Using the MashPoint Business Data Column in SharePoint Lists

Summary: Learn how to install and configure the Business Data Column to access and display Line of Business data via Bamboo MashPoint.  This article contains the following topics:

• What is Bamboo's MashPoint Business Column?
• How to install the MashPoint Business Column.
• How to configure the MashPoint Business Column to read data from the AdventureWorks sample database.

Bamboo Product Team, Bamboo Solutions Corporation. 
August 2008 

With the introduction of MashPoint, organizations that use SharePoint can now connect to Line of Business (LOB) data through a standard platform that is compatible with Microsoft's Business Data Catalog (BDC).  Unlike the BDC, however, you can use MashPoint to retrieve data while running a Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) Standard version.  This article presents the MashPoint Business Data Column and how to create a custom column in any SharePoint List to access and display LOB data.

What is MashPoint Business Column?

If you are using SharePoint Enterprise with the optional BDC, you can add a Business Data Column to a SharePoint List and thus allow users to select and view LOB data in your portal. When you are using MashPoint, the out-of-the-box SharePoint List does not provide capabilities to read directly from MashPoint, but you can accomplish the same capability using the Bamboo MashPoint Business Data Column.

The MashPoint Business Data Column is implemented as a custom field type and has the ability to interface directly with MashPoint to read and filter data from LOB systems.  A custom field type is a feature of SharePoint that allows end users to add custom fields to the out-of-the-box data types that can be used in Lists.  Specifically, when a custom field type such as MashPoint Business Data Column is deployed, it will be added to the set of field definition files for that particular site as stored in [drive]:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\XML directory of SharePoint. This definition file contains CAML markup referencing the assembly and the field type class that is installed.

Note: You can use Bamboo MashPoint Business Column to add the information from a standard BDC data into your SharePoint list.

How to install and configure the MashPoint Business Column

First, download the beta version of the MashPoint Business Data Column.  If you have not downloaded and installed it, download MashPoint here and follow the installation instructions.  To follow the example in this article, you must also set up the AdventureWorks sample database, using the instructions here.

To install and configure the Business Data Column, follow these steps:

1. Download and unzip the MashPoint Business Column:




2. Run the Setup.bat file:

Select the Web Applications that you want to install this feature.  Normally, you want to install this in most of the Web Applications, except for the Central Admin.  Check the Automatically activate features box to let the installation program activate the features.

1. Run the IISRESET command to make sure that SharePoint will reload all the custom field types and include the newly installed MashPoint Business Column.
2. If you have not installed the MashPoint Runtime Components, use the procedure in the next section to install it.

How to install the MashPoint Runtime Components

This section describes how to install the MashPoint Runtime Components.  These components are required in order to allow the Web Parts to communicate with the MashPoint data integration services.  You might have already installed this component when you installed MashPoint or other Web Parts.  If that is the case, you can skip this section.

Select the MashPoint Runtime Components option and then click Install.  Follow the instructions on the screen.

You can deselect the Central Administration check box since this option is not required on the Central Admin site.  Check the Automatically activate features box to let the installation program activate the features.

How to configure and use the MashPoint Business Column

In this use case, we will walk through how you can configure and use the MashPoint Business Data Column in a standard List in order to read data from a backend database.  Our example will show you how to create a custom column to read the data from the AdventureWorks sample database.   The main steps are as follows:

1. Install MashPoint and the Business Column following the instructions in the previous section.
2. Activate the MashPoint Business Column Feature.
3. Add MashPoint Business Column to a List.

Assuming that you have already installed MashPoint and it is running as expected, the next step is to make sure that the Business Column is active on your site.

Go to your SharePoint site, select Site Actions, Modify All Site Settings:

By default, the MashPoint Business Column is deployed at the site collection level, so click on your Site Collection Administration, and select Site collection features:

Make sure the Bamboo MashPoint Business Column is activated.

1. Create a new custom list.  In this example, we will create a custom list named MashPoint List.  Once the list is created, go to the list and click on Settings -> List Settings.
2. Under Columns for the list, choose Create Column.  Type in MP for the name (you can use any title), and then select Bamboo MashPoint Business Column as the data type.

Under Columns for the list, choose Create Column.  Type in MP for the name (you can use any title), and then select Bamboo MashPoint Business Column as the data type.  You will be presented with an additional form to be customized as shown below:

• Type in the optional description.
• Select your MashPoint catalog by clicking on the book icon, after which you will be presented with the catalog picker as shown below.  Select the AdventureWorks:Customer entity.

Select the check boxes for IndividualID, FirstName and LastName.  This will allow you to pull in those fields in the sample database and display in your SharePoint list.

1. Press OK when you are completed.
2. Go back to the MashPoint List, and create a new item.  In the MP column, you can select an item from the AdventureWorks customer record by clicking on the find icon, and selecting a record.  We will select the 1^st record in the list as shown below:

Press OK, and you should see the record and the associated fields pulled from the AdventureWorks sample database displayed in your list:

FAQs

Can I programmatically access MashPoint Business Data Column data via an API or List Events? 

This capability is not currently supported.