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How to install your Solution built with Solution Studio Online on SharePoint Server 2013 / 2016!

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  • Article Updated

Intro

With the release from April 27th 2018, Solution Studio supports the installation of your Solution Package on SharePoint Server 2013 & 2016.

This knowledge base article is about how to use this new, outstanding, feature!

 

The Idea is that you build your Solution on SharePoint , but we are enabling you to reuse this Solution on SharePoint Server installations or other SharePoint  tenants.

 

Basic Steps:

  • Build your Solution in a SharePoint Online Site
  • Create a Package of your Solution
  • Do a manual installation in the "Publish" area
  • Download the installation package
  • Copy it to your SharePoint Server environment
  • Read the readme.txt file!
  • Start the installation via the already prepared PowerShell script
  • Navigate to your installed Solution on your SharePoint Server environment and enjoy!

 

Build and Package your Solution

Detailed information on how to build your solution you can find in the community or have a look onto this Solution example.

More content you can find on our YouTube Channel or on the first Page of a Solution.

 

About Packaging your solution you can find a very good introduction on the general Package and Publish or in this video only until the packaging is finished, deployment process is described in the next topic.

 

Other Resources:

 

Create the publishing and download the installation package

Because we are now going to install your Solution Package onto a SharePoint Server environment we need to have an installation package that you easily can upload to your server.

Following steps are needed:

  • Click the "Publish" button to open the deployment wizard and select SharePoint Server 2016/2013 -> Manual installation.
  • Define a name for the deployment and select the package version you want to deploy
  • After the registration is done you should see the entry under the Add-In deployment Tab.
  • If you click on this registration you see the Server installation package download button.
  • Download the package and upload it to your SharePoint Server environment.

    

Install it to your SharePoint Server environment

Best practice is that you create a new Site where you deploy your Solution.

After downloading the installation package unzip this one on your server. The "skybowSharePointServerInstallationPackage.zip" contains a readme file that is describing the content:

****************************************
skybow Solution Studio
skybow 2018
****************************************
Summary:
This installation package provides a method of deploying SharePoint solutions by executing the provisioning to your local machine.

 

Requirements:
1. PowerShell 2+
2. Site admin permissions for the target site in the local farm.

 

Components:
1. Binaries - libraries needed to execute the provisioning
2. provisioningconfig.json - configuration data for your installation
3. package.pnp - package file
4. utils.ps1 - utility functions
5. provisioningscript.ps1 - include PS with a function to execute required logic
6. install.ps1 - a PowerShell script to trigger functionality

 

To execute provisioning right-click on install.ps1 and select Run with PowerShell.

Fill in all the needed information after that the script will check your configuration if any conflicts occur it will ask you on how to proceed, like in the Solution Studio  publishing wizard you are as well allowed to Force Override properties:

 

During deployment/installation you see a lot of output and in the end it should look like this "Provisioning completed":

 

Visit your site and have fun!

Licensing

After you successfully installed your Solution on your SharePoint Server environment you can see this deployment in Solution Studio under the created publishing.

If you click on this deployment it is possible to configure all the licensing that you need for this running environment.

 

The Licensing concept is exactly the same as it is in  Version.

Update scenario

In the publish configuration you need to select the new package and press the update button.

Afterwards you can download the new package and then do the exactly same steps as with the normal installation.

 

In the PowerShell methods, select update instead of install.

 

Prerequisites

Admin: Installation/Update -> access to https://solutionmanager.skybow.com

Users: Using the solution -> access to https://skybowlicenseservice.azurewebsites.net/api/license/check 

 

Your SharePoint Server environment needs to have internet access to install or update a solution, but only from intranet to internet.

This is for registering your final deployment into the publishing list, so that you have all your deployments in Solution Studio under control.

The registration is done directly in the installation script through this URL https://solutionmanager.skybow.com

 

If you have no internet connection you will see following error: "Error occured while publishing the solution... Error: Unable to connect to the remote server"

 

Once the installation was successful the users accessing the solution need to have internet access or at least for the following URL for the license check:

https://skybowlicenseservice.azurewebsites.net/api/license/check (This is not needed on the server)

 

Install from a client to your SharePoint Environment

If you do not have access to your SharePoint Server then it is possible to deploy from your client as long you have Site Collection Administration permission.

Just do the same steps as described before but you need to have the SharePoint  Management Shell installed and you need to execute the script in this Management Shell.

SharePoint  Management Shell

 

Detail info about this feature

Supported features

All the classic features that are running client-side are working.

This means that e.g. all the known Add-In features of skybow Rich Forms or Action Links are working.

In addition to all known Add-In features you as well are able to use our excellent Document Generator on your SharePoint Server!

 

Features not yet supported:

  • Background features
    • Aggregations
    • Metadata Inheritance
    • Calculated Expressions
    • Scheduled Actions
    • Triggered Actions
  • Modern Pages
  • Modern Forms
  • Modern List Actions
  • Theme Designer styles

 

Known issues

We will continuously update this feature that you can enjoy the best user experience with this!

  • When there is a broken column like metadata in the list, the view cannot be created
  • Metadata fields should be handled like in a package/publish
  • List with cross-site lookup cannot be found after deployment
  • User.Profile.Manager placeholder expression not working [[@User.Profile.Manager]]

 

Troubleshooting

Error Message "The underlying connection was closed: Could not establish trust relationship for the SSL/TLS secure channel"

If you get this error message while deploying, open your browser navigate to this url: https://solutionmanager.skybow.com/

You will see a certificate error like this:

Make sure to get this certificate ok and the deployment should work as expected.

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