SharePoint out-of-the-box does not attempt to emulate complex data structures.   There are lists, choice lists, look-ups and site columns.  Lists provide row and column two-dimensional structures as with database tables or spreadsheets.  Choice lists provide hard-coded selections and look-ups are the same concept although allowing the data to come from another list in the current site.  Site columns allow data to be referenced outside the current site and so provide a "cross-site" lookup of sorts. 

And that's it.  For many collaborative applications, such as time sheets or holidays, this is sufficient.  But for typical line-of-business applications, such as accounts, project management, CRM, etc.  it is not.

The Quest Web Parts provide for the following:

•      Look-ups can be cross-site and multi-dimensional.
  You can display several columns in the look-up and define which column is used when an item is selected

•      Relational data can be modelled.
  Using the qListForm web part for our data entry and editing, we can model relational structures such that, to the user, the behaviour of the system assumes a relational data structure.  If independent data is altered, dependent records are immediately altered accordingly.

•      We can model Many-to-Many structures.
  Critical where many objects have to be associated and management reports need to reflect the associativity from different perspectives.  We do this using the qListForm web part to automatically set "foreign keys" in our SharePoint lists referencing external data.  Good examples of many-to-many relationships are: people, jobs and consultants in a recruitment system; books, authors and borrowers in a library system; customers, products and suppliers in a CRM system.

•      Attached documents and data.
  The idea of attaching a non-specific list of data to a fixed-length record is simple in concept but tricky to do with limited data structures in SharePoint.  Using a combination of the qListForm and qListView web parts we can add comments and notes to detail pages, add documents to list items, display relationship data at the foot of data records, display whole dashboards related to list items.

•      Accommodate true relational data.
  Simple relation structures can be modelled inside SharePoint.  However, for systems with advanced and complex data structures of more than 4 or 5 levels deep and designed to maximise the benefits of SQL Server or Oracle, the "SI" versions of the Quest Web Parts allow SharePoint to be used as a user-friendly and familiar front-end for systems in which the data remains in its native database.
  

If you would like a copy of our free paper: Introduction to the Quest Web Parts for SharePoint, complete our Request Form and check the Info box for the Quest Web Parts.