1. Core ELN Training: Office Web Apps (OWA)
Welcome to CORE ELN training. The Core ELN can be integrated with different office tools, such as Microsoft Office or Think Free. This lesson will focus on using the CORE ELN with Microsoft Office Web Apps or (OWA) for short. The topics will apply to both administrators and end users.

2. Course Topics Office Web Apps ELN Integration
SharePoint Users and PFS Accounts
SharePoint Folders and ELN Notebooks
Creating Word Content
Creating Excel Content
Creating PowerPoint Content
This lesson will first take a quick look generally how Office Web Apps are integrated into the ELN. Next, it will look at how SharePoint users and Platform for Science accounts are synchronized and managed. The lesson will then look at how notebooks are stored as folders in the SharePoint server. Finally, the lesson will look at how to work with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint content sections in your notebook entries.
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3. Why Office Web Apps? Lighter, faster loading applet
Familiar UI to most users
Most common features of desktop product available
Less user training required
Increases user adoption
Let’s first take a quick look at the advantages of using Office Web Apps in your ELN. Office Web Apps are a lighter, faster loading applet that give you all of the common features of the desktop products that your users are already familiar with. This means that end users can enter their data into these sections of the ELN with minimal training and are more likely to quickly adopt your ELN because they are already comfortable using office tools they recognize.
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4. OWA ELN Integration
Raw content from Word/Excel/PowerPoint sections in an entry are stored on an OWA or SharePoint server external to the Core ELN server
Core Informatics manages a secure, shared SharePoint server for PFS Cloud customers
Each OWA ELN notebook requires a folder on the SharePoint server
Each ELN user will need a SharePoint login
ELN users will need to be logged into SharePoint while they are accessing OWA files
Without going into technical detail, let’s now look at how Office Web Apps are generally integrated with your ELN. When you save content in any sections that use office tools such as Word, Excel or PowerPoint, those raw files are being saved to an OWA or SharePoint server that is external to your Core ELN server. If you are a PFS Cloud customer, Core Informatics is managing that SharePoint server for you and keeping your data secure so you don’t have to worry about it. If you have your own enterprise system, you may need to maintain your own SharePoint server.
Metadata that is indexed from the raw content will be stored on your Core ELN server.
Since data from each OWA section is stored as a file, each OWA ELN notebook represents a folder on the SharePoint server. Your notebook details page should contain the information for that SharePoint folder. If it does not, you will need to run a little script to create the folder you need in SharePoint.
In order to access the data on the SharePoint server, each ELN user will need to have a SharePoint login on the backend. When you are creating new users, the ELN should automatically generate those SharePoint logins, but if you have existing user accounts, you may need to run that script to grant those users access. Let’s take a closer look at how SharePoint users are managed.
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5. OWA Access for New Users
New users must have a SharePoint login created
Leave the Office Web App Login field blank to allow the ELN to auto populate
Again, any user that wishes to access any Notebook Entry that has data stored on the SharePoint server, must first have a SharePoint login set up on the back end. Your Core ELN can automatically create these SharePoint accounts from its user interface so administrators do not need to manage accounts from SharePoint directly.
First, if the Administrator is creating a new Employee, the LIMS will automatically run a script that will generate a SharePoint login while the employee record is being created. On the Create New Employee page, you will see an attribute that is called Office Web App Login. Note that this attribute may be displayed on a back tab. Administrators should leave this attribute blank and let the system automatically generate this value when you create the record. If you enter a value here on the Create page, the script to create a SharePoint login will not run.
When you enter the record, you will be directed to a SharePoint Status page that displays whether the SharePoint login was created successfully or not.
If you navigate to your newly created employee record, you should now see the value for the login attribute populated.
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6. OWA Access for Existing Users
Edit the User OR
Select External Maintenance from the Functions drop down menu
If the user already exists, and the OWA Login attribute was NOT set for the user, then you can trigger the creation of the attribute in one of 2 ways. You can simply edit the user which should trigger the script to run if the OWA Login Attribute is still not populated. Or you can also select the External Maintenance option located within the Function Drop Down Menu to initiate the script to run. If the employee is logged in when you perform this function, the user will need to log out and then log back in to the system again to access SharePoint data.
Core will auto-populate the Office Web App Login field
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7. Notebooks Need SharePoint Folders
When creating a notebook, set the Document Service Type! field to MSOffice
After saving, the External Document Source Folder! field will be populated with the folder name
Now let’s take a closer look at notebooks and template notebooks. When you create any type of notebook that will contain any OWA sections in the entries, you also need to create a folder on the SharePoint server to store the Microsoft Office files. Just like users, this step can be done through the LIMS user interface through an automated script. When you are creating a new Notebook, you will need to specify that the Notebook will be using MS Office. To do this, click on the Other tab (or the System tab on some systems) and within it, locate the Document Service Type*! attribute. Select the MSOffice option. Be aware that you can only set this property when the Notebook or Template Notebook is created. Once it has been created, you will NOT be able to go back and edit this attribute later. Selecting the MSOffice option will trigger the LIMS to create a folder on the Sharepoint server. Do NOT fill in the External Document Source Folder as this will be auto populated when the template is saved and any value there will prevent the script from running.
You should be directed to a SharePoint Integration page that will give you the status of whether the folder was successfully created or not. From there, you can navigate to the new notebook record and verify that you see the External Document Source Folder attribute has been populated with the name of the folder.
If the External Document Source Folder attribute is empty, such as for existing legacy notebook records, you can still trigger the Sharepoint integration by selecting the External Maintenance function on the notebook.
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8. Passing SharePoint Credentials
First, the ELN passes the SharePoint Credentials to the SharePoint server
If the login is successful, the Login Successful message will display
You will be asked for SharePoint login for all entries in an OWA notebook – however if you are not using an OWA section you can skip this login
Once you have established your notebook as an OWA notebook, the ELN will automatically prompt you to log into SharePoint whenever you first need to access an entry in that notebook. Whether you are creating a new entry or just navigating to an existing entry, you will see a CoreLIMS Sharepoint Server page that lets you know the ELN is logging you in. If you will be accessing OWA sections in your entry, you should wait until you see the Login Successful message before hitting the continue button. If you are just looking at non-OWA data, you can continue immediately without waiting for the login, but remember to login later if you navigate to OWA sections later. Once you have successfully connected to SharePoint, you will not need to re-login every time as you navigate between other sections and entries. You will not need to ever enter a SharePoint username or password directly – the ELN will do that for you automatically.
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9. X Refresh SharePoint Login
If you do NOT see the Word, Excel, or PowerPoint App displayed in your section, it means you are not currently logged into SharePoint
Use the Refresh Login function to initiate a login (Do NOT try to enter password directly)
In some cases, you may need to manually initiate a login into SharePoint. This usually happens if you skip the automatic login since you are going to a non-OWA section and later navigate to a page where you need to access OWA files. This can also happen if you have the ELN page open a long time and your SharePoint login times out.
You will know you are not logged into SharePoint because the Office Web Apps sections will not display their usual interface and you will see a generic SharePoint login screen instead. When you see this, just select the Refresh Login option under the Functions menu on the entry which will trigger the script to log you in again. Do NOT attempt to enter any passwords directly into the SharePoint display. X
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10. Microsoft Word
You can also import existing Word files (will overwrite existing content)
For OWA, use the Save Icon before leaving the section
In a prior lesson, we learned a few ways to add sections to notebook entries. Let’s take a closer look now at how the OWA sections work. There are 3 OWA section types: Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Let’s take a quick look at each of these.
As we learned in an earlier lesson, to ADD an OWA section to an existing entry, simply navigate to the notebook entry that you wish to work with, and then expand the Add Page and select your section. For now, let’s add the MS WORD Web App. If you have already been logged into the SharePoint server, you will see the familiar Microsoft Word user interface.
If you already have an existing Word file saved with all your desired content, you can simply import it into the ELN using the Upload File hyperlink. Note that importing will overwrite any content you have currently displayed. You can enter content by typing directly in the section. You can also copy content from an open, existing document into a clipboard and paste it in.
Once you are done entering your text, you will need to save your work before navigating to a new section. Word is unique in that you need to click on the disc save icon in addition to the Core Orange Save buttons. All the content that is stored within the Word Section will be indexed when the entry is closed.
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11. Microsoft Excel Excel uses only the orange Save button
You can also import existing Excel files (will overwrite existing content)
For spreadsheet sections, you can also import data from Excel files using the Upload File hyperlink or you can copy and paste content from an existing Excel file using your clipboard. You can also enter new content directly into the spreadsheet from scratch. One difference from Word is that the Save button from Excel has been integrated into the Core ELN so you just need to use the orange Save button to save your work before leaving the section. Again, all the content that is stored within the Excel Section will be indexed when the entry is closed.
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12. Microsoft PowerPoint PowerPoint uses only the orange Save button
You can also import existing PowerPoint files (will overwrite existing content)
For presentation sections, the PowerPoint app behaves very similarly to the Excel section. You can copy and paste data from your clipboard, but it is recommended to upload files instead of using the clipboard for large image files. Just like Excel, you can just use the orange Save button to save your work. Again, all content that is stored within the PowerPoint Section will be indexed when the entry is closed.
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13. Review Office Web Apps ELN Integration
SharePoint Users and PFS Accounts
SharePoint Folders and ELN Notebooks
Creating Word Content
Creating Excel Content
Creating PowerPoint Content
This lesson has focused on the special considerations that users need to know when working with Office Web Apps within the ELN.
If you have any questions in regards to CORE ELN and Office Web Applications, please review this lesson, along with referring to the CORE Documentation.
Thank you for investing your time in CORE ELN Training.
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