Using Business Connectivity Services in SharePoint 2010

Using Business Connectivity Services in SharePoint 2010

English | WMV3 1024x768 | MP3 48 Kbps | 613 MB

Genre: eLearning

The Business Connectivity Services component in SharePoint 2010 is the successor of the Business Data Catalog (BDC) in SharePoint 2007. This session will explain how line-of-business (LOB) data can consumed (both read and write access) in SharePoint 2010 and the Office client applications without writing any custom code using BCS and the SharePoint Designer. Further customizations of the BCS applications will be done using custom code in Visual Studio 2010.

Business Connectivity Services Architecture

* BDC Metadata Store – The BDC Metadata Store provides storage for a collection of external content types, each of which describes how to connect to the external store. The Metadata Store acts as part of the services layer. External content types are a fundamental building block of BCS.

* BDC Server Runtime – The BDC Server Runtime understands how to reach into the back-end store and connect to data based on the external content types defined within the content type store. It’s important to note the new usage of the acronym BDC to refer to the set of services that provides connectivity that is a component of BCS.

* Security – BCS provides integration with the Secure Store Service (SSS), as well as enabling your own security model.

* Solution Packaging – Solutions built with BCS can be packaged as a Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) package to be delivered to a rich client, including SharePoint Workspace, Outlook and Word. BCS also exposes APIs to extend solution packaging to target additional clients.

* Out of Box UI – BCS carries forward the ability to display external data through a Web Part UI and provides deeper integration through the addition of external lists.

* BDC Client Runtime – A symmetrical runtime is provided for client and server, enabling you to take solutions offline with a client-side cache and to connect and push changes back to the server in a consistent manner. Use of the BDC Client Runtime enables offline operations, interacting with the external data cache.

* Design Tools – SharePoint Designer provides a wealth of out-of-box functionality for creating BCS solutions, including the ability to define external content types and external lists, and to define InfoPath forms to surface the data to create simple solutions. Visual Studio provides the ability for the professional developer to extend those capabilities to create advanced solutions while leveraging the existing framework.