Chapter 17. Implementing the Business Data Catalog

The Business Data Catalog (BDC) is a shared service that allows you to reuse other sources of data in your organization by centrally surfacing business data from other applications, and making that data available to MOSS lists, Web Parts, search, and user profiles.

You can use the BDC to display data from Siebel, SAP, or other applications through Web services or database access. The most common sources for BDC data are line-of-business applications so that you can reuse that information throughout the organization without giving all users access and/or training on that line-of-business application.

The BDC is designed to surface this data with minimal coding effort. With that said, to define the entity, you will need to have a database developer that can map the business application to the metadata model BDC provides.

This chapter discusses the scenarios that may require use of the BDC, defines applications and entities to make business data available, and implements the Single Sign-On Service which can be leveraged by the BDC for ease of application access. Finally, we will use the integrated data in MOSS components throughout your site.

Because the BDC is a shared service, it requires MOSS. WSS users may find this chapter a compelling reason to upgrade to MOSS, but without that platform, they will most likely not be interested in reading this chapter in detail.