Business Connectivity Service (BCS) is next generation of the BDC (MOSS-2007). BCS is one of the Service Application in SharePoint 2010. please see the below screenshot. you can get here from CA->Application Management->Manage service applications.
BCS is included in Microsoft SharePoint Server/Foundation 2010 and the Microsoft Office 2010 . Using BCS we can connect to external Data sources such as SAP, Siebel, Oracle,Web Services (.ASMX, WCF), .NET class. It's all about bringing external data from back-end business systems into SharePoint so that end users can work with the data in a SharePoint environment. The difference between BCS and BDC (MOSS 2007) is using BCS we can do CURD operations on External System. but with MOSS 2007 BDC we were not able to do this operations.
External Content Types:
A core concept of Microsoft Business Connectivity Services (BCS) is the external content type. External content types are reusable metadata descriptions of connectivity information and data definitions plus the behaviors you want to apply to a certain category of external data. External content types enable you to manage and reuse the metadata and behaviors of a business entity such as Customer or Order from a central location, and enable users to interact with that external data and processes in a more meaningful way. for more info please refer the following http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee556391(office.14).aspx
Microsoft BCS has built-in support for connecting to the following types of data sources:
- Databases.
- WCF and Web services
- Microsoft .NET Framework assemblies
- Custom data sources;
Next Blog post I am going to show how to connect to External DS and bring data to SHAREPOINT using SHAREPOINT DESIGNER , .NET Connector and WCF ,.ASMX web Service.
Disadvantages of external lists in BCS
- Approval of items is not supported.
- Attachments are not supported directly.
- Check-in and checkout of items are not supported.
- Using standard site content types in External Lists is not supported.
- Drafts of items are not supported.
- Send-To operations are not supported.
- List event handlers are not supported.
- Datasheet View is not supported.
- Querying through LINQ to SharePoint is not supported.
- Document templates are not supported.
- Versioning of items is not supported.
- Starting workflows from items is not supported, but workflows can read or write to External Lists through the SPList object.
- Validation formulas are not supported.
Can’t connect data to workflows
There is no way for you to run a workflow on records contained in external lists. In SharePoint 2010 you can only attach workflows to documents, list items and content types – not external lists. You could map external list records to SharePoint lists and connect a workflow to the internal list, but think about what’s needed to sync the two lists.
Lack of record-level permissions
This means you can’t control who has access to specific records in the external list – like marketing staff being able to view but not change entries belonging to sales.
No REST access
You cannot get external data that sits somewhere out on the web, like SaleForce.com.
No attachment support
SharePoint BCS 2010 does not allow for attachments, so you can’t link a record to a relevant document. Well, you might be able to store the attachment in the external database, but read on…
No BLOB write support
You can’t write to a BLOB field through BCS, unless you come up with your own write method.
Can’t export data to Excel
…or other popular file formats, but if the data has numbers in it users are going to be asking you how to get it into Excel (“cut and paste” wasn’t well received when I tried suggesting it).
No datasheet view and inline editing
This means you cannot edit items directly when viewing them as a grid. You need to open the individual item view to edit the contents.
Lack of field and record level validation
You can’t control what a user enters into the field without resorting to the intricacies of SharePoint Designer or InfoPath.
Limited lookup functionality
When you retrieve a value of “2732” in the Industry Code field of your CRM contact, that’s all you’re going to see since you can’t link the field to the Industry Codes table. The ID column is the one thing that you can look up on external lists; otherwise you’ll have to start coding to be able to get “Book Printing” instead of a cryptic number.
Lack of alerts
You can’t configure alerts on external lists through BCS.
Lack of RSS feeds
When using BCS in SharePoint 2010, RSS feeds are not accessible.
Lack of ratings
One can’t rate items that are contained in an external list.
No versioning
You can’t keep a version history of changes to external lists, but maybe you couldn’t in the original system ether…
While SharePoint BCS 2010 (Business Connectivity Services) lets you connect to and access external, it does present several challenges when you have to build a business application in SharePoint. Some are big limitations, while others are just annoyances:
Can’t connect data to workflows
There is no way for you to run a workflow on records contained in external lists. In SharePoint 2010 you can only attach workflows to documents, list items and content types – not external lists. You could map external list records to SharePoint lists and connect a workflow to the internal list, but think about what’s needed to sync the two lists.
Lack of record-level permissions
This means you can’t control who has access to specific records in the external list – like marketing staff being able to view but not change entries belonging to sales.
No REST access
You cannot get external data that sits somewhere out on the web, like SaleForce.com.
No attachment support
SharePoint BCS 2010 does not allow for attachments, so you can’t link a record to a relevant document. Well, you might be able to store the attachment in the external database, but read on…
No BLOB write support
You can’t write to a BLOB field through BCS, unless you come up with your own write method.
Can’t export data to Excel
…or other popular file formats, but if the data has numbers in it users are going to be asking you how to get it into Excel (“cut and paste” wasn’t well received when I tried suggesting it).
No datasheet view and inline editing
This means you cannot edit items directly when viewing them as a grid. You need to open the individual item view to edit the contents.
Lack of field and record level validation
You can’t control what a user enters into the field without resorting to the intricacies of SharePoint Designer or InfoPath.
Limited lookup functionality
When you retrieve a value of “2732” in the Industry Code field of your CRM contact, that’s all you’re going to see since you can’t link the field to the Industry Codes table. The ID column is the one thing that you can look up on external lists; otherwise you’ll have to start coding to be able to get “Book Printing” instead of a cryptic number.
Lack of alerts
You can’t configure alerts on external lists through BCS.
Lack of RSS feeds
When using BCS in SharePoint 2010, RSS feeds are not accessible.
Lack of ratings
One can’t rate items that are contained in an external list.
No versioning
You can’t keep a version history of changes to external lists, but maybe you couldn’t in the original system ether…
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