Did you know the BDC only queries the data?

That it actually does NOT import everything but just pulls the data in on demand? You probably just answered yes you already knew that. So why am I playing the role of Captain Obvious? Well, because possibly if the only thing you ever learned about the BDC prior to this was post was from me you might have gotten the above questions wrong. Brad H. from my Boston admin class emailed me today thinking he had misunderstood me. Nope. He heard me correctly, the problem was I was wrong. I will not rehash what I said wrong but will try to say things correctly from now on.

  • You use the Business Data Catalog (BDC) to connect MOSS Enterprise to business data sources (such as PeopleSoft, SAP, Seibel, etc)
  • You can display that data using the business data web parts
  • You can use the data as metadata in lists or libraries
  • You can setup custom actions on the displayed data to interact with it
  • You can make the BDC a content source for search, creating full indexes of the data (this is what cause my confusion)
  • The BDC is defined and administered at the SSP level (Shared Services Provider)
  • The BDC is a MOSS 2007 Enterprise feature only

For more information check out this great full feature information from my buddy Sahil http://blah.winsmarts.com/2007-4-SharePoint_2007__BDC_-_The_Business_Data_Catalog.aspx or the official Microsoft scoop at http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2006/04/18/business-data-catalog.aspx

Anyway my apologies for the miss-information.

 

Shane – SharePoint Consulting

Published Tue, Jan 29 2008 3:36 by Shane
Filed under: ,

Comments

# re: Did you know the BDC only queries the data?

Monday, January 28, 2008 10:05 PM by Todd Klindt

I still love you buddy.

tk

# Did you know the BDC only queries the data?

Monday, January 28, 2008 10:50 PM by SHAREPOINTBlogs.com Mirror

That it actually does NOT import everything but just pulls the data in on demand? You probably just answered

# re: Did you know the BDC only queries the data?

Tuesday, January 29, 2008 6:17 AM by Paul Galvin

Congrats and good for you for posting this.  It's darn hard to write posts like this one.  That's the risk of putting yourself "out there" in the public domain with blogs or writing on forums, etc.  

--Paul Galvin

# re: Did you know the BDC only queries the data?

Tuesday, January 29, 2008 2:19 PM by Brad Hilton

Apology unnecessary - your class was excellent, Shane.  Thanks for posting the clarification.

-Brad

# re: Did you know the BDC only queries the data?

Tuesday, January 29, 2008 3:47 PM by tbaggs

Shane,

This is a good post from a very technical perspective.  However, someone reading this may get the impression that using the BDC as a content source does not leak data from their LOB system into MOSS.  This could be a big issue for some companies if they don't have controls in place to prevent even small leaks of data.  I do agree with you that the BDC does not technically store data, however the BDC can be inadvertently used to facilitate the storing of data by other SharePoint technologies.  When we look at data security issues, we try to look at the entire surface, not a single point, as such MOSS has the ability to store LOB data depending on how you configure certain knobs.

# re: Did you know the BDC only queries the data?

Tuesday, January 29, 2008 6:26 PM by Shane

Excellent information in "tbaggs" post.  He is one of the BDC superstars (and a friend of mine) and makes some good points.

Thanks

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