Create external list in sharepoint Via API data

Question

I want to create an external list in SharePoint via API data.

My questions are as follows:

1- How to create external list in SharePoint via API data?

2- when user updates item in SharePoint, how can I know those fields and items that edited by users? version history is one option. Any options are preferable?

Answer 1

1. We can use the code below to create external list.

   SPListDataSource ds = new SPListDataSource();
   ds.SetProperty(SPListDataSource.BDCProperties.LobSystemInstance, "Demo Customers");
   ds.SetProperty(SPListDataSource.BDCProperties.EntityNamespace, "http://intranet");
   ds.SetProperty(SPListDataSource.BDCProperties.Entity, "Demo Customers");
   ds.SetProperty(SPListDataSource.BDCProperties.SpecificFinder, "CustomerRead Item");
   using (SPSite site = new SPSite("http://intranet"))
   {
       using (SPWeb web = site.RootWeb)
       {
           web.Lists.Add("Demo Customers", "Demo Customers", "Lists/DemoCustomers", ds);
       }
   }
   

   http://chakkaradeep.com/index.php/creating-external-lists-programmatically/

2. Version history is a good option to achieve your requirement, we can also use event receiver to monitor the user changed for the list item.

   https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff650021.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396