Appendix: Catalog Links SharePoint Server to Business Data

The Business Data Catalog (BDC), a new component of SharePoint Server 2007, acts as a bridge between the Web portal and back-end databases and business applications, such as customer relationship or enterprise resource planning systems. The BDC has the potential to make information in databases and business applications more easily accessible. However, the BDC is in many ways an immature solution-incomplete documentation and a lack of developer tools make it difficult to create and debug systems.

Business Data in SharePoint

The BDC stores information needed by SharePoint Server to retrieve data from back-end systems, such as databases and business applications. SharePoint can display that data in a Web browser through a number of prebuilt Web Parts (user-configurable components that allow Web pages to be easily customized) as well as through SharePoint’s enterprise search capabilities. For example, once the BDC is configured to access an accounting and billing application, users can create Web pages that display up-to-date account information. (For an illustration of how the BDC connects SharePoint Server to back-end systems, see “BDC Architecture“.)