what is the difference between Record type and Data Store entity, I am having a really hard time understanding the difference between them, and when to use each one , a real-world examples would be great
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Data stores allow you to insert, update, query, and delete data in the format needed by your applications without writing structured queries (SQL).
A record type is a design object that allows you to structure and model your enterprise data so you can easily build data-centric applications.
About Record Types - Appian 24.3
Data Store Object - Appian 24.3
For your better understanding you can go through with that.
Some major differences can be seen between CDT and Record.
Record
CDT
Used to connect cloud data to Appian
Used to connect data to Appian by using a bridge call data store.
Within records, we can easily modify and manage the data to present it to users
Data can only be modified after querying.
Easy to handle relationships.
We need to handle relationships on the database side.
We can fetch up to 5,000 records.
We can fetch a specified number of rows.
We can connect to databases, processes, Salesforce, and web services to create records.
We can connect only to database tables or existing data.
We can create separate new fields, meaning virtual fields (i.e., custom record fields), to manage and manipulate records.
With CDT, we cannot create custom fields.