Multiple Datasources

[LeeJBS]

Hi All

Thanks for all your help. I think im learning a fair bit from this community.

In regards to using multiple datasources I have been building a sales pipeline app and have my main source which is a SharePoint List. This app all the sales team fill out for sales opportunities. 

I now need to have different department specific questions that need to be filled out by the sales team depending on the department they select in the form. These are ranging from an extra 5 to 20 questions per department (currently 7 departments)

What is the best practice here.

Do i create a sharepoint list for each department with their requirements Or do i keep adding to the original source Sharepoint list?

Then if I create extra lists for each departments requirements, what is the best way to link that into the main form on the app? Do I do some sort if unique ID to link it all?

Thanks in advance

Lee

[poweractivate]

@LeeJBS 

Would recommend Common Data Service for this instead, if possible, though it can still be done also with one or more SharePoint lists.

Does your business requirements dictate the use of SharePoint List?

[LeeJBS]

Hi @poweractivate 

Thanks for the super quick reply.

Sharepoint was where all the data was originally, and this is meant to only be a short term thing (6-9months) until this component is moved into salesforce. So they didnt want to spend much on it due to its short lifespan. 

[poweractivate]

@LeeJBS 

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@LeeJBS wrote:

Then if I create extra lists for each departments requirements, what is the best way to link that into the main form on the app? Do I do some sort if unique ID to link it all?

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We recommend you create them as separate lists in your case.
You can use more than one data source at the same time in same app, including more than one SharePoint (SP) List.

You refer to a data source by the name it is assigned when you add the data source.

You can use multiple SP lists at once in the same PowerApp and refer to them from anywhere in the app.

Does this help?

[LeeJBS]

Yep.

So I would use my current list "Source"

Then Department1 list, department2 list ...

Then I would use the department drop down list from the source that would pull that specific departments list of questions. 

I would assume I would need some form of Unique ID column to link the relationship yeah?

[poweractivate · Accepted solution]

@LeeJBS 

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@LeeJBS wrote:

Then if I create extra lists for each departments requirements, what is the best way to link that into the main form on the app? Do I do some sort if unique ID to link it all?

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@LeeJBS wrote:

Yep.

I would assume I would need some form of Unique ID column to link the relationship yeah?

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Perhaps. For this you would want to have mapping of which List goes with which selection from the dropdown (you can use nested If statement, something more advanced like Tables with key value lookup, etc.). This column would go on your main list. Then the selected value in dropdown pulls from this. You do not necessarily need to link the lists by their internal id's though.

Example: List1, List2, List3 are possible values

You can have table like this with column1 and column2 as follows:

List1       ActualList1DataSource

List2       ActualList2DataSource

List3       ActualList3DataSource

Then whichever is selected, use the table to get the data source you should be using there's your "link" to the data source.

Or instead, maybe it is easier to split across screens (maybe) and navigate to the right screen with the separate from there, or, use same screen to hide and show the correct form with the Visible property (more difficult, but may be better).

You can decide regarding your scenario which may be better.