ProjectWise Administrator Help

Adding Work Area Connections to ProjectWise Web

A work area connection is a link between a work area and a ProjectWise project that exposes the work area and its contents inside the ProjectWise Web portal of that ProjectWise project. In short, if you want your users to be able to access ProjectWise documents from ProjectWise Web, you need to add a connection to the work area that contains those documents to the ProjectWise Web portal of your ProjectWise project.

There are two ways that work area connections can be added to ProjectWise Web:

  • You can manually create the work area connection directly from ProjectWise Web.

    or

  • You can configure a setting in ProjectWise Administrator so that whenever a work area is associated to a ProjectWise project from ProjectWise Explorer, a connection to that work area is automatically added to the ProjectWise Web portal of that ProjectWise project.

Whichever method you choose, the end result is the same - a work area connection is added to the ProjectWise Web portal of your ProjectWise project.

Work Area Connection Requirements

Creating and using a work area connection requires the following external configuration:

  1. ProjectWise Design Integration Server

    ProjectWise Design Integration Server (or servers) must be set up and running and your datasource (or datasources) must be fully-configured. See ProjectWise Design Integration Server Configuration.

  2. Bentley IMS Authentication in ProjectWise

    The datasource that contains the work area you plan to connect to must have Bentley IMS authentication / single sign-on enabled if you want your users to be able to log in with their Bentley IMS account.

  3. Bentley Web Services Gateway (WSG) and the ProjectWise Plug-in

    Bentley Web Services Gateway and the ProjectWise plug-in must be set up and running and configured to access the datasources on your ProjectWise Design Integration Server (or servers). See Deploying the ProjectWise Plug-in for Bentley Web Services Gateway.

  4. Access to https://ims.bentley.com/

    In order for users to be able to log in with their Bentley IMS account, an outbound rule that allows access to https://ims.bentley.com/ must be added to every firewall between Bentley Web Services Gateway and https://ims.bentley.com/.

  5. CORS Configuration

    Part of setting up Bentley Web Services Gateway (step 3 above) for ProjectWise Web involves configuring Bentley Web Services Gateway to allow cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) requests coming from various services, including ProjectWise Web, PDF Markup Service, and Microsoft Teams integration. This means that you must enter the URL of each of these services in the deployment wizard (separate each URL with a comma) when you are deploying Bentley Web Services Gateway:

    For this service Enter this URL Purpose
    ProjectWise Web https://connect-projectwisewac.bentley.com Required to create and open work area connections.

    When this is configured and you go to ProjectWise Web and click Manage Connections > New Connection and enter the address of your Bentley Web Services Gateway deployment in the Server URL field, it will return a list of ProjectWise datasources that Bentley Web Services Gateway has access to (it will not return a list of datasources if this is not configured; also you will not be able to open a work area connection if this URL is later removed).

    PDF Markup Service https://connect-pdfmarkup.bentley.com Required to markup PDF documents using the PDF Markup Service (users can still open PDFs as read-only in the PDF Markup Service, even if this is not configured).
    Microsoft Teams integration https://connect-projectwiseteamshost.bentley.com Required to add an existing work area connection as a tab in Microsoft Teams.
    older work area connections https://projectshareportal.bentley.com Required to open older work area connections (those created in old ProjectWise Web / ProjectWise Share).

    If you have already deployed Bentley Web Services Gateway and the ProjectWise plug-in and you need to add these URLs, you can either manually edit the web.config file for this deployment, or you can just redeploy Bentley Web Services Gateway (recommended) to the same website and append these URLs to the CORS list of allowed URLs when you get to that page of the deployment wizard. For example: 

    https://connect-projectwisewac.bentley.com,https://connect-pdfmarkup.bentley.com,https://connect-projectwiseteamshost.bentley.com,https://projectshareportal.bentley.com
  6. Bentley Web Services Gateway must be public facing if your users need to mark up PDFs using the PDF Markup Service
    Note: Consult your IT department if needed, about making Bentley Web Services Gateway public facing.

Requirements for Opening Office Documents

In order to be able to open Office documents from ProjectWise Web:

  • The user must have a Microsoft 365 subscription
Note: ProjectWise Web no longer uses https://connect-mswopiclient.bentley.com to open Office documents from ProjectWise Web, therefore this URL no longer needs to be added to the Bentley Web Services Gateway CORS list for ProjectWise Web, and the ProjectWise Web user opening the Office document can now be logged in to the work area with any type of account (it no longer needs to be a Bentley IMS account). Also, Bentley Web Services Gateway no longer needs to be public facing in order to open Office documents from ProjectWise Web (however it is still a requirement to markup PDFs). Note that ProjectWise Web View DOES still use https://connect-mswopiclient.bentley.com to open Office documents, therefore this URL still needs to be added to the Bentley Web Services Gateway CORS list if your organization is also using ProjectWise Web View.

Requirements for Marking Up PDFs

In order for a ProjectWise Web user to be able to mark up PDFs in the PDF Markup Service:
  • Bentley Web Services Gateway must be configured to allow CORS requests from this PDF Markup Service URL: https://connect-pdfmarkup.bentley.com
  • Bentley Web Services Gateway must be public facing

Requirements for Getting a Microsoft Teams Link

In order for a ProjectWise Web user to be able to get a Microsoft Teams link for a document, folder, work area, or saved search:
  • Bentley Web Services Gateway must be configured to allow CORS requests from this integrated Microsoft Teams URL: https://connect-projectwiseteamshost.bentley.com
  • The work area connection must be added as a tab in Microsoft Teams.

Creating a Work Area Connection

  1. Go to the CONNECT Center (https://connect.bentley.com/) and enter your ProjectWise project.
  2. Click the ProjectWise Web Connections tile to enter ProjectWise Web.
  3. Click the Manage Connections icon (upper left) to open the Manage ProjectWise Connections page.
  4. Click New Connection.
  5. In the Create New Connection window, configure the following:
    1. Connection Name - Enter a name for the connection.
    2. Server URL - Enter the URL address of where Bentley Web Services Gateway is deployed (for example, https://<server_name>/ws), where <server_name> is the name of the computer on which Bentley Web Services Gateway is installed (for example, maestrovm.bentley.com), and ws is the name that was given to the virtual directory that Bentley Web Services Gateway and the ProjectWise Plug-in for WSG were deployed to.
    3. Get Datasource - Click Get Datasource after you enter the Bentley Web Services Gateway address. This populates the Datasource list with a list of datasources that Bentley Web Services Gateway has been configured to have access to.
    4. Datasource - Select the datasource that contains the work area you want to make a connection to.
    5. Use Bentley IMS Authentication - (recommended) Turn this setting on if you want users to be automatically logged in with their Bentley IMS accounts when they click this work area connection in ProjectWise Web. Also, the Bentley IMS user that you are currently signed in as will automatically be used to create the connection. Users who do not have a Bentley IMS account in the datasource will be prompted to log in manually when they click this work area connection (they can enter the user name and password of their logical (ProjectWise native) account or their Windows-based account).

      This setting does not display at all if BentIey IMS single sign-on is not enabled in the datasource, or if Bentley IMS single sign-on is enabled but there are no Bentley IMS accounts in the datasource.

      or

      User Name and Password - The User Name and Password fields are only used if the Use Bentley IMS Authentication setting is turned off or does not display at all. If either of these is true, then you must enter the user name and password of a ProjectWise user who has access to this work area which will be used to create the connection. When configuring a connection that does not use Bentley IMS authentication, any user who tries to open this work area in ProjectWise Web will be prompted to enter their user name and password, which can either be a logical (ProjectWise native) account or a Windows-based account.

    6. Work Area - Select the work area from the selected datasource that you want to make a connection to.

      The Work Area list displays all of the work areas in the datasource that the user who is creating the connection has access to, and for which a connection does not already exist.

    7. Description - (Optional) Enter a description of this connection. The name of the datasource is used as the description if no description is entered.
    8. Sync Work Area Participants - (Optional) Turn this option on if you want the participants of the selected work area to be automatically added as members of the ProjectWise project the first time they log in to the work area connection from ProjectWise Web.

      This option is off by default. If you do not turn it on now, you can turn it on later by editing the work area connection.

      When this option is off, you can still manually add your work area participants to the ProjectWise project by going to the Project Team Management portal (https://connect-rbacportal.bentley.com/) of your project.

    9. When finished, click Connect.

The new connection is added to the list.

Editing a Work Area Connection

You can edit some of the properties of an existing connection.

  1. Click the Manage Connections icon (upper left) to open the Manage ProjectWise Connections page.
  2. Click the check box next to a connection in the list and click the Edit icon (pencil).

    The Edit Connection dialog opens.

    You can change the name or description of the connection.

    You can also enable or disable the Sync Work Area Participants setting. When on, the participants of the selected work area will be automatically added as members of the ProjectWise project the first time they log in to the work area connection from ProjectWise Web. When off, you can still manually add your work area participants to the ProjectWise project by going to the Project Team Management portal (https://connect-rbacportal.bentley.com/) of your project.

    To change anything else, such as the server URL, datasource, work area, or authentication type, you need to delete and re-create the connection.

  3. Make the necessary changes and click Update.

Configuring Work Area Connections To Be Created Automatically

You can also configure work area connections to be created automatically when a work area is associated to a ProjectWise project, by configuring the datasource setting in ProjectWise Administrator called WSG Work Areas URL for Connect services. In this setting, you specify the URL of the Bentley Web Services Gateway (which includes the path to the on-premise ProjectWise Design Integration Server and datasource). Once this URL is configured, then associating a work area to a ProjectWise project automatically creates the work area connection in the ProjectWise Web portal of the associated ProjectWise project.

Configuring the Bentley Web Services Gateway URL:

Note: The important part of this configuration is getting the syntax of the URL right. The server does not verify whether or not you have entered it correctly, so make sure you enter it correctly!
  1. To find the first part of the URL, open the WSG Explorer on the server where Bentley Web Services Gateway is installed.

    To open the WSG Explorer, in a web browser enter: https://WSGservername/ws/Pages/WsgExplorer.aspx (for example, https://maestrovm.bentley.com/ws/Pages/WsgExplorer.aspx)

  2. In the WSG Explorer window that opens, on the Navigation tree tab, expand Repositories, then select the datasource you are configuring.
  3. In the WSG Explorer address bar, select the full URL that includes the datasource as shown here, then right-click and select Copy.
  4. In ProjectWise Administrator, paste this URL into the datasource setting, WSG Work Areas URL for Connect services.
  5. At the end of the pasted URL, append this text: /PW_WSG/Project

    The full URL is now something like this:

    https://WSGservername.domain.com/ws/v2.8/Repositories/Bentley.PW--PWservername.domain.com~3Apwtest/PW_WSG/Project

    Make sure you use the fully qualified domain name when entering the Bentley Web Services Gateway and ProjectWise server names.

    This example shows the full URL, when the Bentley Web Services Gateway and ProjectWise servers are installed on the same computer:

    https://maestrovm.bentley.com/ws/v2.8/Repositories/Bentley.PW--maestrovm.bentley.com~3Apwtest/PW_WSG/Project

Once the Bentley Web Services Gateway URL is configured, then associating a work area to a ProjectWise project in ProjectWise Explorer will automatically add the work area connection to the ProjectWise Web portal of the associated ProjectWise project.

Re-creating a Deleted Work Area Connection from ProjectWise Explorer

If a work area connection ever gets deleted from ProjectWise Web, and the work area is still associated to the ProjectWise project, use the following steps to re-create the connection from ProjectWise Explorer.

  1. In ProjectWise Explorer, open the Properties dialog for the affected work area.
  2. Select the ProjectWise Project tab.
  3. Click Create Web Connection.

    The work area connection is added back to ProjectWise Web.

Parent topic: Configuring ProjectWise Projects in the CONNECT Center