Let’s get ready to rumble! We’re flying out of the corner with a prize fighting more-powerful- than-ever-SPTransformator.
We’ve got the eye of the tiger and it’s firmly fixated on Transformation! We’re putting in those gym hours to give you a pound for pound fighting fit SPTransformator. It comes out swinging with a superb array of new features.
In our fifth entry to this blog series, we’ve highlighted the importance of SPTransformator and usage, but in this installment, we’ll be focusing on how SPTransformator identifies and allows you to connect and use business data aka Business Data Connectivity (BDC).
Feature Highlight: BDC
When considering a migration, you want to identify the essential data that needs to come with you to the cloud. This data can be discovered conveniently on your on-premises server, or it can be found stored on external servers, like an SQL database server. A BDC connection can be described as the main connection between back end data systems and SharePoint. However, it’s important to know that the data is only discoverable in SharePoint the moment you use a BDC connector.
The question is this: how can we access this data and use it within a SharePoint environment? You can group your functional data from external servers and display it through SharePoint services – and you do this by bridging the gap with a connector. To make all of this happen, a developer can do three things: use the available out of the box SQL server connector, install a 3rd party add in, or create their own custom connector to access the data.
When moving your customizations from one version of SharePoint to another it’s important to understand what type of BDC connections are being used. To manually search for previous business data connections will take a significantly long time, but the SPTransformator farm inventory drastically speeds up this process, and takes away the need to manually identify BDC between the servers and your SharePoint farm. This process allows you to have a clear picture of business data type connections.
It’s important to mention, whilst technically BDC is available within SharePoint Online, the recommendation is to use other means of exposing remote data. For instance, you can connect through SPFx webparts which is specifically designed for SharePoint. SPTransformator allows the developer to automatically check for configurable connections within the SharePoint farm, show the type of connection, and where it connects to within the server database.
SPTransformator is free and provides an initial analysis of SharePoint Full-Trust farm solutions. Further actions, like automated assessments and code transformation, can be unlocked by purchasing credits. If you would like to sign up and receive SPTransformator latest version on release day, please click the button below and fill in your contact details.
