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* In the opposite case, Resco Mobile CRM refuses to create SharePoint attachments for the account entity. | * In the opposite case, Resco Mobile CRM refuses to create SharePoint attachments for the account entity. | ||
* Only documents located directly in the folder of a CRM record are downloaded. Resco Mobile CRM does not support additional folder structure; documents in subfolders are not downloaded. | * Only documents located directly in the folder of a CRM record are downloaded. Resco Mobile CRM does not support additional folder structure; documents in subfolders are not downloaded. | ||
== Enterprise-level document storage considerations == | |||
When it comes to the storage of image data to third parties, Resco currently has support for the following approaches, both of them used by several customers on enterprise-scale implementations. | |||
;Server-side integration | |||
Store images in Notes (annotation) tables with (optional) server-side solution for transparent offloading blobs to more cost-efficient storage. Some of our customers successfully use the [https://plugins.jenkins.io/windows-azure-storage/ Jenkins plugin], but other viable alternatives probably exist. This is the most flexible approach as it is transparent to Resco. You take advantage of the full power of our sync engine optimizations, [[sync filter]]s with links to other tables, [[document filters]], and server-side functionality such as triggers. | |||
The main advantage is that you have all images as first-class citizens in the server database, and they can be naturally linked to other records. This approach also works with web-based Resco tools aimed at back-office users (e.g., browser version of questionnaire player). Generally speaking, this is what we would normally recommend as the most robust solution. | |||
;Client-side integration | |||
Resco mobile platform natively supports integration with various [[Documents|cloud-based services]]. The users of [[Resco mobile apps]] can attach blobs to records, but behind the scenes, documents are not stored in CRM but in the cloud service. It is important to note that it is the mobile app that provides the experience of meshing CRM data with cloud blobs, and there is no explicit linking between records and blobs in CRM. Resco uses a predefined folder structure to store blobs in cloud services and uses a naming convention to locate the files (with SharePoint, you have some more control over blob locations). | |||
With this approach, you can take advantage of an optimized sync engine and [[document filters]], but on the other hand, it is not possible to finetune sync to such an extent (e.g., no links to other tables in [[Sync_Filter|sync filters]]). Also, web-based Resco tools (e.g. questionnaire player in browser) don’t support cloud documents. There are some more [[Documents#Troubleshooting|limitations]] and [[Documents#Caveats|caveats]], most notably that cloud documents require parent records to be in the offline database to function properly. So to sum it up, this is what we would recommend as a very robust and convenient option in case you don’t need your blobs in CRM and you can accept other limitations mentioned above. | |||
;Outlook for 2023 and beyond | |||
Since 2019, Microsoft's preferred way of storing blobs in Dataverse and CRM Online is File/Image columns. Behind the scenes (although the curtain is rather thin), these are stored in Azure Storage and count against File capacity. Since [[Releases/Spring_2023|release 16.0]], Resco offers basic support of the [[Dynamics#File_columns|File column]] (read-only mode on entity forms, manual download+cache). Contact your business development manager at Resco if you're interested in learning about (and shaping!)Resco's plans in this area. | |||
;Disclaimers: | |||
* We at Resco are experts on mobility and data synchronization with Dynamics/Dataverse. We don’t specialize in server-side implementations, the quality of third-party server tools, and operational cost optimization. That is the domain of our partners, who have much more experience and thus can provide more insight and recommendations. | |||
* The analysis above is written with Dataverse/Dynamics ecosystem in mind, but similar conclusions also apply to other backends. | |||
== Additional resources == | == Additional resources == | ||