In SharePoint 2010 Business Connectivity Services (BCS) enables integration with back end systems. Business Connectivity Services includes a set of presentation features, a connectivity framework and tooling within SPD and Visual Studio that enable developers and ITPros to connect to external data and services and to surface this data in SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010.This session will provide an overview of the BCS capabilities and usage in SharePoint 2010.
Hands-On Labs
External Data in SharePoint 2010 Lab
Business Connectivity Services (BCS) allows you to create SharePoint applications that can utilize external data. BCS relies on the creation of External Content Types to support the applications, which can then be extended to Office clients. In this exercise, you will use BCS to create a SharePoint application.
Videos
Introducing Business Connectivity Services
In SharePoint 2010 Business Connectivity Services (BCS) enables integration with back end systems. Business Connectivity Services includes a set of presentation features, a connectivity framework and tooling within SPD and Visual Studio that enable developers and ITPros to connect to external data and services and to surface this data in SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010.This session will provide an overview of the BCS capabilities and usage in SharePoint 2010.
Business Connectivity Services (BCS) Primer
The BCS is actually a platform that provides a SharePoint-based framework for creating composite applications, which are built by combining services and functionality from other enterprise applications to address the collaborative needs of users. These composite applications use the Office client user interface in addition to the functionality of the application. This helps people perform their tasks within the familiar user interface of the Office and SharePoint Server systems, and allows people to take actions and make decisions within the context of the problem at hand.
Creating BCS Applications
External lists also provide a greater level of control for the developer because the table structure, indexing, and access methods can be customized to improve performance of the list or to match internal guidelines. This allows developers to include large lists and tables in existing systems in their solutions with the ability to tune the performance as they better understand how the users will use the tool. In this video you will learn about the types of applications that you can create using the BCS.
Creating a .NET Assembly Connector
In this video you will learn how the inclusion of BCS creates opportunities to leverage SharePoint features and APIs against your existing line of business data that is available via direct database access or via web services. You will also see how to create an external content type using Visual Studio to connect to your own custom data sources.