| Usama Ashraf
How to Create Tables in Microsoft Dataverse:
Part I
Table with its characteristics:
A Table is a collection of records with different types of data related to the particular entity.
Table is a kind of container which contains multiple types of data.
Each table corresponds to database table and each column which is also known as attribute within a table represent a column in that table.
What is Metadata?
In Dataverse metadata (data about data) is a collection of tables. Table metadata is what controls the kinds of rows you can create and what kind of actions performed on them.
Standard Vs Custom Tables:
Standard tables are those whose comes up with your dataverse environment whereas Custom tables will create as per the requirement of data.
You can edit the name of the standard tables and their columns as well but can’t be delete it whereas in custom tables you can edit the name of tables and columns, also you can delete your custom table.
Usually with standard tables you can continue your work as you expected with some minor changes of edit the table or column name but if standard table does not match your business requirement then its mandatory to create your own custom tables.
Table Relationships:
In normal database we have multiple types of relationships to connect multiple tables to achieve the desired goal. In Dataverse, we have only two types of relationships:
One-to-Many:
In one-to-many relationship, many table rows are associated with single primary row table in a parent/child relationship. In this relation, one parent can have multiple child with different attributes to achieve the goal.
Many-to-Many:
In many-to-many relationship, many table rows are associated with many other table rows. Those rows that are related with N:N relationships are considered peers. In this relation, many table rows are associate with other table rows to performed actions on them. Many-to-Many relationship is most commonly used relation between tables.
Types of Tables:
In dataverse we have two types of tables exist, you should understand these types of tables of dataverse. Once custom table created then you cannot change its type. We have following two types of tables in dataverse:
User or Team Owned:
In this type actions can be performed on user level or team level. Only users or team can be performed actions on it according to their rights
Organization Owned:
Access to data is controlled on Organization level. In this type any organization user who have rights at organization level can be performed actions on it.
We will continue more discussion on Tables in next Blog…
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