There may be instances in which data *gasp* resides outside of SharePoint, but still within the scope of the enterprise’s operations, and you will want to incorporate this data into the SharePoint platform. As an example, you may have a database of all your sales opportunities in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Madison but would like to have this data available on your “Sales Team Site” within SharePoint.

SharePoint Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is just that… the management of the Enterprise’s content. The question then becomes how to interact with information in databases outside of SharePoint, but manage the content within SharePoint. The solution is through the use of External Content Types and External Lists.

External Content Type

An External Content Type is a connection to external data, such as a SQL or Oracle database, that can be incorporated into the SharePoint platform. Created using SharePoint Designer, this connection can be reused as many times as you need to interact with the connection’s data. You will notice that I said “interact” and not “view”. These connections can be bi-directional, in that if you create an External List within SharePoint (more on that in a minute) and update an item within the list, it will update the database. This is a powerful yet potentially dangerous aspect of external content types, so be careful when determining who has the permissions to update an External List.  

Sample SharePoint Designer Interface with External Content Types Highlighted

External List

Once an External Content Type has been defined, you can create an External List within SharePoint to display and interact with the data stored in the external database. Site columns (metadata) are created within SharePoint that match up to the external data’s site columns (metadata). This is critical on many levels, including the capability to update external data from SharePoint and for searching by metadata within SharePoint. These External Lists can also be the base data for dynamic Web Parts and Business Intelligence… as data is updated externally, it will be reflected in your External List and any SharePoint components which reference the External List.

Example External List within SharePoint 2010

Conclusion

True content management must accommodate all content, including content traditionally held outside of SharePoint, such as CRM and ERP data. By leveraging External Content Types and External Lists you can bring this content into the SharePoint platform to manage and display “live-data”. How you use this data is up to your business needs and requires careful consideration.

MSDN Article:  How to: Create an External Content Type Based on a SQL Server Table

MSDN Article:  How to: Create External Lists in SharePoint

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