SharePoint BCS-Overview

SharePoint 2010 introduced the concept of BCS for the first time-business Connectivity service, which is the operational connectivity services. In short, it can read External system data (such as Business system data tables, OData data sources, and so on) to SharePoint in the form of an external list, and implement a simple curd. It can be seen as an upgrade to the BDC in version 2007, or it can be said that BCS contains BDC, which can do all the things that BDC can do, and can do more.

Microsoft Business Connectivity Services (BCS) is a feature in Microsoft Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 that is designed to help developers and users put data into Sharepoin T. Rendering external data in SharePoint allows users to build composite applications for better access to critical information and easier interaction with that information.

BCS provides three basic mechanisms that you can use to put external data into SharePoint. First, you can connect to the database and use the database through SQL queries. By default, SQL Server is supported. After making some changes, you can also connect to MySQL, Oracle, and other database management systems.

Second, you can use WEB services, such as WCF, that provide methods that conform to a specific pattern of method prototypes.

Third, you can use the Microsoft. NET Framework and C # or Visual Basic code to connect to a data source. The most common approach is to write a. NET assembly connector.

BCS also enables users to operate data offline and then synchronize back to the data source after connecting to the network.

So, what's the difference between BCS and the SharePoint 2007 version of BDC?

The 2007 version of the BDC provides only a function of data presentation, which is read-only and cannot operate the business data, cannot be used offline, and does not support blobs.

The 2010 version of BCS consolidates external data through external content types and external lists, allowing CRUD operations to be easily implemented without code, and it can use external data with Word 2010, OutLook 2010, SharePoint Workspace 2010 Client tools are integrated, external data in Outlook 2010 and SharePoint Worksace 2010 can be taken offline, and changes can be synchronized back to the external data source when the network is re-networked, support blobs, and better authentication of permissions.

The following table shows the features that BCS has in different versions of SharePoint 2010

Business Connectivity Services Feature	SharePoint Foundation 2010	SharePoint Server Standard Edition	sharepoint Server Enterprise Edition
external list (external list)	√	√	√
external Data Column (External data column)	√	√	√
business Data Connectivity (BDC) Service (BDC Services)	√	√	√
connector" Framework (Connector Framework)	√	√	√
secure Store Service (SSS secure storage Service)		√	√
external Data Search (external Data search)		√	√
	√	√
business Data Web Parts (Business Data Web Part)			√
Rich Client integration (Enriched clients integration, mentioned above)			√

Or

In conjunction with the above, let's look at the architecture diagram of SharePoint BCS (Figure 1) and the schema diagram of the BDC (Figure 2).

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 1 illustrates how BCS enables users to read and write data from external systems (via Web Service, database, and.) from SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 apps. NET connection library, etc., developers can easily build solutions quickly with the rich capabilities of visual Studio 2010 and SPD 2010.

As can be seen from Figure 2, the data source can have a database, a Web servcie, as described above. NET connection libraries and custom sources. These can form the BDC's data source, and in SharePoint, you can apply a BDC to interact with external lists, searches, external data columns, Web Parts, property view pages, custom solutions, and even workflows.

If the 2007 version of the BDC is brick, then the 2010 version of the BCS system is a block of jade, the function is to meet the basic needs, no longer is a façade flashy.

SharePoint BCS-Overview