SharePoint BDC

John C. von Rosen Blue Sphere Solutions jvonrosen@bluesphereinc.com

Overview

What is the Business Data Catalog?

A catalog of business data Access to LOB Data in SharePoint Business Data Connector?

Overview

Why use the Business Data Catalog?

Access / Authentication in central place No Code Solution

?!?

Can integrate with SharePoint Search Integration with other SharePoint functionality

Overview

What can we access?

WebServices

SAP / Siebel Oracle / SQL Server

Databases

Overview

Only in MOSS 2007 Enterprise

Agenda

Create a BDC Application Definition File Create a view for a Dashboard

The BDC Application Definition

[Audience = Developers]

What is it?

XML that connects LOB Data to SharePoint Connection information / Security Entities (what exists) Methods (how to access it) Associations (relationships between entities) Actions (external interaction [not today])

Contains

The BDC Application Definition

Tip of the Day
Use the BDC Metadata XSD for Intellisense in VS 2005
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\12.0\Bin\bdcmetadata.xsd

Set the schemalocation in your XML

<LobSystem xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="./BDCMetadata.xsd" Type="Database"

The BDC Application Definition

The BDC Application Definition

The BDC Application Definition

The BDC Application Definition

In Action

Importing an Application
[Audience: SharePoint Administrators]

SharePoint Central Administration

Import an Application Definition Manage Permissions on

Application Entities

Create Profile Page Template

- In Action -

The BDC Application Definition - Associations

Create a Destination Entity

Destination Entity will have an Input Parameter, which is an identifier from the Source Entity

The BDC Application Definition - Associations

Create a Destination Entity

Destination Entity will have an Input Parameter, which is an identifier from the Source Entity

The BDC Application Definition - Associations

Create a Destination Entity

Destination Entity will have an Input Parameter, which is an identifier from the Source Entity

The BDC Application Definition - Associations

Create the Association

The BDC Application Definition - Associations

Create the Association

The BDC Application Definition - Associations -

In Action

The Dashboard View

The Digital Dashboard

Who is the audience

The business users The quick overview

Whats the difference

What is the point

To identify where to focus efforts

The Dashboard View

Solutions

KPI WebPart?

Cant be used for Business Data Lists A Business Data List is a Data View (kinda)

The Data View

Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.BaseXsltDataWebPart

- In Action -

Summary

Business Data Catalog

Live and Searchable access to corporate data within SharePoint Can define associations and actions for entities Ability to customize the view of the data Mimic KPI WebParts Anything XSL can support

DataView

Links

MSDN entry on BDC

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms563661.aspx

BDC Authentication
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms566523.aspx

Terrific Walkthrough
http://blah.winsmarts.com/2007-4-SharePoint_2007__BDC__The_Business_Data_Catalog.aspx

SharePoint Product Comparison

http://office.microsoft.com/enus/sharepointserver/HA101978031033.aspx