New Project SharePoint 2010 BDC + SQL Integration

RobertKaucher

I’ve started working on this very cool new project at work and I wanted to share it with you guys. One of our company’s subsidiaries sells these really cool gadgets that only they make. These are custom built robotic units that work with our GPS systems in mining, so several hundred thousand, at least, per order. Our team has been tasked with surfacing the company’s EDI system so that the guys at this company can send EDI Advanced Shipping Notice to customers and we decided to do it through SharePoint. This means we are using SP 2010’s BDC to present the SQL database as External Lists. In order to learn the technology I wrote a small database for tracking our servers and their IP addresses and roles. I wrote views to present the data and INSTEAD OF triggers on the views so that they would be updateable. Today I finished writing Silverlight web parts that act as a GUI for the system and link the views together as a coherent unit. The fact that MS included the BDC in SharePoint Foundation is just the best thing since sliced bread. I really have to say that if you are looking to explore a technology to specialize in I highly recommend getting the MCITP on SharePoint 2010 and learning to do some SQL Server integration with it.

earweed

Sounds pretty neat. I know squat about Sharepoint, just what was covered in the 70-643 MS Press book. I know even less about SQL.