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Exposing SharePoint 2010 External Content Lists via REST, SOAP, CSOM or ANY WEB SERVICE?

Answered Exposing SharePoint 2010 External Content Lists via REST, SOAP, CSOM or ANY WEB SERVICE?

  • Saturday, May 26, 2012 12:35 AM
     
     
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    HELP...I believe I have oversold my client on the benefits of SharePoint External Content Lists.  Recently, I 'surfaced' Line of Business (LOB) data via BCS, SSP, External Content Types and finally External Content Lists (ECLs)...NOW I  simply need to expose the ECLs.  Recent reading (http://www.sencha.com/blog/building-sharepoint-web-apps-using-sencha-touch/) indicated that SharePoint 2010 offers three data APIs which can be used in web apps: SP Web Services (SOAP), REST (ListData.svc) and CSOM (Client Side Object Model).

    Can someone please offer thoughts on How-To's for how to expose ECLs via one/or all of the above API's?




    • Edited by RGIA Saturday, May 26, 2012 12:45 AM
    • Edited by RGIA Saturday, May 26, 2012 12:53 AM
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  • Saturday, May 26, 2012 4:16 PM
     
     
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    There is tons of documentation out there on all three APIs. It's hard to suggest something specific without better understanding your needs. You may want to start with these videos:

    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ee513152

    and post more specific questions as you learn more about the APIs

    Doug Hemminger http://www.sharepointdoug.com

     
  • Saturday, May 26, 2012 8:19 PM
     
     
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    Yours was the first reply out of several hundred...firstly, thank you Doug for replying.

    My specific need is to expose a SharePoint 2010 External Content Type / External Content List with a SharePoint "out-of-the-box" web service that provides basic CRUD capability.  MS SharePoint is awesome and built with a REST capability "out-of-the-box".  My NEED is to work with Extended Content Types/Lists from outside of SharePoint!  I need to use a "cool tool" with sharepoint: (http://www.sencha.com/blog/building-sharepoint-web-apps-using-sencha-touch/)

    Anybody out there care to take a swing at this?

    Kevin Armstrong

     
  • Saturday, May 26, 2012 10:04 PM
     
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    Once your external content type is properly setup, it behaves, for the most part like any other list.

    Using the web services API, SPServices is a really handy way to get data off of a list using javascript. Here is a link the to SPServices codeplex page: http://spservices.codeplex.com/

    Basically, to get data off the list, you would mock up some javascript that called the SPServices jQuery function and passed in a few parameters. Here is a direct link to the GetListItems method in the SPServices documentation: http://spservices.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=GetListItems&referringTitle=Lists It includes a code sample for getting the items from a sample list. In your case, the list parameter would just be the name of your external content type list.

    If you wanted to use the Client Object Model instead...in Silverlight, for example, you would need to build a Silverlight solution with a .cs file that includes C# code to access the list. Here's an example of how to do that using the built in SharePoint Silverlight web part: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee538971.aspx

    This link has some pretty comprehensive documentation on using the REST interface: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff798339.aspx

    Doug Hemminger http://www.sharepointdoug.com

     
  • Saturday, May 26, 2012 10:29 PM
     
     
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    Doug, you're a Wizard!!!  I will begin reviewing your links above.  Just an fyi, my client development will be mostly based on JSON, Javascript and HTML5.  MS Silverlight's not in the picture.  I will only need simple ways to expose (CRUD) features against my sharepoint lists.  My goal is to try and leverage SharePoints inherent content management capabilities...kinda of use SharePoint as a comprehensive 'wrapping' framework.  

    Maybe sometime we can chat: kevin@rgia.org  I'm off to read-up on your links.

    Kevin Armstrong

     
  • Sunday, May 27, 2012 10:25 AM
     
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    if RGIA,

    As your client is developed in javascript then better that you should use the Client Object Model. Client Object Model provide the javascript liberary too. It is possible to do CRUD with normal list by Client Object model. I hope it should work with External List too.

    Good luck.

    Regards Amit

     
  • Sunday, May 27, 2012 5:29 PM
     
     
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    Thank you Amit for your recommendations.  Would you (or) anyone reading this have any CRUD Client Object Model examples for SP External Content Lists?

    Kevin Armstrong