How to search the data from the external content type in SharePoint 2010

In this article we will see how to search the data from the external content type in SharePoint 2010.

Steps Involved:

Create a new content source:

Go to Central Administration => Application Management => Manage service applications => Search Service Application => Crawling => Content Sources.
Click on "New Content Source".
Enter the Name, and select "Line of Business data" option in the Content Source Type section.
In the External Data Source section, select "Business Data Connectivity Service" from the drop down and select "Crawl selected external data source".
Click on Ok.
A new content source is created successfully.

Start the full crawl:

Go to Central Administration => Application Management => Manage service applications => Search Service Application => Crawling => Content Sources.
Select BCS, go to the ECB menu and click on Start Full crawl.

Create a new search scope:

Go to Central Administration => Application Management => Manage service applications => Search Service Application => Queries and Results => Scopes.
Click on New Scope.
Enter the Title and click Ok.
A new scope is created successfully.
Click on "Add Rules".
In the "Scope Rule Type" section, select Content Source option.
In the "Content Source" section, select BCS from the drop down.
Click on Ok.
It will be updated after a particular interval, if you want update now go to Administration => Search Administration => System Status =>Scopes needing update => click on "Start update now".
Refresh the page until the scope update process completes.

Create a new search center site and configure the search scopes:

Open the SharePoint site.
Go to Site Actions => New Site =>All categories => Search.
Select Basic Search Center template.
Enter the Name and URL name.
Click on Create.
Go to the root level site.
Go to Site Actions => Site Settings =>Site Collection Administration => Search settings.
In the "Site Collection search center" section, select Enable custom scopes option and enter the basic search center URL that we have created.
Click on Ok.
Go to Site Actions => Site Settings =>Site Collection Administration => Search scopes.
Click on Display Groups.
Select BCS and I have made the BCS as a default scope.
Click on Ok.

Search for a data from the external content type:

Go to the root site and if you see by default in the search scope dropdown list BCS will be selected.
Enter a search term that will return the result from the external content type.
It will return the result with a BDC protocol URL which cannot be used by the end user.
If we want to view the entire details for the search you need to create the profile page.