How to set up Sharepoint List External Data Column Type

Question

Hi all.

Context:

I am currently using a Microsoft Sharepoint List to store customer complaint cases.

Expected Behavior:

My goal is to restrict the customer and complaint submitter fields to our company's standard customer names and standard employee codes that are contained in an external data source (PostgreSQL warehouse) containing company data. In essence the field would behave similar a drop down, however unlike the normal drop down type, where options are typed manually, the external data source would be referenced.

Problem:

I discovered that the "External Data" column type could allow me to achieve this.

Method Exemplified in the following video:

https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=03d9972e29a8bfc9JmltdHM9MTY2ODM4NDAwMCZpZ3VpZD0yNjNiZjE1ZC1mYjQwLTY3OGEtMjJjZS1lMTgzZmFmNzY2ZjEmaW5zaWQ9NTQ4OQ&ptn=3&hsh=3&fclid=263bf15d-fb40-678a-22ce-e183faf766f1&u=a1L3ZpZGVvcy9zZWFyY2g_cT1leHRlcm5hbCtkYXRhK3NoYXJlcG9pbnQrbGlzdCZkb2NpZD02MDgwMTY2MjkxNjg4Nzc2MjgmbWlkPUVEQ0UzNTg0RUM3QzA4ODAwNDM0RURDRTM1ODRFQzdDMDg4MDA0MzQmdmlldz1kZXRhaWwmRk9STT1WSVJF&ntb=1

Upon initially attempting to create this type of column I got this error:
"External Content Types are not available. Contact your system administrator."

I subsequently found this microsoft article that gave me the instructions to configuring an external content type.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-and-update-an-external-data-column-in-a-list-or-library-44eff2c5-8051-489d-989c-f5d09f527aee#:~:text=Create%20an%20external%20data%20column%20in%20a%20list,under%20Column%20Types%2C%20click%20External%20Data.%20More%20items

I configured a secure store services app, however when trying to configure an external content type, I was prompted to upload a BDC model file. After some investigation, I found that BDC models could be created and exported from Sharepoint Designer 2013, or from Visual Studio. Sharepoint Designer would not install correctly on my machine and I am completely stumped on how to use Visual Studio to create a BDC model.

Any help would be incredibly appreciated. Thanks so much guys!

Justin

Answer 1

Hi @Justin Cohen ,

According to the research, you should configure BCS and configure external content type before you use external data to SharePoint Online.

Additionally, currently we configure BCS requires SharePoint Designer or Visual Studio.

More information about: How to: Create a SharePoint List with External Data Columns

As to this issue, it is recommended that you follow the steps in official documentation. And you could focus on the Microsoft updates of creating external data.

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