Stereotyped Operations Supported by BDC

Applies to: SharePoint Server 2010

Business Data Connectivity (BDC) service supports the following stereotyped operations on external content types (provided the external systems that support the operations). Table 1 describes these stereoptyped operations.

Table 1. Supported stereotyped operations on external content types

Operation (or MethodInstance)

Description

AccessChecker

A type of MethodInstance that can be called to retrieve the permissions that the calling security principal has for each of a collection of EntityInstances that are identified by the specified EntityInstanceIds.

AssociationNavigator

A type of MethodInstance that can be called to retrieve destination EntityInstances that are associated with a single specified EntityInstance for each of the sources of the specified Association.

Scalar

A MethodInstance that returns a single value that you can invoke in the external system. For example, you can use a scalar method instance to get the total sales made to date from the external system. Entities have zero or more scalar method instances.

Associator

A type of MethodInstance that can be called to associate the specified destination EntityInstance to a single specified EntityInstance for each of the sources of the specified Association.

BinarySecurityDescriptorAccessor

A type of MethodInstance that can be called to retrieve a sequence of bytes from an external system. The system-specific byte sequence describes a set of security principals and the associated permissions that each security principal has for the EntityInstance identified by a specified EntityInstanceId.

BulkAssociatedIdEnumerator

A type of MethodInstance that can be called to retrieve pairs of EntityInstanceIds of source EntityInstances and EntityInstanceIds of corresponding destination EntityInstances for a specified Association. The specified EntityInstances are either a source or a destination in the specified Association.

BulkAssociationNavigator

A type of MethodInstance that can be called to retrieve destination EntityInstances that are associated with multiple specified EntityInstances for each of the sources of the specified Association.

BulkIdEnumerator

A type of MethodInstance that can be called to retrieve minimal information about the external items corresponding to the given identities. This method instance can be used to optimize synchronization of cached data. This method should return only the identities and version information of the external items that correspond to given Identities, which the calling application can compare with the local version to identify if anything has changed, and if so, request the changed external items to update the cached data.

BulkSpecificFinder

A type of MethodInstance that can be called to return a set of specific EntityInstances of an Entity, given a set of corresponding EntityInstanceIds.

ChangedIdEnumerator

A type of MethodInstance that can be called to retrieve EntityInstanceIds of EntityInstances that were modified in an external system after a specified time.

Creator

A type of MethodInstance that can be called to create an EntityInstance. The set of fields that are required to create the EntityInstance is referred to as the Creator View.

DeletedIdEnumerator

A type of MethodInstance that can be called to retrieve EntityInstanceIds of EntityInstances that were deleted from an external system after the specified time.

Deleter

A type of MethodInstance that can be called to delete an EntityInstance with a specified EntityInstanceId.

Disassociator

A type of MethodInstance that can be called to remove an association between a specified destination EntityInstance and a single specified EntityInstance for each of the sources of a specified Association.

Finder

A type of MethodInstance that can be called to return a collection of zero or more EntityInstances of a particular Entity. Finder input is defined by the FilterDescriptors that are contained in the Method that contains the Finder.

GenericInvoker

A type of MethodInstance that can be called to perform a specific task in an external system. GenericInvoker input and output is specific to the Method.

IdEnumerator

A type of MethodInstance that can be called to return the Field values that represent the identity of EntityInstances of a specific Entity. The IdEnumerator input is defined by the FilterDescriptors that are contained in the method that contains the IdEnumerator to get the list of IDs, which are the unique keys for each entity that should be searchable. This method instance enables external data search in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010.

SpecificFinder

A type of MethodInstance that can be called to return a specific EntityInstance of a specific Entity given its EntityInstanceId. SpecificFinder input is defined and ordered by the Identifiers that are associated with the Entity.

StreamAccessor

A type of MethodInstance that can be called to retrieve a field of an EntityInstance in the form of a data stream of bytes.

Updater

A type of MethodInstance that can be called to update an EntityInstance identified by a specified EntityInstanceId. The set of fields that is required to update the EntityInstance is known as the Updater View. The set of fields whose values should be passed before they are changed is known as the PreUpdater View.

See Also

Other Resources

Implementing Stereotyped Operations in Your Methods