LobSystem

Article
10/16/2013

An LobSystem object is a source of business data, business logic, or both. SAP R/3 IDES, Siebel 7.5, and the AdventureWorks SQL Server 2000 sample database are examples of LobSystem objects.

Client Impact

To use the Business Data features such as Business Data Web Parts and Business Data columns in lists, you must define the metadata for the LobSystem object. The LobSystem object is the top-level container for metadata that describes a particular business application. In XML terms, it is the root node that contains all other metadata objects in an application definition.

After you define the metadata for a system and add the application definition to the Business Data Catalog, the entities become available to you in all the Business Data features. Entity Picker will show the entities in the system if you have appropriate permissions and have defined the metadata appropriately.

Remarks

The LobSystem object derives from the MetadataObject base class. Each LobSystem object has a unique name and is of a certain type: either Database or Web Service. The Business Data Catalog accesses systems of the same type by using the same provider. For example, AdventureWorks is a Microsoft SQL Server database, and the Business Data Catalog accesses it and all SQL Server databases through Microsoft ADO.NET. SAP R/3 IDES is an SAP R/3 system, and Business Data Catalog accesses it through the Web services proxy, as it does with the Siebel 7.5 system.

Examples

The following examples show the XML for LobSystem objects that represent a database and a Web service, respectively. Version number is user-defined and is of the format - major.minor[.build[.revision]].

Database

<LobSystem xsi:schemaLocation="https://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2006/03/BusinessDataCatalog BDCMetadata.XSD" Type="Database" Version="1.0.0.0" Name="AdventureWorksSample" xmlns="https://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2006/03/BusinessDataCatalog">
  <!-- The Business Data Catalog treats the name you specify here as the applicaton name. This is the name that appears in the Administration user interface. -->
  <Properties>
    <Property Name="WildcardCharacter" Type="System.String">%</Property>
    <!-- The Business Data Catalog uses the Wildcard character specified here with filter parameters.-->
  </Properties>
….
</LobSystem>

Web Service

<LobSystem xsi:schemaLocation="https://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2006/03/BusinessDataCatalog BDCMetadata.XSD" Type="WebService" Version="1.0.0.1" Name="AWSECommerceService" xmlns="https://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2006/03/BusinessDataCatalog">
  <Properties>
    <Property Name="WebServiceProxyNamespace" Type="System.String">AWSECommerceService</Property>
    <Property Name="WsdlFetchAuthenticationMode" Type="System.String">PassThrough</Property>
    <Property Name="WsdlFetchUrl" Type="System.String">http://webservices.amazon.com/AWSECommerceService/AWSECommerceService.wsdl</Property>
    <Property Name="WildcardCharacter" Type="System.String">%</Property>
    <!-- The Business Data Catalog uses the wildcard character specified here with filter parameters.-->
  </Properties>
….
</LobSystem>

Schema

Child	Type	Occurs	Limits / Accepted Values	Description
Type	Attribute(bdc:lobSystemType)	0..1	Database WebService	The type of system.
Version	Attribute (String)	1..1	Same value space as System.Version: major.minor[.build[.revision]]	The version of the application definition. The Business Data Catalog prevents you from overwriting a system with the same name and a lower version number.
SystemUtility	Attribute (String)	0..1	Min length: 1 Max length: 255	Fully qualified name of a type that implements ISystemUtility. Allows extensible LobSystem types, which is not supported in SharePoint Server 2007.
ConnectionManager	Attribute (String)	0..1	Min length: 1 Max length: 255	Fully qualified name of a type that implements IConnectionManager. Allows extensible LobSystem types, which is not supported in SharePoint Server 2007.
EntityInstance	Attribute (String)	0..1	Min length: 1 Max length: 255	Fully qualified name of a type that implements IEntityInstance. Allows extensible LobSystem types, which is not supported in SharePoint Server 2007.
LobSystemInstances	Element	0..1	Max instances per system: 300	Container element for LobSystemInstance
Entities	Element	0..1	Max entities per system: 200	Container element for Entity
Associations	Element	0..1	Max associations per system: 1000	Container element for Association

Properties

Following is the list of properties that the LobSystem object accepts for both database and Web service systems.

Important

Properties are case-sensitive.

Property	Type	Required	Default Value	Limits/Accepted Values	Comments
WildcardCharacter	System.String	No	* (asterisk)	Must not be null or an empty string.	The system-specific wildcard string. The wildcard filter replaces "*" in the filter value with this string. For example, the SQL Server wildcard string is "%". For more information, see the WildcardFilter documentation.
WildcardCharacterEscapeFormat	String	No	\{0}	Must not be null or an empty string.	The wildcard filter escapes system-specific wildcard strings in the filter value using this format string. For more information, see the WildcardFilter documentation.

In addition to the properties listed previously, the following properties are accepted by the LobSystem object for Web service systems.