CDS Storage :: Document Management

[shawnaby]

Hello All,

I'm trying to figure out what CDS can do from a document storage tool. Would PowerApps be capable of creating a data room where I can drop in a bunch of Excel/Documents/Images/whatever files I want. Create folders and all that. Pretty much Sharepoint but my understanding is that CDS can technically do everything Sharepoint can do? Would this just be through the Model-Driven Apps mode versus Canvas?

My understanding Sharepoint is easier to set-up and cheaper, but I don't want to tell people PowerApps can do everything sharepoint can but better.

Best Regards,

[v-xida-msft]

Hi @shawnaby ,

Could you please share a bit more about your scenario?

Based on the issue that you mentioned, I think you have some misunderstanding in CDS and PowerApps Apps (Canvas app & Model-Driven app).

The Common Data Service is actually a built-in database service within PowerApps, which lets you securely store and manage data that's used by business applications. Data within Common Data Service is stored within a set of entities.

Please check the following article for more details:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/common-data-service/data-platform-intro

The PowerApps is actually a SaaS (Software as a service) product, which is a suite of apps, services, connectors and data platform that provides a rapid application development environment to build custom apps for your business needs. Using Power Apps, you can quickly build custom business apps that connect to your business data stored either in the underlying data platform (Common Data Service) or in various online and on-premises data sources (SharePoint, Excel, Office 365, Dynamics 365, SQL Server, and so on).

Please refer to the following article for more details:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/powerapps-overview

There are two apps type supported in PowerApps -- Canvas App & Model-Driven App. The Canvas app could connect different data sources, including Online data source (e.g. Common Data Service, SP List Online, ...) or On-premises data source (SQL Server, MySQL, ...). But the Model-Driven app could only connect to Common Data Service.

Yes, you are right -- CDS can technically do everything Sharepoint can do. The canvas app connects to CDS would have faster data processing speed that that connect to SharePoint list. And the Delegable functions or operators supported in CDS are more than that in SharePoint:

Delegable functions in SharePoint

Delegable functions in CDS

Best regards,

[NHelgren]

At this time, CDS supports images and file storage. You simply need to add the fields to the entity you want to store them. 

However, only canvas apps can make these fields available to users. We are actively working to make model driven apps available as well so expect that soon.

[DavidJennaway]

Although CDS support file storage, it is relatively basic in that it only stores files, and they are necessarily linked to a CDS record. There is no useful concept of creating folder structures within CDS, and there is no mechanism for adding additional file metadata, or for searching file contents.

Overall SharePoint was designed for document management, whereas at best CDS can provide file storage, and there is a big difference between them

[Django]

Our customers have the same question. Up until now we only use the CDS Note / Annotation entity when its only for saving attachments from a Canvas App experience (like saving a camera image and showing them in later process steps). Because CDS has several bulk edit and clean up options, I like this more than Azure Blob storage.

However when you want a full blown collaboration experience on documents: SharePoint is definitely the way to go!
You can create a PowerApp to work with data in CDS and for document storage use SharePoint. Power Automate also integrates very well with SharePoint if you need to automate certain parts.