Connecting to a data source

So far throughout the chapter, we have looked at how we can store data within the memory of the app. We can use exactly the same controls and techniques that we have used so far for our collections. Where we used a collection for our data source for our gallery, we can replace our collection with a list from SharePoint, or a table from Dataverse, and we can then configure our galleries and tables in the same way.

Whereas, with collections, we needed to create it within the app, our data source can be completely configured outside of the app, and then connected to by using a Connector. Connectors allow us to use formulas to interact with the data source rather than manually creating all of the programmatic calls. We will learn more about these in Chapter 9, Introducing Connectors.

In order to connect to a data source, we must firstly store our data somewhere, for example, within a SharePoint list. The more we spend time making sure our data source is correct...