SharePoint 2010 Business Connectivity Services

Business Connectivity Services for SPS 2010
Lynn Langit
Microsoft – Developer Evangelist
Blogs.msdn.com/SoCalDevGal

SPS 2010 and BCS
Sites
NEW - Business Connectivity Services
Communities
Composites
Combine Internal (SharePoint) and External Data (LOB Systems)
Content
Insights
Superset of BDC
Search

What is BCS?
Surfaces External data to Office 2010
Includes no code solutions
Includes Developer Extensibility

What is Business Data Connectivity?
Data from OUTSIDE of SharePoint
Data which can be DISPLAYED inside of SPS or Office

What is the Architecture of BCS?
Search, Workflow, Web Parts, R/W connections
Offline (uses SQL Compact)

BCS Features by SPS Edition

Types of Solutions
SharePoint Designer

Development Approaches
SP Server(Prod / Dev)
IT Admin
“Live” connection
WSP/ ClickOnce Package
SI/IT Devs
Import & Configure
WSP/BDC
Discover & Configure existing back-end integration end-points (no-code)
Connect to existing WCF, ADO.NET or .NET Objects
Author thin or rich client UX for External List or InfoPath Forms
Produce WSP/ClickOnce
Package w/BDC Model
Create custom back-end integration logic using .NET Assemblies
Author thin or rich client UX as SPS or VSTO projects
SharePoint Designer
Pro Dev

Who Does What with BCS?

What is a Custom Content Type?
A reusable schema (strongly typed) from SP Data
Usually used as metadata for lists
Created in SharePoint, SP Designer or VS

Editing Content Types in SP Designer

Content Type Modeling in VS 2010

Where can I display custom content?
Inside of SharePoint
Usually added to Lists
Online and connected
SharePoint Workspace
Usually added to Lists
Can be offline - *requires SharePoint Server
Office - *requires SharePoint Server
Word, Access, more
Requires custom code

Viewing Custom Content Types in SPS

What is an External Custom Content Type?
Custom Content Type sourced from OUTSIDE SPS
data access info (i.e. connection, security, data access permissions, type info) - ENTITIES
Includes information about data access from inside of SPS, Word, etc…- i.e. read or read/write) - BEHAVIORS
Usually used as metadata for lists or columns in SPS
Can also be displayed in Office applications (Outlook, Word…)
Can be offline, can be updatable
Created in SharePoint, SP Designer or VS

Connecting to External Data
SharePoint Designer 2010 supports
SQL Server databases
Web and WCF services
.NET connectivity assemblies
SharePoint 2010 provides WCF adaptersfor
Oracle, SAP and Siebel
Other external systems
Edit the model XML (BDC) file in VS 2010

External List Web Part in SPS
Designed to display External Content
New for SPS 2010
Can also display external content as an external column

Adding External Data to Columns

Viewing in SharePoint Workspace
Offline capable
InfoPath forms UI
Respects SPS view settings (filter/sort/group)
Error/conflict resolution
Search across external data

Viewing in Word 2010
Requires SP Server
Create using Custom VSTO apps in VS
Use SPS Client-Side Object Model

Creating External Content Types in SP Designer

Enabling Operations in SP Designer

Challenges with No-Code Solutions
Subset of operations with no way to customize the implementation
No folder support
No attachment support
No search security support
No support for Word or Excel add-ins

Scenarios for Custom Coding
Aggregations of external data
Requiring multiple calls to source to complete
Requiring calls to different sources to complete
Complex Transformations
Requiring one or more transforms
Requiring dependent (transactional) transforms
Complex Access Checks
Requiring multiple or complex security checks
Requiring access mapping (credentials)

Overcoming UI Limitations
Server-Side Object model
StreamAccessor method

BCS in VS 2010
Also called working with .NET Connector Assemblies

SPS BCS Templates in VS 2010

Business Connectivity Services
BDC Designer allows you to develop, debug and deploy BDC Models
uses External System type “.NET Assembly Connector
Can import and customize models created in SP Designer
Visual designers in VS 2010
BDC Explorer
BDC method details
Tool to generate classes
SPMetal - here

VS 2010 BDC Designers

VS Entity Associations

BDC Object Model
BDC contains ONLY Metadata, no external data
Access to this object model requires SharePoint Server

Data-Only Solutions
Used to set up subscription
Similar to “Sync to” options
Free tool from MSDN Code Gallery

BDC Server Authentication
SharePoint Server
2. Process Account
Modes:
1. PassThrough
(logged-on user)
2. RevertToSelf
(process account)
3. SSO Authentication
(Credentials, etc. from
Secure Store)
Application
CredentialsTicket
Delegation Token
WebPart
VL
1. Logged-onuser
BDC Server
Runtime
3. Secure Store
Service
Application
Delegated
Token
SAML
Token
Credentials
Claims Aware
Service
Web 2.0
External System

Secure Store Service
Maps credentials from user to external systems

BCS Security &.NET Connectors

SPS Designer vs. VS 2010

More Resources
External Content and SP Designer
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff728816.aspx
MSDN Channel 9 course on SPS BCS
http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/SharePoint2010Developer/AccessingExternalData/
MSDN Code Samples for Solutions
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff621068.aspx

SharePoint 2010 Business Connectivity Services

by Lynn Langit on Aug 13, 2010

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SharePoint 2010 Business Connectivity Services — Presentation Transcript