This document provides an overview of Business Connectivity Services (BCS) in SharePoint 2010. It discusses the BCS architecture and components, including external content types, external lists, and associations. The presentation demonstrates BCS tools in SharePoint Designer 2010 and Visual Studio 2010, and various solution types from simple to advanced. It also covers the different web parts available to display external data and security options in BCS like pass-through authentication and using the Secure Store Service.
2. About me Alexander Meijers Solution Architect / SharePoint Consultant Over 16 years of IT experience Small to large SharePoint projects Owner of the Dutch SharePoint User Group SharePoint Black belts group SharePoint Geek and Speaker Blog: http://www.bloggix.com Usergroup: http://www.dutchsug.nl Twitter: @ameijers 2
3. Agenda BCS Architecture BCS Components Tools & Solution Types Web Parts Security 3 Demo’s with SharePoint Designer 2010 and Visual Studio 2010!
6. BCS Architecture BDC Metadata store provides the storage for a collection of External Content Types BDC Server Runtime connects to external data through External Content Types OOB Web Parts available to display external data and provides deep integration through external lists BCS Security supports Secure Store Service or custom security model Solution Packages Package BCS solutions as Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) delivering to SharePoint Workspace, Outlook, Word Data support SQL, Dynamics, SAP, Siebel, LOB, Web 2.0 6
9. External Content Type “Describes the schema and data access capabilities of an external data source and its behavior inside SharePoint and Office clients” Stored in the Metadata store of the BDC service Connections default / client As native Office entity in SharePoint, Outlook, SharePoint Workspace, Word, InfoPath, Access, other through code Permissions Operations like Read Item, Read List, Create, Update, Delete methods Allows you to create associations Allows you to specify actions (via BDC Service) Profile page 9
10. External List “A means to expose external data defined by an External Content Type as an ordinary SharePoint list” Trustful environment Searchable Not all list options are available Workflow not allowed Not possible to add / change columns Taking lists offline Office Item Type Generic List, Appointment, Contact, Task and Post 10
11. Association “Relations between External Content Types to enrich your data” Based on foreign key One-to-many association Self-referential association Not based on foreign key One-to-many association Many-to-many association Association based on uniqueness of multiple ECT’s 11
34. Solution scenario’s 16 Client Microsoft Word Microsoft Outlook SharePoint Workspace VSTO 4 Solutions Declarative Solutions Advanced Simple .NET Host Connector SharePoint Designer 2010 Server
38. Web Parts Business Data Item Builder Business Data Item Business Data List Business Data Related List Business Data Actions Business Data Connectivity Filter 20
40. Security 22 There are different security options available when using BCS solutions
41. PassThrough Uses logged-on user RevertToSelf Uses process account SSO Authentication Credentials and other from Secure Store BCS Runtime Credentials Delegation token Tickets Other Apps Web Parts Security modes 23 Process Account Logged On User Secure Store Service Legacy LOB Web 2.0 Claims Aware Service
•Business Connectivity Services is composed of many pieces •Office Client – By connecting to SharePoint, Office clients can consume data from the external systems •SharePoint Server – SharePoint houses the external content types (ECTs) which is the backbone of the entire system •External Data – this is the source of where the data is coming from
•This slide is designed to present the spectrum of possible solutions •“Simple” Solutions are the ones you create using SPD and the browser. •“Advanced” Solutions use Visual Studio. This can be from scratch or exporting from SPD and importing to VS •Once you have External Content Types, you can use them in many ways •External list•Read/write to external data defined by External Content Type •Views based on the “Finder” methods •Pre and post query filters •Actions appear on ECB •BDC Web Parts •BDC Columns •Supplementing User Profiles •SPD support is for the designer. VS for the developer..
DemoCreate External Content Types based on a Customer database of ContosoCreate External Lists based on the External Content TypesCreate Association between two entitiesShow Profile pages
DemoCreate own data classesCreate BDC diagram based on two entitiesShow External Content TypesCreate External ListsCreate AssociationsShow Profile pages