Microsoft BDC Definition Editor for MOSS 2007

The Business Data Catalog definition editor for MOSS is now available as part of the August MOSS SDK download.

[Via SharePoint Products and Technologies Team Blog]

The Business Data Catalog Definition Editor provides a visual tool for creating an Application Definition for BDC in MOSS 2007.  Features include:

• Underlying XML is abstracted by the design surface and properties window
• Drag and drop web methods, tables, or views to create line of business (LOB) connections.
• Entities and methods are created automatically from database metadata and WSDLs.
• Additional method instances can be added to further enhance the database or web service connection.
• Method instances can be tested from within the tool, enabling incremental development of LOB connections

Once the SDK has been installed, go to <%Program Files%>\2007 Office System Developer Resources\Tools\BDC Definition Editor\readme.html for instructions on installing and using the tool.

BDC Meta Man updated

I previously posted about a product called BDC Meta Man well the good news is that an updated version with improved functionality has been released.  SharePointNick.com has a great post about the improved features (“BDC Meta Man functionality improved for Developer and Professional versions – 1.2.0.10 released“).

BDC Meta Man

I just found this useful tool BDC Meta Man for managing metadata for the Microsoft Office SharePoint Business Data Catalog (BDC).

BDC Meta Man provides the ability to create Application Definitions for the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) Business Data Catalog (BDC) without writing a line of code.

The BDC Meta Man is offered in three different versions, Developer, Professional and Corporate. For a comparison of the different versions, see this document. Developer is free, doesn’t expire and gives one activation, Professional is $US1200.00, doesn’t expire and gives one activation, Corporate is $US12,000, doesn’t expire and gives unlimited activations.