Instruction

INSTALLING AND CONFIGURING M-FILES

ADD-IN FOR SHAREPOINT ONLINE
VERSION 3.7 | LAST UPDATED 10 JUNE 2024

M-Files Add-In for SharePoint Online enables you to access documents and information stored in M-Files directly from the
SharePoint user interface. This document explains how to take the add-in into use. The document is intended for M-Files
consultants and customer IT administrators who are setting up M-Files add-ins.

For a description of M-Files Add-In for SharePoint Online, refer to Solution Description - M-Files Add-in for SharePoint
Online.

Contents

1. Prerequisites ...................................................................................................................................................................... 1

2. Specifying the Settings of M-Files Add-In for SharePoint Online ....................................................................................... 2

3. Installing M-Files Add-In for SharePoint Online ................................................................................................................. 2

4. Updating M-Files Add-In for SharePoint Online ................................................................................................................ 4

5. Inserting the M-Files Add-In to a SharePoint Page ............................................................................................................ 4

6. Add-In Configuration ......................................................................................................................................................... 5

7. Validating the CORS Settings ............................................................................................................................................. 7

8. Using Single Sign-On .......................................................................................................................................................... 8

9. Change History ................................................................................................................................................................... 8

10. Reference Documents ....................................................................................................................................................... 9

1. Prerequisites

Before you continue, make sure that these requirements have been completed:

• You have a license for M-Files Add-In for SharePoint Online.

o Request the M-Files for SharePoint license from [email protected].
• The M-Files vNext environment has been set up (requires M-Files Online).
o Refer to Setting Up Web and Mobile Access to M-Files.
▪ If you use M-Files September '22 Update or earlier, refer to Setting Up the Backend for the New
M-Files Web and Web-Based Add-Ins instead.
o You need the server address when you edit the connection settings in section 5.
o The backend server must use the same connection protocol as the add-in host environment.

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 • An App Catalog site collection for your SharePoint Online environment has been created.
o See Step 1: Create the App Catalog site collection under Use App Catalog in Microsoft Docs.

2. Specifying the Settings of M-Files Add-In for SharePoint Online

The first step is to add a few settings to any of the vaults on the server:

1. Open M-Files Admin and go to Advanced Vault Settings of a vault on the server.
2. Open the Configuration tab, expand M-Files Add-In Settings, and select Add Add-In.
3. Expand the newly created Add-In node.
4. In Add-In Type, select Microsoft SharePoint and Teams.
5. Edit the two settings presented below.
Cross-Origin Access:

Description The allowed cross-origin domain URLs for the host application. Separate values with a comma and do not add
a whitespace after the comma. Do not add a slash at the end of URL.

Example value https://company.sharepoint.com

Allowed Cross-Frame Sites:

Description The allowed cross-frame domains URLs for the host application. Separate values with a comma and do not add
a whitespace after the comma. Do not add a subdirectory name (for example /vnext) or a slash to the end of
URL.

Specify the URLs of your M-Files vNext server and SharePoint domain.

Example https://cloudvault.company.com,https://company.sharepoint.com
value

Note: The settings are merged with the corresponding settings in other vaults on the server, unless each vault
has been designated a VaultDNS value under the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Motive\M-Files\<version>\Server\Common\VaultDNSConfig

6. Click Save.

Note: If you are using M-Files February '20 Update or earlier, refer to Appendix A / Settings for Cross-Origin
Resource Sharing (CORS) of Setting Up the Backend for the New M-Files Web and Web-Based Add-Ins instead.

3. Installing M-Files Add-In for SharePoint Online

The add-in package that you downloaded from Solution Catalog contains the file mfiles-addin.sppkg.

To install the SharePoint Package to the App Catalog:

Note: These instructions are based on the classic user interface of the SharePoint admin center.

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 1. With a web browser, open your App Catalog site collection.
The default URL is formed as follows:
https://<tenant name>.sharepoint.com/sites/AppCatalog/SitePages/Home.aspx or

https://<tenant name>.sharepoint.com/sites/devops/SitePages/Home.aspx

Example: https://mycompany.sharepoint.com/sites/AppCatalog/SitePages/Home.aspx or
https://mycompany.sharepoint.com/sites/devops/SitePages/Home.aspx

2. On the App Catalog home page, click Distribute apps for SharePoint.
3. Extract the add-in package and drag and drop the mfiles-addin.sppkg file to the listing area.

4. In the confirmation dialog, enable the option Make this solution available to all sites in the organization.

5. Click Deploy.
6. Make sure that the values for the solution are as listed here.
o Enabled: Yes
o Deployed: Yes
o Tenant Deployed: Yes

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 o App Package Error Message: No errors.

4. Updating M-Files Add-In for SharePoint Online

To update the SharePoint add-in:

1. With a web browser, open your App Catalog site collection.

See section 3 for instructions on how to form the URL.
2. On the App Catalog home page, click Distribute apps for SharePoint.
3. Extract the add-in package and make sure that name of the update package (for example mfiles-addin.sppkg)
matches the name of the previously installed package.
4. Drag and drop the package file to the listing area.
5. Click Replace It.
6. Enable Make this solution available to all sites in the organization.
7. Click Deploy.
8. Make sure that the values for the solution are as listed here.
o Enabled: Yes
o Deployed: Yes
o Tenant Deployed: Yes
o App Package Error Message: No errors.
9. Click the three-dot menu ( ) icon for the solution.
10. Select Advanced > Check In.

5. Inserting the M-Files Add-In to a SharePoint Page

This section explains how to take the add-in into use on a SharePoint web page of your choice. To use the SharePoint add-
in, you must have created a page in a site. Refer to Create a team site in SharePoint, Create and use modern pages on a
SharePoint site.

A web part is a re-usable component that is added to a SharePoint page to perform a specific task.

1. With a web browser, open the page on which you want to include the add-in as a web part.
2. Click Edit.
3. Hover your mouse under the title area to bring about a line with a circled plus sign:

4. Click the plus sign, and in the drop-down menu, locate and select the M-Files Add-in web part.

5. Hover over the newly added web part, and in the toolbar on its left side, select Edit web part.

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 6. Under Server Settings on the right-hand side of the user interface, enter the values as described in section 6.
7. When you are done, click Publish to make the page available for others.

Note: The Save button saves your changes for you alone. With Publish, the changes are visible to all users.

6. Add-In Configuration

SETTING NAME DESCRIPTION

Server URI Mandatory setting. The address of your M-Files vNext server. Do not add slash at the end. The M-Files vNext
server must use the same connection protocol as the add-in host environment (HTTPS in most cases).

Depending on your configuration, the Server URI can be for example:

https://m-filescloudvault.mycompany.com or
https://m-filesweb.mycompany.com/vnext

Vault GUID Mandatory setting. The GUID of the vault to be used. All letters in the value must be given in upper case.

For example:
A68B0D63-3C0E-4E9C-AD8F-C6F33818BDE2

Note: This option is available in the add-in version 3.0 and later.

View URI Optional setting. The view in your vault to use as the landing page for the web part. If no value is set, the default
Recently Accessed by Me view is used. This setting is not in use if the Keyword value has already been defined.

The value is formed like this:

views/V<view ID>/V<subview ID>/...

The part /... represents further subviews. The view ID and subview IDs are all optional components of this value.
In other words, you can simply use the value views/ as well.

For example:
views/V133
or
views/V133/V136

Tip: To conveniently set the view:

1. Enter views/ as the value of this setting.

2. Click Apply.
3. Go to the view that you want to use as the landing page view.
4. Click Use Current View.

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 Keyword Optional setting. The landing page for the web part shows the search results with the given keyword. This setting
is not in use if the View URI value is set.

For example:
Invoices

Note: This option is available in the add-in version 3.0 and later.

Editing Specifies whether editing via the add-in is allowed. If editing is enabled, add-in users can create new objects,
modify document content, and edit object metadata, including workflows and permissions.

This setting is available in the add-in version 2.0 and later.

Note: With the add-in versions from 2.0 to 4.0.0.2, to edit documents, download the file, edit it
locally, and finally use the add-in to replace the original file with the new one in SharePoint. With the
add-in version 4.0.0.4 (and later) and M-Files August '20 Update (20.6.9181.4) and later, you can edit
documents in Office for the web.

You can check the ID of a view in M-Files Desktop by right-clicking on it and selecting Properties. The ID is shown in the title
of the properties dialog. To check the GUID of your vault, right-click the vault in M-Files Admin and select Properties. The
GUID is shown under Unique ID in the Document Vault Properties dialog.

The settings should look similar to one of the examples below.

Image 1: Sample add-in settings.

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Image 2: Sample add-in settings with /vnext in the URI.

7. Validating the CORS Settings

The steps in this section describe how you can make sure the cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) settings of the add-in are
in place by using the Developer Tools window in Google Chrome.

1. Open Google Chrome.

2. Open the public URL of the backend server.
For example: https://mycompany.com or https://mycompany.com/vnext
3. Press F12 on your keyboard to bring up the Developer Tools window.
4. Open the Network tab.

5. Select the XHR filter.

6. In the list of requests, select the one entitled query-version.

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 7. Open the Headers tab.
8. Under the Response Headers section, make sure the value of the content-security-policy header
corresponds to your configuration (see section 2).

Example values: https://mycompany.com, https://mycompany.sharepoint.com

8. Using Single Sign-On

The SharePoint add-in supports Single Sign-On (SSO) with Microsoft Entra ID, AD FS authentication, and Okta
authentication. Refer to Setting Up OAuth 2.0 for the New M-Files Web and Web-Based Add-Ins for more information.

9. Change History

VERSION DATE ESSENTIAL CHANGES

1.0 2019/03/28 Initial version.

1.1 2019/04/12 Mentioned the M-Files Online requirement in section 1.

1.2 2019/04/16 Sections pertaining to the server settings of the add-in were updated (section 5).

1.3 2019/05/24 Added information about the editing option under server settings (section 5). Edited step 1 in section 0.

1.4 2019/07/04 Added additional configuration options under server settings (section 5).

1.5 2019/08/29 Added information about Microsoft Teams.

1.6 2019/09/03 Updated the sections 3 and 4 to merge SharePoint and Teams add-in installation.

1.7 2019/09/06 Prerequisites updated.

1.8 2019/09/30 Added the section 3.2.1 and modified the introductory text in section 3.

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 1.9 2019/11/18 Removed an erroneous comma from the JSON example in section 3.2.1.

2.0 2019/12/30 Section 2 updated. Small improvements throughout the document.

2.1 2020/01/21 Sections 2, 3.2.2, and 6 as well as the introduction updated.

2.2 2020/02/24 Note in section 2 updated. Added section 7.

2.3 2020/03/09 License name added to the prerequisites section.

2.4 2020/03/10 Added section 8 on single sign-on.

2.5 2020/04/06 Updated section 7. Added a table of contents. Added information about the connection protocol to
section 1.

2.6 2020/04/07 Added information to section 6 about the vault GUID.

2.7 2020/05/07 Updated sections 2 and 6.

2.8 2020/06/12 The description of the editing setting updated (section 6).

2.9 2020/10/26 The description of the View URI setting now mentions the Use Current View button.

3.0 2020/11/09 Further clarification to the description of the View URI setting.

3.1 2020/12/16 Updated sections 0 and 0.

3.2 2021/12/22 Updated section 0.

3.3 2022/10/17 The new M-Files Web can now be set up in M-Files Admin. Updated the prerequisites section.

3.4 2023/03/20 Section 7 updated.

3.5 2023/05/18 M-Files for Microsoft Teams has replaced the previous Teams add-in. Removed the related instructions.

3.6 2024/01/12 Changed Azure AD into Microsoft Entra ID.

3.7 2024/06/10 Minor language fixes in the section about add-in configuration.

10. Reference Documents

You may want to see the following content for additional information:

• Setting Up the Backend for the New M-Files Web and Web-Based Add-Ins
• Use App Catalog in Microsoft Docs.
• Create a team site in SharePoint in SharePoint help center.
• Create and use modern pages on a SharePoint site in SharePoint help center.
• Solution Description - M-Files Add-in for SharePoint Online
• Setting Up OAuth 2.0 for the New M-Files Web and Web-Based Add-Ins

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