2048 character limit with Patch command?

[UB400]

I just came across an error that has stopped me from progressing with my App.

in all my testing I did not come across this problem as I was only using short texts, now that I'm uploading text to go "live", I get hit with an error message "value must be 2048 characters at most"

I'm using a custom CDS Entity as the Data Source and the field in question is a multiline field.

Is this a PowerApp limitation or is it a limitation of the Multiline column in CDS entities? Short of splitting the text, what other solutions are there when using CDS (if it's a CDS problem)?

[v-yamao-msft]

Hi UB400,

How is your Patch function configured?

I have a custom entity with a Multiple Line field. I tried to use Patch function to save data to the entity, but I didn’t get the error message.

The function I used is:
Patch(Entity1,Defaults(Entity1),{MutipleLine:TextBox1.Text,SingleLine:TextInput1.Text})

I can save data to Entity1 without error. Could you show me more details to reproduce this issue?

Best regards,
Mabel Mao

[UB400]

@v-yamao-msft Thank you for responding to my question. My Patch command is the same as the one you showed. I checked the documentation on CDS, and the limit for Multiline Text fields is 2048, hence the error.

See image

If you entered more text that 2048 you will see the error as well. This is very restricting, there should be a higher limit than 2048.

[v-yamao-msft]

Hi UB400,

Thanks for updates.
I have seen this documentation about Entity field data type, and this documentation describes the data types that are used in entities.
The link for the documentation is:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/common-data-service/entity-reference/field-data-types

I guess that this should be currently a limitation, I will try to confirm from my side if it could be higher than 2048 in the future release.

Thanks for your understanding and patience.

Best regards,
Mabel Mao

[UB400]

@v-yamao-msft Thanks for looking into this. It would be great if there was an option for more text. The reason I moved from Sharepoint Online to CDS, was because CDS had better performance, but the limit of 2048 characters is a severely limiting.

[UB400]

@v-yamao-msft Thanks, I did find this after I had posted my question and while it's a partial solution, it's better than nothing. I'm glad to hear that a "full" solution is on it's way.

Because currently if I wanted to make a copy of an App from Dev to Test for example, or from Production to Test, it involves a fair bit of work dpending on how many entities and data there is.

Speaking of which I have another (somewhat related) question. I can't seem to find any documentation on how to add/buy more CDS DB "environments".

Currently I'm on an Office 365 subscription which gives me two environments in which I can have a CDS DB, so I can do a Dev and Production environment, but what if I want to have one more environment with a CDS DB in it, how can I add this?

[v-yamao-msft]

Hi UB400,

I have some updates for you. About the MultiLine Text filed of CDS, as this is a well-documented limitation, currently we don’t have a workaround on this issue.

If you have a request for more longer strings, please consider to create a feature request on PowerApps ideas Forum so it can be voted on. And I have collected and reported this issue from my side.

The link of PowerApps Ideas Forum is:
https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/PowerApps-Ideas/idb-p/PowerAppsIdeas

Your license determines whether you can create environments. If you are using Office 365 Plans, environment creation is not allowed. Please refer to this documentation about “Environments overview”:
https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/tutorials/environments-overview/

Best regards,
Mabel Mao