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MOSS 2007
BUSINESS DATA CATALOG
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Index of Contents
Index of Contents .......................................................................................................................................... 2
Overview ....................................................................................................................................................... 3
Business Data Web Parts .............................................................................................................................. 3
Business Data List ...................................................................................................................................... 3
Business Data Item .................................................................................................................................... 5
Business Data Related List ........................................................................................................................ 6
Business Data Catalog Filter ...................................................................................................................... 7
Business Data Item Builder ....................................................................................................................... 7
Business Data Actions ............................................................................................................................... 7
Connections .............................................................................................................................................. 8
Business Data Columns ................................................................................................................................. 9
Business Data Search .................................................................................................................................... 9
Administration & Security ........................................................................................................................... 10
Extensibility ................................................................................................................................................. 12
Resources & References ............................................................................................................................. 12
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Overview
The Business Data Catalog (BDC) is a new SharePoint feature available in the Enterprise edition of MOSS.
It bridges the gap between an organizations SharePoint portal and its Line of Business (LOB)
applications, allowing end-users to view and search all information from the organization through a
single interface. The BDC is capable of surfacing dynamic, real-time content from backend databases andweb services without the need to duplicate the data in SharePoint storage. Accessing data from LOB
systems requires the creation of a configuration file that is more or less a roadmap between SharePoint
and the application. This document is created in XML and stored in the Shared Service Provider. Once it
has been created, users can take advantage of SharePoints web part framework to display and format
results from LOB applications throughout the SharePoint site without the need to write any code.
Business Data Web Parts
There are six web parts (shown right) that
work in conjunction with the Business Data
Catalog to provide end-users with the
information and functionality they need.
All of the web parts follow the general
guidelines of SharePoint web parts in that
they can be easily modified by altering
their properties in the front-end user
interface. They can also be customized to
extend the existing functionality as needed
for your organization. Each of these web
parts is explored in the sections that
follow.
Business Data List
The Business Data List is probably the most
commonly used web part. Its function is
simply to display a list of data pulled from a
backend system. In the image to the right,
a list of Medical Centers is displayed in a
Business Data List web part. This particular
example obtains its data from a SQL Server
database. The columns that appear on the
list are determined on the front-end and
can be altered at any time by a user with
the appropriate permissions. If desired,
another web part showing the same list
with different fields could be placed in
another section on the web site.
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The image below pictures the Edit View option that is available to authorized users when modifying the
web parts settings. This screen is very similar to the edit view settings of a regular SharePoint list or
library and as a result is fairly intuitive and familiar.
If filters have been identified
for the list, there is anoption to either bring back
all of the data or filter it
based on a particular value
or set of values. Users can
optionally change the
default filter or they can be
predetermined and not
subject to change. It may be
useful for example to only
bring back a list of MedicalCenters in the Northeast if
the list is placed on a child
site that belongs specifically
to the Northeast region of
the organization.
Other configurations include
the ability to limit the
number of results returned,
determine the columns
returned and their sort
order and set paging ranges.
The Filter area at the
bottom of the screen acts
exactly as a list filter in
SharePoint. It allows for the
exclusion of any record
based on a value or set of
values in one or more of its
columns. This differs from
the first configuration in
that it is performed after the
data obtained from the data
source whereas the filters in
the first section are applied
at runtime through a SQL
query or web service call.
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Like all web parts, several properties are configurable through the web
part properties pane, shown to the left. When a new list is added to a
page, it is as easy as adding the Business Data List web part, and then
using the browse button to see what entities are available. The list below
indicates that the current user has access to four entities in this web site.
Once the list is selected the view can be edited and voila, external data
now appears real time in the SharePoint site!
Business Data Item
Sometimes, there just isnt enough space in a list to provide all the details you really want to see. This is
where the Business Data Item comes into play. While the purpose of the List is to display one record for
each item, the purpose of this web part is to zoom in on just one particular item and present all of itsrelated information (or whichever fields its front-end properties indicate to reveal). The image below
depicts two web parts. The one on the left is a list of Affiliates or Chapters in an organization. The
second web part shows all the details for the particular Affiliate that has been selected, NAHD
Association of Bucks County. The function of sending information from one web part to another is
termed connecting web parts and it is one of SharePoints greatest features that is frequently
overlooked. Also note in
this image that the list
looks different than the
previous one because it is
configured to display afilter and the web part
toolbar. The filter allows
users to quickly locate
affiliates by searching
where their name is equal
to or similar to a search
term they supply.
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Business Data Related List
The Business Data Related List really capitalizes on the web part connections mentioned in the last
section. A related list is really nothing but a regular Business Data List that receives a parameter that is
used to filter its contents to only items that are related to the parameter. The parameter can be passed
in using several different mechanisms. It can be hardcoded into the web part properties pane, or it candynamically get its value from a column on the page, a value in the url, or another web part. The most
common way to send it a value isyou guessed it, from a Business Data List!
The image below shows the BDC in action. A user has selected an Affiliate from the List on the left, and
through the web part connections the Contact Information (Business Data Item) for the selected Affiliate
has populated along with a Related List of the Medical Centers associated with that Affiliate.
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Business Data Catalog Filter
The Business Data Catalog Filter is used to
create a pick-list that gets its data from an
entity in the BDC. The image below shows a
filter that has been configured to allow usersto select an Affiliate. The user can either enter
the correct value directly into the text box, or
use the browse button to look for the data
they are seeking in the same manner that the
people picker is used throughout SharePoint.
The resulting picker is displayed to the right,
having searched for all values containing the
word county. The filter is used to provided
values to other web parts in SharePoint.
Business Data Item Builder
The Business Data Item Builder is only visible when a page is being edited. It works in the same way as
the Business Data Catalog Filter, supplying values to connected web parts, but in this case the
connection happens behind the scenes and the value it supplies to other web parts is obtained from the
current URL. The web part requires no configuration; it is intelligent enough to recognize business data
that exists in the URL. This web part is very similar to the MOSS web part called Query String URL Filter,
which serves the same purpose except it sends its values to non-BDC web parts.
Business Data Actions
Business Data Actions is a web part that provides a
bulleted list of all the actions that can be applied to a
business data item. The first image to the right shows
the web part displaying just one action item. The items
displayed are configurable in the web part properties.
Actions can also be configured to appear in a
dropdown or in the toolbar of other business data web
parts, as shown in the list to the right. Actions are just
hyperlinks that take the user to another page, and they
generally pass in a parameter along the way.
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Connections
The image below shows the result of clicking on the Business Data Action shown in the previous section
to View a Medical Center Profile. Take note that user didnt really have to select the action from the
dropdown because the list is configured to use that action as its default, so the user can simply click he
hyperlinked title of the Medical Center. Regardless of the path taken to get here, this is the result.
There is a Business Data Item behind the scenes that picked up the identifier for the Medical Center that
was selected and it passed its value to all of the web parts shown below. The first web part is an Item,
showing the details for the Bensalem Clinic Site medical center. The other web parts are related lists
that show the services offered at that medical center as well as its holiday schedule and hours of
operation. The BDC enables users to view this data real-time and dynamically without the need to create
actual SharePoint pages for each medical center or duplicate storage of the data from the back end.
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Business Data Columns
Business Data isnt limited to appearing in Business Data web parts. It can also be used in SharePoint
lists and libraries. In the example below, a column called Affiliate has been added to a Document Library,
enabling users to associate all documents with a particular affiliate. The view is configured to show not
only the name of the Affiliate, but also additional items pulled from the BDC including the Affiliate Id,City and State. When entering metadata for a document, only the Affiliate is selected (using a pick list
like that shown in the Business Data Catalog Picker) and the other related fields selected in the view
appear based on the value selected for that one column. Note that currently BDC columns cannot be
created as site columns. Their consistency is guaranteed however since different instances of them will
still pull data from the same source.
Business Data Search
In addition to displaying in web parts and columns, the Business Data Catalog can be used to expose Line
of Business application data into search results in a secure and timely fashion. This is accomplished by
adding a content source to the Shared Service Provider that uses Business Data as its data source. Theresults can be returned in the default All Sites scope, or the administrator may choose to create a search
scope specifically for that content source as shown in the example below. The use of search scopes and
tabbed searches helps users to find exactly what they are looking for.
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Business Data in User Profiles
Business Data can also be used
to supplement user profiles in
MOSS. For example imagine
the scenario where ActiveDirectory contains the majority
of information for individuals in
an organization, but another
database exists that contains a
list of committees and a
mapping to indicate which
employees are part of which
committees. MOSS can be
configured to display all of this
information on the user profileand in the users my sites. This
is accomplished by creating a
new profile connection in the
SSP under User Profile and
Properties (shown right).
Authentication and Authorization
The Business Data Catalog can connect to its back-end applications in a variety of different ways. See the
Resources & References section of this document for information on each of the specific methods
available. In general, the available methods fall into two categories:
Pass Through
Impersonation and Delegation
Pass through authentication allows the BDC to use a single account to connect to the backend which
takes advantage of connection pooling and eliminates the need to grant individual users access to the
database or web service. Impersonation and Delegation on the other hand takes the individual users
login credentials and passes them to the data source to be authenticated.
Once a user is authenticated it has to be authorized. This process can also take place on either the back-
end or the middle tier depending on the security that has been established for the application. There isalso an option to authenticate using a shared account and then pass in the user-context so that only
authorized items are returned. This takes advantage of connection pooling and provides user level
authorization.
If the method chosen to authenticate requires login credentials that differ from the credentials used to
access SharePoint, Single Sign On can be easily configured so that users do not have to enter the
alternate set of credentials when viewing data from the BDC.
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Administration
The Business Data Catalog is managed through the Shared Service
Provider (SSP). The image to the right shows the main options for
configuring the BDC from the SSP homepage. The first link enables
administrators to import application definitions files which are thexml files that define the mapping of fields appearing in SharePoint
to fields or attributes originating in the data sources. Once
imported the applications are viewable using the second link, View
Applications. Applications can be selected to show additional
details for each entity defined, and these entities are also hyperlinked to show their individual
attributes, relationships (used for related lists), actions and filters. The Medical Center entity settings are
shown below.
Notice that there is a link on the page to manage permissions, and another link in the image above. This
is because permissions can be set across the entire BDC, or for each application, or for each entity in an
application. The BDC web parts can also read the user context from the site and return security trimmed
results based on the identity of the current user. One limitation of the BDC is that there is not currently
an elegant solution to provide anonymous access to its web parts. There are several workarounds but
there integrity is up for debate.
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Extensibility
Business Data web parts built off of the .NET framework like all other SharePoint web parts and they can
be extended to add functionality that isnt included out of the box. SusQtech has implemented several
SharePoint sites that take full advantage of the Business Data Catalog to provide value to our clients,
their employees and their customers. We have created custom components that allow data from BDCweb parts to be exported into Microsoft Excel and weve added security components that set item level
security on lists and libraries based on the value(s) selected in Business Data Columns. The BDC is the
feature that enables MOSS to be the one-stop-shopping portal that organizations of all sizes require. It is
also in Bill Gates top three favorite features of MOSS 2007 .
Resources & References
MSDN:http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms546541.aspx
Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies:http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2006/04/18/business-data-catalog.aspx
MSDN Webcast:http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-
US&EventID=1032306984&CountryCode=US
BDC Meta Man:http://www.bdcmetaman.com/default.aspx
More on authentication:http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms566523.aspx
Ann Wallinger
Solutions Architect, SusQtech
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms546541.aspxhttp://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms546541.aspxhttp://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms546541.aspxhttp://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2006/04/18/business-data-catalog.aspxhttp://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2006/04/18/business-data-catalog.aspxhttp://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032306984&CountryCode=UShttp://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032306984&CountryCode=UShttp://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032306984&CountryCode=UShttp://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032306984&CountryCode=UShttp://www.bdcmetaman.com/default.aspxhttp://www.bdcmetaman.com/default.aspxhttp://www.bdcmetaman.com/default.aspxhttp://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms566523.aspxhttp://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms566523.aspxhttp://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms566523.aspxhttp://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms566523.aspxhttp://www.bdcmetaman.com/default.aspxhttp://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032306984&CountryCode=UShttp://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032306984&CountryCode=UShttp://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2006/04/18/business-data-catalog.aspxhttp://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms546541.aspx