sending sharepoint list updates to an external database/service

Question

I would like to use Sharepoint as a CMS for an external system. After a user makes changes to a list item of a custom list type, I'd like to send those updates to the external system. In this case the external system is a SQL database, but we could put a webservice on top of that if it helps.

I realize there is a webservice for querying list data (using SPListItem) but that is a pull model, not a push model.

I would like to do as little custom coding within sharepoint as possible, if I did write custom code I'd prefer it to be deployed outside sharepoint (though I'm open to something that is deployed with sharepoint).

I'm not strong on Sharepoint so any idea is fine here. Maybe Sharepoint can trigger an external job, which runs custom code I provide?

Answer 1

Your best bet is to use an event handler which is bound to a list template or content type. This code will fire each time an item is added/edited/removed/etc. allowing you to take any custom actions you want, including mirroring the changes in your external system. There's more documentation on MSDN, and tons of examples for Googling. This, of course, all requires writing code that runs in SharePoint, but I can't imagine how any other push model would be easier to implement.