Business Data Integration with MOSS 2007 Naveedullah Khan PMP, MCAD.NET Senior Consultant

Agenda The Challenge – Integrating the world Introducing the Business Data Catalog BDC Architecture Core Components The BDC Web Parts Search and the BDC Demo

The Challenge Developers Write Integration Code Communicating Directly with Native API Difficult to re-use Maintenance and Versioning Problems New Application Types arising Structured vs. unstructured data Bridge portal and business application UI Lack of structured data search Centrally manage security, auditing, connections

What is BDC? Unified, consistent way of making external data available in SharePoint sites Surfaces business data from backend applications Declarative, non-coding approach Centralized approach Shared service part of Enterprise version of MOSS 2007 Business Data Catalog MOSS 2007 Shared Service Provider

BDC Architecture Surfaces business data from backend applications Used with LOB applications such as SAP or Siebel Serves to reduce/eliminate code required to access LOB systems Data access based on declarative metadata model

Connectivity Options Web Services Integration with LOB systems (Siebel, SAP etc) Metadata defines methods for executing web service operations ADO.NET Integration with database systems (SQL Server) Metadata defines BDC methods for executing SQL statements and stored procedures

Design Motivations No code integration Centralized deployment Low latency Centralized data security Designed for portal & collaboration scenarios The BDC is not: Transactions, workflow, data transformation, adapters

BDC Development Lifecycle Analyze the business requirements (Analyst) Entities to expose in SharePoint Methods and actions Associations Filters and properties Design application definition (metadata) (IT Pro/ Developers) No designer available in VS.NET 2005 Community tools available Import application definition in MOSS 2007 (IT Pro) Design solutions using business data features (Analyst) Out-of-the-box business data catalog support Custom solutions

Steps to create a BDC application Create the Metadata in the form of XML file Import the metadata within the scope of a particular SSP Use Business Data Web Parts to display BDC data Use Business Data Actions to update BDC data Use BDC entities as content sources in SharePoint search

Meta Data Model Two purposes Describe a system’s API Give meaning to the API; make it easily usable Key objects System – A data source (Siebel) Entity – A real-world thing (Customer) Method – An operation on an Entity (GetCustomerList) Association – A relationship between Entities (Customers have Orders)

BDC Metadata <LobSystem xmlns:xsi=" xsi:schemaLocation=" BDCMetadata.xsd" Type="Database" Version=" " Name="AdventureWorksSample" xmlns=" PassThrough SqlServer <Association AssociationMethodEntityName="Customer" AssociationMethodName="GetSalesOrdersForCustomer" AssociationMethodReturnParameterName="SalesOrders" Name="CustomerToSalesOrder" IsCached="true">

BDC API Runtime API Browse metadata, execute methods, retrieve instances, traverse relationships For custom application builders Administration API Create, read, update, and delete metadata and manage permissions For administrators For ISVs building metadata management tools OOB features use these public APIs

Way to Go…

Business Data Web Parts OOB Web Parts delivered with MOSS 2007 but available everywhere where feature is activated Easy to use Can be integrated in normal SharePoint pages and Dashboard pages using filters Customizable in the SharePoint Designer Available Web Parts Business Data Web Parts Business Data in Lists Business Data Actions

Web PartDescription Business Data List Web Part Displays a list of entity instances from a business application registered in the Business Data Catalog. For example, you can use a Business Data List Web Part to display all the customers or orders from the AdventureWorksDW database. Business Data Items Web Part Displays the details of an entity instance from a business application. For example, you can use a Business Data Items Web Part to display the details of a particular customer or order from the AdventureWorksDW database. Business Data Related List Web Part Displays a list of related entity instances from a business application. For example, you can display all the orders for a particular customer from the AdventureWorksDW database. Business Data Actions Web Part Displays a list of actions associated with an entity as defined in the Business Data Catalog. For example, you can display all the actions that portal users can perform on the Customer entity. e.g. send to a customer or edit the address of a customer.

Core Components System Definition of a data source (SQL Server, SAP, Siebel, CRM, …) Entity A real-world thing in the system (e.g. customer, order, product, invoice, employee, …) Method An operation on an entity (e.g. GetOrders, GetInvoicesForCustomer, …) MethodInstance A way to use a method (e.g. Finder, SpecificFinder, IDEnumerator) Association A relationship between two entities

BDC Programming Administration Object Model Applications for authoring metadata and managing application definitions Runtime Object Model Applications for browsing the metadata repository and executing methods and filters on LOB application.NET Assemblies involved Microsoft.Office.Server.dll Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.dll Microsoft.SharePoint.dll

Business Data Web Parts Scenario 360-degree view of customer Today Custom Web Parts, DataViews Office 2007: Reusable biz data Web Parts Show new data with no new code or binaries Master-detail applications with no code Integrated with dashboards and filters Customizable in SPD

Business Data Search Scenario: Find an account manager in Siebel Today Vertical applications lack full-text search Most users can’t locate or access vertical apps Hard to have an index gatherer “see” business data Office 2007: Search any database/Web service No need to write IFilters or protocol handlers No need to create HTML representations of data Highly customizable results Integrated with scopes and Search Center

Business Data in Lists Scenarios Tag a proposal with a customer Track and annotate key support cases Pick from the canonical list of cost centers Today Text or lookup fields Irregular data, duplicated lists of values Office 2007: Business data column One column type that stores any entity One-click refresh Integrates with list features: workflow, versioning, etc.

Business Data in User Profiles Scenarios Show news about your customers Automatically filter dashboard by sales rep’s region Today Code required to augment user profile Personalized Web Parts require custom code Office 2007: import business data into user profile Map user profile property to field of entity Filter Web Parts with user profile filters

Developer Roadmap Use the business data features to create new and better applications faster Expose your line-of-business data via Web services or databases Write BDC-friendly Web services Finders, SpecificFinders, IDEnumerators, … Simplify your custom integration code with the BDC Runtime API Write tools to simplify metadata creation with the BDC Administration API

DEMO… Create the Metadata in the form of XML file Import the metadata within the scope of a particular SSP Use Business Data Web Parts to display BDC data Use Business Data Actions to update BDC data

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