I am working on a project having a large scale database with several stored procedures and I need to use the data in SharePoint 2013, the database is in SQL Server 2008 R2
According to my understanding I have two options:
1) is to create a Web service, using entity framework to interact with the database and most probably will use WebAPI. My logic will be in Stored procedures or DAL layer.
2) Secondly, I did a little research and got to know about the Business connectivity services provided by the SharePoint 2010/2013 as I am working with 2013 so I will be using visual studio 2012. Now learning more about the BCS I understood that I can map each table as a content type and then somehow define relationship. Anwyay, implementing BCS is a separate issue which I think I will somehow manage.
My question is how am I going to import/include my stored procedures? and if not stored procedures then where will I write my queries to get the data from the BCS?
Please direct me to right direction. Thank you.
Using a custom BCS connector you implement the way you want to retrieve the data from the DB (directly in C#), so you can query directly the table, or stored procedures.
If you want to try a BCS connector to create an external content type to use in SharePoint, take a look at my blog. My example is related to indexing sql data for the search, but the way it's done in SharePoint is creating an external content type, and this content type is the one that you index. So you'll find useful information on how to create that BCS connector.