Virtual table

Virtual tables (also known as virtual entities) enable the integration of data residing in external systems by seamlessly representing that data as tables in Microsoft Dataverse, without replication of data and often without custom coding^{(Microsoft documentation)}.

Since release 16.0, virtual tables can also be used in Resco mobile apps, both online and offline.

Preview Since release 16.1, users of the mobile apps can create, update, and delete records for these tables.

Configuration in Woodford

Virtual tables can be made available in the app projects using Woodford, just like standard tables.

1. Edit an app project in Woodford.
2. Select the virtual table from the Project menu.
3. Click Enable to add the table to your project.
4. Select the fields that you want to include.
5. Save all changes.

Synchronization

Most tables use "versionnumber" for incremental synchronization. Unfortunately, virtual tables don't have this column. As a fallback, we can use the "modifiedon" column instead. It must be properly configured in Woodford.

Preview If the table has a column that behaves as "modifiedon", we support create, update, and delete operations on this table, as well as incremental sync. The standard conflict resolution behavior applies.

Without this column, the only supported synchronization strategy is full sync. The table is read-only in the app.

Performance

The performance of virtual tables can be somewhat lower than standard tables. Dataverse acts only as the middle man and the performance mostly depends on the original data source.

Moreover, synchronization can be slower. The fetch for retrieving changed records differs for virtual tables. We have to read the changed records one by one.

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