What are the pros and cons of using the BCS to integrate an external system into SharePoint versus a custom integration.
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You will find a discussion here: layer2.de/en/community/FAQs/BDLC/Pages/… Think its not about "custom" only. Possibly a 3rd party app can do more compared to OOB BCS, especially with SharePoint 2013 or SPO/cloud. 3rd party tools avoid programming, and can offer all native list features, e.g. search, change notifications, workflows - not only displaying external data on SharePoint surface...– user11338Commented Dec 4, 2012 at 12:59
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2 Answers
Pros
End User
- Business Data Web Parts & External List can render data out of the box
- Enterprise & FAST Search Integration with Managed Property Mapping support
- User Profile Synchronization
- Office Integration via External Data Column
- Office Mapping for Tasks,Contacts and Calendar
- SharePoint Workspace Support
- Single Sign on Support
- Workflow support via External Data Column and External List
Developer
- Visual Studio Tooling Support
- SharePoint Designer Support
- Out of the box support for existing SQL Databases & WebServices
- .Net Assembly Connector can connect to any other datatype
- Server side API to develop custom web parts against
- Client Side API to develop custom client integrations against
- Write once work against any data source controls are possible
Cons
End User
- Out of the Box Web Parts look outdated
- External Data Column data needs to be refreshed
Developer
- Generation and Maintenance of Model file is time consuming.
- Data Model does not support subclassing.
- Writing controls that work against any data source is time consuming.
Fabian Williams had a related post about the topic (BCS vs Alternates) a few months ago - http://www.sharepointfabian.com/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=202