Business Data Catalog Overview

Increasingly, organizations are under pressure to become more efficient, and part of this is enabling employees to make accelerated and accurate decisions based on business data. Complex schedules and initiatives require that workers spend less time looking for information and more time using it to effectively perform and complete tasks.

So far in this book, you’ve seen the various ways to input information into SharePoint and make it available to others. Abusiness may have its information stored in places like SharePoint and file shares, as well as in business applications or databases. This data is very tightly tied to the business’ core operations and can offer the greatest insight into an organization’s true fiscal health. Therefore, a good way to improve a business process is to start with how it accesses its information and what business applications it uses to do this. This section discusses what the Business Data Catalog is and what some of the key roles related to its use and configuration are.

What Is the Business Data Catalog?

The BDC is a new shared service that enables users to access data from back-end business applications on their SharePoint sites via Web Parts, lists, search, or as part of their user profiles. While the BDC does not store the data directly, it defines business applications and supports the access of the content in real time via web services or database connections. In some cases, the BDC may feature complementary information to that which is stored in SharePoint. For example, an organization may use Active Directory for its authentication service and to store basic user profile information. However, the Human Resources central tracking database may contain much richer details, which you can store in user profiles and which would be highly useful for audience creation and personalization.

Tip 

The basic concepts of Web Parts were introduced in Chapter 7 and user profiles in Chapter 9. You explore the topic of search in greater detail in Chapter 14.

The Business Data Web Parts support the display and interaction of business information from those back-end systems, making it possible for users to view up-to-date information immediately from their working environment. These Web Parts allow users to search for information, drill down for more detailed information, or view predefined reports. Figure 12-1 demonstrates how a single web page can display information from an external system in a Business Data Web Part.

Figure 12-1

The Business Data column support makes it easier to associate documents and list items with global entities such as products, customers, and employees, which may be tracked in separate applications. In addition to mapping business data information to documents and list items, the BDC lets you map business data information to user profile properties. This allows organizations to connect their user profile store to business applications that contain richer and more relevant data related to employees. In doing so, organizations improve the personalization services available in SharePoint and reduce the information duplication or manual entry.

Consider an example of a guitar manufacturing company that is running SharePoint internally to track and store documents and content related to their business. They may also use a custom application for storing details related to their product line including each product’s pricing, description, images, and specifications. Because this application is tightly integrated with the manufacturing process, it makes sense for the existing process to continue managing and updating that information. However, by using the BDC, users can view information about each product directly from SharePoint. This improves the overall product education level among employees and encourages a greater sense of self service related to finding information.

Primary Roles for the BDC

People filling key roles in an organization support and use the BDC. Although a single person may fill these roles, typically these roles are filled by specialists who excel in their own subject area. The follow-ing sections discuss the various roles and their purpose related to the BDC.

Application Definition Author

To make an application’s data accessible via the BDC, a user who is familiar with the data source’s structure and API must create an application definition file. An application definition file contains information about the system that is being connected to and describes how the data is structured and can be accessed. Typically, the person responsible for creating the file is called the application definition author, and he or she has skills similar to that of a database developer. While no programming is required, the user should be familiar with XML and database development tasks to properly define the application.

This book does not show how to create an application definition file; the Try It Outs assume that an application already exists in the BDC. To define applications illustrated in the Try It Outs, the authors used the AdventureWorksDW SQL Server 2005 Sample. You can find this sample as part of the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 SDK on the MSDN website (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms494876.aspx). If you want to complete the Try It Outs and do not have the required sample applications, you may instead opt to use information from your organization’s own business applications.

Business Analyst or Site Manager

In most organizations, the business analyst or site manager is an expert in an organization’s information systems and, more importantly, in preparing the SharePoint environment to support these needs. The analyst’s general responsibilities are to recognize what features a system lacks and give requirements to a developer to fill those gaps. This person is also likely to know what experience a person filling a role must have to interface with the business’s various applications. Depending on the organization, the business analyst has various functions during the life of a SharePoint site:

• BDC and SharePoint site definition:   The business analyst often works with a SharePoint administrator (discussed a little later in this chapter) and application definition authors to identify and define an organization’s needs concerning a specific business application. The business analyst identifies how to make the information available with the SharePoint environment to complement how users work and how they need to access business data.

• Web Part configuration:   Once an application is defined in the BDC and displayed in SharePoint via Web Parts, columns, search, or user profile properties, the business analyst works with site managers to configure the system’s Web Parts to support previously defined requirements.

• Site management and maintenance:   Usually, the business analyst is also the same individual responsible for managing the SharePoint environment. Because the business Web Parts can display lists of data from the source application or individual records, the SharePoint site manager may connect multiple Web Parts on a single page. This allows users to essentially drill into the data so the information on the page changes as they select records in connected Web Parts.

• Business data and SharePoint content integration:   The business analyst or SharePoint site manager may use columns from a list or library to look up business data in an application. This creates a tight bond between business data and SharePoint content, eliminates data duplication, and improves how users search and report on information.

Developer

When the various SharePoint features do not provide an organization the access and integration to the business application data it needs, a developer can build custom applications to interface with and extend the BDC features. Although custom development activities are beyond the scope of this book, you should understand that BDC features, though extensive, can be further expanded using custom development and applications.

Administrator

The SharePoint administrator is responsible for importing the application definition file and controlling access to the application and its entities. The administrator is also responsible for deploying any applications that developers create. Once the application definition file is imported and access is established, the information from the application becomes available throughout SharePoint sites for use in the Web Parts, search, and columns.

The introduction of this chapter discussed how the BDC may be used to connect to a Human Resources database to provide additional information to the user profile database. Once the HR database application file is defined, the administrator would import the definition file, and then configure the application as a secondary user profile property source.