I’ve been struggling for a while to programmatically set BCS columns. Setting the column itself isn’t that hard, but it’s getting all the related fields to show data too that’s a challenge. There seems to be no out of the box method to do this, so I’ve created one myself. Without further ado, let’s get to the code!<\/p>\n
[sourcecode language=”csharp”]
\n\/\/\/ <summary>
\n\/\/\/ Set all secondary BCS fields for a given entity
\n\/\/\/ <\/summary>
\n\/\/\/ <param name=”listItem”>The item to set the fields for<\/param>
\n\/\/\/ <param name=”dataField”>The BCS field itself<\/param>
\n\/\/\/ <param name=”entityInstance”>The entity to get the values from<\/param>
\nprivate static void SetSecondaryFields(SPListItem listItem, SPBusinessDataField dataField, IEntityInstance entityInstance)
\n{
\n\/\/ Convert the entity to a formatted datatable
\nDataTable dtBDCData = entityInstance.EntityAsFormattedDataTable;<\/p>\n
\/\/ Set the BCS field itself (Display Value)
\nlistItem[dataField.Id] = dtBDCData.Rows[0][dataField.BdcFieldName].ToString();<\/p>\n
\/\/ Get the specific finder method to get the columns that returns
\nIMethodInstance method = entityInstance.Entity.GetMethodInstances(MethodInstanceType.SpecificFinder)[0].Value;
\nITypeDescriptorCollection oDescriptors = method.GetReturnTypeDescriptor().GetChildTypeDescriptors()[0].GetChildTypeDescriptors();<\/p>\n
\/\/ Set the column names to the correct values
\nforeach (ITypeDescriptor oType in oDescriptors)
\n{
\nif (oType.ContainsLocalizedDisplayName())
\n{
\nif (dtBDCData.Columns.Contains(oType.Name))
\n{
\ndtBDCData.Columns[oType.Name].ColumnName = oType.GetLocalizedDisplayName();
\n}
\n}
\n}<\/p>\n
\/\/ get the secondary field display names; these should be set
\nstring[] sSecondaryFieldsDisplayNames = dataField.GetSecondaryFieldsNames();<\/p>\n
\/\/ loop through the fields and set each column to its value
\nforeach (string columnNameint in sSecondaryFieldsDisplayNames)
\n{
\nGuid gFieldID = listItem.Fields[String.Format(“{0}: {1}”, dataField.Title, columnNameint)].Id;
\nlistItem[gFieldID] = dtBDCData.Rows[0][columnNameint].ToString();
\n}
\n}
\n[\/sourcecode]<\/p>\n
To use this to update a list item, call it like this:<\/p>\n
[sourcecode language=”csharp”]
\nSPBusinessDataField dataField = listItem.Fields[“BCSField”] as SPBusinessDataField;
\nlistItem[dataField.RelatedField] = customerId;
\nSetSecondaryFields(listItem, dataField, entityinst);
\nlistItem.UpdateOverwriteVersion();
\n[\/sourcecode]<\/p>\n