In a nutshell, securing your external data requires answering two basic questions: Who are you?

You can create your own profile page to show custom information, or an administrator can customize the profile page for you. But now more people in your organization can easily see all the common product information together in one library view. The following diagram shows a high-level view of the roles and solutions that are involved in an overall development life cycle. Custom alerts by using the Event Framework. Other examples of operations include: Managing and setting up the external data access, permissions, and queries. An external list is a key building block for SharePoint solutions based on external data. Export the external content type from SharePoint Designer 2013 or directly from the Business Data Connectivity metadata store as a BDCM file. And a small team can do big things when it works together to create a business solution based on external data. The Secure Store Service also helps manage the infamous "double hop" issue, where each authentication requires a “hop” between two computers, which can be compromised, unless steps are taken to prevent it. That’s what Business Connectivity Services is all about. A critical activity involves setting up Secure Store Service target applications, mapping of credentials, and determining the best authentication methods. Next, an administrator creates several layers of security based on permissions, much like several lines of defense around a fort, to ensure appropriate authorization and access to: The data in the external database or system. Developers    Developers create a variety of custom solutions that range from targeted, reusable components to advanced code-based solutions. Connect up-to-date customer data in your organization’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system as a set of Outlook contacts and even provide offline access. Workflows automatically manage support issues through each stage: Opened, Assigned, Escalated, Resolved, and Closed. Finally, an administrator can add an extra layer of protection through encryption. Using .NET Connectivity Assemblies, which enables access to data sources when an ADO.NET provider or Web service is unavailable. By default, Business Connectivity Services automatically creates a profile page based on the external content type. Business Connectivity Services is like a big umbrella that encompasses many SharePoint and Office features.

To help create an external content type, there are two tools of choice: Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2013    You can define and update the external content type in a declarative way and then publish it to the Business Data Connectivity metadata store. Exporting the external list to Excel 2013 for further data analysis. The following table briefly summarizes each Business Data Web Part. Importing and exporting external content types from the Business Data Connectivity metadata store. The first step in the Export to SharePoint List wizard. This means when you add data to the list on your SharePoint site, the new data will show up in your Excel table when you right click and refresh the table.

When using an external data column, you can also run the action from a menu command. Configure Business Data Connectivity Services    An administrator must ensure that the user who creates the external content type has permission to the Business Data Connectivity metadata store and that appropriate users have access to the external content type that the external list is based on. For example, you can connect the List and Item Web Parts so that when you select an expense report item in the List Web Part, such as Thursday’s charges, the item details are displayed in the Item Web Part, such as the hotel, travel, and meal charges. Although you cannot directly associate a workflow with an external list, you can create the following: Native list workflows    A workflow associated with a native list that reads or updates data from an external list by using the Create List Item, Update List Item, and Delete List Item actions. For example, external lists, Business Data Web Parts, and the Event framework are supported, but profile pages, actions, and the Connector framework are not. Data is returned either in XML or JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format.