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Power Platform Community / Forums / Power Apps / Attachments for a data...
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Answered

Attachments for a dataverse table (One to Many relationship)

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Posted on by 145

Hi everyone

 

I have a dataverse table Persons and was wondering what the best way to add files like pdf, docx, jpeg,... is.

Each person can have one or more files attached to him (one to many relationship)

 

What is the best way to accomplish file uploads like this? 🙂

 

Kind regards

Ryan

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  • Verified answer
    ChrisPiasecki Profile Picture
    6,422 Most Valuable Professional on at

    Hi @RyanVH,

     

    You have a couple options for document management in Dataverse:

     

    SharePoint Document Management  integration

    Allows you to associate a document library with a table. A folder gets created for a record when you browse to the related Documents tab for the Dataverse record in a model driven app. You can interact with the SharePoint document library/folders without leaving the Model Driven App. The documents themselves are stored in SharePoint along with the metadata.

    Downside is you can't use Dataverse views to run searches against the actual documents or native Dataverse reporting mechanisms. 

    Upside is you don't use your Dataverse file storage which in comparison to SharePoint storage is more expensive. 

     

    Dataverse File Column type

    You can create a custom table called Files or whatever you like, add some basic columns for the metadata that would describe your file, and then the File type column to hold the document. 

    Downside is that it uses Dataverse file storage which will be limited, and can get expensive when you need to purchase add on file storage capacity compared to SharePoint. I'd caution when storing large volumes and recommend setting a reasonable file size limit when cresting the File column. 

    Upside is that you can easily relate to your Dataverse record and utilize native Dataverse views/search/reporting against your custom File table. 

     

    Dataverse Notes with Attachments 

    This is out of box functionality that allows you to enable Notes on a table, and an attachment can be associated with a note. This is inferior to the above newer capability as it's harder to report on notes with the same downside regarding Dataverse storage capacity. 

     

    Last method is to use a Dataverse custom table (E.g Files) to store the metadata for the files, but store the actual file in another place like SharePoint or Azure Blob Storage. You can create a Embedded Canvas App to be connect to the storage system using one of the Connectors. The column in Dataverse can simply hold a reference to the file path. 

    Downside is its the most effort, embedded Canvas App requires that the Dataverse record must be saved before it can be loaded in the model driven app. 

    Upside is similar to option 2 where you can have your native relationship and use Dataverse querying/search/reporting on the metadata, and the file is not using up your Dataverse file storage. 

     

     

    Hope this helps. 

     

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  • RyanVH Profile Picture
    145 on at

    Thank you so much @ChrisPiasecki 

    This will help me a lot 🙂

  • Verified answer
    v-qiaqi@microsoft.com Profile Picture
    Microsoft Employee on at

    Hi @RyanVH,

    Based on the issue that you mentioned, do you want to upload attachment within Dataverse table?

    Could you please share a bit more about the scenario?

    I think it could be achieved using Dataverse table.

    1). Create a new table and enable the attachment function as below.

    2021-04-07-03.png

    2). Create an app generated based on this table and add the Attachment field into your form.2021-04-07-04.png

    Hope it could help.

    Regards,

    Qi

     

  • Trent001 Profile Picture
    2 on at

    I am attaching a file to a Dataverse table using the enable attachment option in the table. How do I access the attachments in Power BI? I couldn’t find the column in my Dataverse table when I open the table. 

  • PriyankaPuvvada Profile Picture
    2 on at

    I am also facing same issue , can any one help how to find the attachments related column's  in Power BI?

  • YnteJan Profile Picture
    8 on at

    Look for a seperate table called annotations

  • takolota1 Profile Picture
    4,980 Moderator on at

    None of the files I stored in a file column are on the annotations table, or any other table. Where are they?

  • YnteJan Profile Picture
    8 on at

    Did you do this : "Create a new table and enable the attachment function as below." See above. Check this and then the new attachements will be there

    Table Note:

    YnteJan_1-1644348012696.png

    Files added as attachement to another table

    YnteJan_0-1644347954715.png

     

  • takolota1 Profile Picture
    4,980 Moderator on at

    Hello YnteJan,

    Thanks for the response. I checked the table settings and attachments were enabled when they were made. The only thing in the File columns is a type of GUID that I assume is the document ID for another File Attachments table I see listed in the table relationships.

    I really just need to be able to access the file type or the file names with extensions so I can properly send things to SharePoint folders with the correct file extension (.pdf, .doc, .txt, .ppt, etc.).

  • YnteJan Profile Picture
    8 on at

    I was not referring to a file colum, but to a seperate table called Notes. If you upload the files from an power app with the attachement control then the files are stored there. Related to the original column by a guid I guess.

    YnteJan_0-1644353304456.png

    YnteJan_1-1644353480653.png

     

     

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