SharePoint Series / InfoPath BDC Creator - Open Existing BDC Files

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Hi,

One of the most interesting things of the InfoPath BDC Creator is the ability to edit your own files, in order to change some elements or add new sections, etc.

This can be achieved by adding the necessary Processing Instruction in order to open with InfoPath based on the Tool template.

If you have the Tool in a disk location, you will need to change the href to point to that location. Open the xml with notepad, delete any PI (<?*****?>) and add the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><?mso-infoPathSolution solutionVersion="0.1.0.91" productVersion="12.0.0" PIVersion="1.0.0.0" href="file:///C:\path\InfoPath%20BDC%20Creator.xsn" name="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:infopath:InfoPath-BDC-Creator:http---schemas-microsoft-com-office-2006-03-BusinessDataCatalog" language="es-ES" ?><?mso-application progid="InfoPath.Document" versionProgid="InfoPath.Document.2"?>

(the language will vary based on your current language. es-ES for Spain)

On the other hand if you have published the Template into a forms library, the header of the file will look like this one:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><?mso-infoPathSolution solutionVersion="0.1.0.94" productVersion="12.0.0" PIVersion="1.0.0.0" href="https://serverpath/Forms/template.xsn" name="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:infopath:formularios:http---schemas-microsoft-com-office-2006-03-BusinessDataCatalog" language="es-ES" ?><?mso-application progid="InfoPath.Document" versionProgid="InfoPath.Document.2"?>

(I'll talk about relink functionality in other entry)

This can allow us to create a BDC Library in order to store and manage BDC versioning files, in the Central Administration Site. A nice feature would be to create a BDC Library with a custom action in order to deploy the selected file into Business Data Catalog, and manage with a workflow which ones are actually deployed, and marked as metadata of the file.

I have tested it with the MSDN AdventureWorksDW SQL Server, AdventureWorks2000 PassThrough Metadata Sample , SampleWebService Metadata here is a screenshot:

Sample Web Service MEtadata

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You may experience that the InfoPath is a bit slow, as the whole file renders. And I’m still checking the AmazonSample.

Enjoy!