SharePoint List v/s CDS - User/dev experience

[ManishM]

PowerApps Dev team and experts

Would you say it is a better dev/user experience so move data from SharePoint to CDS when possible?

My question stems from my current multiple experiences of how erratic the data access is when reading from a SharePoint. Just until last week, my PM system which is developed in PowerApps with SP, stopped showing basic results in a gallery but is storing any new data to SharePoint list.

Such uncertainty does beg a question on the reliability of the existing code set version and approach.

Any insight will help me decide whether to move all my data to CDS for expected reliability.

Thanks

ManishM

[v-micsh-msft]

My personal suggestion here is:

Do not store the data in a single data source.

In addition, currenlty Common Data Service only supports Importing( or Export )data from Excel.

Check the following document for more details:

The Common Data Service

Regards,

Michael

[ManishM]

@v-micsh-msftThanks for your response.

Could you please elaborate what you mean when you say do not store data in a single data source - is it for backup purpose or to distribute data access load across different delegable sources?

My worry is more for the reliability of the data access. I am happy to move the data using import from Excel but is it worth the move to ensure reliability of data access every time?

I have lot of challenge working with Date field type in SharePoint List when accessing based on date criteria/filter. It giving the blue wiggly line or no result no matter how much I try to do the matching of the data type. Will this be gone if I move to CDS?

Sharepoint List - when it reaches 3000 records, it starts to act up by not showing any further records in the galleries which it used to show before even if I summarize the data set to < 500. I thought it was 5000 records limit. Will the 3k/5k record limitation be gone if I move to CDS?

Some times when my system accesses supporting data from OneDrive Excel, it behaves erratic and causes my team to hold back their data entry until the next day. Will this be gone if I move the data to CDS?

I have many more such experiences that break my system hence I am looking for reliability and move forward to build other systems. I apologize for being curt here. Please know that I DO LOVE the PowerApps technology and all the connectivity and integration it allows and will not give up building Apps using it.

Thank you

ManishM

[mkujalowicz]

Hello, 

I fully support Manish. I'm about to build a new app in PowerApps and honestly I have doubts when it comes to chosing SharePoint List or CDS. It wouold be good to understand limitation of both methods of storing data. Thank you!

Mag

[JHeredia]

I just wanted to say me too...I've built a simple project tracker in PowerApps and am nowhere near the limitations so far, but I'm looking at building a much bigger system to help organize machines, maintenance, repairs, and predict failures.  I can't for the life of me find anything that tells me whether I should move to the CDS or whether Sharepoint lists are fine.  I'm thinking Sharepoint because I want office workers to be able to access/work with it, but if it means my mobile guys have issues, I don't want that.  I also don't want to do a bunch of work and that have to go back and redo it all.

Not sure if any of you have figured out some answers to any of this, but I'm grateful for any info or tips any of you can provide.

Thanks!

[NigelP]

Hi @JHeredia

I dont know about CDS too much, but SharePoint lists are OK as long as you know how to handle them.

PowerApps, by default, only handles 500 items at a time (2000 if you change the Apps Setting).  So if you only bring a smallish number of records back thats fine.  If you try and bring a lot of records (list items ) back then there are problems.  The advantage with SharePoint lists is that is that office 365 users can see them.  You cannot do that with CDS. In fact I dont know another way of reading items from CDS.  Then there is the dreaded delegation problems with SHarePoint lists.  But this can be resolved using collections.  Read the list items into a collection and then do the filtering / searching on the collection.

So, as you might have gathered, I am in favour of SharePoint lists.

Regards

Nigel

[mogulman]

I've only done a comparison between CDS and Azure SQL DB.  Hands down the winner was Azure SQL DB.  I want a database technology where I can easily get data into and out of.  SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio) does this.  I can write complex queries against data.  It supports views.  Azure functions can read/write the data and I can call an Azure function from PowerApps.  You don't need a special PowerApp license to use it.  It is inexpensive.  I'm using a Basic license ($5/month). 

[JHeredia · Accepted solution]

That's really helpful, thanks @NigelP !  I was worried that Sharepoint wouldn't be able to handle what I needed, but that helps me to feel better about using it.  I can't see ever needing more than 500 records at a time within the PowerApp, but that would allow office staff to access everything through Sharepoint Online if needed.

I don't know anything about delegation (unfortuntely, very new to all this), but I appreciate the tip. I'll research collections and see if I can use that.  Still haven't decided on which to use, but I'll definitely try using Sharepoint Lists for it now.

Thanks again!

[JHeredia]

Thanks @mogulman ,

That's good to know, my only concern is you seem to have a solid dev experience and background, where as I'm pretty new to this all.  Does Azure SQL DB require learning a lot of coding to be able to use and implement?  I have no experience with Azure...I was trying to get a Bing Maps Key and it was slightly overwhelming 😛

Thanks for sharing your thoguhts!

[TorreyFalconer]

Hey @mogulman 

You said the SQL database id only $5/month? Per app user? That's it?!