External Content and Tools feature

External Content and Tools feature allows meeting organisers to include external web pages and tools in the meeting agenda item, resulting in a more unified meeting experience for meeting participants.

The External Content and Tools feature is included in the "Extension for Digital Champions" bundle.

For security and usability reasons, we need to limit the usage to platforms that allow for embedding.
The following list includes examples of web content we allow using embedded.
Any other link can still be used, but it will open on a new tab, but not embedded.

1. Go to your meeting, edit the agenda item, and use the “Add Link” button to link to your external content.
   
2. When prompted to add a link, a new window will appear with a text field where you can enter the desired link.
3.  Go to the website that you want to share. Look for the option to embed the link and copy it. This may be labelled as 'Embed Link' or 'Embed Code'.
4. Paste the embed code to add it to Sherpany, and see a preview.
5. Write the title of the link you want to see in the meeting agenda item and click "add".

Presenter Mode:
The use of external links is compatible with the use of the presenter mode, with the participants being positioned in the linked content when the presenter selected it. However, each participant has control over what happens inside each embedded item, as this is not a screen-sharing session.

Commenting:
The participants can comment on external links, but they cannot pinpoint it to a specific location inside the content, because it is dynamic.

How to open a new tab and maximize embedded view : 
To open the embedded content in a new tab, please click on the icon located in the top right corner of the screen, or, if the content rendering is not working, you can open the content in a separate browser tab by clicking the option "click here to open in a new tab".

How to maximise the embedded view:

To maximize the embedded view or open in a new tab, please click on the icon located in the bottom left corner - If the rendering of the content is not working, the user can always open the content in a separate browser tab as per screenshots below:

You can then return to the minimised view by again clicking the same icon. This will open the agenda and minimise the embedded object.

• Users must have access to that content from a browser outside Sherpany, to be able to also render it inside Sherpany.
• It cannot work in offline mode.
• It is not possible to guarantee the content will remain unchanged over time.
• It is not possible to make annotations inside the content.
• It is not possible to pinpoint comments on specific points in the content.
• If the rendering of the content is not working, the user can always open the content in a separate browser tab.
• This is available in iOS, but not in Windows or Android.
• We have a whitelist of websites that can be embedded (see the list above), but we can add more by request if the effort makes sense.

The External Content and Tools feature is designed to be handled similarly to documents in Sherpany.
Users can link external content and tools similarly as they would upload a document, organize and list them in the meeting agenda in the same way as a meeting document, and render them in the meeting view in the same way as a meeting document.

Not every content can be embedded in Sherpany. Sometimes the web page that is being added through a link, has specific characteristics that prevents it from being embedded. Some examples of behaviour might be a complete black page, a message of refusal to connect, or other possible unexpected content, depending on each platform we are trying to link.

When you face this kind of behaviour, follow this steps to understand what you can do to make it work.

The domain is not whitelisted:

Check if the URL domain you are passing if from one of the whitelisted domains in the above session, “What external platforms are available to be embedded with the external content and tools feature?”. 

If the domain is not there, you’re probably seeing the message in this image. This means the content cannot be embedded, but you can still use it. The meeting participants will see the same message, and they can open the content in a new tab by clicking on the provided link.

The domain is whitelisted, but you get a refusal message:

The URL domain you are passing if from one of the whitelisted domains in the above session “What external platforms are available to be embedded with the external content and tools feature?”, but you’re not reaching the intended content.

This might be because you’re copying the URL from the browser address bar, and pasting it to Sherpany, and some platforms don’t allow doing that. Inside the platform you are trying to use, you must look for a Share option with embed option. You may find a link or a code block to copy. You can use either of those in Sherpany.

Example with Excel

1. Click on the File menu on the top left

2. Click on Share

3. Click on Embed

4. Choose the settings of your preference

5. Copy the entire code block in the bottom left text box.

You’re getting a black page or a sign-in page:

This means you’re not authenticated in the destination page. You can solve this by going to the destination page on a new tab and authenticate yourself. You cannot do that from inside this window because the destination site is preventing it from happening. 

It might also be the case that you’re not supposed to have access to it, but the participants will. Just make sure they have and that they know they need to be authenticated in the destination page.