Options for moving a web application inside Sharepoint

Question

We have a small .NET web application (aspx & ascx) that is used inside our company. It is currently stand alone with its own database but I'm trying to see if it is possible to move it inside SharePoint as this is becoming the company's standard way of delivering intranet based content (currently using 2007 but there is a planned upgrade to 2010) . Rather than use a "iframe" webpart, what options do I have? For example,

• Are there any "standard" ways of integrating external web apps inside SharePoint?
• Would it be a good idea to migrate the data into SharePoint lists? (The data model is quite simple - only around 10 main tables)
• As the users of the application are all network users, one of the other things I'd like to consider is to manage user access via SharePoint rather than via the application itself - is this possible?

Answer 1

To get an asp.net site to run inside sharepoint, you need to place it in a specific directory and then configure that directory as an "exclude path". See: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/828810

The above is a simple integration, that just needs configuration changes. What it does not give you is a common authorisation system.

To get a common authorisation system, you either need to add some code to the pageload of your web pages or transfer these pages to Sharepoint.

Answer 2

SharePoint is a framework built on top of ASP.NET. Many of your ascx controls might be able to transfer to SharePoint with few or no changes. Likewise, it should be possible to rewrite your aspx pages as either Web Parts or SharePoint compatible aspx pages. The main difference with a SharePoint aspx page is the names (or number) of the Content Place Holders defined by the out of the box master pages. Also, any inline code on your aspx pages should be moved into a class.

You could move all of your data into SharePoint lists, but there is nothing wrong with leaving where it is and using your current data access functionality. Unless you want to give more visibility to the data or combine the current data with new SharePoint data, there is no need to rewrite parts of your application that are currently working.

You certainly can leverage SharePoint to manage authorization to your application once it is hosted in SharePoint. To do so, rewrite the appropriate portions of your application to use the SharePoint API rather than your custom security.

Answer 3

IFRAME Approach

By far the easiest way to integrate any web application into SharePoint is using an IFRAME which can be added to a SharePoint Page via a Content Editor Web Part.

SharePoint Application Pages Approach

This approach deploys a standard ASP.NET Web Application into a subfolder of the _layouts directory in the SharePoint Web Application within IIS.

User Control Approach

This approach converts each ASP.NET Page into an ASP.NET User Control (USCX) and then deploys a SharePoint Page Layout relating to each control and then a SharePoint Page in the Pages library.

ASP.NET Web Part Approach

If you were lucky enough to write your ASP.NET Web Application using ASP.NET Web Parts you can simply import these into SharePoint.