Frequently Asked Questions About AgilePoint's Data Entity Framework

Hi All,

As some of you may be aware, AgilePoint is close to releasing a major platform upgrade, AgilePoint 7.  There's quite a bit of exciting functionality packed into this release, and one that we are most excited about is the Data Entity Framework.

This powerful new capability is geared towards empowering non-SQL developers with the ability to design a data entity within the browser - similar to something you might have seen in Dynamics CRM, or Salesforce.

Common Questions We've Seen Thus Far:

How easy will it be to migrate data from an external SQL database, to the v7 Data Entity?

This is a great question, and it's worth quickly going over the value proposition of Data Entity. 

In short, this capability is meant to be used by non-SQL developers to quickly and easily create database entities without requiring use of SQL Server Management Studio.  However, if an external entity is already in place, there is no real value in converting this to an internal entity.  As such, there is no direct migration path from an external entity, to AgilePoint's data entity component.

Will attachments be possible?

For the immediate release, attachments will still be stored in the file store of your choosing.  At the moment, we do not support attachments in the database for Data Entity, but will support this in a future release. 

For now, continue using the file storage of your choosing, AgilePoint supports 15 out of the most popular content storage platforms such as Box, OneDrive, Google Drive, SharePoint, File System or Salesforce, as an example.

With the v7 Data Entity, where will data be stored?  How secure will the data be?

The data is stored in the database on the AgilePoint side.  As far as functionality goes, it is just like a regular database table, which is accessible through the AgilePoint Data Entity API.  

In terms of security, it is just like a regular database table, so there are no changes there.  
In addition, AgilePoint will have a permission framework that sits on top of Data Entity, to secure access through the API.

How will we be able to report on the data?  Will analytics be visible through Data Entity, or will we need an external tool or interface? What level of detail will we be looking at?

One of the great things about Data Entity, is that you don't lose any capabilities you've come to depend on.  Since it is simply a database created within AgilePoint, you can still report against it using AgileReports as you would for any other table.

Is there a limit on the data that can be stored?  How will this be calculated?

For on-premises, and dedicated cloud customers, there are no storage limits on our side. It will be driven entirely by your database storage limits.

How long will the data be kept available?

Since this is simply a database created within AgilePoint, this is entirely up to you and your requirements.  It is a standard database as far as capabilities are concerned.

Hope this helps, please feel free to add your own questions down below!