In SharePoint, graphically display data from a web service

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In SharePoint, graphically display data from a web service

[SharePoint/MOSS 2007]

I want to access several web services (on external sites, with WSDL descriptors), and graphically display the data, using a separate web part to display each item.

The graph for each is quite simple - just a thermometer, or traffic lights (as in KPI).

I want to be able to access more detail about the data with a web click

What are the basic sharepoint components for this?

I am able to program a web part, if necessary.

(background - I've been looking through KPI, PerformancePoint, Data Connection Libraries, InfoPath, Business Data catalogs, etc. I just need a someone to tell me which are the right components for further investigation).

+1 A:

I think you should solve this without considering SharePoint, i.e. you should create Web Services proxies (add Service reference) in order to access the external Web Service and then create the necessary HTML to represent the result.

One this is working, you can wrap it in a Web part.

You could use the Business Data Catalog to access the Web Service, but it is really hard to use and then you'd still need some way to transform the data in order to get the graphical display. KPIs are useful if you have lists with the required information, not for external data from a Web Service. I don't see InfoPath or PerformancePoint playing any role in this case.

Timores 2010-02-26 00:25:19

Thankyou, Timores. This answer is most helpful. I asked for a top level "do this, don't do that" kind of answer, which is what you've given. I'll leave it open for a bit longer, before marking it as the accepted answer, in case someone else wants to comment. I'm inclined to prefer the Business Data Catalog to get the data into SharePoint, because then it is available for a variety of views, not just my graphs. I'll have to work out how to read the Catolog into my web part for display. Hopefully it is available in the SharePoint API.

Javaman59 2010-02-26 23:48:15

The BDC is available in the SharePoint API. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/ms558854.aspx. But, as you say, setting up the BDC is complicated, wheras just reading a web service directly into a web part can be done a web reference and a few of lines of WCF.

Javaman59 2010-02-27 00:09:10

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In SharePoint, graphically display data from a web service

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