BCS Meta Man

If you are looking to integrate external data into SharePoint On-Premises or SharePoint Online, one way is to use Business Connectivity Services. However, it can be complex connecting to most data sources. BCS Meta Man simplifies the creation of the BCS External Content Types for hundreds of data sources.

Core Features

B

CS Meta Man is a windows application that makes building Business Connectivity Services External Content Types simple. No need to write an code or XML, just simply connect BCS Meta Man to your data source, and drag and drop the Tables, Views, Stored Procedures that you want to work with.

External Content Types without Code

Business Connectivity Services is a great way of linking to line of business systems, and displaying, interacting with data from those data sources within SharePoint. However, for most data sources, you’ll usually need to write a lot of code just to connect to one table. BCS Meta Man is the tool to connect to almost any data source with no code at all!

Multiple Data Sources Supported

Using SharePoint Designer, you can easily connect to SQL Server based databases. But what if you want to connect to Oracle, DB2, Informix, or many others? Without BCS Meta Man, you’ll need to create some code to connect to those data sources. But with BCS Meta Man, you can connect to all of those data sources and more within minutes.

Build, Test and Deploy

So, you’ve created your External Content Type and now is the time to test it. Instead of manually creating External Lists, External Data Columns, Testing your Associations with multiple BCS Web Parts, and building out your custom Search pages. You can use BCS Meta Man to test each method prior to deploying your model to SharePoint.

Build External Content Types for Oracle, ODBC, WCF, Salesforce, Dynamics CRM, OData and Microsoft SQL without code.

Sharepoint Business Connectivity Services provides data integration including Business Data Columns, Search, User Profile Import, Business Data Web Parts, Office Integration, and External Lists.

Using the BCS Meta Man connectivity tool for simple drag and drop Sharepoint Business Connectivity Services

Connect to External Data Sources and generate the External Content Type.
Within this twelve minute video, we connect to OData and Microsoft SQL, build two Entities and set the Finder, Specific Finder, Creator, Updater and Deleter methods. Limit Filter, and custom actions can also be set within the tool.

Build Methods On Each External Content Type

Once you have chosen your external data source, drag the table to the design surface and begin to configure your external content type. Select your Finder, Specific Finder, ID Enumerator, Creator, Updater and Deleter methods, simply click generate, and you’re done!

Build Associations Using Drag And Drop

Associations enable you to show your external data using Business Data Lists and Business Data Related List web parts. Your data relationships can also be shown in profile pages and also BDC item picker dialog boxes.

For instance, simply drag the association between the two external content types.

In addition, create filters, methods and custom actions in just a few clicks.

Our Business Connectivity Services Knowledge

Lightning Tools co-founder and Office Apps and Services MVP Brett Lonsdale is the co-author of the Business Connectivity Services book by Microsoft Press. Our knowledge of BCS has helped us to shape BCS Meta Man to overcome many of the challenges with BCS connectivity out-of-the-box.

BCS Meta Man v SharePoint Designer v Visual Studio.NET

FeatureBCS Meta Man
SharePoint Designer
Visual Studio SharePoint Tools
Connect to SQL without codeCheckCheckCross
Connect to Oracle without codeCheckCrossCross
Connect to ODBC Data Sources without CodeCheckCrossCross
Connect to WCF Service without CodeCheckCheckCross
Generate .NET Assembly External Content TypeCheckCrossCheck
Build Associations Using Drag/DropCheckCrossCross
Build Filters without codeCheckCheckCross
Build Associated ECTs in one modelCheckCrossCross
Build Custom Actions without codeCheckCheckCross