128 character text limit bug when publishing data from Excel to CDS without any error or message

[Anonymous]

I have found a major bug with PowerApps Common Data Service (CDS) and the very handy Excel data entry capability provided to Excel 2016.  I was very happy with how easy it was to load data into a custom entity by using the feature to open the entity within Excel, enter the data into Excel, and then publish.  But then I identified a major bug/flaw/limitation.  If I had more than 128 characters in a cell within Excel, the Publish action results in a truncation of the text to 128 characters or less.

Please fix this!!!  Everyone within our organization (and probably others) really like the ability to publish data to the CDS from within Excel, but the limit to 128 is not good.  What is even worse, there is NO WARNING or error message or anything that the text was truncated.

So two request.  

1. Please do not limit the text to 128.  Please support the full size available within an Excel cell.

2. Please provide an error, or warning message or at least the ability to control what should happen within Excel when publishing data from a cell that is larger than the field within the Entity of the CDS supports.

Other than this rather significant issue, I really like the CDS and it's interaction capability with Excel.  That is very powerful, I just would like it to work.  Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Actually, this is worse than I thought.  I created a simple new Entity with three text fields.  One 128, Two 512, Three 1024.  It did not matter how I loaded the data; CSV, Excel 2016 Add-In, New application with the PowerApp tool.  ALL approaches resulted in only 128 characters being loaded.  

[mr-dang]

Hi, when you create a new field for your entity, there is a property for "Max length." If you set it to a number greater than 128, are you able to save and read strings longer than that?

See the blue field in the right hand panel in the picture below:

[Anonymous]

Yes I have tried multiple sizes.  It appears that the 'Max Size' is ignored.  After I set that value, it is retained in the design,

but it does not work anywhere.  I've tried with CSV load, Excel Add-In within Excel 2016, and a custom application created with from the PowerApps Windows application or from the Web creation..

[v-micsh-msft]

Hi @Anonymous,

The Text field definition:

One line of text. The maximum length varies, but it is never more than 128 characters. The string is stored in Unicode format.

From the following documentation:

Entity field data types

Please take a try to use Multiline Text as the data type:

Multiple lines of text. The maximum length varies, but it is never more than 2,048. The string is stored in Unicode format.

And if you would like to customize the length, then please consider submit this as an idea in the PowerApps idea forum:

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/PowerApps-Ideas/idb-p/PowerAppsIdeas

Regards,

Michael Shao

[Anonymous]

I did not see the explanation before now, thanks!  It would be helpful if there was an error if you tried to set the TEXT to greater than 128.

The problem with the multiline is it cannot be included in the 'Search'.  That is major disadvantage.

Yes I would like the ability to control the size of the multiline so that it can be more than the current size.