How do I get Sharepoint to retrieve data from another database?

Question

I would like Sharepoint to present the content of a view from another server. There is no need to modify the data, but sorting would be nice.

Can I accomplish this without (too much) coding?

Answer 1

You have a few options:

1. Run custom code in SharePoint that connects to the database and queries the information. This could be a custom webpart or a new page that you put in the _layouts folder.
2. Instead of connecting to the database directly, you could publish the data using a web service or an RSS feed. That way, you don't have to worry about a DB connection. You could connect to this using a Content Editor webpart and custom JavaScript.

Those are just two options--there are others. Really, it depends a lot on what you need to do. For example, should any SharePoint user be able to see the data pulled from the database? How are you going to handle security? Are there dozens of rows you're pulling from the database or millions?

Anything you do will require some amount of coding.

Answer 2

Off the top of my head, you could use reporting services on your SharePoint box to present the data, if you're running SRS. Alternately, you could dig into the business data catalog (BDC):

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms563661.aspx

The latter assumes you're running MOSS 2007.