2. About Us
SDS SharePoint Custom Solutions
Count on our Agile development and expert coding experience to create an optimal
solution for your unique SharePoint application and integration needs.
· Business Process Automation with Workflow and InfoPath
· SharePoint Business Intelligence and Reporting
· Portals and Collaboration
· Content Management
*Agile Practices for proven faster delivery, higher quality, & increased business value.
For twenty years, SDS has solved enterprise development challenges using coding
best practices. We deliver required functionality with
· Exceptional code quality
· Maintainability
· Reliability
www.sds-consulting.com
3. What is the BDC / BCS
• Business Data is the data in Line Of Business systems
• ERP, CRM, HR
• SP2007 – Business Data Catalog
• Expose the data
• SP2010 – Business Connectivity Services
• Connect the data
• SP2013 – BCS improvements
www.sds-consulting.com
4. Why business data?
• Data exists in many systems
• ERP, CRM, HR
• Employees must access them individually
• User dissatisfaction
• Data is NOT always consistent
• Which data is the MASTER data?
• Higher costs (training, licensing, compliance, etc)
www.sds-consulting.com
5. What can BCS provide?
• Consistent user experience
• SharePoint lists, lookup columns, InfoPath forms
• SharePoint Workspace (offline access)
• Office integration
• Search indexing
• Data Access
• Client Side Object Model
• Search Federation
• 2013: REST
• Identity / Authentication
• Kerberos, Claims (WS-*, SAML), Secure Store
www.sds-consulting.com
7. Built In Connectors and Tools
• Connectors
• Web Service / WCF Service
• SQL Database
• .Net Assembly
• Tools
• SP Designer 2010
• BDC Metaman
www.sds-consulting.com
8. Built In Connectors – Limitations
• Data structures are mapped “as-is”
• Usually: good for WCF, bad for SQL
• No support for “advanced” features
• Batch commands (Bulk*)
• Simple data types ONLY
• No support for SQL geo/spatial data
• Relationships ONLY via foreign keys
www.sds-consulting.com
9. Custom Code
• .Net Assembly Connector
• Content Type .Net Class
• Operation .Net Method
• Base (template) model file + SPD model
file
• Custom Connector
• Class which implements
• ISystemUtility – BCS connector
• IAdministrableSystem – Configuration
options
• Single model file
www.sds-consulting.com
10. .Net Assembly Connectors
• DLL stored in BDC database,
automatically installed on clients
• Simple mapping from .Net objects to
external content types
• Primitive structs ONLY
• No generics
• Code should be static
• No awareness of metadata model files
www.sds-consulting.com
11. Custom Connectors
• DLL installed into SP, manual install onto clients
• Custom data mapping of BDC/BCS objects
• Code can be more flexible
• Awareness and access to Model file
• Multiple security options available
• Revert To Self (system)
• Passthrough (user)
• SSO / Secure Store
• Configuration parameters (cleartext!)
www.sds-consulting.com
12. Operations
• Finder
• Creator
• SELECT ALL
• SpecificFinder • Updater
•
•
SELECT by Primary Key
IDEnumerator
• Deleter
• SELECT ALL Primary Keys
• Required for Search
Indexing • EventSubscriber
• StreamAccessor
• EventUnsubscriber
• AccessChecker
• Bulk*
www.sds-consulting.com
14. References
• Expert WSS 3 and MOSS 2007 Programming
• Chapter 13, Pages 655 – 790
• Differences Between using the .NET Assembly Connector
and Writing a Custom Connector
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee554911.aspx
• How to: Publish a .NET Connectivity Assembly to the BDC
Metadata Store
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff464392
• Code Snippet : Implementing a Custom Connector
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff464382.aspx
• External Content Types in SP2013
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/jj163139(v=office.15).aspx
• External events and alerts in SP2013
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/jj164024(v=office.15).aspx
www.sds-consulting.com
15. More Information
SDS SharePoint Webcast:
Sharing Business Insights – Integrating with Business
Intelligence Reports, 11/30
Visit http://sds-consulting.com to register
SharePoint Library for various components.
http://SDSSharepointLibrary.codeplex.com/
SharePoint Lunch and Learns
Publications on the SDS website and blog
http://sds-consulting.com
Visit my blog at http://www.sbrickey.com
www.sds-consulting.com
