1. How The BCS Saved My Marriage
Liam Cleary
Senior Solution Architect | SharePoint MVP

2. Disclaimer
• I didn’t come up with the title of this session 
• If the internet fails the demos may be none existent
• If I speak too quick, I apologise
• I like PowerPoint animations!! 

3. About Me
• Solution Architect @ SusQtech (Winchester, VA)
• SharePoint MVP since 2007
• Working with SharePoint since 2002
• Worked on all kinds of projects
• Internet
• Intranet
• Extranet
• Anything SharePoint Really
• Involved in Architecture, Deployment, Customization and
Development of SharePoint

4. You can teach a student a lesson for
a day; but if you can teach him / her
to learn by creating curiosity, they
will continue the learning process
as long as they live.
Clay P. Bedford

5. I am hoping for a different kind of Curiosity today 

6. Topics
• What is the BCS?
• Why do we have it?
• How can you use it?
• What can it do for you?
• Is it worth the effort?
• Gotchas
• DEMOS
• How did the BCS save my marriage?

7. What is the BCS?
• BCS Stands for Business Connectivity Services
• Middle-Tier data layer
• Consumes base SQL, WCF and core .NET Assembly
• New version of BDC that was in SharePoint 2007
• Combines old BDC technology
• Ability to surface LOB data directly into SharePoint
• Allows for basic CRUD operations
• Built in Web Parts (Enterprise Only)

8. Why do we have BCS?
• Vision of Microsoft for Consuming data into Presentation Platforms
• Wanted to allow users to show LOB data easily
• Allow for complex UI to be built easily from LOB data
• Allow search to expose and index LOB applications
• Single Presentation layer for all LOB data
• View of a single customer / object
• Graphical Presentation of LOB data easily
• Easy Office integration with LOB data

9. How do you use it?
• SharePoint Designer
• SharePoint Designer
• SharePoint Designer
• Just kidding, but seriously SharePoint Designer
• SharePoint UI once provisioned
• Visual Studio Deployed Solutions
• Custom external applications

10. Steps to Usage
• Ensure you have a way to access your data
• Provision BCS connectivity via SharePoint Designer
• Create Data Connections
• Create External Content Types
• Create External Lists
• Consume using OOTB Web Parts
• Custom Components

11. DEMO
SharePoint Designer Data Connections
SharePoint Designer External Content Type
SharePoint Designer External List

12. What can it do for you?
• Standardized view of external LOB Data
• List View
• Views
• Web Parts
• Search
• Custom Page actions on retrieved LOB Data
• Associate to Content Types
• Attach to documents
• List Items
• Build web based UI for LOB Data easily

13. DEMO
Business Connectivity Web Parts
Visual Studio Solution

14. It is worth the effort?
• Yes, Maybe, Yes and Maybe
• Complex upfront work
• Needs to be designed correctly
• Security needs to be considered
• Rating: 7/10
• Doesn't’t quite do what it says on the box
• Current projects are using BCS exclusively to present backend
Data
• Invest in Data Layer to extrapolate your data to something
that BCS can consume

15. Gotchas!!
• Can’t just connect anything to it and expect it to work
• Write back is complicated and requires some custom
development
• Filtering can be cumbersome
• Security, Security and Security, oh yeah Permissions
• User Profile Sync can be complicated with BCS
• Be careful what you search within BCS
• Anonymous Access = Manual Configuration / Deployment
• Ultimately you will need Visual Studio and know XML

16. How did the BCS save my
marriage?
• Didn’t have to write any custom code
• Easy to deploy remotely using SharePoint Designer
• Able to track my wife's spending via SharePoint and BCS
• PowerPoint presentation to wife on spending habits
• Trend analysis using Excel Services and BCS
• SharePoint Alerts setup on BCS Data – warning of spending limits
reached
• Search used to find transactions
• Custom Search Actions used to drill further into data and see what the
transaction was for
• Integration using jQuery to auto block spending
• Completely made up, but the reality is that simple, this could be
done, as long as the data feed is available this is achievable

17. Thank You
• Personal Email: liamcleary@msn.com
• Work: http://www.susqtech.com
• Twitter: @helloitsliam
• Blog: www.helloitsliam.com