Databases

Another option when manually exporting data is to export your data to a database via its ADO.NET connector. Workflow provides a database script for creating the correct tables in SQL Server, and this script can be modified to work with other databases. This script creates two tables: Assignment and Process for holding the respective data. Before exporting Workflow process data, you must use the script to create the tables in your database.

To use SVAdm to export process data to a database, you must provide a configuration file that contains information the system needs to do the export. This configuration file will contain an ADO.NET connection string to the database, and a list of SharePoint and database fields that describes the map between the two. This configuration file is specified in an XML format.

Example:

<Export>
<ConnectionString>Provider=sqloledb;Data Source=svdemo12;Initial Catalog=sharevis_reports;Integrated Security=SSPI;</ConnectionString>
<FieldMaps>
<FieldMap SharePointFieldName="MyTest" DatabaseFieldName="MyT2"/>
<FieldMap SharePointFieldName="DocumentStatus" DatabaseFieldName="DS"/>
<FieldMap SharePointFieldName="Division" DatabaseFieldName="Division"/>
</FieldMaps>
</Export>

This configuration file's connection string only describes the database server (svdemo12) and the database (sharevis_reports) into which to place the data. It is up to you to ensure that you have the privileges to access the database using the connection string provided. Connection strings are documented in numerous places at Microsoft's Web site and at other sites on the Internet.

The second part of the configuration describes how the SharePoint fields map to database fields in your database tables. In the above example, values from the SharePoint field MyTest would be placed into the database field named MyT2, etc. In the case of missing fields in either the SharePoint lists or the database table, that field will be skipped during synchronization. You must also ensure that the data types in SharePoint and in your database are consistent.