Advanced CorasWorks users may be aware of the CorasWorks Application Service, or CAPS for short. CAPS enables users to build & extend solutions leveraging SharePoint through a REST-like service that includes support for multiple output types, integration with the rest of the CorasWorks v11 platform and advanced processing via XSL 2.0.
The CorasWorks Application Service for eXternal data (CAPS-Xt) has a similar model for configuring & using. Unlike CAPS though, CAPS-Xt is focused on integrating data from external sources, and providing the same extensible options around multiple format outputs and XSL 2.0 capabilities. The interaction between CAPS-Xt and the external system inherits from & is governed by the service account used for a given CAPS-Xt connection; that is, if the account the connection is configured to use only allows Read access to the data, that is all authorized users will be able to do. If the account the connection is configured to use allows Read/Write access, then the same will be true via CAPS-Xt.
A connection is defined as a saved configured that represents a query or stored procedure call against an external system. Once a connection has been saved, it can be executed via call to the CAPS-Xt service. The service can integrate with most any external system that supports OLE DB or ODBC connectivity.
NOTE: While the CAPS-Xt Connection Manager supports creating connections to external systems by placing connection information (or a fully formed connection string) into the configuration, Production solutions should always leverage a web.config-based connection string, which is also supported by the Connection Manager; this provides the most security for sensitive connection information such as server names or IP addresses, database names and service account usernames & passwords.