Opera.  I was especially surprised by how well Safari handles SharePoint, since even Microsoft’s own Windows Mobile devices do not seem to do that great of job of it.  But that is not too surprising, given that mobile browsers that render any website well, have not been seen until just recently.

I walked up to Microsoft’s Mobile Computing counter at a recent telecom conference (NXTcomm 08 in Las Vegas) and asked if it’s possible login to a Sharepoint site with a Windows Mobile device.  “Of course” was the answer.  The photo below shows what I got after attempting to login with the provided Opera Browser on the new Windows Mobile 6.1 device (see photo).  Clearly, Opera Mobile on WM 6.1 does not work with SharePoint, at this point in time.

Attempting SharePoint access from Windows Mobile 6.1 using the included Opera mobile browser
Authentication screen on a WM 6.1 device running mobile IE
When using the standard-issue IE browser on WM 6.1, I did get the SharePoint “challenge” login screen, but could not get past that.  I am reasonably confident though, that with sufficient effort, full SharePoint access – not just “/m” mode – can be accomplished with a Windows Mobile device.

iPhones can access SSL secured SharePoint sites

I have successfully accessed SharePoint servers with both 1st generaton (2.5G) and the second genertation (3G) iPhones, with secure 128-bit (“https://) SSL connectivity from the browser to the Sharepoint server.  The photo below shows a 3G iPhone successfully accessing a SSL-secured SharePoint site.

MOSS vs WSS

There are two versions of SharePoint: MOSS (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server) and WSS (Windows SharePoint Server).   MOSS is a superset of WSS, and can (among other capabilities) host live Excel spreadsheets on the server (MOSS includes an Excel engine, server-side), allowing individual SharePoint users to collaborate on live-computing spreadsheets (for example, driven by live stock market data) not merley on shared spreadsheet documents.

MOSS and WSS use the same rendering engine.  We believe the iPhone should access either MOSS or WSS SharePoint sites, but further testing will be required to be certain.

iPhone supports NTLM Access authentication protocol

SharePoint uses either NTLM or Kerberos based protocol, along with Microsoft Active Directory, to authentication users for access, depending upon how the server and the SharePoint installation have been configured by the SharePoint server administrator, and the Microsoft Windows Server Administrator. 

The iPhone supports a variety of authentication types including passwords, MD5 Challenge-Response, NTLM, and HTTP MD5 Digest. Some SharePoint sites do not let you past the “challenge” (login) screen, most likely due to NTLM or Kerberos authentication issues.  I do not yet have a handle on what configuration settings prevent iPhones from gettting through the authentication screen for some SharePoint sites, but will report on that once it is sorted out (if technically inclined readers don’t figure it out for me, first!).

Summary

Running full Sharepoint, an extremely powerful server-based application, from a versatile device as small as the iPhone can be a bit of a jaw-dropper.  I suggest you give it a try, before leaping to any conclusions!  The “user experience” is remarkably good.

The author will be following up this article by posting followup comments and perhaps a followup article, after some more research and testing has been conducted.

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  • Wow, im really impressed Steve. Who knew !

    have you done any similar testing with other OS's? eg Windows mobile?
  • no Arno this is just something I stumbled upon. Ironically, I was at the Microsoft campus in Mt View attending
    and all-day startup "business plan showdown" event, and it was only because their Wi-Fi is locked down so tight,
    and I was unable to get an EvDo signal within their auditorium, that i stumbled across this. I needed to get into
    SharePoint to get some work done but was pinned down in the auditorium all day, as described in the companion
    piece on my blog (www.bellc.com, search for 'SharePoint" from the search box in the banner) . A friend and I
    did try to get into SharePoint sites from various Windows Mobile devices, but have not yet been successful,
    although i know it is possible. However, not with Opera mobile on WM 6.1, as shown here. I plan to test the
    Blackberries eventually.
  • really cool. i have to say, its made me want the iPhone. I was about 2 days away from getting the HTC Touch Diamond, but might wait for the iPhone now.
    looks really good.

    great job once again
  • I had the HTC 6800 Mogul, a little smaller device with a slider keyboard. At first I liked it, and thought
    "Gee, Windows Mobile has improved" (since the prior 10 times I have tried WM devices... clear back to CE).

    It took about 3 weeks before i realized... "I really dislike this thing!". Just the little details of using it that
    aren't properly thought through.

    I have no beef with Microsoft and hope they eventually get Windows Mobile right... but it isn't even close.

    The iPhone, on the other hand, was the opposite experience. The more you learn about it, the more useful
    it becomes and the more attached you get to it. I am a keyboard person, too - i would greatly prefer it had
    a tactile "slider" keyboard. But... the more you learn about how it's predictive onscreen keyboard works, the
    better you can get with it. It doesn't just to look-ahead... it ENLARGES the target area over your next likely
    target key, for example. Everything about the iPhone's super-slick OS and application is that way... I wouldn't touch a WM device with a 10-foot pole, now. Not even close, for usability, versatility etc.
  • hehe. ok im sold. now i just need to wait until it becomes available in South Africa. Hopefully it should be quite soon
  • you may dislike the iPhone - everyone has to decide for themselves.
    But i am a convert myself - i'm a big fan of keyboards and don't like the
    fact that the iPhone will likely never have one. However... it is such a
    versatile device for the web, and does so many other things superbly,
    i'm willing to make the trade off - for now. But I don't want to try and
    convince anyone - many may prefer a keyboard. I would point out though,
    that the iPhone's operating system, and applications RUN CIRCLES
    around anything I've ever seen on a Windows Mobile device. I just
    don't think that the paradigm, of "moving" the desktop OS to a cell phone
    really works, in everyday life usage. For a mobile device, all of the assumptions
    for the OS and applications need to be re-thought from the ground up; every
    minute' detail. The iPhone architects did that, exceedingly well.

    However, some will prefer Windows Mobile. It depends on how you use it,
    what you care about, etc etc.
  • Still debating whether to chop in the HTC Tytn II. Browsing is so much easier on iPod Touch, but still unsure for email and calendar etc.
  • The ShareBear
    Two well intentioned and justified comments: My iPhone (first gen, firmwared to 2.0) depends on at&t's EDGE network, which is dreadfully slooow here in Chicago (it's akin to waiting for a Cub's World Series appearence.). Doing anything on the net is painful away from wifi. Also, the touchpad keyboard is not an "Enterprise" product, compared to a thumb-able hard-key QWERTY setup like a Palm or Blackberry. My keystrokes are a sad 10WPM on my iPhone, whereas I used to get about 20WPM out of my Palm, driving on LSD.

    iPhones are great for high school boys, college girls, and effeminate web masters everywhere... I just wish I had stock in Apple, instead of M$FT.
  • Hey ShareBear,
    yeah i sort of agree with you about the keyboard. I've been using these miniature mobile devices since they first started appearing in 1990 (a full list of every one i've owned is on my website - it's ridiculous:), and all of my favorites had keyboards. Thumb typing is the way to go. But i don't think anyone will convince Jobs to do a slider or a Treo/Blackberry like tactile keyboard. I decided to be open-minded and really give the iPhone's on-screen keyboard a chance, and I have to say, i'm at least partially converted. Most people just think it has look-ahead to complete the word. But the Apple Multi-touch technology has some remarkable innovations - like knowing what character is coming next, and enlarging the TARGET AREA over that particular character; which improves typing accuracy notably. It's still not a keyboard though, and i do agree with you that it's a bit of a problem for heavy emailers. But the solution can be to shift your habits, since the iPhone is so versatile for so many OTHER things. And I've been shifting away from email a bit anyway; i think the "peak email" years are behind us as we move into web 2.0 technologies.

    It's true about AT&T's EDGE network - verrry slow and frustrating to use an iPhone with that. Thankfully, the 3G iPhone has arrived, and the data performance is hugely better. Surprisingly, the voice performance on the 3G iPhone is way better than my EDGE iPhone; in fact it's probably the crispest/sharpest cell phone audio I've experienced (including my favorite Nokia's, Samsungs, and Sanyo's - and those are some great phones to compare it to. Surprised by that, but Apple really nailed the cell phone side of it this time. An added bonus.

    I do disagree with your last line, though. I am 54 and a type A business guy; and not matching any of the other descriptors, :-)

    thanks for your comments.
  • Very well written.
  • this document from Microsoft provides a lot of information for MS-Exchange server administrators, to
    configure the network and the server(s) to support iPhone ("Enterprise Deployment Guide", a 728KB pdf from Microsoft):

    http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2008/07/11/44...

    some of this should be relevant to getting iPhones to play with Corporate SharePoint servers. Ports to open,
    permissions etc. Looks like MS-Exchange defaults to prohibiting links in emails fro opening SharePoint docs, as the
    default.

    Just an fyi of something that was brought to my attention.
  • Also... Apple has published this enterprise deployment guide:

    http://support.apple.com/manuals/en_US/Enterpri...
  • Excellent article :-)

    It's beyond my knowledge to know how this would work on an internal installation of SharePoint 2007 that is currently not accessible externally, but I can see how the iPhone could easily replace the Blackberry, which, despite improvements, still has too small a screen.

    With SharePoint's ability to access Exchange/Outlook email it's easy to see how our key services (web/email) could be delivered through Apple's snazzy device.

    I'm not an iPhone owner (in the UK, O2 are the only network provider that we can sign up with), although I nearly bought an iTouch! If the iPhone was able to support Office applications (can it already? I don't know) it would make it easier to justify ordering one ;-)

    Cheers - Peter
    SharePoint Developer in the UK
  • Wonderful article!
    It totally changed my mind about the Iphone _ in general I tend to dislike the popular stuff Apple comes up with, I just find them insanely expensive and not worth the extra money you pay just to have a cool gadget..

    P.S. Keep up the good work, every article so far was great, I'm becoming a real sharepointmagazine fan!
  • Tony
    My only issue with this would be the international data changes on using something like this. For Roaming users working across international borders most mobile operators charge peak tariffs - I know some iPhone users who have had horrific bills from their operators because they used iPhones for data exchange while Roaming. Also in Europe there is not a single operator for iPhone but different ones in each country, which does not help international companies using a single operator. But I loved the article and the possibilities.
  • Zac
    Looks fantastic! Managing all those SharePoint lists and libraries. Would be great if you could actually participate in the libraries as you can on WM. At least you can admin the sites and create list items. Just forget documents, or any content for that matter. You can't even save anything to the phone, can you? Again, pretty, and pretty unpractical... unless you are the site admin... /m might be ugly but on WM it is fast and functional.
  • Mike
    Pretty cool. I had tested this a while back and was amazed at how well it worked. After thinking about it thought, it really is not that surprising. The 2007 flavor of SharePoint is designed to work with all standards compliant browsers, which iPhone's Safari is. The only cavaet is that to get full functionality your browser must support ActiveX, which pretty much limits the field to IE, with the best performance IE6 and up.
  • TJ
    hi, I really would like to hear from you how you did it.
    I have WSS 3.0 installed on the company I work. I successfully connect to my work
    throuhg VPN. I can RDP into my office computer from my IPHONE but I can't open
    my wss sites from my iphone.

    I can see you did it, but I just receive " Safari can't open page because could not find server".
    when i use url name. if I type my wss server address I get the authentication page but after
    i type user name and password the same error message.

    can you please help me here.
  • nrhodes61
    We are having an issue when connecting to our VPN via an Iphone when trying to connect to a SharePoint internal resource it prompts for username and password than we get a page not found errror? We are using correct credentials and using NTLM authentication.

    Any Ideas?
  • Great info here. Great article. In response to the question about the page not found error I don't have a fix yet but I have a couple of questions that might help figure it out.
    1) If possible disable the authentication for the WSS site and then try it again. Does the same thing happen?
    2) What is the exact address displayed in the browser when the error is shown?
    3) Try to specify the port number in the address and see what happens...like this:
    http://internalServername:80/default.aspx

    I would also install the full version of Safari on a machine and test to see if it works through the VPN.
    If you are connected directly to your office network via wireless does it work?

    Cheers,
    Scott
  • Fernando
    Have you been able to figure out how to use a reporting services report through the IPHONE?
    I can access the report but the Expand capabilities do not work [+] or [-]
  • markusbosch
    You guys may want to check out iShare as an application on the iPhone! Enjoy.
    http://www.spyk.com/Products/iShare/Pages/iShar...
  • jgardner04
    This is great to know. I administer many SharePoint sites but have never thoguth to access them from my iPhone. I just wanted to point out that if you us Microsoft Project Server you cannot access those sites from the iPhone even though it is build on a Sharepoint platform. It throws an error message that IE is required to view this site.
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