Frank Daske

SharePoint 2010 External List (BCS) for MOSS 2007 / WSS 3.0?

If you like the great new SharePoint 2010 external list feature and the new Business Connectivity Services (BCS) and want to make use of something similar to connect SharePoint 2007 / WSS 3.0  lists (no web parts) directly to external data sources without any programming or tools, please take a look at:

http://www.layer2.de/en/products/Pages/SharePoint-Business-Data-List-Connector.aspx

All list features are available, e.g. grouping, lookups. You can start buiness workflow actions in SharePoint, if external data changes.

The shareware version is completely free for download and use.

A really great lesson - from the programmers point of view.

If someone prefers a much faster and more simple out-of-the-box approach to pull external data into a SharePoint list in just minutes,
I would suggest the Business Data List Connector (BDLC) found here:

http://www.layer2.de/en/products/pages/sharepoint-business-data-list-connector.aspx

You can configure the connection directly in the custom SharePoint  list settings by entering a connection string, a select statement and primary keys(s) - if any. That's it, without any programming required.
The list structure is automatically created, you can modify it later.

A timer job is used to update changed external data in the SharePoint list. Only changed data is updated (if primary keys are given).

That means, you can use list alerts and workflows, to start business actions in SharePoint, if external data records are changed.

The solution works for SharePoint (any editions) and WSS. There is a completely free shareware version for download.

Just try it out.

SharePointFrank