Preface

Both Nick Swan and I have been deeply involved on a day-to-day basis with SharePoint for some time now. I’ve been teaching SharePoint development for many years, while Nick has been developing solutions in SharePoint on a consultancy basis.

Nick Swan formed the SharePoint User Group in the UK (http://www.suguk.org), which led to the two of us being introduced in early 2006. We shared an interest in the Business Data Catalog feature of MOSS 2007 Enterprise Edition, and we were both impressed by how powerful this feature could be within an organization. BDC Meta Man is a tool that makes life easier for people developing projects using the Business Data Catalog. Off the back of this tool, Nick and I decided to join forces and establish a company, Lightning Tools Ltd, that specializes in SharePoint and, more specifically, in the Business Data Catalog. Since then, we’ve created a collection of web parts and tools that help make BDC developing easier, and extend the functionality of the BDC.

Because we’ve been programming, supporting customers, and writing about the BDC every day for the last two years, we decided to author this book together. This book provides you with our in-depth knowledge on the subject, as well as ways around everyday issues that we have encountered or that our customers have faced. We hope you will find it valuable and useful in your daily work.

BRETT LONSDALE