Additional user information import with BDC

Been working on an secondary connection to a SQL Server database that will be used to add more information to the user profile properties. Solution includes the BDC application but foremost setting the correct access permission for the account accessing the BDC application.

I use "RevertToSelf" in the ADF which makes the access to the BDC run with the account for the service "Office SharePoint Search Server".

So the account needs "Execute" permissions for the BDC application and all entities, DBDataReader to the SQL Server (or any other read permission) and finally "Manager User Profiles" under "Personalization Permissions". When troupbleshooting this the ULS is yor friend.

Make sure that no other accounts gets permission to the application in BDC, you want to avoid to expose the BDC application to the built-in web parts.

Multiple methods in BDC

ok, I have been looking for an answer to this question:
How can one entity contain several methods in BDC?

The answer is to define a MethodInstance with a type of GenericInvoker, this enables you to define a method on your entity which can be accessed via code but that is not exposed for the OOB BDC webparts. See http://agiledirect.wordpress.com/2007/08/09/bdc-writing-to-bdc-using-genericinvoker/ for an example.

You can also use the type ViewAccessor to return a different set of data which can be used in the OOB BDC webparts. See http://znetsys.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!ED65D09C41E55E06!115.entry for an example.

Crawling BDC applications

Errors during crawling BDC apps? bdc2:// and (access denied by BDC) errors? Check this article, still problem? Search the log file in 12HIVE/Logs for "Access denied" to see which account that is casuing the problem. Still problem? Export the ADF and uncheck "Permissions", delete the Application and import the ADF again (still finally solved my problem)

Why BDC columns doesn´t work in Office / Doc Mgmt

Using BDC columns in document libraries feels as a great option, but when trying to use it for any serious document management (using mostly OOB functions) it fails for the following reasons:



1. A BDC column can not be used as a field reference in Word. If you want to display information in header or footer the field reference can not be used.



2. The BDC column can not be configured as a site column (MacroView is workaround, but it can not be edited from the DIP). Major drawback to any usage of content types.




4. If you click the refresh button in the document library all your documents will be checked out again.


We are developing a workaround based on "Choice" columns and eventhandlers instead.

BDC on the other hand is great if you want to display information in web parts :)