SharePoint, Business Data Connectivity

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Learning about SharePoint BDC, that is an standard functionality that is there in the server, but that the configuration and its start-up is not free in terms of effort.

1.- BDC service provides a means for storing and securing external content types and related objects. An external content type defines the following:

  • A set of fields of data, such as “building”, “room”, “connection”
  • The operations for interacting with the data’s external system, such as read, write, and create. There are so much options here.
  • The connectivity information that lets solutions that use the external content type connect to the external system.

2.-External content types are stored in a dedicated database that is part of the BDC service.

3.- To guarantee a secure connection, credential sets for the external systems are created. These credential sets are associated with identities of individuals or with group identities. All these data is stored in a secure database that belongs formally to the Secure Store Service.

To have BDC enabled into your MOSS server, you have to:

  • Activate BDC
  • Grant Access to BDC
  • Define the External sources you want to connect
  • Define and create the external content type
  • Create the Connection to SQL-Server

Note: to be able to configure the BDC you need to be granted as SharePoint Farm Administrator.

These are the basics, I’m not an expert for sure, but I need to understand what is behind.

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