Beginning SharePoint 2013 Development

BCS IN APPS FOR SHAREPOINT

In the previous exercise you installed a business data connectivity model into SharePoint Online and the external content type you created became available tenancy wide and could be used in any site collection — restricted by permissions, of course. However, the SharePoint 2013 app model provides a new opportunity for you to deliver Apps for SharePoint that have the BDCM deployed at the app-level so it is scoped only to that specific app for SharePoint. This opens up a whole new opportunity to deliver Apps for SharePoint from the Office.com Store that have a self-contained BCS connection to any OData source that you choose to provide. The key point is that app-level solutions must connect to OData sources; that’s the only connection type supported in an app for SharePoint. In the following activity you build an app for SharePoint with an OData connection and see how it’s defined to SharePoint.

TRY IT OUT: Building an App-level BCS Solution for Office 365 SharePoint Online (C13EmployeeBCSApp.zip)

This exercise shows you how to create an app-level scoped BCS connection and then access the external list for the app for SharePoint via a REST call.

1. Run Visual Studio 2012 as Administrator. Select New Project.

2. In the New Project dialog, expand the Templates ⇒ Visual C# Office/SharePoint Apps nodes. Select App for SharePoint 2013 and provide the Name: C13EmployeeBCSApp. Click OK.

3. In the New App for SharePoint dialog, set the Office 365 SharePoint ...