9. Business Data in an Enterprise IT High Integration Costs (Custom) High Overhead (Maintenance, Security) Quality Financial Customers Operations Suppliers Quality Financial Customers Operations Suppliers Redundant Data and Processes! Users High Training Costs High Dissatisfaction
14. What the heck is Interoperability? (IHN-tuhr-AHP-uhr-uh-BIHL-ih-tee) “Interoperability is the ability of a system.. to work with other systems.. without special effort on the part of the customer.” How?
15. How do we achieve Interoperability? 1. By adhering to published interface standards. Does SharePoint do this? SPOILER ALERT! 2. By making use of a "broker" of services that can convert one system’s interface into another system’s interface "on the fly". What about this one?
20. 1. By adhering to published interface standards. It’s a UI Platform HTML Standards UI Platform Identity Platform Search Platform Data Access Platform Storage External Data
21. A UI Platform Bonus? Bonus! HTML Standards UI Platform Identity Platform Works in Office Search Platform Data Access Platform Storage External Data
23. Is it an Identity Platform? HTML Standards UI Platform Identity Platform Works in Office Search Platform Data Access Platform Storage External Data
24. Why would we use SharePoint as an Identity Platform?
25. Because Claims is Awesome Connect with 3rd Party Authentication Providers Connecting with a Non Windows Integrated Authentication driven web site. Delegation with Back-End Systems Showing data from another server on a SharePoint web page.
26.
27. It’s an Identity Platform HTML Standards UI Platform Identity Platform Claims Works in Office Search Platform Data Access Platform Storage External Data
28. Is it aSearch Platform? HTML Standards UI Platform Identity Platform Claims Works in Office Search Platform Data Access Platform Storage External Data
29. Why would we use SharePoint as a Search Platform?
30. Query a 3rd Party Search Engine Using SharePoint UI Federate Queries to Multiple Search Systems…
31. Index Content from a Range of Content Repositories What does all of these? _ _ _ B C S B Indexes Databases, Web Services or Custom Repositories Provides Consistent Access to External Content C Has SharePoint Designer and Visual Studio Plug-ins S
32. A Search Platform Bonus! Bonus! HTML Standards UI Platform Identity Platform Claims Works in Office Search Platform Open Search Data Access Platform Storage External Data
36. Supported by Microsoft Search Server 2008Clients: Windows 7, IE, FireFox, Chrome, SharePoint … Providers: Amazon, Flickr, Wikipedia, SharePoint…
37. It is a Search Platform HTML Standards UI Platform Identity Platform Claims Works in Office Search Platform Open Search Data Access Platform Storage External Data
38. Is it a Data Access Platform? HTML Standards UI Platform Identity Platform Claims Works in Office Search Platform Open Search Data Access Platform Storage External Data
41. A Data Access Platform Bonus! Bonus! x 2 HTML Standards UI Platform Identity Platform Claims Works in Office Search Platform Open Search CMIS Data Access Platform REST Storage External Data
42.
43. Is designed to work over existing repositories enabling customers to build and leverage applications against multiple repositories—unlocking content they already have
44. Decouples Web services and content from the content management repository, enabling customers to manage content independently
45. Provides common Web services and Web 2.0 interfaces to dramatically simplify application development
47. Supports composite application development and mash-up by the business or IT analystA platform that allows you to build against multiple technologies without knowing anything about how all the API’s work. (If you know CMIS.) Microsoft has been implementing this from both a client and provider perspective. Not available “in the box”. Available via SharePoint Admin Toolkit
54. The Outcome SharePoint is a growing Interoperable UI, Identity, Search, and Data Access Platform.
55. What to watch out for… Remember this? “Interoperability is the ability of a system to work with other systems without special effort on the part of the customer.” without special effort
58. You could look at this diagram… SharePoint Client BCS in Office Client Identity Federation service BCS in SharePoint BCS Meta Data Store BDC Client Data Cache BDC ASCustom Connector DB Connector WCF /WS Connector .NET Assembly Connector Client to Backend Direct Connection External data Persistence Store Data Cubes Custom .NET assembly SAP ORACLE Siebel SQL
63. Via an Import into the Business Data Connectivity Service as part of a modelManage and Re-Use from a Central Location
64. External Lists The external content type is leveraged in a variety of ways… Such as for Exposing External Data as an External SharePoint List Full CRUD capability Familiar UI and Navigation Sort, Filter, Group Programmatic Access via SPList OM Profile Page for Each Item Form Auto-generated OOB Upsize to InfoPath Can be Taken “Offline”
65. Offline Lists External Lists also be leveraged as Offline “Lists” They can be Downloaded to a SharePoint Workspace as Lists or Word Document Libraries with External Data Columns Or Connected to Outlook as Contacts, Tasks, Calendars and Posts
66. Office Applications and Search External Content Types can also be leveraged in… Or Leveraged to allow for External Data Searching or Filtering Many other Office Applications (or Custom Applications) w/ Code
67. Bonus! Integration Webparts Bonus! Integration Webparts Web Parts External Data List External Data Item External Data Item Builder External Data Related List External Data Connectivity Filter Chart Web Part (New) w/ Code
69. So what’s different? (Besides the Chart Control?) Read/Write Capability Claims Aware Connect via ADO/SQL, WCF/WS, .Net Assembly and Custom Connectors Batch and Bulk Operation Support BDC is still used for search indexing connectors in 2010 they added blob, incremental crawl and item level security. They added symmetrical server and client runtimes. Allowing them to connect from client or server directly to external data. SQL CE database is used to cache external data which allows for “cached mode” behavior on external data basically creating a rich client cache.
79. External Data ColumnsIntermediate Simple Advanced NO CODE “NO CODE” CODE SharePoint Designer SharePoint SDK Visual Studio Developer Power User Advanced Developer
104. The Outcome You saw how the BCS can be leveraged in SharePoint Designer and in the SharePoint UI.
105. What to watch out for… Don’t assume the tools will significantly reduce the time it takes to ‘integrate’. It typically reduces time to ‘interface’.
131. BDC only works with .Net 3.5 - No dynamic programming in .Net 4
132. No support for ICollection or IEnumerableinterfaces to represent collections in data structures (ICollection<T>, IEnumerable<T>, IList<T>…)http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff621599.aspx
133. The Outcome You now know more about the limitations of BCS and will make fewer assumptions.
134. What to watch out for… Some of the many limitations mentioned make sense. Think carefully before you build a ‘workaround’.
135. What we talked about… Business Data Challenges SharePoint’s Important Interoperability What is the BCS? External Content Types External Columns External Lists Extensibility and Tooling Limitations of BCS The Challenges Aren’t All Technology Challenges Interface, Identity, Search and Data Access Platform A Set of Powerful Connection Capabilities Structured Types of External Content Leveraging External Content with Internal Content Interact Like SharePoint Lists Extensibility/Tool Range from UI to SPD to VS 2010 Good Enough and Better than Most Options
My dedication to you before I begin. By the end of this you will have gained 3 things. It might be new knowledge, it might be a new method but you MUST gain 3 things by the end. If you don’t my first challenge to you is to stalk me, hunt me down and make sure you get 3 things from me. Because I owe you 3 things! This is meant to help you.
A lot of this can seem daunting and I know one of the hardest things is figuring out how to do some of the things I have shown today. If you are interested in further training or assistance please let me know. Based on the number of people who are interested and the areas of interest we can schedule further training sessions to help everyone better use the SharePoint portal.It's our commitment to you that we will continue to hear your feedback and identify the issues. I encourage you to give us feedback during the coming months, and we will continue to deliver more and more functionality, more and more guidance to help you be successful with your application of SharePoint.Thank You for Reading/Listening