Integrating Business Data with Lists and Sites

There are several ways to make use of your business data within SharePoint sites. You can create business data columns for your SharePoint lists so that you have a pull-down selection of your business data in your list. Additionally, you can use the business data Web Parts SharePoint provides to display and connect business data within the context of your site.

Adding business data to lists

MOSS 2007 provides a new column type for your lists so that you can associate business data with the content stored in lists and libraries. There are several reasons for doing this:

• Centrally stored information: If you want to be able to reuse the customer list from your CRM tool throughout your organization, it should be added to your BDC.

• Consistent use of data and fields: By reusing a business data field, you can consistently refer to the same customer list every time you tag a document or list item. This consistent use should make finding all SharePoint related items for that customer easier.

• Exposing business data actions: BDC columns added to a list will also expose the associated action for that business data, enabling users to execute the actions.

To add a business data column to your list, follow these steps:

1.	Open the list to which you would like to add a business data catalog column and select List Settings from the Settings menu in the top navigation bar of the list.
2.	Select Create Column in the Columns section.
3.	Enter your column name in the Column name field and select Business Data as the type of information in your column.
4.	Click the Address book icon next to the Type field to open a list of all your business data types and select the business type that you would like to display, as shown in Figure 17.11. Figure 17.11. Selecting the business data type for your business data column [View full size image]
5.	Select the field that you would like to display as the column value in the Display this field of the selected type field.
6.	Select what additional fields you would like to display in the list as shown in Figure 17.12.

After you have added this business data column, you will see it as an available column for views and as an entry field on your new item form, as shown by the Customer Contact field in Figure 17.13.

You can either enter the last name of the contact into the business data field or search for the last name by using the address book icon next to the business data field, as shown in Figure 17.14.

After you have selected the business data value in the new list item and saved the list item, you can see the associated fields of business data that you selected for your business data column, as shown in Figure 17.15.

Integrating business data on your site

You can add business data to your sites through a number of new Web Parts that are designed to show the business data types you have defined in your application definition. These Web Parts work together to expose the items, actions, and related information for business data.

There are five available Web Parts for business data:

• Business Data List Web Part: Displays a list of rows from an application registered in the BDC. To configure the Business Data List Web Part, follow these steps:

   

  1.	From the Site Actions menu on your Web Part page, select Edit Page.
  2.	Select Add a Web Part in the zone in which you want the Business Data List Web Part to appear, select the Business Data List Web Part in the Web Part list, and click Add.
  3.	To configure the Web Part, select the Open the tool pane link in the Business Data List Web Part, or select Modify Shared Web Part in the Edit menu of the Web Part.
  4.	Click the Address Book icon next to the Type field to open a list of all of your business data types, and select the business type that you would like to display, as shown in Figure 17.16. Figure 17.16. Selecting Business Data type in the Business Data List Web Part tool pane [View full size image]
  5.	Click OK.
  6.	In the Web Part on your page, select the filter criteria that you want and select Add if you want to filter by more than one dimension. After the filter criteria has been entered, click the green arrow as shown in Figure 17.17 to retrieve data. Figure 17.17. Entering filter criteria into the Business Data Web Part [View full size image]

• Business Data Item Web Part: Displays the details of a row from the BDC application. To configure and add the Business Data Item Web Part to your page, follow these steps:

   

  1.	From the Site Actions menu on your Web Part page, select Edit Page.
  2.	Select Add a Web Part in the zone in which you want the Business Data Item Web Part to appear, select the Business Data Item Web Part in the Web Part list, and click Add.
  3.	To configure the Web Part, select the Open the tool pane link in the Business Data Item Web Part or select Modify Shared Web Part in the Edit menu of the Web Part.
  4.	Click the Address Book icon next to the Type field to open a list of all of your business data types and select the business type that you would like to display, as shown in Figure 17.18. Figure 17.18. Selecting the Business Data type in the Business Data Item Web Part tool pane [View full size image]
  5.	In the Item field, enter the item that you want to display or use the address book to search for your item. If you would like the item view to show the details of the item selected in the Business Data List Web Part, you can skip this field and follow the steps below to connect the Web Parts.
  6.	Select Choose in the Fields section of the tool pane to select what columns you would like to show.
  7.	Click OK.

If you would like to configure the Business Data Item Web Part to show the item detail for the selected row in the Business Data List Web Part instead of a specific, preselected item, you can connect the Business Data List Web Part and the Business Data Item Web Part using these steps:

1.	From the Site Actions menu on your Web Part page, select Edit Page.
2.	In the Edit menu on the Business Data List Web Part (which is now titled the name of your business data type), scroll down to Connections, select Send Selected Item To, and select the name of your Business Data Item Web Part as shown in Figure 17.19. Figure 17.19. Connecting the Business Data List Web Part to the Business Data Item Web Part [View full size image]

Once this is configured, you will notice that radio buttons appear to the left of the rows in your Business Data List Web Part, and when those items are selected, the detail appears in the Business Data Item Web Part as shown in Figure 17.20.

• Business Data Related List Web Part: Displays a list of related rows from a BDC application. For example, if the business data list shows a particular customer and the business data item shows the details of an order, the business data related list might display the order history for that customer.

To configure and add the Business Data Related List Web Part to your page, follow these steps:

1.	From the Site Actions menu on your Web Part page, select Edit Page.
2.	Select Add a Web Part in the zone in which you want the Business Data Related List Web Part to appear, select the Business Data Related List Web Part in the Web Part list, and click Add.
3.	To configure the Web Part, select the Open the tool pane link in the Business Data Related List Web Part or select Modify Shared Web Part in the Edit menu of the Web Part.
4.	Click the Address Book icon next to the Type field to open a list of all of your associated business data types and select the business type that you would like to display as shown in Figure 17.21. Only types that have been defined with an association are available. Figure 17.21. Selecting the Business Data type in the Business Data Related List Web Part tool pane [View full size image]
5.	Click OK.

After this Web Part has been added to the page, you will need to connect it to a Web Part that provides the parent item. The Web Part will display default text to indicate which relationship item is required based on the business type you selected and the associations you configured in the BDC application. To connect your Business Data Related List Web Part, follow these steps:

1.	From the Site Actions menu on your Web Part page, select Edit Page.
2.	In the Edit menu on the Business Data Related List Web Part (which is now titled the name of your business data type), scroll down to Connections, select Get Related Item From, and select the name of your parent Web Part as shown in Figure 17.22. Figure 17.22. Connecting the Business Data Related List Web Part to the Web Part providing the parent item [View full size image]

When this is configured, you will see the three Web Parts working together with the Business Data Web Part, allowing the user to select a product, the Business Data Item Detail Web Part showing the detail of the product category, and the Business Data Related Web Part showing the product subcategories, as shown in Figure 17.23.

• Business Data Actions Web Part: Makes the actions available for an item in a business data list. To add and configure the Business Data Action Web Part to your page, follow these steps:

   

  1.	From the Site Actions menu on your Web Part page, select Edit Page.
  2.	Select Add a Web Part in the zone in which you want the Business Data Action Web Part to appear, select the Business Data Action Web Part in the Web Part list, and click Add.
  3.	To configure the Web Part, select the Open the tool pane link in the Business Data Action Web Part or select Modify Shared Web Part in the Edit menu of the Web Part.
  4.	Click the Address Book icon next to the Type field to open a list of all your business data types, and select the business type that you would like to display, as shown in Figure 17.24. Figure 17.24. Selecting the Business Data type in the Business Data Action Web Part tool pane [View full size image]
  5.	Enter the item that you want to display the actions for in the Item field or use the address book to search for your item. If you would like the item view to show the details of the item that is selected in the Business Data List Web Part, you can skip this field and follow the steps below to connect the Web Parts.
  6.	Select Choose in the Actions section of the tool pane to select what actions you would like to show.
  7.	Click OK.

If you would like to configure the Business Data Action Web Part to show the item detail for the selected row in the Business Data List Web Part instead of a specific, preselected item, you can connect the Business Data List Web Part and the Business Data Action Web Part using these steps:

1.	From the Site Actions menu on your Web Part page, select Edit Page.
2.	In the Edit menu on the Business Data List Web Part (which is now titled the name of your business data type), scroll down to Connections, select send selected item to, and select the name of your Business Data Item Web Part as shown in Figure 17.25.

After this is configured, you will notice that radio buttons appear to the left of the rows in your Business Data List Web Part and when those items are selected, the action(s) appears in the Business Data Action Web Part as shown in Figure 17.26.

• Business Data Item Builder Web Part: This Web Part is used only on business data profile pages and is only visible when the page is in edit mode. The Business Data Item Builder Web Part builds the business data item based on the parameters of the URL and sends the item to other Web Parts on the page, as shown in Figure 17.27.