Business Connectivity Services

Firebird and the Business Connectivity Services in SharePoint 2010

Lightning Tools — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 21:16:27 GMT

In this walkthrough we will demonstrate how to integrate Firebird database with Microsoft SharePoint 2010 through ODBC and display Firebird data on SharePoint 2010 page. In order to do that we will describe how to create a new external content type by means of BCS Meta Man.

Prerequisites:
- Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional or higher
- BCS Meta Man
- Download and install Firebird ODBC driver (Windows 32-bit Full Install) for Microsoft Windows 32-bit http://www.firebirdsql.org/en/odbc-driver/ on a machine where BCS Meta Man runs
- Download and install Firebird ODBC driver (Windows 64-bit Full Install) for Microsoft Windows 64-bit http://www.firebirdsql.org/en/odbc-driver/ on a machine where SharePoint 2010 runs
- Firebird client component (it’s a part of Firebird server installer) for Microsoft Windows 32-bit http://www.firebirdsql.org/en/downloads/ on a machine where BCS Meta Man runs
- Firebird client component (it’s a part of Firebird server installer) for Microsoft Windows 64-bit http://www.firebirdsql.org/en/downloads/ on a machine where SharePoint 2010 runs
Open Visual Studio 2010
Add a New Project
Expand the “SharePoint” node, select “Lightning Tools (2010)” node and then the “BCS Meta Man” project type
Give your project a name i.e FirebirdBCSMetaManDemo and click “OK”
On the next dialog box, enter the name of where you want to deploy your model, and click “Finish” button
If prompted, click “Trial” on the licensing dialog
To show the “BCS Meta Man Data Source Explorer” we need to enable it from the Menu item, this new window can be docked so it doesn’t get in your way
Click the “Add Connection” button to show the “Connection Dialog”
Select “ODBC Server” as Data Source type, enter Firebird ODBC connection string (for example it can be “DbName=cygnus:C:\Program Files\Firebird\Firebird_2_5\examples\empbuild\EMPLOYEE.FDB; Driver=Firebird/InterBase(r) driver;Uid=SYSDBA;Pwd=masterkey;Trusted_Connection=true;”), enter double quotes as left and right delimiters and “?” as parameter symbol and click “Connect” button
The Data Source Explorer will now be populated with your Firebird data
We will be working with the ”DEPARTMENT” table, to add it to the Model , just drag it from the “Data Source Explorer” onto the “Diagram”
When you drop the table you will be shown the following dialog, we should choose “Database , click “OK”
Accept the default entity name by clicking “Next”
Accept the default “Identifiers” by clicking “Next”
Accept the default 3 methods to be created, click “Generate” (The default 3 methods are: “Finder” – Returns all items, “Specific Finder” – Returns a single item by identifier, “IdEnumerator” – Returns just the Identifiers for all of the items )
Press F5 to deploy, this will load up your SharePoint Page once deployed
Add a new External list by selection on SharePoint page “Site Action”->“More Options”->“External List”
Click on the icon to show the available External Content Types
Select our FirebirdBCSMetaManDemo.DEPARTMENT External Content Type, click “OK”
Click “Create”
Your External System data from Firebird database is now displayed in the SharePoint External List

We hope this walkthrough will be useful for you. If you have any questions feel free to email them to support@lightningtools.com

MySQL Stored Procedures and the Business Connectivity Services in SharePoint 2010

Lightning Tools — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 15:54:09 GMT

Introduction

In this walkthrough we will demonstrate how to integrate MySQL stored procedures with Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and display the data on SharePoint 2010 page. In order to do that we will describe how to create a new external content type by means of BCS Meta Man.

Prerequisites

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional or higher
BCS Meta Man
Download and install “Windows (x86, 32-bit), MSI Installer Connector-ODBC” http://www.mysql.com/downloads/connector/odbc/ on a machine where BCS Meta Man runs
Download and install “Windows (x86, 64-bit), MSI Installer Connector-ODBC” http://www.mysql.com/downloads/connector/odbc/ on a machine where SharePoint 2010 runs
MySQL stored procedures for CRUD operations such as:
1. CREATE DEFINER = 'root'@'localhost'
  PROCEDURE classicmodels.get_all_offices()
  BEGIN
  SELECT * FROM offices;
  END
2. CREATE DEFINER = 'root'@'localhost'
  PROCEDURE classicmodels.get_office_by_id(IN p_id INT)
  BEGIN
  SELECT * FROM offices WHERE officeCode=p_id;
  END
3. CREATE DEFINER = 'root'@'localhost'
  PROCEDURE classicmodels.get_office_ids()
  BEGIN
  SELECT officeCode FROM offices;
  END
4. CREATE DEFINER = 'root'@'localhost'
  PROCEDURE classicmodels.create_office(IN p_id INT, IN p_city VARCHAR(50),
  IN p_phone VARCHAR(50), IN p_address_line1 VARCHAR(50),
  IN p_address_line2 VARCHAR(50), IN p_state VARCHAR(50),
  IN p_country VARCHAR(50), IN p_postal_code VARCHAR(15),
  IN p_territory VARCHAR(10))
  BEGIN
  INSERT INTO offices values(p_id, p_city, p_phone, p_address_line1, p_address_line2,
  p_state, p_country, p_postal_code, p_territory);
  END
5. CREATE DEFINER = 'root'@'localhost'
  PROCEDURE classicmodels.update_office(IN p_id INT, IN p_city VARCHAR(50),
  IN p_phone VARCHAR(50), IN p_address_line1 VARCHAR(50),
  IN p_address_line2 VARCHAR(50), IN p_state VARCHAR(50),
  IN p_country VARCHAR(50), IN p_postal_code VARCHAR(15),
  IN p_territory VARCHAR(10))
  BEGIN
  UPDATE offices SET city=p_city, phone=p_phone, addressLine1=p_address_line1,
  addressLine2=p_address_line2, state=p_state, country=p_country, postalCode=p_postal_code,
  territory=p_territory WHERE officecode=p_id;
  END
6. CREATE DEFINER = 'root'@'localhost'
  PROCEDURE classicmodels.delete_office(IN p_id INT)
  BEGIN
  DELETE FROM offices WHERE officecode = p_id;
  END

Walkthrough

Open Visual Studio 2010
Add a New Project
Expand the “SharePoint” node, select “Lightning Tools (2010)” node and then the “BCS Meta Man” project type
Give your project a name i.e MySQLStoredProceduresBCSMetaManDemo and click “OK”
On the next dialog box, enter the name of where you want to deploy your model, and click “Finish” button
If prompted, click “Trial” on the licensing dialog
To show the “BCS Meta Man Data Source Explorer” we need to enable it from the Menu item, this new window can be docked so it doesn’t get in your way
Click the “Add Connection” button to show the “Connection Dialog”
Select “ODBC Server” as Data Source type, enter MySQL ODBC connection string (for example it can be “Driver={MySQL ODBC 5.1 Driver};Server=taurus;Port=3306;Database=classicmodels; User=root;Password=12345;Trusted_Connection=yes;”), enter “`” as left and right delimiters and “?” as parameter symbol and click “Connect” button
The Data Source Explorer will now be populated with your MySQL data
Drag and drop your Finder Stored Procedure onto the design surface and enter External Content type name, i.e “Office”, click “OK”
Choose the Finder as the method type and click “OK”
The External Content Type will be created on the Diagram
In order to set an identifier right-click on the External Content Type, select “Manage External Content type” menu item
Click “Edit Identifiers” button on the “Entity Management” dialog, select an identifier and click “OK” and “Update” button then
The External Content Type will update with the new identifier
From the “BCS Meta Man Data Source Explorer” drag and drop your Specific Finder stored procedure onto the existing External Content Type
The “Stored Procedure Configuration” dialog will be displayed. Select “SpecificFinder” as the Method Type. Select the first Parameter – p_id and set the Filter Type as Comparison and the Default Value as ‘0’. Click “OK”.
The External Content Type will update with the new Specific Finder Method
Next drag and drop the Id Enumerator stored procedure onto the existing External Content Type
Select “IdEnumerator” as the Method Type, Click “OK”
The External Content Type will update with the new Id Enumerator Method
From the “BCS Meta Man Data Source Explorer” drag and drop your Creator stored procedure onto the existing External Content Type
The “Stored Procedure Configuration” dialog will be displayed. Select “Creator” as the Method Type. For each Parameter select the appropriate column to map it to. Click “OK”.
The External Content Type will update with the new Creator Method
Next drag and drop your Updater stored procedure onto the existing External Content Type
Again the “Stored Procedure Configuration” dialog will be displayed. Select “Updater” as the Method Type. For each Parameter select the appropriate column to map it to. Click “OK”.
The External Content Type will update with the new Updater Method
Finally drag and drop your Deleter stored procedure onto the existing External Content Type
Again the “Stored Procedure Configuration” dialog will be displayed. Select “Deleter” as the Method Type. Click “OK”.
The complete External Content Type will look like the following
Press F5 to deploy The External Content Type, this will load up your SharePoint Page once deployed
Add a new External list by selection on SharePoint page “Site Action”->“More Options…”->“External List”
Give your External List a name and Click on the icon to show the available External Content Types
Select created MySQLStoredProceduresBCSMetaManDemo.Office External Content Type, click “OK”. Click “Create” button then.
The external data provided by MySQL stored procedure is now displayed in the SharePoint External List
You can hover over the first column of your list and you’ll see a drop down appear. If you click the drop down arrow you’ll get a number of options for that particular row of data – one of which will be View Item.
You will be presented with the View Item dialog
Now click “Edit item” on the ribbon of the dialog. This option is only available if you create an Updater method for your External Content Type. Clicking on this link will open up a dialog form that allows you to edit that row of data and save it.
While viewing the external list, if you click the Items tab on the ribbon you’ll see a New Item button
This will bring up the “New Item” dialog where you can add a new Office. We will enter information about new Office and click “Save”
This will insert a new row directly to your MySQL database

We hope this walkthrough will be useful for you. If you have any questions feel free to email them to support@lightningtools.com

BCS filters and DB2 Stored Procedures with Parameters in SharePoint 2010

Lightning Tools — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 20:11:45 GMT

Introduction

In this tutorial we will show you how to connect to a DB2 Database using BCS Meta Man and a Stored Procedure to return filtered data to a SharePoint Business Data List. In this walkthrough we will be creating a Finder Method with filters so our DB2 Stored Procedure needs to have parameters defined.

Prerequisites

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional or higher
BCS Meta Man
Download and install “IBM Data Server Runtime Client (Windows 32-bit AMD and Intel x86)” http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=4020&uid=swg21385217 on a machine where BCS Meta Man runs
Download and install “IBM Data Server Runtime Client (Windows AMD64 and Intel EM64T)” http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=4020&uid=swg21385217 on a machine where SharePoint 2010 runs
DB2 stored procedure such as:
1. CREATE PROCEDURE GET_EMPLOYEES_FILTERED(IN P_FIRST_NAME VARCHAR(12), IN P_BONUS DECIMAL(9,2))
  DYNAMIC RESULT SETS 1
  P1: BEGIN
  DECLARE v_employees CURSOR WITH RETURN for
  select * from EMPLOYEE where FIRSTNME like '%' || P_FIRST_NAME || '%' and BONUS > P_BONUS;
  OPEN v_employees;
  END P1

Walkthrough

Open Visual Studio 2010
Add a New Project
Expand the “SharePoint” node, select “Lightning Tools (2010)” node and then the “BCS Meta Man” project type
Give your project a name i.e BCSMetaManFilteredDB2StoredProcedure and click “OK”
On the next dialog box, enter the name of where you want to deploy your model, and click “Finish” button
If prompted, click “Trial” on the licensing dialog
To show the “BCS Meta Man Data Source Explorer” we need to enable it from the Menu item, this new window can be docked so it doesn’t get in your way
Click the “Add Connection” button to show the “Connection Dialog”
Select “ODBC Server” as Data Source type, enter DB2 ODBC connection string (for example it can be “Driver={IBM DB2 ODBC DRIVER};Database=SAMPLE; Hostname=cygnus;port=50000;Protocol=TCPIP;Uid=Administrator;Pwd=12345;Trusted_Connection=false;”), enter double quotes as left and right delimiters and “?” as parameter symbol and click “Connect” button.
The Data Source Explorer will now be populated with your DB2 data
Drag and drop your Finder Stored Procedure with parameters onto the design surface and enter External Content type name, i.e “FilteredEmployee”, click “OK”
Select the Method Type as “Finder’'
Select the first Parameter (p_first_name) and set it’s Filter Type to Comparison and the Default Value to ‘A’
Next select the second Parameter (p_bonus) and also set it’s Filter Type to Comparison and the Default Value to ‘100’
Click ‘OK’
The External Content Type will be created on the Diagram
In order to set an identifier right-click on the External Content Type, select “Manage External Content type” menu item
Click “Edit Identifiers” button on the “Entity Management” dialog, select an identifier and click “OK” and “Update” button then
The External Content Type will update with the new identifier
Press F5 to deploy, this will load up your SharePoint Page once deployed
Add a new Business Data List Web Part to your SharePoint page
Click on the ‘Open the tool pane’ link
Click on the icon to show the available External Content Types
Select our ‘BCSMetaManFilteredDB2StoredProcedure.FilteredEmployee’ External Content Type, click ‘OK’
Click ‘OK’ on the tool pane
Click the ‘Add’ link on the Business Data List Web Part to add the second Filter option
Change the second Filter to be the P_BONUS and enter values for the filters and click ‘Retrieve Data’
Your DB2 data provided by Stored Procedure is now displayed in the SharePoint Web Part

We hope this walkthrough will be useful for you. If you have any questions feel free to email them to support@lightningtools.com

Business Connectivity Service Associations using DB2 Stored Procedures in SharePoint 2010

Lightning Tools — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 13:15:09 GMT

Introduction

In this walkthrough we will demonstrate you how to connect to DB2 Database and use stored procedures to create an association between two External Content Types using BCS Meta Man.

We are going to follow on from the ‘DB2 Stored Procedures and the Business Connectivity Services in SharePoint 2010’

Prerequisites

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional or higher
BCS Meta Man
Download and install “IBM Data Server Runtime Client (Windows 32-bit AMD and Intel x86)” http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=4020&uid=swg21385217 on a machine where BCS Meta Man runs
Download and install “IBM Data Server Runtime Client (Windows AMD64 and Intel EM64T)” http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=4020&uid=swg21385217 on a machine where SharePoint 2010 runs
DB2 stored procedures such as:
1. CREATE PROCEDURE GET_ALL_DEPARTMENTS()
  DYNAMIC RESULT SETS 1
  P1: BEGIN
  DECLARE v_departments CURSOR WITH RETURN for
  SELECT * FROM DEPARTMENT;
  OPEN v_departments;
  END P1
2. CREATE PROCEDURE GET_DEPARTMENT_BY_ID(IN P_ID CHAR(3))
  DYNAMIC RESULT SETS 1
  P1: BEGIN
  DECLARE v_departments CURSOR WITH RETURN for
  select * from DEPARTMENT where DEPTNO=P_ID;
  OPEN v_departments;
  END P1
3. CREATE PROCEDURE GET_ALL_EMPLOYEES()
  DYNAMIC RESULT SETS 1
  P1: BEGIN
  DECLARE v_employees CURSOR WITH RETURN for
  SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEE;
  OPEN v_employees;
  END P1
4. CREATE PROCEDURE GET_EMPLOYEE_BY_ID(IN P_ID CHAR(6))
  DYNAMIC RESULT SETS 1
  P1: BEGIN
  DECLARE v_employees CURSOR WITH RETURN for
  select * from EMPLOYEE where EMPNO=P_ID;
  OPEN v_employees;
  END P1
5. CREATE PROCEDURE GET_EMPLOYEE_BY_DEPARTMENT_ID(IN P_ID CHAR(3))
  DYNAMIC RESULT SETS 1
  P1: BEGIN
  DECLARE v_employees CURSOR WITH RETURN for
  select * from EMPLOYEE where WORKDEPT=P_ID;
  OPEN v_employees;
  END P1

Walkthrough

Using the ‘DB2 Stored Procedures and the Business Connectivity Services in SharePoint 2010’ Tutorial create two External Content Types “Department” and “Employee” with Finder (Read List operation) and SpecificFinder (Read Item operation) methods only.
You should have the following External Content Types on your Diagram
Switch to the ‘Toolbox’ pane in Visual Studio (Ctrl-Alt-X)
Select the ‘Association’ toolbox item from the list
With the Association selected, Click and Drag from ‘Department’ to ‘Employee’
When you release the ‘Association Configuration’ dialog will show
Switch back to the ‘BCS Meta Man Data Source Explorer’ tool window pane
Drag the Association Stored Procedure onto the Arrow in the ‘Association Configuration’ dialog, it will turn green when OK to release
The dialog will update with the selected Stored Procedure
Select ‘P_ID’ in the Parameter and ‘DEPTNO’ in the Identifier drop-down list boxes, Click ‘Save’
The diagram will update to show an arrow indicating we have an association between the two External Content Types
Press F5 to deploy, this will load up your SharePoint Page once deployed
Add a new Business Data List Web Part to your SharePoint page
Click on the ‘Open the tool pane’ link
Click on the icon to show the available External Content Types
Select our ‘BCSMetaMan1.Department’ External Content Type, click OK
Click ‘OK’ on the tool pane
The external data provided by DB2 stored procedure is now displayed in the SharePoint Web Part
Next, Add a new ‘Business Data Related List’ Web Part to the page
Configure the Web Part to use the ‘BCSMetaMan1.Employee’ External Content Type
The Web Part will display a message saying the following
To do this we can set up the connection using the small arrow from the top right of our Web Part
Once this is done we can click on the arrows next to an item in our ‘Department’ web part and the employees related to this department will display on our ‘Employee’ web part

We hope this walkthrough will be useful for you. If you have any questions feel free to email them to support@lightningtools.com

DB2 Stored Procedures and the Business Connectivity Services in SharePoint 2010

Lightning Tools — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 13:16:51 GMT

Introduction

In this walkthrough we will demonstrate how to integrate DB2 stored procedures with Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and display the data on SharePoint 2010 page. In order to do that we will describe how to create a new external content type by means of BCS Meta Man.

Prerequisites

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional or higher
BCS Meta Man
Download and install “IBM Data Server Runtime Client (Windows 32-bit AMD and Intel x86)” http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=4020&uid=swg21385217 on a machine where BCS Meta Man runs
Download and install “IBM Data Server Runtime Client (Windows AMD64 and Intel EM64T)” http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=4020&uid=swg21385217 on a machine where SharePoint 2010 runs
DB2 stored procedures for CRUD operations such as:
1. CREATE PROCEDURE GET_ALL_DEPARTMENTS()
  DYNAMIC RESULT SETS 1
  P1: BEGIN
  DECLARE v_departments CURSOR WITH RETURN for
  SELECT * FROM DEPARTMENT;
  OPEN v_departments;
  END P1
2. CREATE PROCEDURE GET_DEPARTMENT_BY_ID(IN P_ID CHAR(3))
  DYNAMIC RESULT SETS 1
  P1: BEGIN
  DECLARE v_departments CURSOR WITH RETURN for
  select * from DEPARTMENT where DEPTNO=P_ID;
  OPEN v_departments;
  END P1
3. CREATE PROCEDURE GET_DEPARTMENT_IDS()
  DYNAMIC RESULT SETS 1
  P1: BEGIN
  DECLARE v_department_ids CURSOR WITH RETURN for
  select DEPTNO from DEPARTMENT;
  OPEN v_department_ids;
  END P1
4. CREATE PROCEDURE CREATE_DEPARTMENT(IN P_ID CHAR(3), IN P_NAME VARCHAR(36), IN P_MGRNO CHAR(6), IN P_ADMID CHAR(3), IN P_LOCATION CHAR(16))
  DYNAMIC RESULT SETS 1
  P1: BEGIN
  insert into DEPARTMENT values(P_ID, P_NAME, P_MGRNO, P_ADMID, P_LOCATION);
  END P1
5. CREATE PROCEDURE UPDATE_DEPARTMENT(IN P_ID CHAR(3), IN P_NAME VARCHAR(36), IN P_MGRNO CHAR(6), IN P_ADMID CHAR(3), IN P_LOCATION CHAR(16))
  DYNAMIC RESULT SETS 1
  P1: BEGIN
  update DEPARTMENT set DEPTNAME=P_NAME, MGRNO=P_MGRNO, ADMRDEPT=P_ADMID, LOCATION=P_LOCATION where DEPTNO=P_ID;
  END P1
6. CREATE PROCEDURE DELETE_DEPARTMENT(IN P_ID CHAR(3))
  DYNAMIC RESULT SETS 1
  P1: BEGIN
  delete from DEPARTMENT where DEPTNO=P_ID;
  END P1

Walkthrough

Open Visual Studio 2010
Add a New Project
Expand the “SharePoint” node, select “Lightning Tools (2010)” node and then the “BCS Meta Man” project type
Give your project a name i.e DB2StoredProceduresBCSMetaManDemo and click “OK”
On the next dialog box, enter the name of where you want to deploy your model, and click “Finish” button
If prompted, click “Trial” on the licensing dialog
To show the “BCS Meta Man Data Source Explorer” we need to enable it from the Menu item, this new window can be docked so it doesn’t get in your way
Click the “Add Connection” button to show the “Connection Dialog”
Select “ODBC Server” as Data Source type, enter DB2 ODBC connection string (for example it can be “Driver={IBM DB2 ODBC DRIVER};Database=SAMPLE;Hostname=cygnus;port=50000;Protocol=TCPIP;Uid=Administrator;Pwd=12345;Trusted_Connection=false;”), enter double quotes as left and right delimiters and “?” as parameter symbol and click “Connect” button.
The Data Source Explorer will now be populated with your DB2 data
Drag and drop your Finder Stored Procedure onto the design surface and enter External Content type name, i.e “Department”, click “OK”
Choose the Finder as the method type and click “OK”
The External Content Type will be created on the Diagram
In order to set an identifier right-click on the External Content Type, select “Manage External Content type” menu item
Click “Edit Identifiers” button on the “Entity Management” dialog, select an identifier and click “OK” and “Update” button then
The External Content Type will update with the new identifier
From the “BCS Meta Man Data Source Explorer” drag and drop your Specific Finder stored procedure onto the existing External Content Type
The “Stored Procedure Configuration” dialog will be displayed. Select “SpecificFinder” as the Method Type. Select the first Parameter – P_ID and set the Filter Type as Comparison and the Default Value as ‘0’. Click “OK”.
The External Content Type will update with the new Specific Finder Method
Next drag and drop the Id Enumerator stored procedure onto the existing External Content Type
Select “IdEnumerator” as the Method Type, Click “OK”
The External Content Type will update with the new Id Enumerator Method
From the “BCS Meta Man Data Source Explorer” drag and drop your Creator stored procedure onto the existing External Content Type
The “Stored Procedure Configuration” dialog will be displayed. Select “Creator” as the Method Type. For each Parameter select the appropriate column to map it to. Click “OK”.
The External Content Type will update with the new Creator Method
Next drag and drop your Updater stored procedure onto the existing External Content Type
Again the “Stored Procedure Configuration” dialog will be displayed. Select “Updater” as the Method Type. For each Parameter select the appropriate column to map it to. Click “OK”.
The External Content Type will update with the new Updater Method
Finally drag and drop your Deleter stored procedure onto the existing External Content Type
Again the “Stored Procedure Configuration” dialog will be displayed. Select “Deleter” as the Method Type. Click “OK”.
The complete External Content Type will look like the following
Press F5 to deploy The External Content Type, this will load up your SharePoint Page once deployed
Add a new External list by selection on SharePoint page “Site Action”->“More Options…”->“External List”
Give your External List a name and Click on the icon to show the available External Content Types
Select created DB2StoredProceduresBCSMetaManDemo.Department External Content Type, click “OK”. Click “Create” button then.
The external data provided by DB2 stored procedure is now displayed in the SharePoint External List
You can hover over the first column of your list and you’ll see a drop down appear. If you click the drop down arrow you’ll get a number of options for that particular row of data – one of which will be View Item.
You will be presented with the View Item dialog
Now click “Edit item” on the ribbon of the dialog. This option is only available if you create an Updater method for your External Content Type. Clicking on this link will open up a dialog form that allows you to edit that row of data and save it.
While viewing the external list, if you click the Items tab on the ribbon you’ll see a New Item button
This will bring up the “New Item” dialog where you can add a new Department. We will enter information about new Department and click “Save”
This will insert a new row directly to your DB2 database

We hope this walkthrough will be useful for you. If you have any questions feel free to email them to support@lightningtools.com

BCS filters and Oracle Stored Procedures with Parameters in SharePoint 2010

Lightning Tools — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:35:51 GMT

Introduction

In this tutorial we will show you how to connect to a Oracle Database Server using BCS Meta Man and a Stored Procedure to return filtered data to a SharePoint Business Data List. In this walkthrough we will be creating a Finder Method with filters so our Oracle Stored Procedure needs to have parameters defined.

Prerequisites

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional or higher
BCS Meta Man
Oracle clients (This FAQ describes what should be installed)
Oracle stored procedure for such as:
1. create or replace function get_employees_filtered(p_last_name in varchar2, p_salary in number)
  return sys_refcursor
  is
  v_employees sys_refcursor;
  begin
  open v_employees for select * from employees where last_name like '%' || p_last_name || '%' and salary < p_salary;
  return v_employees;
  end get_employees_filtered;

Walkthrough

Open Visual Studio 2010
Add a New Project
Expand the “SharePoint” node, select “Lightning Tools (2010)” node and then the “BCS Meta Man” project type
Give your project a name i.e BCSMetaManFilteredOracleStoredProcedure and click “OK”
On the next dialog box, enter the name of where you want to deploy your model, and click “Finish” button
If prompted, click “Trial” on the licensing dialog
To show the “BCS Meta Man Data Source Explorer” we need to enable it from the Menu item, this new window can be docked so it doesn’t get in your way
Click the “Add Connection” button to show the “Connection Dialog”
Select “ODBC Server” as Data Source type, enter Oracle ODBC connection string (for example it can be “Driver={Oracle in OraClient11g_home1};Dbq=XE_AURIGA;Uid=hr;Pwd=hr;Trusted_Connection=yes;”), enter double quotes as left and right delimiters and “?” as parameter symbol and click “Connect” button.
The Data Source Explorer will now be populated with your Oracle data
Drag and drop your Finder Stored Procedure with parameters onto the design surface and enter External Content type name, i.e “FilteredEmployee”, click “OK”
Select the Method Type as “Finder’'
Select the first Parameter (p_last_name) and set it’s Filter Type to Comparison and the Default Value to ‘a’
Next select the second Parameter (p_salary) and also set it’s Filter Type to Comparison and the Default Value to ‘4000’
Click ‘OK’
The External Content Type will be created on the Diagram
In order to set an identifier right-click on the External Content Type, select “Manage External Content type” menu item
Click “Edit Identifiers” button on the “Entity Management” dialog, select an identifier and click “OK” and “Update” button then
The External Content Type will update with the new identifier
Press F5 to deploy, this will load up your SharePoint Page once deployed
Add a new Business Data List Web Part to your SharePoint page
Click on the ‘Open the tool pane’ link
Click on the icon to show the available External Content Types
Select our ‘ BCSMetaManFilteredOracleStoredProcedure.FilteredEmployee’ External Content Type, click ‘OK’
Click ‘OK’ on the tool pane
Click the ‘Add’ link on the Business Data List Web Part to add the second Filter option
Change the second Filter to be the P_SALARY and enter values for the filters and click ‘Retrieve Data’
Your Oracle data provided by Stored Procedure is now displayed in the SharePoint Web Part

We hope this walkthrough will be useful for you. If you have any questions feel free to email them to support@lightningtools.com

Business Connectivity Service Associations using Oracle Stored Procedures in SharePoint 2010

Lightning Tools — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:21:05 GMT

Introduction

In this walkthrough we will demonstrate you how to connect to Oracle Database Server and use stored procedures to create an association between two External Content Types using BCS Meta Man.

We are going to follow on from the ‘Oracle Stored Procedures and the Business Connectivity Services in SharePoint 2010’

Prerequisites

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional or higher
BCS Meta Man
Oracle clients (This FAQ describes what should be installed)
Oracle stored procedures for such as:
1. create or replace function get_all_countries
  return sys_refcursor
  is
  v_countries sys_refcursor;
  begin
  open v_countries for select * from countries;
  return v_countries;
  end get_all_countries;
2. create or replace function get_country_by_id(p_id in char)
  return sys_refcursor
  is
  v_countries sys_refcursor;
  begin
  open v_countries for select * from countries where country_id=p_id;
  return v_countries;
  end get_country_by_id;
3. create or replace function get_all_regions
  return sys_refcursor
  is
  v_regions sys_refcursor;
  begin
  open v_regions for select * from regions;
  return v_regions;
  end get_all_regions;
4. create or replace function get_region_by_id(p_id in number)
  return sys_refcursor
  is
  v_regions sys_refcursor;
  begin
  open v_regions for select * from regions where region_id=p_id;
  return v_regions;
  end get_region_by_id;
5. create or replace function get_countries_by_region_id(p_id in number)
  return sys_refcursor
  is
  v_countries sys_refcursor;
  begin
  open v_countries for select * from countries where region_id=p_id;
  return v_countries;
  end get_countries_by_region_id;

Walkthrough

Using the ‘Oracle Stored Procedures and the Business Connectivity Services in SharePoint 2010’ Tutorial create two External Content Types “Country” and “Region” with Finder (Read List operation) and SpecificFinder (Read Item operation) methods only.
You should have the following External Content Types on your Diagram
Switch to the ‘Toolbox’ pane in Visual Studio (Ctrl-Alt-X)
Select the ‘Association’ toolbox item from the list
With the Association selected, Click and Drag from ‘Region’ to ‘Country’
When you release the ‘Association Configuration’ dialog will show
Switch back to the ‘BCS Meta Man Data Source Explorer’ tool window pane
Drag the Association Stored Procedure onto the Arrow in the ‘Association Configuration’ dialog, it will turn green when OK to release
The dialog will update with the selected Stored Procedure
Select ‘P_ID’ in the Parameter and ‘REGION_ID’ in the Identifier drop-down list boxes, Click ‘Save’
The diagram will update to show an arrow indicating we have an association between the two External Content Types
Press F5 to deploy, this will load up your SharePoint Page once deployed
Add a new Business Data List Web Part to your SharePoint page
Click on the ‘Open the tool pane’ link
Click on the icon to show the available External Content Types
Select our ‘BCSMetaMan1.Region’ External Content Type, click OK
Click ‘OK’ on the tool pane
The external data provided by Oracle stored procedure is now displayed in the SharePoint Web Part
Next, Add a new ‘Business Data Related List’ Web Part to the page
Configure the Web Part to use the ‘BCSMetaMan1.Country’ External Content Type
The Web Part will display a message saying the following
To do this we can set up the connection using the small arrow from the top right of our Web Part
Once this is done we can click on the arrows next to an item in our ‘Region’ web part and the countries related to this region will display on our ‘Country’ web part

We hope this walkthrough will be useful for you. If you have any questions feel free to email them to support@lightningtools.com

Oracle Stored Procedures and the Business Connectivity Services in SharePoint 2010

Lightning Tools — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 19:35:03 GMT

Introduction

In this walkthrough we will demonstrate how to integrate Oracle stored procedures with Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and display the data on SharePoint 2010 page. In order to do that we will describe how to create a new external content type by means of BCS Meta Man.

Prerequisites

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional or higher
BCS Meta Man
Oracle clients (This FAQ describes what should be installed)
Oracle stored procedures for CRUD operations such as:
1. create or replace function get_all_countries
  return sys_refcursor
  is
  v_countries sys_refcursor;
  begin
  open v_countries for select * from countries;
  return v_countries;
  end get_all_countries;
2. create or replace function get_country_by_id(p_id in char)
  return sys_refcursor
  is
  v_countries sys_refcursor;
  begin
  open v_countries for select * from countries where country_id=p_id;
  return v_countries;
  end get_country_by_id;
3. create or replace function get_country_ids
  return sys_refcursor
  is
  v_country_ids sys_refcursor;
  begin
  open v_country_ids for select country_id from countries;
  return v_country_ids;
  end get_country_ids;
4. create or replace procedure create_country(p_id in char, p_name in varchar2, p_region in number)
  is
  begin
  insert into countries values(p_id, p_name, p_region);
  end create_country;
5. create or replace procedure update_country(p_id in char, p_name in varchar2, p_region in number)
  is
  begin
  update countries set country_name=p_name, region_id=p_region where country_id=p_id;
  end update_country;
6. create or replace procedure delete_country(p_id in char)
  is
  begin
  delete from countries where country_id=p_id;
  end delete_country;

Walkthrough

Open Visual Studio 2010
Add a New Project
Expand the “SharePoint” node, select “Lightning Tools (2010)” node and then the “BCS Meta Man” project type
Give your project a name i.e OracleStoredProceduresBCSMetaManDemo and click “OK”
On the next dialog box, enter the name of where you want to deploy your model, and click “Finish” button
If prompted, click “Trial” on the licensing dialog
To show the “BCS Meta Man Data Source Explorer” we need to enable it from the Menu item, this new window can be docked so it doesn’t get in your way
Click the “Add Connection” button to show the “Connection Dialog”
Select “ODBC Server” as Data Source type, enter Oracle ODBC connection string (for example it can be “Driver={Oracle in OraClient11g_home1};Dbq=XE_TAURUS;Uid=hr;Pwd=hr;Trusted_Connection=yes;”), enter double quotes as left and right delimiters and “?” as parameter symbol and click “Connect” button.
The Data Source Explorer will now be populated with your Oracle data
Drag and drop your Finder Stored Procedure onto the design surface and enter External Content type name, i.e “Country”, click “OK”
Choose the Finder as the method type and click “OK”
The External Content Type will be created on the Diagram
In order to set an identifier right-click on the External Content Type, select “Manage External Content type” menu item
Click “Edit Identifiers” button on the “Entity Management” dialog, select an identifier and click “OK” and “Update” button then
The External Content Type will update with the new identifier
From the “BCS Meta Man Data Source Explorer” drag and drop your Specific Finder stored procedure onto the existing External Content Type
The “Stored Procedure Configuration” dialog will be displayed. Select “SpecificFinder” as the Method Type. Select the first Parameter – P_ID and set the Filter Type as Comparison and the Default Value as ‘0’. Click “OK”.
The External Content Type will update with the new Specific Finder Method
Next drag and drop the Id Enumerator stored procedure onto the existing External Content Type
Select “IdEnumerator” as the Method Type, Click “OK”
The External Content Type will update with the new Id Enumerator Method
From the “BCS Meta Man Data Source Explorer” drag and drop your Creator stored procedure onto the existing External Content Type
The “Stored Procedure Configuration” dialog will be displayed. Select “Creator” as the Method Type. For each Parameter select the appropriate column to map it to. Click “OK”.
The External Content Type will update with the new Creator Method
Next drag and drop your Updater stored procedure onto the existing External Content Type
Again the “Stored Procedure Configuration” dialog will be displayed. Select “Updater” as the Method Type. For each Parameter select the appropriate column to map it to. Click “OK”.
The External Content Type will update with the new Updater Method
Finally drag and drop your Deleter stored procedure onto the existing External Content Type
Again the “Stored Procedure Configuration” dialog will be displayed. Select “Deleter” as the Method Type. Click “OK”.
The complete External Content Type will look like the following
Press F5 to deploy The External Content Type, this will load up your SharePoint Page once deployed
Add a new External list by selection on SharePoint page “Site Action”->“More Options…”->“External List”
Give your External List a name and Click on the icon to show the available External Content Types
Select created OracleStoredProceduresBCSMetaManDemo.Country External Content Type, click “OK”. Click “Create” button then.
The external data provided by Oracle stored procedure is now displayed in the SharePoint External List
You can hover over the first column of your list and you’ll see a drop down appear. If you click the drop down arrow you’ll get a number of options for that particular row of data – one of which will be View Item.
You will be presented with the View Item dialog
Now click “Edit item” on the ribbon of the dialog. This option is only available if you create an Updater method for your External Content Type. Clicking on this link will open up a dialog form that allows you to edit that row of data and save it.
While viewing the external list, if you click the Items tab on the ribbon you’ll see a New Item button
This will bring up the “New Item” dialog where you can add a new Country. We will enter information about new Country and click “Save”
This will insert a new row directly to your Oracle database

We hope this walkthrough will be useful for you. If you have any questions feel free to email them to support@lightningtools.com

BCS Meta Man - Using a Connection String stored in the Secure Store

Lightning Tools — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:32:00 GMT

In this blog post I will show you how you can update your code to use a connection string in the Secure Store rather than having the value hard coded in your BCS Meta Man generated c# file. The reason why you may wish to put the connection details within the Secure Store is that the names of the database and server are likely to be different in my development environment than in my staging and production environments. In order to do this you will need to have the use of the secure store which is only available in SharePoint Server 2010 and not SharePoint Foundations.

To be able to use the details stored within the secure store you will be required to do some manual changes to the code generated by BCS Meta Man.

First of all create a new Secure Store application with the Connection String Field

Central Administration > Service Applications > Secure Store > New

Using the ‘Add Field’ button add a generic field called ‘Connection String’ and remove the other two fields

Click next and then add the Secure Store Administrator on the next screen. Now the Secure Store ID has been created you can click on it and choose to set the credentials, this is where you supply all of the credentials required.

Enter the connection string and the Credential Owner, Click OK

In BCS Meta Man, create a new BCS Meta Man Project and when connecting to your Data Source choose ‘Use Secure Store’ as your Authentication Mode.

You will be prompted for your credentials again, this is to allow BCS Meta Man to connect to the External System. Next create the External Content Type and choose .Net Assembly connector as the Model Type, generate the External Content Type in the usual way.

At this point the Model and assembly will be configured to the use Secure Store credentials for the User Name and Password but not for the Server and Database, Deploy the model to ensure the Secure Store details are correct. If it is working and you can see your External Data then it’s time to configure the code to retrieve the Server and Database, if not then check back to the Secure Store and make sure the credentials you entered have the permissions to the External System you are using.

Locate the BCSMetaMan.cs class and find the following method which retrieves the credentials from the Secure Store

internal Dictionary<string, string> ReadCredentialsFromSecureStore()
{
    // error checking removed for brevity
    string targetId = LobSystemInstance.GetProperties()["SsoApplicationId"] as string;
    ISecureStoreProvider provider = GetSecureStoreProvider();

    var userCredentials = new Dictionary<string, string>(2);

    // get the credentials for the user on whose behalf the code 
    // is executing 
    using (SecureStoreCredentialCollection credentials = provider.GetRestrictedCredentials(targetId))
    {

        // look for username and password in credentials 
        foreach (ISecureStoreCredential credential in credentials)
        {
            switch (credential.CredentialType)
            {
                case SecureStoreCredentialType.UserName:
                case SecureStoreCredentialType.WindowsUserName:
                    userCredentials.Add("UserID", GetStringFromSecureString(credential.Credential));
                    break;
                case SecureStoreCredentialType.Password:
                case SecureStoreCredentialType.WindowsPassword:
                    userCredentials.Add("Password", GetStringFromSecureString(credential.Credential));
                    break;
                default:
                    break;
            }
        }
    }

    return userCredentials;
}

You should be able to see that by default only the Username and Password are retrieved, replace the method with the following to pick up the Generic Field that we are using for the Connection String

internal Dictionary<string, string> ReadCredentialsFromSecureStore()
{
    // error checking removed for brevity
    string targetId = LobSystemInstance.GetProperties()["SsoApplicationId"] as string;
    ISecureStoreProvider provider = GetSecureStoreProvider();

    var userCredentials = new Dictionary<string, string>(2);

    // get the credentials for the user on whose behalf the code 
    // is executing 
    using (SecureStoreCredentialCollection credentials = provider.GetRestrictedCredentials(targetId))
    {

        // look for username and password in credentials 
        foreach (ISecureStoreCredential credential in credentials)
        {
            switch (credential.CredentialType)
            {
                case SecureStoreCredentialType.UserName:
                case SecureStoreCredentialType.WindowsUserName:
                    userCredentials.Add("UserID", GetStringFromSecureString(credential.Credential));
                    break;
                case SecureStoreCredentialType.Password:
                case SecureStoreCredentialType.WindowsPassword:
                    userCredentials.Add("Password", GetStringFromSecureString(credential.Credential));
                    break;
                case SecureStoreCredentialType.Generic:
                    userCredentials.Add("ConnectionString", GetStringFromSecureString(credential.Credential));
                    break;
            }
        }
    }

    return userCredentials;
}

Next switch to the *EntityService.cs class for your External Content Type i.e if your ECT was called Product the filename will be ProductEntityServiceClass.cs

Update the following method

public string GetConnectionStringWithCredentials()
{
    Dictionary<string, string> credentialsFromSecureStore = ReadCredentialsFromSecureStore();
    var connectionStringBuilder = new SqlConnectionStringBuilder(ConnectionString) { UserID = credentialsFromSecureStore["UserID"], Password = credentialsFromSecureStore["Password"] };
    return connectionStringBuilder.ToString();
}

with the following, this method now just returns the connection string

public string GetConnectionStringWithCredentials()
{
    return ReadCredentialsFromSecureStore()["ConnectionString"];
}

Now deploy the solution and it will be using the connection string from the Central Administration secure store, one thing which is worth noting is that when you go to change the credentials again you will not be shown what they were previously. You also need to make sure that the same secure store setup is used in each of your environments.

So there you have it not only can you use BCS Meta man to generate your c# code and configure the model with a few simple changes you can make the connection string configurable via the secure store.

BCS Meta Man 4.0.0.1 Beta released

Lightning Tools — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 07:41:00 GMT

BCS Meta Man 4.0.0.1 has just been released with some great new features:

Where can I get it?

BCS Meta Man 4.0.0.1 Beta is included in the regular BCS Meta Man download package from our BCS Meta Man page , just head over there get started on these exciting new features.

Methods

The Delete method has now been added to give you full automatic code and model generation for all of the CRUD methods. This means that BCS Meta Man can now generate automatically for you:

Finder Method
Specific Finder Method
Id Enumerator Method
Creator Method
Updater Method
Deleter Method

Data Sources

We have added a new Data Source which was requested a number of out customers…. you can now add a SharePoint List as an External Content Type!

We’re continuing to add great features and data sources to BCS Meta Man, keep an eye on this blog to find out the latest

Fixes

An issue with importing Associations has been fixed as well as some minor improvements.