BDC Meta Man

BDC Meta Man and "The type initializer for 'Oracle.DataAccess.Client.OracleConnection' threw an exception" error

Lightning Tools — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 07:20:46 GMT

We get quite a few support questions about having error regarding “Oracle.DataAccess.Client.OracleConnection” while using BDC Meta Man – hopefully we’ll be able to clear this up with this post.

When you connect to Oracle using BDC Meta Man you may have this error raised “The type initializer for ‘Oracle.DataAccess.Client.OracleConnection’ threw an exception”:

It’s not a reason to spread panic This error occurs as BDC Meta Man uses Oracle Data Provider for .NET (ODP.NET) in order to connect to Oracle database and you don’t have it installed on the machine. So you should just have ODP.NET installed on the machine where BDC Meta Man runs. In order to do that you should install Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Client (11.2.0.1.0) for Microsoft Windows (32-bit). It can be found here http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/downloads/112010-win32soft-098987.html
Please ensure you select the 'Administrator' type of installation when you install Oracle client.

RevertToSelf and the Business Data Catalog

Lightning Tools — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 10:50:27 GMT

The double hop issue is something that comes up a number of times in support questions when people are using the Business Data Catalog with MS SQL Server, and SharePoint and SQL are on separate servers.

There are a few solutions to this:

1, Implement Kerberos

2, Use Single Sign On

3, Use RevertToSelf

We’ll be stepping through how to use BDC Meta Man to configure RevertToSelf.

1, When you have your entities configured within BDC Meta Man it is time to change the BDC Authentication Type. In the bottom left tree view right click on the root tree node and select ‘Edit…’ from the context menu that appears

2, When the Lob System settings form opens up change the Authentication Mode to RevertToSelf

3, You can then click the Save button, and generate your application definition file as normal and import it into SharePoint.

4, When you are trying to use this BDC data within SharePoint, as you are using RevertToSelf - SharePoint will try to connect to SQL Server as the Identity that the Application Pool is running under that the web application is using. To check which account this is, open IIS and expand the application pools.

This account will need permissions to read the data in your SQL Server database so make sure you grant the necessary access rights.

If you still need to secure the data to certain users you can do that through the Shared Service Provider by setting the BDC permissions to specific BDC applications or entities.

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How to set permissions for BDC Entities

Lightning Tools — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:39:51 GMT

One common support question we have is when people have imported their BDC XML application definition file into the Shared Service Provider, they go to their SharePoint page and try to configure the BDC Data List Web Part but there are no entities to pick from. This is usually a permissions problem, as your user will need permissions to each BDC application and entity you want them to be able to use.

To set the permissions go into your Shared Service Administration page and click on the ‘Business Data Catalog permissions’ link

In here you can give users access to the BDC in general. You can use AD groups, as well as the group [Authenticated Users] if you wanted to give a permission to everybody who logs into SharePoint. Once you have enabled the permissions you can use the button to ‘Copy all permissions to descendants’ and this will copy the permission to all the BDC applications and entities.

If you want to give specific permissions to a BDC application, view the list of applications you have imported and use the drop down menu to display the link to Manage Permissions at the application level

[Please click the image for a larger view]

If you want to give specific permissions to specific entities you can do this by navigating to the entity and clicking on the ‘Manage Permissions’ link within the entity view:

Oracle Installation guide for SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2010

Lightning Tools — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 13:52:44 GMT

We get quite a few support questions about how to connect to Oracle when using BDC Meta Man or BCS Meta Man – hopefully we’ll be able to clear this up with this post.

BDC Meta Man and Oracle

If you are using BDC Meta Man on an x86 operating system (32bit) you need to install: Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Client (11.2.0.1.0) for Microsoft Windows (32-bit).
It can be found here
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/downloads/112010-win32soft-098987.html

Please ensure you select the 'Administrator' type of installation when you install Oracle clients
If you are using BDC Meta Man on an x64 operating system (64bit) you need to install: All the same described in point №1 for x86 platform.
Also if you are using BDC Meta Man on a 64 bit operating system when connecting to Oracle you may be prompted with the error: “ORA-06413: Connection not open”. This seems to be a problem with Oracle and any application installed in a directory that has brackets "()" in it (you may find a description here http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/itanswers/solution-for-ora-6413-error-showinh-connection-not-open/). If you check BDC Meta Man may be installed at: “C:\Program Files (x86)\BDC Meta Man”. The solution to get around this is to change the default installation path to something like: “C:\BDC Meta Man”

When you deploy your application definition file to SharePoint 2007

If you are using SharePoint 2007 on an x86 operating system you need to install this on your SharePoint Servers: Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Client (11.2.0.1.0) for Microsoft Windows (32-bit).
It can be found here
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/downloads/112010-win32soft-098987.html

Please ensure you select the 'Administrator' type of installation when you install Oracle clients

Run “iisreset” command line utility after installation of Oracle client.
If you are using SharePoint 2007 on an x64 operating system you need to install this on your SharePoint Servers: Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Client (11.2.0.1.0) for Microsoft Windows (x64).
It can be found here
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/downloads/112010-win64soft-094461.html

Please ensure you select the 'Administrator' type of installation when you install Oracle clients

Run “iisreset” command line utility after installation of Oracle client.

BCS Meta Man and Oracle

For BCS Meta Man you need to install this: Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Client (11.2.0.1.0) for Microsoft Windows (32-bit).
It can be found here
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/downloads/112010-win32soft-098987.html

Please ensure you select the 'Administrator' type of installation when you install Oracle clients

When you deploy your BCS Model to SharePoint 2010

As SharePoint 2010 only supports x64 operating systems, you need to install this on your SharePoint Servers: Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Client (11.2.0.1.0) for Microsoft Windows (x64).
It can be found here
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/downloads/112010-win64soft-094461.html

Please ensure you select the 'Administrator' type of installation when you install Oracle clients

Run “iisreset” command line utility after installation of Oracle client.

How to connect SharePoint BDC to Oracle through TNS

Lightning Tools — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:36:06 GMT

In this walkthrough we will demonstrate how to integrate Oracle with Microsoft SharePoint through the Oracle Transparent Network Substrate (TNS) and display Oracle data on SharePoint page. In order to do that we will describe how to create application definition files for the Business Data Catalog by means of BDC Meta Man.

There are one articles which we are going to reference to. It describes Business Data Catalog - getting started

This walk through only applies to BDC Meta Man 4.0.0.7 and later.

Prerequisites.

First of all we should have tnsnames.ora file. It can be taken from a machine where Oracle runs or you may create it manually. If you look at this post you may find detailed information regarding tnsnames.ora http://www.orafaq.com/wiki/Tnsnames.ora In our case a file will look as follows (for example) and we will put it to “D:/Work” folder:
XE_ORION =
(DESCRIPTION =
    (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = Orion)(PORT = 1521))
    (CONNECT_DATA =
      (SERVER = DEDICATED)
      (SERVICE_NAME = XE)
    )
)

ORCL_CYGNUS =
(DESCRIPTION =
    (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = Cygnus)(PORT = 1521))
    (CONNECT_DATA =
      (SERVER = DEDICATED)
      (SERVICE_NAME = ORCL)
    )
)
As BDC MetaMan uses Oracle Data Provider for .NET (ODP.NET) in order to connect to Oracle database you should install Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Client (11.2.0.1.0) for Microsoft Windows (32-bit).
It can be found here
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/downloads/112010-win32soft-098987.html
Please ensure you select the 'Administrator' type of installation when you install Oracle clients
If SharePoint and BDC Meta Man are running on different machines and you have SharePoint 2007 running on an x86 operating system you should also have Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Client (11.2.0.1.0) for Microsoft Windows (32-bit) installed on the machine where SharePoint runs. But if you are using SharePoint on a 64 bit operating system you should install Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Client (11.2.0.1.0) for Microsoft Windows (x64).
It can be found here
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/downloads/112010-win64soft-094461.html
Please ensure you select the 'Administrator' type of installation when you install Oracle clients
Run “iisreset” command line utility after installation of Oracle client on a machine where SharePoint 2007 is running.
If you are using BDC Meta Man on a 64 bit operating system when connecting to Oracle you may be prompted with the error: “ORA-06413: Connection not open”. This seems to be a problem with Oracle and any application installed in a directory that has brackets "()" in it (you may find a description here http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/itanswers/solution-for-ora-6413-error-showinh-connection-not-open/). If you check BDC Meta Man may be installed at: “C:\Program Files (x86)\BDC Meta Man”. The solution to get around this is to change the default installation path to something like: “C:\BDC Meta Man”

Now open BDC Meta Man and select menu Configuration->Settings
In the “Configuration Options” dialog select “Oracle” item in the left list box, click “Browse” button, point tnsnames.ora file location and click “Save” button
Now we should click the drop down menu “Connect to data source” and select “Oracle” menu item.
After that we are able to select Oracle database from a drop-down list on "Connect to Data source" dialog and enter user name and password.
After clicking "Connect" button BDC Meta Man will now connect to your Oracle data source and display the database. Expand the database you have connected to so you can see all the tables available for you to use. All the next steps about how to display the data on SharePoint page are described in Business Data Catalog - getting started article in details. We will walkthrough briefly.
Drag and Drop one table onto Design Surface. Upon dragging and dropping the table, the entity is created with the Finder, SpecificFinder and IdEnumerator methods.
Open menu item Configuration->Settings in order to set the path to save our Oracle application definition file.
Click “Generate” button on BDC Meta Man toolbar. If everything is ok then we will see this message.
Import generated application definition file to SharePoint 2007, add Business Data List web part and configure it by selecting just imported Business Data catalog Entity (Business Data Catalog - getting started article describes in details how to do that). Now we will be able to see Oracle data on SharePoint page.

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

How to connect SharePoint Business Data Catalog to PostgreSQL

Lightning Tools — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:18:52 GMT

In this walkthrough we will demonstrate how to integrate PostgreSQL with Microsoft SharePoint Business Data Catalog through ODBC and display PostgreSQL data on SharePoint page. In order to do that we will describe how to create application definition files for the Business Data Catalog by means of BDC Meta Man.

There are one articles which we are going to reference to. It describes Business Data Catalog - getting started

Open BDC MetaMan and click the drop down menu “Connect to data source”.
Select “ODBC - Connection String” from the drop down menu.
We now have a textbox to enter our ODBC connection string and advanced properties. As we are using PostgreSQL so:
- our connection string should be Driver={PostgreSQL ANSI};server=<server name>;port=<port number>;database=<database name>;Uid=<user login>;Pwd=<password>;Trusted_Connection=yes; For example in our case connection string looks like Driver={PostgreSQL ANSI};server=cygnus;port=5432;database=postgres;Uid=postgres;Pwd=test;Trusted_Connection=yes;
- left and right delimiter symbols should be double quote “
- parameter symbol should be question mark ?
BDC Meta Man will now connect to your ODBC data source and display the database. Expand the database you have connected to so you can see all the tables available for you to use. All the next steps about how to display the data on SharePoint page are described in Business Data Catalog - getting started article in details. We will walkthrough briefly.
Drag and Drop one table onto Design Surface. Upon dragging and dropping the table, the entity is created with the Finder, SpecificFinder and IdEnumerator methods.
Open menu item Configuration->Settings in order to set the path to save our application definition file.
Click “Generate” button. If everything is ok then we will see this message.
Import our application definition file to SharePoint 2007, add Business Data List web part and configure it by selecting just imported Business Data catalog Entity (Business Data Catalog - getting started article describes in detail how to do that). Now we will be able to see PostgreSQL data on SharePoint page.

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

Business Data Catalog – writing back to ODBC

Lightning Tools — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 12:14:42 GMT

In the latest version of BDC Meta Man – 4.0.0.7, we included the functionality to allow you to write back to ODBC data sources that you connect to via an ODBC connection string such as DB2 or MySQL. Dmitry has just written a support article that shows you the steps how to do this:

BDC Write Back for ODBC Data Sources

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BDC Meta Man 4.0.0.7 Released Yesterday

Lightning Tools — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:41:06 GMT

Yesterday we released a new version of BDC Meta Man.
The previous developer license of BDC Meta Man expires on 1/1/2010, but for version 4.0.0.7 we have extended this to 1/1/2011.
We’ve also added a few new important features such as the ability to modify identifiers on an entity:

http://www.lightningtools.com/bdc-meta-man/bdc-composite-key.aspx

And the ability to copy and paste SQL queries to create BDC methods:

http://www.lightningtools.com/bdc-meta-man/bdc-sql-query.aspx

You can download the latest release of BDC Meta Man from it’s homepage:

http://www.lightningtools.com/bdc-meta-man/default.aspx

BCS Meta Man Alpha Release

Lightning Tools — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:31:01 GMT

We’re delighted to announce an early release of BCS Meta Man for everyone to download and try out.

You can get the release from:

BCS Meta Man Alpha Download

and take a read of our Getting Started article.

With this release you can:

Drag and drop SQL Server tables

All BCS Model and C# code generated for you

F5 package and deployment to SharePoint

We’re really excited to hear your feedback and ideas after trying it out! Please feel free to email us at support@lightningtools.com

Thanks

The BCS Meta Man Team.

SharePoint and SAP made easy

Lightning Tools — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:21:02 GMT

We’re always looking for new solutions to make it easier to get your data useable in SharePoint through the Business Data Catalog. SAP has always been a difficult area for us due to the deep knowledge required of the SAP platform before you can even start thinking about the BDC side of things. Previous solutions have required additional tools, web service wrappers and all kinds of other things.

When Simplement came to us and said that with their solution getting SAP data into SharePoint was as easy as working with Microsoft SQL Server we were all ears! And after a demo of their solution which was put together with BDC Meta Man we were amazed at the possibilities this could bring. Making SAP available through MS SQL Server not only opens up SAP data to SharePoint, but all of your general .NET applications without developers having to learn about SAP.

The best thing to do is watch a brief screencast of it in action:

For more information check out our SAP and SharePoint page.