Advanced BCS - Business Data Connectivity Models and Custom Connectors - SPTechCon Boston 2011

Advanced BCS: Business Data Connectivity Models and Custom Connectors
Corey Roth
@coreyroth
Blog: www.dotnetmafia.com

Corey Roth
SharePoint Solutions Architect for Stonebridge
Microsoft SharePoint MVP
Specializing in ECM and Search
Passed all SharePoint 2010 certification exams
E-mail: coreyroth@gmail.com
Twitter: @coreyroth
Laptop: Dell E6510 i5 2.4 GHz 8GB
Oracle VirtualBox 3.2.8 – 4GB on VM

Translation Guide

Business Connectivity Services
No code connectivity to external data sources
Full CRUD Support including reading and writing
Built with SharePoint Designer 2010
Offline access via SharePoint Workspace
Outlook Integration
Searchable just like in MOSS 2007
Extensible with .NET Assembly Connectors and Custom Index Connectors

Extensibility
Web Services – the old MOSS 2007 way (still viable)
.NET Assembly Connector - relatively easy
Custom Connectors - a bit harder
Custom Index Connector - will earn you The Insane achievement
Protocol Handlers – still around, but unmanaged code

Application Definition
An XML file which defines an entity and various methods to interact with the entity (CRUD)
XML describes the entity, multiple methods for that entity, and type descriptors for the in and return parameters
Actions define the link that the user goes to for each item in BCS web parts or search results
Possible to associate multiple entities together
.BDCM File Extension
Created with SharePoint Designer, Visual Studio 2010 or manually

Method Types
SpecificFinder – returns a specific item given an identifier
Finder – returns all items
Creator – creates a new item
Updater – updates an existing item
Deleter – deletes an existing item
IdEnumerator – (somewhat deprecated) - returns the value of all identifiers for crawling
There are many more operations available to implement for advanced purposes

Application Definition XML
Demo

.NET Assembly Connector
Built in Visual Studio 2010 with a designer (Business Data Connectivity Model)
Write custom code to perform CRUD operations
SharePoint Designer Support
Must have a known backend schema at compile time
Recommended for external systems that are static
External List support
Administrator privileges not required
Can be deployed using Visual Studio 2010
Plan on renaming a lot of properties

.NET Assembly Connector
Demo

BCS Meta Man
Successor to the BDC Meta Man used with MOSS 2007
Powerful no-code solution for generating BCS application definitions
Helps quickly build .NET Assembly Connectors
Integrated directly into Visual Studio 2010
Generates code for .NET assembly connectors which can then be customized for your own needs
http://www.lightningtools.com/bcs/bcs-meta-man.aspx

BCS Meta Man
Demo

Custom Connector
Used when the schema is not known at compile time
Use Microsoft.BusinessData.Runtime.DynamicType class to build return parameter at run time
No SharePoint Designer Support = create application definition XML manually
Installed into Global Assembly Cache
Deployed manually
Provides ability to override default type reflector
Requires administrator privileges
Implement ISystemUtility, IDisposable, IConnectionManager, IAdministrableSystem interfaces

Custom Connector
Demo

Custom Indexing Connector
Effectively replaces custom protocol handlers in MOSS 2007
Provides search functionality only – no external lists
Similar to a custom connector but requires additional classes to map BCS URLs to / from real URLs (INamingContainer, LobUri)
Registered as a “protocol handler” in the registry with your own custom protocol (i.e.: myhandler://)
Installed with New-SPEnterpriseSearchCrawlCustomConnector
Attach to mssdmn.exe to debug

Custom Indexing Connector
Demo

Resources
Differences between .NET Assembly Connector and Custom Connectors
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee554911.aspx
Implementing a Custom Connector
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff464382.aspx
SharePoint Search Connector Framework
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee556429.aspx
How to: Debug a Custom Index Connector
http://www.dotnetmafia.com/blogs/dotnettipoftheday/archive/2010/09/08/how-to-debug-a-custom-index-connector.aspx
BCS Meta Man
http://www.lightningtools.com/bcs/bcs-meta-man.aspx

Questions?
Thanks!
Corey Roth
@coreyroth

Advanced BCS - Business Data Connectivity Models and Custom Connectors - SPTechCon Boston 2011

by Corey Roth

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

Statistics

Advanced BCS - Business Data Connectivity Models and Custom Connectors - SPTechCon Boston 2011 Presentation Transcript