SPSRED - BCS, REST ans Subscriptions
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This document discusses Business Connectivity Services (BCS), REST, and subscriptions in SharePoint. It provides background on BCS and how it allows SharePoint to index external data sources. It describes how to use OData and REST APIs to expose data and handle subscriptions. It explains the subscription process, how to implement subscription support in an external system, and the different event receiver types supported for subscriptions. The document demonstrates creating a subscription and debugging the event message.
SPSRED - BCS, REST ans Subscriptions
- 1. BCS, REST and Subscriptions What is it and how to get it working!
- 2. Chris Givens, CEO ACS San Diego SPUG - www.sanspug.org
- 3. Background • BS Computer Science, Math, Business • 5 years at IBM in Sales and Distribution • 10 years in Seattle at various startups – Large volume transaction processing (Credit, Debit, Loyalty) • Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) since 2007 – CISSP, CCNP, JAVA, MCSD, SharePoint 4x • CEO ACS, leading SharePoint courseware provider to Microsoft Certified Training centers – Top selling titles in Development, BI and Search • SharePoint Sr. Architect – eBay – General Atomics
- 4. What led to this session? • MOC Course 20489 – Advanced Development with SP2013 • Module 9 – “Working with Business Connectivity Services” – No documentation (“that works”) – No one has ever done this (outside PG) • Also led to posts on this subject on MSDNMSPress and my blog
- 5. Business Connectivity Services • Service application that allows – External lists – BDC Columns – Indexing search content • Custom BCS Connectors allow SharePoint to index ANYTHING – Yes, anything!
- 6. ODataREST • A simple approach at exposing APIs using common standard such as HTTP and REST – http://developer.cbssports.com/documentation • End points define the entities and methods you want to call – /stats – /add_drop • Parameters typically passed in the query string – POST data will be in body
- 7. Subscriptions • Subscriptions allow SharePoint to be notified when external data changes – Adding – Modifying – Deleting • Event receivers have been around since 2003 – 2003 – only one - Recycle Bin – 2007 - Event Receivers – 2010 – More receivers added (no support for external lists)
- 8. Subscription Methods • Two new BDC stereotyped methods – EventSubscriber – EventUnsubscriber • Methods can be implemented in various ways: – Database (Scot Hillier was 1st) – OData (CJG was 1st ) • These are in addition to the CRUD methods – CRUD methods easily created using SP Designer for database or Visual Studio with REST wizard
- 9. BDC Model Method Properties • Subscription – IsDeliveryAddress – the delivery address to send to the external system – IsEventType – the type of event • Unsubscribe – SubscriptionIdName – The external systems subscription id
- 10. BDC Model Method Attributes • ODataEntityUrl – Suffix of rest end point • ODataHttpMethod – GET, POST • ODataPayloadKind – http://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/microsoft.data.odata.odatapayloadkind%28v=vs.113%29.aspx • ODataFormat – Content-type header (application/json;odata=verbose) – Based on the external system end point json support – OData Version 2 vs 3 (visual Studio wizard) • ODataServiceOperation – ??? • NotificationParserType – Defines the class that will handle the parsing of the external message
- 11. Implementing External System Support • OData generated services will not have the methods necessary to support notifications – You must add them (Subscribe and Unsubscribe) • This is tricky – OData Service uses its own HTTP request handling mechanism – Request body is not available in your method – Expect to pass method parameters in the query string, not via the body
- 12. The Subscription Process • Subscription list (External Subscription Store) must be created first – Created via External Events feature (BCSEvents, ExternalSubscription) – Hidden list in _private/ExtSubs • SharePoint calls subscribe method – Method returns SubscriptionId • Subscription list item is created with subscription information
- 13. Creating Subscriptions • You can do this in three main ways – Explicitly call the Subscribe method (Server, Client, JSOM) – Create an alert • Very easy to do this for testing • Ensure you setup the outgoing email settings – Create an event receiver • Some things get cached in the event receiver registration • Requires you to remove and re-add
- 14. Watch Out! • You web method code may execute successfully, but the http response may fail! – In this case, you have to handle the exception and remove the subscription in your code • OData DataService implemented as custom IRequestHandler – Override HandleException method • Also prevents getting the httprequest body
- 15. Supported Event Receivers • Subscriptions can be one of three types – ItemAdded (1) – ItemUpdated (2) – ItemDeleted (3) • Cancel events are not supported – ItemAdding, ItemUpdating, ItemDeleting – No application domain that would wrap the two systems (EAI concepts)
- 16. Message Formats • NotificationParserType – IdentityParser • /a:feed/a:entry/a:content/m:properties/b:BcsItemIdentity • Very simply event has occurred…no changed data – ODataEntryContentNotificationParser • /a:entry/a:link/m:inline/a:entry • Includes changed data – Custom • Inherit from abstract class NotificationParser • Implement the Initialize method • Why? Change the format to JSON rather than ATOM • Except for the XPath, everything is ignored!
- 17. Getting the Message • Event receivers will expose the message sent from the external system – Allows for custom processing in your event receiver • Property called NotificationMessage • NOTE: Attempts to get item properties will fail if the message is improperly formatted – No parsing on message receive
- 18. Demo • Create a subscription • Change data • Debug the event • Analyze the message
- 19. Summary • It does work! • External system must support sending notifications back to SharePoint • Message format is very specific • Ensure subscriptions get created in list • MSDN Blog • MSDN Code
- 20. Questions? • What’s on your mind?