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Business Connectivity Services Lab

Version: 3.0.0

Description

Now with both C# and VB code samples! In this lab, you will explore the use of Business Connectivity Services to connect external data to SharePoint. You will use two different tools, SharePoint Designer 2010 and Visual Studio 2010 to build the definitions necessary to connect SharePoint to external data. Once the connections are established, you will extend a simple Outlook Form Region to use the external data offline using a SharePoint Workspace 2010 cache.

Overview

In this lab exercise, you will explore the use of Business Connectivity Services to connect external data to SharePoint. You will use two different tools, SharePoint Designer 2010 and Visual Studio 2010 to build the definitions necessary to connect SharePoint to external data. Once the connections are established, you will extend a simple Outlook Form Region to use the external data offline using a SharePoint Workspace 2010 cache.

Objectives

In this lab you will:

  • Learn to create External Content Types in SharePoint Designer 2010
  • Learn to create External Content Types in Visual Studio 2010
  • Learn to use the BCS offline data caching API to access external data

System Requirements

This lab assumes that you have SharePoint Server installed in a test environment. For guidance on how to setup SharePoint Server see https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee554869(office.14).aspx. Note that any URL referred to in this lab must be adjusted for use with your local setup. You must have the following items to complete this lab:

  • Microsoft® Windows® Vista SP1 or Microsoft® Windows Server 2008 (64-bit)
  • Microsoft® SharePoint Server 2010 (64-bit)
  • Microsoft® Office Professional Plus 2010 (32-bit or 64-bit)
  • Microsoft® Visual Studio 2010

Setup

You must perform the following steps to prepare your computer for this lab. This consists primarily of creating a SharePoint site collection at https://intranet.contoso.com/sites/BCSOffice and installing the code snippets for this lab.

  1. Run the command file Setup.bat located at %Office2010DeveloperTrainingKitPath%\Labs\BCSOffice\Source\.

Exercises

This Hands-On Lab is comprised of one exercise with the following tasks:

  1. Creating External Content Types with SharePoint Designer 2010
  2. Creating External Content Types with Visual Studio 2010
  3. Working with BCS Data Offline

Estimated time to complete this lab: 60 minutes.

Starting Materials

This Hands-On Lab includes the following starting materials.

  • Visual Studio solutions. The lab provides the following Visual Studio solutions that you can use as starting point for the exercises. Lab instructions will reference the Training Kit location after installation as %Office2010DeveloperTrainingKitPath%.
    • %Office2010DeveloperTrainingKitPath%\Labs\BCSOffice\[language]\Source\Starter\OutlookFormRegion\OutlookFormRegion.sln: This is an Outlook form region project used in Exercise 3 that will retrieve its Customers list from an External Content Type created in Exercise 2.
    Note:
    Inside the lab’s Source folder, you will find a Solution folder containing an end solution with the completed lab exercise.

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Downloads

Download The Offline Training Kit
Download Hands-on Lab Document (DOCX)
Download Hands-on Lab Source Files

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