Managing custom tables

Custom tables allow you to create your own tables in the system database. You can manage the data in custom tables without using Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio or any other database management tool.

Custom tables can be particularly useful for storing a large number of items in a flat data structure. In comparison, pages are not as efficient as custom tables for storing items in a flat structure. Refer to Defining website content structure for more information on the advantages of using custom tables over pages.

To display data from custom tables on the website, developers need to retrieve the content in the live site MVC application’s code and format it according to any requirements. See Retrieving content.

Additional information and scenarios

• Data stored in custom tables can be searched using locally stored search indexes.
• You can adjust the editing interface for custom table data in the administration by creating alternative forms.
• Developers can handle custom tables and their data via the custom table API.