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Sharepoint 2010 BCS Login failed for user "NT AUTHORITY\ANONYMOUS LOGON"

Given the task to create an external list on a Sharepoint 2010 site, the general steps to follow are the following:

• Create the external Content Type
• Create the content type CRUD operations
• Define the identifier field
• Define a list length threshold
• Create the associated list and forms
• Set the meta data store permissions and object permissions according to planned

A step by step example can be found on this post. However, having things done, I faced the following error when trying to view the list on the site:

This resulted from the fact that apparently the Business Data Connectivity Service wasn't passing the current user's  credentials to access the external data, although  the “Connect with User’s Identity” had been selected on the external content type creation.
Not being able to solve this issue, I tried to configure the data source to use the credential running the BCS service which had full access to the data. When trying to save the object on Sharepoint Designer, I got the following error:



To make the desired change, you should run the following commands on the Sharepoint Administration Powershell prompt:

PS C:\Users\SPSadmin> Get-SPServiceApplication

DisplayName          TypeName             Id
-----------          --------             --
...
User Profile Serv... User Profile Serv... 2303b602-0d87-46b8-a684-e6a884dd1071
...

PS C:\Users\SPSadmin> $bdc = Get-SPServiceApplication -id 2303b602-0d87-46b8-a684-e6a884dd1071
PS C:\Users\SPSadmin> $bdc.RevertToSelfAllowed = $true
PS C:\Users\SPSadmin> $bdc.Update()

Afterwards, restart the Business Data Connectivity Service and the list should be working fine.
For this and other Sharepoint 2010 issues I strongly recommend reading Professional SharePoint 2010 Administration.

Sharepoint 2010: create new list items using pure javascript

On Sharepoint 2010, every site has a Representational State Transfer (REST) interface. The SharePoint 2010 Representational State Transfer (REST) interface is a WCF Data Service that allows you to use construct HTTP requests to query SharePoint list data. The URL of this WCF service will be in the form:

The data and operations are represented and supported using the OData protocol. The Open Data Protocol (OData) enables the creation of HTTP-based data services, which allow resources identified using Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) and defined in an abstract data model, to be published and edited by Web clients using simple HTTP messages.
As described above in the OData documentation, a Service Document is exposed that lists all the top-level feeds so clients can discover them and find out the addresses of each of them. The service document is typically available at the Service Root URI and may be formatted in Atom or JSON as described in [OData: Atom] and [OData: JSON].
Mapping this concept to the Sharepoint 2010 architecture, the service document URI is our ListData.svc address and the top level feed will be an Atom feed with all the Sharepoint Lists existing at the site. The feed for a specific list will have the address:


Having explained this, one can go through the steps of creating a simple javascript to use AJAX and JSON to create a new list item. For this we will use:

• datajs: a new cross-browser JavaScript library that enables data-centric web applications by leveraging modern protocols such as JSON and OData and HTML5-enabled browser features. It's designed to be small, fast and easy to use.
• json: became a built-in feature of JavaScript when the ECMAScript Programming
  Language Standard - Fifth Edition was adopted by the ECMA General Assembly
  in December 2009. However, if you have run-time problems, you can try to include this.
• jQuery: fast and concise JavaScript Library that simplifies HTML document traversing, event handling, animating, and Ajax interactions for rapid web development.

First, create a simple HTML file and include the required JS libraries:

< script src="http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com/ajax/jQuery/jquery-1.6.1.min.js" type="text/javascript">
< /script>
< script src="datajs-1.0.2.min.js" type="text/javascript">
< /script> 
< script src="json2.js" type="text/javascript">
< /script> 

Next,  create the fucntion that will add the new item to the target list:

function addNewItem() {     
 // create a typeless JS object and fill it with values for the new list item  
 var newItem = {    attribute1: $("#formField1").val(),
         attribute2: $("#formField2").val(),
         attribute3: $("#formField3").val()};  

// create the JS object to pass as parameter to the OData request 
var requestOptions = {    requestUri: "[your list URL]", method: "POST", data: newItem };  

// call OData.request to add item with HTTP POST operation  
 OData.request(requestOptions, OnSuccess, OnError);

 }

Finally, create callback function the handle success and error outcomes:

function OnSuccess(data, request) {
   alert("Success!");
}

function OnError(error) {
 alert(JSON.stringify(error));
}

To fit this all together, use an HTML form to input the required fields and a button that calls the add new item function "addNewItem()".

Happy programming!