moss business data catalog

8/4/2019 MOSS Business Data Catalog

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2007 Susquehanna Technologies Confidential Page 1 of 12

MOSS 2007

BUSINESS DATA CATALOG


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Index of Contents

Index of Contents .......................................................................................................................................... 2

Overview ....................................................................................................................................................... 3

Business Data Web Parts .............................................................................................................................. 3

Business Data List ...................................................................................................................................... 3

Business Data Item .................................................................................................................................... 5

Business Data Related List ........................................................................................................................ 6

Business Data Catalog Filter ...................................................................................................................... 7

Business Data Item Builder ....................................................................................................................... 7

Business Data Actions ............................................................................................................................... 7

Connections .............................................................................................................................................. 8

Business Data Columns ................................................................................................................................. 9

Business Data Search .................................................................................................................................... 9

Administration & Security ........................................................................................................................... 10

Extensibility ................................................................................................................................................. 12

Resources & References ............................................................................................................................. 12


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Overview

The Business Data Catalog (BDC) is a new SharePoint feature available in the Enterprise edition of MOSS.

It bridges the gap between an organizations SharePoint portal and its Line of Business (LOB)

applications, allowing end-users to view and search all information from the organization through a

single interface. The BDC is capable of surfacing dynamic, real-time content from backend databases andweb services without the need to duplicate the data in SharePoint storage. Accessing data from LOB

systems requires the creation of a configuration file that is more or less a roadmap between SharePoint

and the application. This document is created in XML and stored in the Shared Service Provider. Once it

has been created, users can take advantage of SharePoints web part framework to display and format

results from LOB applications throughout the SharePoint site without the need to write any code.

Business Data Web Parts

There are six web parts (shown right) that

work in conjunction with the Business Data

Catalog to provide end-users with the

information and functionality they need.

All of the web parts follow the general

guidelines of SharePoint web parts in that

they can be easily modified by altering

their properties in the front-end user

interface. They can also be customized to

extend the existing functionality as needed

for your organization. Each of these web

parts is explored in the sections that

follow.

Business Data List

The Business Data List is probably the most

commonly used web part. Its function is

simply to display a list of data pulled from a

backend system. In the image to the right,

a list of Medical Centers is displayed in a

Business Data List web part. This particular

example obtains its data from a SQL Server

database. The columns that appear on the

list are determined on the front-end and

can be altered at any time by a user with

the appropriate permissions. If desired,

another web part showing the same list

with different fields could be placed in

another section on the web site.


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The image below pictures the Edit View option that is available to authorized users when modifying the

web parts settings. This screen is very similar to the edit view settings of a regular SharePoint list or

library and as a result is fairly intuitive and familiar.

If filters have been identified

for the list, there is anoption to either bring back

all of the data or filter it

based on a particular value

or set of values. Users can

optionally change the

default filter or they can be

predetermined and not

subject to change. It may be

useful for example to only

bring back a list of MedicalCenters in the Northeast if

the list is placed on a child

site that belongs specifically

to the Northeast region of

the organization.

Other configurations include

the ability to limit the

number of results returned,

determine the columns

returned and their sort

order and set paging ranges.

The Filter area at the

bottom of the screen acts

exactly as a list filter in

SharePoint. It allows for the

exclusion of any record

based on a value or set of

values in one or more of its

columns. This differs from

the first configuration in

that it is performed after the

data obtained from the data

source whereas the filters in

the first section are applied

at runtime through a SQL

query or web service call.


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Like all web parts, several properties are configurable through the web

part properties pane, shown to the left. When a new list is added to a

page, it is as easy as adding the Business Data List web part, and then

using the browse button to see what entities are available. The list below

indicates that the current user has access to four entities in this web site.

Once the list is selected the view can be edited and voila, external data

now appears real time in the SharePoint site!

Business Data Item

Sometimes, there just isnt enough space in a list to provide all the details you really want to see. This is

where the Business Data Item comes into play. While the purpose of the List is to display one record for

each item, the purpose of this web part is to zoom in on just one particular item and present all of itsrelated information (or whichever fields its front-end properties indicate to reveal). The image below

depicts two web parts. The one on the left is a list of Affiliates or Chapters in an organization. The

second web part shows all the details for the particular Affiliate that has been selected, NAHD

Association of Bucks County. The function of sending information from one web part to another is

termed connecting web parts and it is one of SharePoints greatest features that is frequently

overlooked. Also note in

this image that the list

looks different than the

previous one because it is

configured to display afilter and the web part

toolbar. The filter allows

users to quickly locate

affiliates by searching

where their name is equal

to or similar to a search

term they supply.


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Business Data Related List

The Business Data Related List really capitalizes on the web part connections mentioned in the last

section. A related list is really nothing but a regular Business Data List that receives a parameter that is

used to filter its contents to only items that are related to the parameter. The parameter can be passed

in using several different mechanisms. It can be hardcoded into the web part properties pane, or it candynamically get its value from a column on the page, a value in the url, or another web part. The most

common way to send it a value isyou guessed it, from a Business Data List!

The image below shows the BDC in action. A user has selected an Affiliate from the List on the left, and

through the web part connections the Contact Information (Business Data Item) for the selected Affiliate

has populated along with a Related List of the Medical Centers associated with that Affiliate.


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Business Data Catalog Filter

The Business Data Catalog Filter is used to

create a pick-list that gets its data from an

entity in the BDC. The image below shows a

filter that has been configured to allow usersto select an Affiliate. The user can either enter

the correct value directly into the text box, or

use the browse button to look for the data

they are seeking in the same manner that the

people picker is used throughout SharePoint.

The resulting picker is displayed to the right,

having searched for all values containing the

word county. The filter is used to provided

values to other web parts in SharePoint.

Business Data Item Builder

The Business Data Item Builder is only visible when a page is being edited. It works in the same way as

the Business Data Catalog Filter, supplying values to connected web parts, but in this case the

connection happens behind the scenes and the value it supplies to other web parts is obtained from the

current URL. The web part requires no configuration; it is intelligent enough to recognize business data

that exists in the URL. This web part is very similar to the MOSS web part called Query String URL Filter,

which serves the same purpose except it sends its values to non-BDC web parts.

Business Data Actions

Business Data Actions is a web part that provides a

bulleted list of all the actions that can be applied to a

business data item. The first image to the right shows

the web part displaying just one action item. The items

displayed are configurable in the web part properties.

Actions can also be configured to appear in a

dropdown or in the toolbar of other business data web

parts, as shown in the list to the right. Actions are just

hyperlinks that take the user to another page, and they

generally pass in a parameter along the way.


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Connections

The image below shows the result of clicking on the Business Data Action shown in the previous section

to View a Medical Center Profile. Take note that user didnt really have to select the action from the

dropdown because the list is configured to use that action as its default, so the user can simply click he

hyperlinked title of the Medical Center. Regardless of the path taken to get here, this is the result.

There is a Business Data Item behind the scenes that picked up the identifier for the Medical Center that

was selected and it passed its value to all of the web parts shown below. The first web part is an Item,

showing the details for the Bensalem Clinic Site medical center. The other web parts are related lists

that show the services offered at that medical center as well as its holiday schedule and hours of

operation. The BDC enables users to view this data real-time and dynamically without the need to create

actual SharePoint pages for each medical center or duplicate storage of the data from the back end.


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Business Data Columns

Business Data isnt limited to appearing in Business Data web parts. It can also be used in SharePoint

lists and libraries. In the example below, a column called Affiliate has been added to a Document Library,

enabling users to associate all documents with a particular affiliate. The view is configured to show not

only the name of the Affiliate, but also additional items pulled from the BDC including the Affiliate Id,City and State. When entering metadata for a document, only the Affiliate is selected (using a pick list

like that shown in the Business Data Catalog Picker) and the other related fields selected in the view

appear based on the value selected for that one column. Note that currently BDC columns cannot be

created as site columns. Their consistency is guaranteed however since different instances of them will

still pull data from the same source.

Business Data Search

In addition to displaying in web parts and columns, the Business Data Catalog can be used to expose Line

of Business application data into search results in a secure and timely fashion. This is accomplished by

adding a content source to the Shared Service Provider that uses Business Data as its data source. Theresults can be returned in the default All Sites scope, or the administrator may choose to create a search

scope specifically for that content source as shown in the example below. The use of search scopes and

tabbed searches helps users to find exactly what they are looking for.


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Business Data in User Profiles

Business Data can also be used

to supplement user profiles in

MOSS. For example imagine

the scenario where ActiveDirectory contains the majority

of information for individuals in

an organization, but another

database exists that contains a

list of committees and a

mapping to indicate which

employees are part of which

committees. MOSS can be

configured to display all of this

information on the user profileand in the users my sites. This

is accomplished by creating a

new profile connection in the

SSP under User Profile and

Properties (shown right).

Authentication and Authorization

The Business Data Catalog can connect to its back-end applications in a variety of different ways. See the

Resources & References section of this document for information on each of the specific methods

available. In general, the available methods fall into two categories:

Pass Through

Impersonation and Delegation

Pass through authentication allows the BDC to use a single account to connect to the backend which

takes advantage of connection pooling and eliminates the need to grant individual users access to the

database or web service. Impersonation and Delegation on the other hand takes the individual users

login credentials and passes them to the data source to be authenticated.

Once a user is authenticated it has to be authorized. This process can also take place on either the back-

end or the middle tier depending on the security that has been established for the application. There isalso an option to authenticate using a shared account and then pass in the user-context so that only

authorized items are returned. This takes advantage of connection pooling and provides user level

authorization.

If the method chosen to authenticate requires login credentials that differ from the credentials used to

access SharePoint, Single Sign On can be easily configured so that users do not have to enter the

alternate set of credentials when viewing data from the BDC.


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Administration

The Business Data Catalog is managed through the Shared Service

Provider (SSP). The image to the right shows the main options for

configuring the BDC from the SSP homepage. The first link enables

administrators to import application definitions files which are thexml files that define the mapping of fields appearing in SharePoint

to fields or attributes originating in the data sources. Once

imported the applications are viewable using the second link, View

Applications. Applications can be selected to show additional

details for each entity defined, and these entities are also hyperlinked to show their individual

attributes, relationships (used for related lists), actions and filters. The Medical Center entity settings are

shown below.

Notice that there is a link on the page to manage permissions, and another link in the image above. This

is because permissions can be set across the entire BDC, or for each application, or for each entity in an

application. The BDC web parts can also read the user context from the site and return security trimmed

results based on the identity of the current user. One limitation of the BDC is that there is not currently

an elegant solution to provide anonymous access to its web parts. There are several workarounds but

there integrity is up for debate.


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Extensibility

Business Data web parts built off of the .NET framework like all other SharePoint web parts and they can

be extended to add functionality that isnt included out of the box. SusQtech has implemented several

SharePoint sites that take full advantage of the Business Data Catalog to provide value to our clients,

their employees and their customers. We have created custom components that allow data from BDCweb parts to be exported into Microsoft Excel and weve added security components that set item level

security on lists and libraries based on the value(s) selected in Business Data Columns. The BDC is the

feature that enables MOSS to be the one-stop-shopping portal that organizations of all sizes require. It is

also in Bill Gates top three favorite features of MOSS 2007 .

Resources & References

MSDN:http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms546541.aspx

Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies:http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2006/04/18/business-data-catalog.aspx

MSDN Webcast:http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-

US&EventID=1032306984&CountryCode=US

BDC Meta Man:http://www.bdcmetaman.com/default.aspx

More on authentication:http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms566523.aspx

Ann Wallinger

Solutions Architect, SusQtech
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms546541.aspxhttp://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms546541.aspxhttp://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms546541.aspxhttp://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2006/04/18/business-data-catalog.aspxhttp://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2006/04/18/business-data-catalog.aspxhttp://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032306984&CountryCode=UShttp://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032306984&CountryCode=UShttp://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032306984&CountryCode=UShttp://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032306984&CountryCode=UShttp://www.bdcmetaman.com/default.aspxhttp://www.bdcmetaman.com/default.aspxhttp://www.bdcmetaman.com/default.aspxhttp://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms566523.aspxhttp://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms566523.aspxhttp://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms566523.aspxhttp://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms566523.aspxhttp://www.bdcmetaman.com/default.aspxhttp://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032306984&CountryCode=UShttp://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032306984&CountryCode=UShttp://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2006/04/18/business-data-catalog.aspxhttp://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms546541.aspx

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