Microsoft Business Data Catalog Definition Editor is a great tool that has made creating application definition file very easy. This tool is available in the latest SharePoint Server 2007 SDK. After installing the SDK, you can install this tool by running setup.exe from the following folder on your server:

LocalDrive:\Program Files\2007 Office System Developer Resources\Tools\BDC Definition Editor

I notice there are some issues with this first release of the tool. Of course, it works fine with the SQL server but if you try other DBs, especially through the use of DSNs, it breaks. Following are two instances when it broke while I was trying to add a new LOB system.

Example 1:

1. Click "Add LOB System".
2. Click "Connect to Database"
3. Select "Oledb" from the connection type
4. Add following connection string:

Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\Contacts.accdb;Persist Security Info=False;

5. Click "Connect"
6. Click "Add Table" and select (drag and drop) a table from the list of available tables.
7. Click OK and it will give you an error. Click the debug button and select the debugger of your choice. I selected Visual Studio and it gave me the following error message:

Figure 1: KeyNotFoundException: The given key was not present in the dictionary

Example 2:

1. Create a new DSN using "Microsoft Text Driver (*.txt;*.csv)". While creating the DSN, select a directory that contains the .txt or .csv files.
2. Open BDC Definition Editor tool and click "Add LOB System".
3. Click "Connect to Database"
4. Select "ODBC" from the connection type
5. In the connection string box, add the name of the DSN that you created. For example, dsn=dsnText where "dsnText" is the name of the DSN.
6. Click "Connect"
7. Click "Add Table". You will be shown list of files. Select a file without any spaces in the name. Things work without any problem. Now select a file that has spaces in its name and try to add it to the main area. You will get an error:

"Could not process table "filename".Make sure you have select rights on the Table/View".

Click OK and an empty table will be added. Try to delete this empty table and you will get another error. See screenshot of the error below:

Figure 2: Object reference not set to an instance of an object

These are some minor issues that I am sure will be resolved in future releases. Overall , it's an excellent tool.

-SSA