ommon Data Service looks great but when delegation will works?

[Anonymous]

Hello there!

I'm new in powerapps and set up apps working with azure DB. I have the same issues than other within delegation like (no delegation with date type filter, there is a trick for that :P, the In function isn't delegable and many others...).

CDS looks like a awesome way to build, mine and update data. I know CDS is in development and improving itself permanently. But:

- What is the roadmap of the developpers with CDS?

- There will be more delegation with SQL than with CDS?

- Is your purpose to improve CDS until it use a full range of delegation management?

- And the hardest question, when will it be better to use CDS instead of SQL (like azure DB) ? For sure... Not now.

I think that many people like me gamble on powerapps + powerBI + CDS. They could be awesome in the future and helps a lot of companyes in their data management. I hope people in this forum wants to know if the technology will be interesting in 6 months of 6 years !

Please can you give us information.

Kind reards

[CWesener]

Adding @bsimons from the Connector team.

[bsimons · Accepted solution]

Hello - 

We have recently added many new features to the Common Data Service, and much of that is around app extensibility.  The Common Data Service provides lots of capabilites without having to be a developer, but if you are a developer we also provide an array of extensibility points.  This blog has some good info as well regarding the latest updates: https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/cds-for-apps-march/ (Calculated & Rollup Fields, Business Rules, Full API etc).

If you have specific delegation asks then please let us know.  As you know, SQL has a very complex and capable query language so providing parity may be tricky.  However, let us know the specifics and we can see how to improve.

When to use SQL vs CDS will remain generally up to you, but CDS provides a lot more than data storage and querying.  In the link referenced above you will find a ton of capabilites that you get from having your data in CDS which you don't get with SQL.  If you are simply looking to store data then SQL and CDS would work, but if you are looking to build business apps then CDS would be the go to.

Hope this helps!

[Anonymous]

@bsimons, thank you very much for your answer.

I have just another question. Because of delegation not handled for the moment with CDS (like filters on dates). I use microsoft azure db.

In the future, will you supply a tool to import easily datas from azure db to the common data model (like the importation from excel to CDS) to make this migration transparent?

like this:

For each row of each tables  I choose the entity culumn destination in the CDS even if it is not in the same table (same entity) to fit with the common data model

The relationships between entities should be based on:

     - the architecture of my currents tables of my azure DB (because my tables are full of imperfections. I am new on SQL, that's why CDS looks sooooooooooooooo great)

     - relationship between entities can be done upstream of the importation

We could imagine a of tool we call "importation simulation" that we design how I told previously simulating the importation but keeping data on azure db. In this way we just change the connector from azure db to a CDS "importation simulation" and test if our application correctly works. If it is good, we perform the data importation.

I know this kind of tool should change a lot of things in the app but maybe the app automaticly change a SQL call to a CDS one (even if they are close I think there is a few differences).

kind of tool is  in your roadmap? That could allow us to use powerapps now and being sure that CDS migration will be easy to process in the future ^^

[PedroRTM]

@bsimons is there any timeline on delegation for simple formulas such as count or second degree of relationship lookup? 

[bsimons]

I don't have a specific timeline for delegation improvements.  For the "second degree" delegation can you elaborate on the specific query you are trying to delegate?

[robertcaretta]

I'd like to know if CDS will end up being a native source for sharepoint list columns.

[Anonymous]

Delegated for the "in" operator for CDS would be MUCH appreciated!

Also - any thoughts about providing a straight way to send SQL queries to some data sources (understood that PA is supposed to be targeted toward non-developers, but this would be very useful - even with some limits).

[bsimons]

Thanks for the feedback.  The IN operator is something that we can take a look into.  

We are not planning on supporting direct SQL as that would infer that users need to know the actual storage schema, which we don't intend for folks to fully understand - even if you are a developer. 🙂 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the update, and I do understand the point about the SQL - but that definitely limits the usefulness in many cases.  Options are good, even if some are more hidden from audiences who don't need to use them, but can be found by those who do.  🙂