Chapter 19: Publishing SharePoint Server 2007 Data to Mobile Devices Through ISA Server 2006

Overview

At this point, it is certainly clear that Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 focuses on the collection and distribution of data to a company's employees. Just as certain is the fact that it is only a matter of time before that data will need to be presented to mobile users. In support of the ever-growing mobile user community, Microsoft has made great strides in the development of the Windows Mobile platform. Now with its Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system, Microsoft has opened opportunities for instant access to user data including e-mail, contacts, calendar, and tasks. From a SharePoint perspective, Microsoft has included a new Mobile URL feature wherein the URL is generated automatically for each site to provide access to mobile device users. Rather than provide a picture-rich environment, a typical SharePoint environment for the mobile URL slims the page down to its most important List feature.

Windows Mobile 5.0 devices are available from all major cellular carriers and come in several different forms. Some devices use standard QWERTY keyboards to facilitate text input, while other devices use a normal phone-style number pad.

Windows Mobile 5.0 is split between two similar but different operating systems: Windows Mobile 5.0 for PocketPC and Windows Mobile 5.0 for Smartphone. Although these devices share a similar core operating system in Windows Mobile 5.0, there are differences in the feature set supported by each device. The PocketPC version of the Windows Mobile 5.0 platform includes functionality that makes these devices act more like a blend between phones and laptop computers. Windows Mobile 5.0 for PocketPC includes applications such as Mobile Word, Mobile Excel, Mobile PowerPoint, and even a Terminal Services client. In addition, devices that run Windows Mobile 5.0 for PocketPC have support for connecting to Wi-Fi networks to check e-mail or access Internet resources.

This chapter focuses on how to configure Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2006 to publish a SharePoint site to a Windows Mobile device.