Chapter 13

Building Line-of-Business Solutions Using Business Connectivity Services

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS CHAPTER:

• Getting to know Business Connectivity Services in Office 365 SharePoint Online
• Understanding how to build app-level external content types using OData
• Working with SharePoint and Office integration using Apps for SharePoint and BCS

WROX.COM DOWNLOADS FOR THIS CHAPTER

The wrox.com code downloads for this chapter are found at http://www.wrox.com/WileyCDA/WroxTitle/productCd-1118495845.html on the Download Code tab. The code for this chapter is divided into the following major examples:

• C13EmployeeBCSApp.zip
• C13EmpReferralBCSAppForOffice.zip
• Employee.bdcm

Business Connectivity Services (BCS) in SharePoint 2010 made tremendous strides over Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007, bringing the capability to conveniently connect line-of-business (LOB) systems to the masses. BCS in SharePoint 2013 continues on this trajectory with new features that make BCS even more compelling to have as a core component when developing solutions for SharePoint users.

Looking back, with MOSS 2007 developers had to fuss around and work directly with the XML to set up connections to LOB systems using the Business Data Catalog. Also, after set up, these ADO.NET- or Web services-based connections were read-only. However, in SharePoint 2010 the tooling was ratcheted up significantly in both SharePoint Designer 2010 and Visual Studio 2010, making it easier for power users, IT professionals, and developers alike to create read-write connections in BCS solutions that ranged from no-code to rich, deeply integrated, code-based solutions spanning SharePoint, Office clients, and LOB systems.

For example, Duet Enterprise is one such solution. It is a product developed and licensed as a joint venture between Microsoft and SAP. Microsoft engineers built all the SharePoint integration components and SAP engineers used the tooling on the SAP platform to expose functional business services from the SAP side. Therefore, Duet Enterprise serves as a reference point in determining the best integration strategy for bringing ERP data into SharePoint because it provides the pattern for the technical architecture and the delineation of business functions surfaced in SharePoint and the LOB system. If your enterprise is looking for deep BCS integration with one of your LOB systems, then you are strongly encouraged to have your architects review the technical documentation for Duet Enterprise on TechNet. It can serve as a framework for discussion as you build your integration and development plan. Some key tenants for deep SharePoint BCS and LOB integration include the following:

• SharePoint is not a replacement for the LOB presentation layer.
• Do not replicate LOB functionality in SharePoint — augment functionality with SharePoint integration.
• The LOB is the system of record, SharePoint is not.
• Use the claims-based security infrastructure of SharePoint when connecting to the LOB services, and plan for high availability and reuse of this infrastructure component.
• Flow relevant user profile/identity data from the LOB into custom SharePoint profile elements as needed.
• Flow relevant LOB permissions data from the LOB into custom SharePoint profile elements as needed.
• SharePoint permissions should reflect LOB permissions.

These are some of the principles that you’ll see employed in the Duet Enterprise design. So, if you are looking beyond tactical, point solutions for integration to your LOB systems, and if you are considering deep integration with a LOB system, then consider investigating Duet Enterprise as a reference architecture. Additionally, seeing the likes of Microsoft and SAP join together and build an enterprise-scale product on top of BCS should give you a lot of confidence that it’s an infrastructure that you can build on too. This chapter offers you a look at some of the new BCS capabilities in SharePoint 2013, most specifically with access to OData endpoints and the new app-level external content types (ECTs) that you can leverage in your business solutions.