External Lists in SharePoint Workspace

1. On the SharePoint Server Ribbon, in the List tab, click Sync to SharePoint Workspace as shown below.
   
   
   
2. Sync to SharePoint Workspace wizard will pop up. Click the OK to button to confirm that you want to sync the external list to your computer.
   
   
   
3. SharePoint Workspace 2010 will now create a local cached copy of the external list.
   
   
   
4. Microsoft Office Customization Installer wizard will pop up, click the Install button.
   
   
   
5. Click on Close.
   
   
   
6. Once the Syncing is completed, click on Open Workspace.
   
   
   
7. This will take few minutes to display the external data in the workspace.
   
   
   
8. Now you could see the external data in SharePoint workspace as shown in the following
   
   
   

CRUD operations on External List from SharePoint 2010 workspace:

We can now read, create, update, and delete external data directly from SharePoint Workspace 2010 just as like normal SharePoint list items. The changes we make in SharePoint Workspace 2010 will automatically sync with the external list. Since the data is cached, we will be able to access it even when we are offline.

Read operation:

Just click on the external data you could able to see the item details as shown in the following



Create operation:

On the SharePoint Workspace Ribbon, in the Home tab, click New as shown below.



Enter the new data and click on Save & Close.



A new item is updated in the external list as shown in the following



The changes we made in SharePoint Workspace 2010 will automatically sync with the external list as shown in the following.



Delete operation:

Select the item to be the deleted, go to the SharePoint Workspace Ribbon, in the Home tab, click Delete as shown below.



Update operation:

Double click on the item that has to be updated, make the changes and click on Save & Close.

Sorting, grouping, or filtering items in external lists

You can click the drop-down arrows next to column headers in an external list to see the same sorting, grouping, and filtering options that are available for external lists on the SharePoint site.