Using SQL with ORM

AppSheet AppSheet Q&A
1

Hi.

I have some questions related to SQL. Maybe are naive.

I have our data in MySQL.

We use a CRM called espoCRM that manages that DB.

EspoCRM has built-in own ORM (Object-relational mapping)

We have used a BPM inside espoCRM that allowed us to develop additional funtionality beyond CRM (mainly warehousing and logistics).

We are starting to use AppSheet to learn how it works thinking to provide capabilities on the field.

To do that, so far, we used Google sheets.

We exported the mySQL data to GoogleSheet, use them with AppSheet and then import it back to MySQL. This is a daily process.

This is very time consuming and tedious. We were wondering if access directly to mySQL could be suitable for us.

In theory its a clear yes, but we have several doubts.

As mentioned espoCRM uses a ORM, and AppSheet will access directly to the data, regardless of the ORM.

1.- Will AppSheet still be able to access correctly to mySQL data?
2.- The updates AppSheet make to the data will be readable by espoCRM? I guess that a change to a field data shouldn’t be a problem, but more worried with record insertion or delete.

And a different kind of doubt. With sheets the sync seems to be quick in the app–>sheet direction. But if a change happens in he sheet takes a lot to update in the app.

How fast the synch in with SQL?

Thanks in advance

2

My data warehousing knowledge is knowing that data warehousing is currently beyond my understanding. I cannot speak to any of your questions about EspoCRM, ORM, BPM but I can say that databases are much faster than sheets. If you update the backend the app will not know at all that the data is different. The user will have to have a sync to receive
the new updated information.

3

I may say SQL is much faster than gSheet but it also relies on your SQL server and that server is structured i.e. data replication, data backup, nr of CPU’s, if it’s a dedicated server or not etc.
To connect to a SQL instance, you need to subscribe to AppSheet’s Business Plan.

3 Likes
4

Of another note, if this database is not a cloud hosted database you will have to use the service that appsheet uses called DreamFactory.

3 Likes
5

In my case, it is cloud hosted.

6

I believe you should be able to test with a non-deployed app on how this works, this limits the amount of users you can have but should allow you to perform your own testing to see if it works properly.

1 Like