Msdn visual series: Use BDC operations to control business data

Original article: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457187.aspx

With BDC, we can use data in lob (line-of-business) in Moss. The data exposed in the business data directory is read-only. However, users usually not only need to view the exposed data, but also need to operate the data. To make it easy to implement, BDC provides the actions-parameterized URL. Parameters can be used to easily reference various fields in an object.

This article continues How to Create BDC in Moss as described in the previous chapter. If you have not used any metadata file, download it in the previous article. The following are the steps required to perform lob data operations through BDC actions:

Add a sales order entity to the metadata file

Add the following XML content to the customer object. <Methods> </methods>.

< Actions >
< Action
Position = "1"  
Name = "Emailcustomer"  
Defaultdisplayname = "Email customer"  
URL = "Mailto: {0 }"  
Iscached = "True"  
Imageurl = ""  
Isopenedinnewwindow = "True" >
< Actionparameters >
< Actionparameter
Index = "0"  
Name = "Emailaddress"
Defaultdisplayname = "Email address"  
Iscached = "True"   />
</ Actionparameters >
</ Action >
</ Actions >

Increase the version number of the lobsystem root element

Moss will prevent us from uploading a metadata file whose version is earlier than or equal to the current version. Therefore, if you use the Metadata File Created in the previous section, you must increase the version number.

Save and upload the modified metadata file to the BDC sharing service.

Save the file. Open the management center and click share service (usually sharedservices1) in the left-side navigation bar ). In the BDC section, click Import ApplicationProgramDefinition. Click Browse, find the modified metadata file, and double-click. For other application definition items, use the default value. Click Import.

Add the service data list component to the website to send an email message.

Add the business data list component to our SharePoint site and associate it with our defined customer entity. OK. Now we can click the email customer item in the following list on the customer name to send an email to the customer.

Conclusion: business data is read-only in Moss. However, developers or administrators can still use parameterized URLs to allow users to perform operations on business data. This is BDC actions. In this way, we can pass the specific field value to the Web application that completes the business logic in the background. In this example, we simply use the mailto link to send an email. However, in actual applications, it is often used to link to a web-based infopath form or a custom ASPX page.

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