What is Data connection Library?

Question

• What is the data connection library in SharePoint online?

what is the relation between the Infopath & data connection - library?

• When to use a data connection library?

• What are the uses and advantages of the data connection library?

Answer 1

What is the data connection library in SharePoint online?

Simply, it's a SharePoint library that holds Data connection files. these files contain information about external data connections.

Note: In SharePoint On-prem, the Data connection is only available with SharePoint Enterprise Edition, for more details, check Missing data connection library in SharePoint

what is the relation between the Infopath & data connection library?

To work with InfoPath, you must have a data connection between your form and the data source,

This data connection file is created through data connection wizard in InfoPath designer.

This data connection file must be stored in Data connection library and can't be stored in any other document library type.

When to use a data connection library?

If you are working with InfoPath or Excel services, you should have data connection library to store the generated data connection files :)

What are the advantages of the data connection library?

• Deployment to Different Environments: Test and production servers can specify different locations for data access and a form template will automatically use the server-specific location when they are published to that server.

• Reconfiguration: Data connection settings, such as database server locations, can be modified independently of the solutions that use them.

• Cross-domain security: only connections specified by using the DCL can retrieve data from outside the farm.