I'm trying to establish whether its possible to connect lists to external SQL tables with SharePoint 2013 Foundation.
I know that is possible in the paid versions through Business Connectivity Services. However, most places I look, BCS is shown as not included in Foundation.
The one thing that contradicts this is page here. Whilst admittedly its titled Office 365, it does include a list for On Premise solutions which suggests that BCS External List IS included in SharePoint Foundation. However, the link takes you to a page entitled “Deploy a Business Connectivity Services cloud-only solution in SharePoint 2013”.
If it is possible, then it seems that we will need to setup a Secure Store to holds ID and passwords for external sources.
Has anyone managed to link Lists to external tables in SharePoint 2013 Foundation (it needs to be 2013 as I understand Microsoft withdrew BCS for that release)? Any pointers would be very welcome to stop us going round in circles.
Thanks,
Chris.
If you have visual studio 2012 installed in the SharePoint server, you can create a "SharePoint 2013 - Empty Project", and then in the project, add a new item called "Business Data Connectivity Model".
You can search for many tutorials for "Business Data Connectivity Model", such as the example link below (note the video is about sharepoint 2010, but you can use it for sharepoint 2013):
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/ff623022.aspx
This solution will work for SharePoint 2013 Foundation as I have done that myself.
regards Taz
Related
I'm starting a new project where we are expecting to migrate desktop based Access 2016 applications (with a lot of backend VBA and relationships between the tables) into SharePoint 2016 on-premise and very soon, SharePoint Online. From what I've been told, we'll be given site permission to a SharePoint site that we can do whatever we want with. I am hoping that with SharePoint 2016 on-premise and eventually SharePoint online means that there is a SQL Server and eventually Azure SQL Database that I can migrate the Access backend tables and queries, as I know SharePoint lists will be inadequate for this, despite the false notion that SharePoint lists are an equivalent substitute for database tables.
My concern is how to build the custom forms, perform the needed business logic, perform CRUD operations, and upload data in the form of Excel files from the SharePoint site to the backend.
I'm new to SharePoint and given that it does not support VBA, that Microsoft cut out Access Web Apps earlier this year, and they are phasing out SharePoint Designer 2013 and InfoPath, some research over the past week indicates my best options are building custom web application using ASP.NET Core and somehow deploying that to the SharePoint site and subsites that we have control over, or developing a lot of HTML, CSS, and JS to create the front-end interface. I had read about the Business Connectivity Service to get and post data to / from the SharePoint site front end and the DB backend, as well as using Javascript and AJAX calls to do CRUD operations between the database and the frontend. I looked into PowerApps and those seem insufficient, and I'm still trying to distinguish between SharePoint web parts and SharePoint add-ins.
Is any of the above even a feasible option? Could someone chime in on a better path to go about this? What technologies would I need to best go about this?
Support for moving tables from Access to SharePoint remains a choice and option.
So all of your VBA code etc. will work as before. The only real question is if you want to move your data to SharePoint tables in place of using SQL server.
SQL server tables are far faster than SharePoint tables.
However, you can certainly consider moving your tables to SharePoint. When you move your tables to SharePoint (or SQL server), then Access code, forms, reports etc. and EVEN your VBA code will work as before. What this means is that you continue to deploy the Access application to each desktop. The only difference is now your tables are on SharePoint, or SQL server.
The above choice does not result in a web based application.
So you can move the data, but your application will remain a desktop application.
If you looking to build a web based application, then Access is the wrong tool – you need to adopt something like Visual Studio.
So you can continue to use Access, and put the data tables into the cloud, or on-site SharePoint - but the application will be still desktop based.
I have used the following extensively over the last couple of years and I am happy with the experience:
Azure SQL Database as a back-end
Flow for automation and as an interface to the DB
PowerApps for forms, desktop apps and mobile apps
Excel for reporting (Get & Transform aka PowerQuery and DAX), especially for printing reports
Power BI for dashboards (limited use)
Yes, PowerApps has drawbacks, but there are a lot of realistic workarounds out there and new features/improvements are being added regularly.
I have also used SharePoint lists as data sources, but almost always then migrated to Azure SQL Database.
I had a genius idea today to try and create a website that would access our CRM database and will report on support cases.
The idea would be to have a page that would be visible in the office and members of the support team can view the current status of support cases.
I've downloaded the CRM SDK and I've read a couple of manuals, but I can't seem to find a decent starting point for a complete rookie..
Are there are good tutorials out there on how to create a website that will communicate with CRM's database, preferrably for a VB.NET application.
There are several products that implement your idea.
The most famous one is the Adxstudio, you can find a community edition (also for CRM 4.0) at this address:
http://community.adxstudio.com/products/adxstudio-portals/
After you can check the source code, but they use C#
Is it possible to use use SharePoint to custom develop a GUI for an SQL Server backend for updating the data? Thanks.
If you are using SharePoint 2007 you might want to take a look at the Business Data Catalogue - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms563661(v=office.12).aspx
Not sure what the comparable feature (if any) in 2010/2013 is...
EDIT:
In 2013 it is called Business Connectivity Services - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj163782.aspx#BCSoverview_Whatcanbcsdo
Look at "Business Connectivity Services" and "External List".
SharePoint Designer can make the process pretty simple or you can develop a Visual Studio project:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee558778(v=office.14).aspx
If you want to do the legwork try building an Access Application in SharePoint 2013.
It is much better than 2010 but requires more setup. This will encapsulate a database within a SQL database, very versatile super quick and you can do all your SQL fun stuff from there.
This is a low or no code solution.
SharePoint 2010 Access apps use lists as back-end repositories, you can interact with the data in the SharePoint WSS_Content database, but it is not supported and no advisable.
I'm looking to retrieve data from Oracle Databases, take the queried information and place it into SharePoint 2010. Is there a way to achieve this without the help of BCS metaman? All the tutorials I've come across seem to reference this software. BCS metaman isn't an option in my case.
Check out this MSDN Article - How to: Connect to an Oracle Database Using Business Connectivity Services and this SharePoint Journal blog post - Business Connectivity Services (BCS) with Oracle using Visual Studio 2010
I am looking for a migration tool. We want to upgrade from SharePoint Server 2007 to SharePoint 2010 in a new environment. We need to have functionality to granulary select which content to migrate and eaven select to map to new structure in the new solution.
We want to tag the content migrated.
The migration tools we are considering are AvePoint, Axceler Davinci, Metalogix.
I'm doing migration scenarios for a consultant firm based in Montreal. First of all, I think you have the correct thinking about how you want to get this done. Doing a SharePoint upgrade (database upgrade) usually bring your SharePoint 2007 problems over to SharePoint 2010.
Here's what we usually do :
Define governance for the new SharePoint platform
Define the new Information Architecture
Implement the new Information Architecture (build sites, lists, libraries, etc.)
Migrate the content over
Tools such as Sharegate (www.share-gate.com) can allow you to do some mapping from your old content source over to the new one.
Hopefully, this will help you!