SharePoint Deployment Planning Services

SharePoint 2010 Composites

James May and Mel LeebBennett Adelson

SharePoint 2010 Composites Overview

Overview

What are Composites?Composites FeaturesBusiness Connectivity ServicesBuilding Composite ApplicationsPlanning - External Content Types / ListsArchitectureDemos

Microsoft SharePoint 2010The Business Collaboration Platform for the Enterprise and the Web

4

Connect and Empower People

Cut Costs with a Unified Infrastructure

Rapidly Respond to Business Needs

Communities

Search

Sites

Composites

ContentInsights

Challenges of IT Development Teams

Productivity Demands

Resource scarcity

Governance

Backlog Business Satisfaction

Tension between business and IT

CONTROL

GovernanceManagementCentralizationConsolidationCost controls

EMPOWERMENT

AccessAgility

AdaptabilitySelf-serviceInnovation

Multiple user interfaces

External systems can be difficult to use

Can't work with the data when and where I want to

Can’t easily search for business data

Challenges With Back End DataEnd User Challenges

Islands of business data

Overhead for IT to service all user requests

Manage security, auditing, connectivity

One off projects for connecting to external systems

IT Challenges

Need to involve IT to service my requests for data access

SharePoint Composites FunctionalityLeverage enterprise data through Business Connectivity

ServicesSurface enterprise data in Outlook, Word, and WorkspaceProvide full read and write access, offline or while connectedEasily enable Search across these systems

Empower business users with browser-based customizationsBuild declarative sophisticated solutions with SharePoint Designer Create human workflows and visualizations with Visio ServicesShare and publish databases with Access Services

Manage custom code with Sandboxed SolutionsManage desktop solutions with Visio, InfoPath and Access ServicesMaintain flexibility with deployment online or on premiseMaintain operational insight with health monitoring

Rapidly create no-

code collaborative solutions

Unlock the value of

your enterprise

data

Maintain control over

end user solutions

SharePoint 2010 Composites Features

Composite Services

Access ServicesBusiness Communications ServicesForms ServicesVisio ServicesWorkflows

Business Connectivity Services

External ListsRead / write capabilitySecure integration to Office 2010 clientsUsers can take their lists off-line through SharePoint Workspaces, or Outlook 2010 and synchronize updates or refresh LOB data that they use on the road

SharePoint Workspace

Offline capableInfoPath forms UI (customizable)Respects SharePoint view settings (filter/sort/group)Error/conflict resolutionSearch across business data

Building Composite Applications

Development Environment

Browser-based customizationSharePoint Designer 2010Visual StudioSandbox Solutions

Solution Types

Intermediate AdvancedSimple

• Custom connectivity for data aggregation, transformation, security, etc.

• Use custom code to integrate data into any Office app

• Business logic in forms

• Create reusable components (UI parts, ECTs, actions)

• Out-of-box• Surface data in

External Lists• Connect those lists

to Outlook, SPW• External Data

Columns

SharePoint Designer

SharePoint SDK

DeveloperPower User

NO CODE*

Advanced Developer

VisualStudio

CODE

• Customize• InfoPath forms• Workflow• Web Part Pages• Outlook task pane

and ribbon

SharePoint Designer 2010

Designed to easily and securely connect with external data sources through BCSEnhanced workflow designerCustom actionsCode-freeManageable

Assemble Solutions with SharePoint Designer

DiscoverDatabase Web services.NET type

Map operationsCreate, read, update, delete, lookup

Connect to SharePoint/Office

External ListContactTaskAppointmentPost

Build Applications with VS2010

Professional developer solutions in Visual StudioSimple drag and drop experienceCreate reusable components (UI parts, External Content Types, actions)Custom Office Integration (add-ins)Custom connectivity

.NET Assembly ConnectorCustom Connector

Code-based business logic

Planning

What is an External Content Type?

Reusable collections of metadataContain

Connectivity informationData definitionsBehaviors

Dedicated Business Data Connectivity service database

Example, Customer or Order

Outlook Forms and Task Panes

SharePoint External Lists SharePoint Workspace with InfoPath Forms

Search Results

Using External Content Types

Office Applications

External Content Type

Customer CustomerID FirstName LastName PhoneNumber EmailAddress

External data

BCS Features by SharePoint Version

The following features are supported in SharePoint Foundation 2010:

External Lists External Data ColumnsBusiness Data Connectivity (BDC) Service

The following additional features are supported in SP 2010 Standard:

Secure Store External Data Search Profile Pages

The following additional features are supported in SP 2010 Enterprise:

Business Data Web Parts Rich Clients Integration (Office Professional Plus 2010)

The following features are supported in Office Professional Plus 2010:

External Data in Outlook, Word, SharePoint Workspaces

See: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee556390%28office.14%29.aspx

Architecture

New Decisions with New Features

BCS vs. BDC – Architectural Differences

BCS has richer feature set for Presentation of data

Data is now available in SharePoint Workspace, Office Clients, etc.

Wider choice when it comes to ConnectivityBDC could only talk to Web Services or ADO.NET data providers. BCS can also communicate with WCF services or .NET componentsBDC was read-only. BCS is designed for both read and writeBDC was difficult to create solutions because of the lack of a designer. BCS has much better tooling support in both SharePoint Designer and Visual Studio

Connectivity

Business data connectivity enhancementsRead/write capabilityBatch and bulk operation supportClaims awareAvailable now in SP Foundation (Enterprise CAL not needed)Connect via ADO/SQL, WCF/WS, .NET Assembly connectors

Symmetrical server and client runtimesConnect from client or server directly to external data

Rich client cacheAllows for “cached mode” behavior on external data

Business Data Connectivity

SAP ORACLE Siebel

SQLCustom .NET assembly

DBConnecto

r

WCF/WSConnector

.NET AssemblyConnecto

r

CustomConnecto

r

Client to Backend Direct Connection

BDC Client Runtime

BDC Metadata Store

External data

Business Data Connectivity (BDC)

BDC Server Runtime

Client Data

Cache

Presntation in SharePoint

Business Connectivity ServicesEnhance SharePoint platform capabilities with out-of-box features, services and tools that streamline development of solutions with deep integration of External Data and Services.

Office Apps

BDC Client Runtime

Offline Operation

sCache

Social Comp

Business Intelligenc

e

Enterprise content mgmt

Collaboration

EnterpriseSearch

ECT Store

BDC Runtim

e

Security

Solution packagin

g

Out of boxUI

Web 2.0LOBSiebelSAPDynamics

SharePoint 2010

Design Tools

Visual Studio

SharePoint

Designer

BCS Architecture

CustomSQL

External DataWCF

Cache

Business Connectivity Services

Client Runtime

SharePoint Server 2010

Business Connectivity Services

Secure Store Service (SSS)

Search, Workflow, Web Parts

External Content Types (ECT)

Server Runtime

SharePoint SiteVSTO

PackageExternal

List

Office Client

Office Integration

External Business Parts

Custom Code

.NET Connector

Secure Store Service (SSS)

The SharePoint 2007 Single Sign On (SSO) service is now replaced with the SSS

Allows you to securely store credentials in an encrypted database, which can be queried at runtime by running applicationsYou can provide credential “mapping” down to a per-user, per application basis if you wish

Problems the SSS helps solve for youManaging identities in a central locationConnection Pooling – You can map many users to a single loginThe “Double Hop” Issue

Demos

Creating a “No Code” BCS Solution

Implementing CRUD functionality for the Northwind Customers dataSteps

Create an External Content TypeSpecify the mapping to Outlook (ex. - be represented as a Contact list)Create a Profile page for an ECTUse that Content Type inside of an External ListEnsure access to BCS Entity and database are configured in the Secure Store Service

Using ECTs in Office Clients

Editing External Contacts in Outlook

“Connect to Outlook” button in SharePoint UI will generate a .vsto package at runtime and prompt you to install it

After installation, note that all of the Northwind customers are now available as “Contacts” in a separate .pst file

Using the Secure Store Service

Configuring the Northwind ECT to use the SSS Service

Mapping users identities to backend SQL Server Logins

Custom Solutions with Visual Studio and BCS

Why create a VS Solution for BCS?

Example: BCS knows how to render info in LOB in lists in SP w/o having to write any code using SharePoint Designer but the look is a "FLAT" list. (Ex. - What if our data is stored such that we need / want to display it in a hierarchical fashion?)

How? … Create a ".NET Assembly Connector“ ("Business Data Connectivity Model" project type in VS 2010)

A connector between SP and an external data storeCan allow you to implement portions of BCS that are not implemented in the SP designerYou have more control

Creating a .NET Connector Assembly and Custom Web Part to Display LOB Data

Why not write a custom Web Part yourself to get the External Data Yourself?

A lot of items related to presenting a scalable application in SP is already a part of what BCS gives you, such as built-in support for:

BCS has built-in support for paging, throttling resultsIs integrated with SharePoint so it knows how to render basic lists with little to no code

Items in BCS can be used in many other waysYou can use your ECT as a “lookup" for other ListsYou can use it as metadata that appears in Word (i.e. - Quick Parts)You can run searches against your ECTYou can even use it to supplement User Profile data inside of SharePoint

Working with Offline Documents in BCS

Create an Add-In to take our BCS documents offline (in Word)

Office 2010 installs on the client machine a client-side "cache" for BCS (i.e. - so you can take your SP lists offline)

Providing the offline “Sync” functionality via code

Additional SharePoint 2010 Resources

Scott Hillier‘s “10 Solutions Every SharePoint Developer Should Know How to Create” LiveLessons DVD at Amazon.com

Building Solutions for SharePoint 2010 by Sahil Malik