Fetching data form external database

Question

Hi folks,

I got a task to fetch data from external database.I created a list with my required columns.

This is OOTB newform for sharepoint list.On click of search button it should fetch data from external database on basic of Project ID and it should populate all the fields of the form.Suppose database table is having same column as of sharepoint list.

Thanks in anticipation!!!

Answer 1

If you have MOSS 2007 Enterprise License, you can do this using the Business Data Connnectivity features

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Dean MCTS-SQL 2005 Business Intelligence, SharePoint 2010, Configuration

Answer 2

To add on Dean's answer, you'd be looking at using SharePoint to surface the data.  SharePoint 2007 only pulls this as READ-ONLY data, with no easy way to make this a two way connection.

If you need to just make this available within searches, you might want to consider either federated search or adding the database as a content source.

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Steven Andrews | SharePoint Professional | http://www.twitter.com/backpackerd00d | https://baron72.wordpress.com/

Answer 3

Hi Keshav,

To fetch data from external database you need to use BDC/BCS -

• BDC if SP 2007 - Read Only
• BCS if SP 2010 - Read/Write

For BCS read :

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ee819133.aspx
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/60190/Business-Connectivity-Services-in-SharePoint-2010
http://www.chakkaradeep.com/post/Part-1-Configuring-BCS-in-SharePoint-2010.aspx

For BDC read:

http://blah.winsmarts.com/2007-4-SharePoint_2007__BDC_-_The_Business_Data_Catalog.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb410048(v=office.12).aspx

Let me know if you have any issues.

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Ashish Mishra|MCTS,MCPD in SharePoint 2010| Twitter:https://twitter.com/#!/707Mishra| Blog: http://www.sharepointblog.co.uk/author/ashishmishra/

Answer 4

For to get the data from the External database then you can follow the following approaches:

1. For SharePoint 2007: You can use Business Data Catalog ( BDC) to get data. More info you can get from the link below

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb410048%28v=office.12%29.aspx

2. For SharePoint 2010: You can use BCS ( Business Connectivity Services) to get data. There is a concept of External Content types and lists in SharePoint 2010. More info you can get from the link given below:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ee819133.aspx

Hope this will work.

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Sharepoint Sutra
Sharepoint Consultant

Answer 5

Hi Folks ,

Thanks for your response.I have used external list and got database records as a list.But,problem is with auto populating fields.For this i used CAML Query but it didn't work.Same CAML Query works fine for normal list but when i am applying this to External list it is not fetching data.

Hope for further guidance!!!!

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Keshav Roy