Microsoft SharePoint 2010

External Data in SharePoint: Understanding Business Connectivity Services

• External Data in SharePoint: Understanding Business Connectivity Services (BCS)

• Hands-on-Lab: Retrieving Data from SQL through BCS by creating an External Content Type

Agenda

Understanding Business Connectivity Services (BCS)

Business Connectivity Services• Are the set of services and features for– propagating external data into SharePoint– defining External Content Types which are based on

that external data• Can fetch the data from– Databases accessible via ADO– Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) or Web

services (and through WCF adapter, connectivity to Oracle, SAP and Siebel)

– .NET connectivity assemblies– Custom data sources

Why BCS?• Solutions based on BCS can be built by

combining multiple services and features from external data systems to deliver solutions that are targeted to specific roles

• Such solutions support informal interactions and processes that occur mostly outside enterprise systems

• Solutions help users perform tasks within the familiar user interface of SharePoint 2010 products

Typical solutions based on BCS

• Help Desk– Support requests and the technical support

knowledge base are stored in external databases and are integrated into the solution by using BCS.

• Sales Dashboard– helps sales associates in an organization quickly

find the information that they need and enter new data. Sales orders and customer information are managed in an external database and integrated into the solution by using BCS

High-level architecture of BCS

Hands-on-Lab