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. You will find this useful especially when you need to store a large number of items in a flat data structure. Standard Kentico documents are not as efficient as custom tables for storing items in a flat structure. Refer to Storing data effectively for more information on the advantages of using custom tables over Documents.

To learn how to display data from custom tables on the live website, see:

• Displaying data from custom tables
• Writing transformations for custom tables

Data stored in the tables can be searched through using Smart search. You can also create alternative forms for the tables. These forms can be used instead of the default forms for creating or editing a custom table in the administration interface, as described in Code names of automatically used alternative forms.

You can use custom tables to store the data of custom-developed modules. Developers can handle custom tables and their data via the custom table API.