Third Light has developed a plug-in to be used with Microsoft SharePoint® and Microsoft Office 365. Currently only Enterprise implementations of SharePoint are supported.

The plug-in allows you to integrate your Third Light IMS with your SharePoint implementation. Using the plug-in, you can access images from your Third Light instance and upload them to your SharePoint site. Additionally, you can configure formats for images you upload in this way, so that they are inserted into SharePoint in a uniform size and file format. 

This page includes instructions on how to install the plug-in in your SharePoint implementation. For instructions on how to use the plug-in, please see here.

The illustrations and examples shown here are taken using an Enterprise-level SharePoint implementation, and the appearance of your own SharePoint may differ slightly depending on your price plan and region.

You need to perform the following steps to install the plug-in:

1. Log in to Office365.com and navigate to your SharePoint admin settings.
2. Create an App Catalog if one does not already exist.
3. Upload the plug-in to the App Catalog.
4. You can then deploy and configure the app for everyone to use.

Please note that these instructions contain references to third party software, including the Microsoft Office suite, and consequently some of these steps may change. 

The following instructions on accessing the SharePoint admin settings and creating and managing the App Catalog are based on the instructions given here.

Please note: 

• The Third Light SharePoint plug-in requires SSL authentication and encryption to be enabled within your Third Light instance to work correctly with your SharePoint implementation. While Microsoft has designed these security levels into SharePoint itself, you may encounter problems if the Third Light instance you are trying to connect to does not also support these levels - the SharePoint site will then regard your connection to the Third Light instance as unsafe and cancel it. The solution is install the appropriate measures within your Third Light instance to support a connection with a SharePoint implementation - to learn how to do this, please see here.
• The Third Light plug-in for SharePoint is not compatible with Internet Explorer 8. 
• Office 365 is constantly being upgraded by Microsoft without notice, and this will doubtless continue to be true for MS SharePoint, so these instructions may likewise be subject to change. 

Obtaining the SharePoint plugin

You can download the SharePoint plugin from your IMS instance - provided you are licensed to use it. If you are licensed, the SharePoint plugin appears in the Tools section of your IMS instance.

To access the plugin, open the IMS and login to open the home screen. Click Tools > Plugins > Sharepoint Plugin:

This opens the Sharepoint Plugin screen. Click Download Sharepoint plugin for IMS:

The SharePoint plugin will now be downloaded to your local machine.

Note: if you cannot see the Sharepoint Plugin in your Plugin menu, it may be that you have not been licensed for its use. In this case, contact Third Light to make further inquiries.

Logging in to Office365.com and navigating to SharePoint admin settings

To install the plug-in, log in to Office 365:

This opens the Office365 welcome screen:

Once you have logged in, click the Admin button. This opens the admin dashboard:

In the navigation pane on the left, go to the ADMIN section and click SharePoint. If you cannot see SharePoint, click on ADMIN to open the submenu.

This opens the SharePoint admin dashboard:

The plug-in is uploaded to the App Catalog for the SharePoint implementation. If you already have an App Catalog, you can skip this next section. If you don't, then you need to create one. 

Creating an App Catalog

The next step, before uploading an app such as the plug-in, is to create an App Catalog. To do this, go to the SharePoint admin dashboard and in the navigation pane on the left click apps. This opens the apps screen:

Click App Catalog. This opens the App Catalog screen:

Here you can either:

• Create a new app catalog site
• Enter the URL for an existing app catalog site.

To create a new app catalog, click the Create a new app catalog site button to select it, and then click OK on the far right.

This opens the Create App Catalog Site Collection screen:

The following fields need to be completed:

• Title - supply a name for your app catalog here
• Web Site Address - this field defaults to the current site address, with a field at the end for you to specify your particular app catalog. You can also change to another site root by clicking on the drop-down menus.
• Language Selection - this defaults to the current language, but clicking on the drop-down list will allow you to choose other languages
• Time Zone - this defaults to the current time zone, but clicking on the drop-down list will allow to choose other time zones
• Administrator - an email address for the Administrator for the instance must be entered here, or selected from the Active Directory address book supplied next to the text field
• Storage Quota - you can set how much space you wish the app catalog occupy
• Server Resource Quota - you can set the resource quota here.

Once you have completed these fields, click OK to create the app catalog.

Now that the app catalog is created, you can upload the plug-in to the catalog and it will be available for use.

Uploading the Third Light Plug-In

The next step is to upload the plug-in into the app catalog for your site, which makes it available to be installed by users. 

To do this:

1. Return to the SharePoint admin dashboard, as described previously (Admin > SharePoint). 
2. Click apps:
   
3. Click App Catalog in the main screen:
   
4. Click Apps for SharePoint in the navigation pane on the left, and then click upload in the main screen.
5. A file dialog now opens and you can upload the app to the catalog following the prompts. 
   
   Please note that the plug-in file must end in an .app suffix. If you have multiple versions of the .app file downloaded, numbered by your local system as ThirdLightMediaLibrary-2, ThirdLIghtMediaLibrary-3, etc, then SharePoint will not recognise these as plugin files, and you must manually rename them so that they adhere to the correct format. For instance, ThreeChillies.SP2013.ThirdLightMediaLibrary.app will be recognised as a plugin file, whereas ThreeChillies.SP2013.ThirdLightMediaLibrary-3 will not.
   
   
6. Once the plug-in is uploaded, it becomes visible on the Apps for SharePoint screen:
   
7. By default, the plug-in will be enabled once you upload it, but check that this is the case by inspecting the Enabled and Valid App Package columns above the plug-in and ensuring both say Yes.

The plug-in is now uploaded and available for deployment throughout your SharePoint implementation.

Deploying the Third Light plug-in

Next, the plug-in must be deployed. This must happen for every site that you wish to use the plugin with, so if you have multiple SharePoint sites, the plugin needs to be deployed for each site. 

 To do this: 

1. Go to the Office portal page and select Sites from the toolbar:
   
   
2. This loads the sites page:
   
3. Open the site you wish to deploy the plugin to (in this example, the plugin will be deployed to the Public site) by clicking on it to open it.
   
4. Click  and click Add an app: 
   
5. The Site Contents > Your Apps page now opens:
   
   
6. On the Site Contents > Your Apps screen click Third Light Browser to begin installation of the plug-in. You may see a message - You can't add this app here. In this instance, you will need to indicate that the plug-in is trusted:
   
7. Click on the plug-in icon. You will be prompted to trust the plug-in:
   
8. Click Trust It. 
9. The plug-in now appears on the Site Contents > Your Apps screen:
   
   
   
   You may see a message: We're adding your app, click here to cancel. This means that SharePoint is still deploying your plugin, and you will not be able to use or configure the plugin until this message disappears.

Once the message disappears, the plug-in is ready to be configured.

Configuring preset formats into the Third Light plug-in

You can also create an output format, so that all files you upload from your IMS instance will be reformatted in size and file format on a per site basis. For instance, if you have a blog page and have decided that all images used in the blog must be 200 by 200 pixels wide and must be in JPG format, then you can configure this format into the plug-in. This means that no matter what size, shape, or format the image has in your Third Light instance, it will adhere to the format you have configured into the plug-in.

If you do not use preset formatting, then the image will be inserted according to the default formats:

• In landscape this is 200 pixels wide and and 150 pixels high
• In portrait this is 150 pixels wide and 200 pixels high
• In banner format this is 400 pixels wide and 75 pixels high.

Default formats are in WEB format and include padding where applicable.

Alternatively you can configure custom preset formats, as described below.

To configure your new format, you need to access the Site Contents page for your site. To do this:

1. Go to the Office portal page and select Sites from the toolbar. The Sites page now loads.
2. Click  and click Site Contents:
   
3. On the Site Contents screen click Third Light Browser to open its configuration details:
   
   
4. To create a new format, click Add New Format.
5. Complete the following fields:
   • Name - this is a descriptive name for the format, so try to choose one that identifies the format with where it will be used for easy reference.
   • Width - the width in pixels you would like images to take.
   • Height - the height of the image in pixels.
   • Format - this is the file format, and you can choose one of five options from the dropdown list, including JPG, PNG, GIF, TIF, and WEB.
   • Use Padding - this does not necessarily enforce padding, but allows its use around the image where it is possible. 
6. Click Save to save the new format. Click Remove to remove a format you no longer need. 

With the Third Light plug-in installed and any formats you require configured, you can now upload files from your IMS instance into your SharePoint site. 

Checking installation

To check that has been installed correctly, click Sites from the toolbar in your SharePoint portal:

This opens your SharePoint sites:

Click the Public Site icon, for example, and then click the Page tab in the toolbar at the top. Click Edit:

The site reloads, with the Edit ribbon visible. Click on the Insert tab to select it:

Third Light Media is now visible in the Insert ribbon. You can ciick on the plug-in to access your Third Light IMS instance.

Please note that the Third Light plug-in is only enabled when:

• Editing a wiki page, and the cursor is in an editable field (for instance, Title is not editable, as the Title field only accepts text in SharePoint)
• Editing a page on a Publishing site, and the cursor is in a rich text field on the page
• Editing a Content Editor Web Part
• Creating or editing an item in a list or library and the cursor is in a rich text field.

This behaviour is managed by SharePoint, so functionality may change if SharePoint changes. 

To learn how to use the Third Light plug-in, see here.

Should you wish to uninstall or update the Third Light plug-in, see here.