What is ADF?

This is an XML file that describes your data source, how to connect to it, and the various queries, actions, and filters to display and sort the data. There are many way to create this ADF such as Application Definition Designer (ADD) and BDCMetaMan, I am going to use ADD to create the ADF.

Okay, we will see the steps here:

1. Installing and configuring the “Application Definition Designer” tool.

Please follow the steps in my previous post.

2. Creating the ADF using Application Definition Designer

Step 1: Open the ADD start –> programs –> Application Definition Designer

Step 2: You will be getting the designer and click on “Add LOB System”

Step 3: Then click on Connect to Database, you will be getting this dialog box to select the DB connection

Step 4: Choose connection type and enter connection string (I have created a database sample for this, you can see here)

Connection Type: SQL Server
Connection String: “Data Source=<ServerName>;Initial Catalog=Database1;Integrated Security=True”

Step 5: Click Connect button and you will be getting this window

Step 6: Click Add table tab and drag & drop the Database1.dbo.Table1 on the Design Surface

Step 7: Click Ok and then you will prompt to get the name of LOB, enter the name and click OK (I have given ADF_Table1)

Step 8: You will get the screen like this

Please note: We need to do few modifications to complete this task, otherwise we will be getting the following error when we use this ADF on the SharePoint1  😦

“There are no Business Data Types loaded in the Catalog – Business Data Type Picker”

 I have a post about this error in my previous article, please check it out.

Step 9: So Expand “FindAll_[Database1].[dbo].[Table1]” node under Methods and click Instances

In the Instances node click “FindAll_[Database1].[dbo].[Table1]_Instance” and you can see the properties of this method.

You can see the “MethodInstanceType” property has “IdEnumerator” method instead of the “Finder”. So just click the drop down list and select the Finder method.

Step 10: That’s all we done with the ADF now, just click the export button and get the file

You can see the ADF (xml) file now 🙂

Thanks R./