Getting to know Business Connectivity Services (BCS) Using Visual Studio 2010

SharePoint Saturday New YorkPresenter: Fabian Williams

Twitter: @fabianwilliamsBlog (old): http://FabianGWilliams.wordpress.comBlog (new): http://www.sharepointfabian.com/blogWeb Site: http://www.adotob.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/fabianwilliamsLinked In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/fabiangwilliams

Fabian is a Technical Lead and SharePoint Architect for CDW Advanced Technology Services SharePoint Practice. He is based out of Herndon, Va. Prior to CDW, Fabian was the CTO for WING, Inc. Recently, he was the Chief Internet Developer for the Department of Defense's Global Emerging Infections System and a Sales Engineer at Citrix Incorporated

Agenda• What is BCS & Why do you want to know it• What problems does BCS Solve• Our Scenario, Dry Run and Illustrated Gotchas! • Demo

– Inspect the LOB System– Crack Open Visual Studio– Model our BCS Operation– Code our Solution– Publish our Solution– Permissioning – Consume our External Content Type

• Q & A

What is Business Connectivity Services What Problems does it Solve

• Formerly Named Business Data Catalog

• Read/Write Access to External Data• Create No-Code and Code Solutions

to LOB Systems

• Island of Information Challenges• Overhead for IT to Service Requests• Managing Security, Auditing,

Connectivity• Complex/Multiple UI for LOB Systems• Timely Access to Data• Searchability

What is Baked Into the Product – Bag of Tricks so to speak

Secure Store Service

External Data Search

Rich Client Extensions

External Data Web Parts

BDC Client Runtime

Profile Pages

External List External Data Column

Business Data Connectivity Service

SharePoint Server 2010 Office 2010

SharePoint Foundation 2010

BCS is for “Everyone”

Intermediate AdvancedSimple

• Custom connectivity for data aggregation, transformation, security, etc.• Use custom code to

integrate data into any Office app• Business logic in forms

• Create reusable components (UI parts, ECTs, actions)

• Out-of-box• Surface data in External

Lists• Connect those lists to

Outlook, SPW• External Data Columns

SharePoint Designer

SharePoint SDK

DeveloperPower User

NO CODE*

Advanced Developer

VisualStudio

CODE

• Customize• InfoPath forms• Workflow• Web Part Pages• Outlook taskpane and

ribbon

Blog: http://fabiangwilliams.wordpress.com Twitter: @fabianwilliams

Gotcha # 1Make sure that you choose .NET Framework 3.5 when you are setting up your Project so you get the correct templates

Gotcha #2 – but more of a call out not a GotchaIf always been asked…”Can you do a BCS Solution as a Sandboxed Solution” .. The answer is NO… because the nature of Sandboxed Solution is that it does not go ANYWHERE beyond the SC and Content Database

Gotcha # 3 – again more of a CalloutUnder your BdcModel1, unless you plan to use the Entity1 Class i.e. you are creating your own object and plan to user the EntityService Class, go ahead and delete them in lieu of the one you will create yourself

Gotcha # 4 Ensure to change your Type Name for your “Read Item” Method List Entity so that your code will know from which type it inherits from to the Current Project and BDC Entity

Gotcha # 4 Ensure that your Rename your ‘Generic’ BCS Model, LOBSystem, LOB System Instances Name to something more representative of what you are doing. Why, For Nomenclature Reasons but more so for Namespace Reasons when using the External Content Types

Gotcha # 5Ensure to set the ETC Permissions once you Deploy your solution; otherwise you will get the “Access is Denied by the BDC” error when you try to render your External List

Parting Knowledge/Disclaimer/ Managing Expectations

• Don’t be afraid of the 14-Root/Hive Log Files when you get Errors, the Correlation ID is your friend and we may see some in todays LIVE demo…

• I have found that if you don’t have a Root Web in your Top Level Site Collection; lets say if you use just managed paths below it and you try to deploy a BCS Solution it says it cant find the Web

• Remember! You cannot update a View that affects Multiple Tables, consider this when you create an External Content Type that spans two tables via a View unless you meet certain requirements… http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/k625abw5(VS.80).aspx

Demo

Q & A