Note: this Web Part requires Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 Enterprise Edition with the Business Data Catalog (BDC) features enabled, and the FilterZen BDC Extensions installed.

The FilterZen BDC Business Data Item Builder Web Part initially serves the same purpose as the built-in Business Data Item Builder Web Part provided by Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 Enterprise Edition: to obtain the ID of a Business Data Catalog (BDC) entity instance and broadcast that instance to compatible Web Parts. However, the FilterZen BDC Business Data Item Builder Web Part goes beyond the built-in equivalent Web Part in many ways:

Obtaining the Entity Instance ID

The out-of-the-box Web Part can only ever obtain the required entity instance ID from a pre-defined URL Parameter. The FilterZen Web Part obtains the required entity instance ID from any connected Web Part. While you can achieve the original behaviour by connecting to a URL (query string) Filter Web Part or a FilterZen Filter Web Part with a Page Request / URL Filter, there are now innumerable ways of providing the entity instance ID, including any built-in or custom FilterZen filter types and the out-of-the-box provider Web Parts, for example List Views.

Simply choose your preferred entity instance ID provider Web Part from the Connections / Get BDC Entity Instance ID From sub-menu.

Sending the selected Entity Instance to BDC Web Parts

Simply select from the Connections / Send Selected Item To sub-menu any Business Data Actions or Business Data Item Web Part to send the entity instance associated with the current entity instance ID. You can only connect to Web Parts that have been pre-configured for a specific Business Data Catalog application and data type. For the FilterZen BDC Business Data Item Builder Web Part to become aware of the Business Data Catalog application, data type and entity columns to use, you need to make at least one such connection.

Sending any Entity Instance Column values to any Web Parts

Once you have made at least one such connection and the FilterZen BDC Business Data Item Builder Web Part became aware of the Business Data Catalog application, data type and entity columns to use, you can now send live BDC column values of the selected entity instance to any kind of consumer Web Part: simply select your preferred consumer Web Parts from the Connections / Provide values as data row to sub-menu.