SharePoint 2010 bcs item limit

Question

I have an on premise SharePoint 2010 implementation. I need to implement a custom form with 65 fields which has rich text, drop downs and some complex filtering logic on the form. I want to load the form in 5 seconds.

The custom form could potentially save data upto 1 million records. I am planning to store the data(i.e. 1 million records)in a SQL server. I am planning to use BCS to extract the data from SQL server and surface them in SharePoint.

I am planning to build a Custom SharePoint Web part to surface show data in SharePoint. The form has around 65 fields and I want to load the form in less than 5 seconds.

I have the following queries

1. Does External lists have the same limitation's of custom lists i.e. 5,000 items throttling limit. Does increasing Throttling limit resolve the issue.

2. IS there a better architecture so that there is no bottle neck for the form with 65 fields to load when the items in the external list increases more than 5,000 i.e. reaches 1 million.

Answer 1

External list have the same List view Limitation as SharePoint Lists. Another restriction for External List are

1. The default Max is 2,000 items.
2. The absolute Max is 25,000 items.

You should always define filters (it can be limit/comparison/wildcard filter) so that you can narrow your search and overcome others restrictions regarding a count of rows in the database. Especially when working with high volume of items, there might be cases in which you may have millions of items to pick, the bcs picker will show up to 200 items (this is a SharePoint restriction).

SharePoint 2010: Row Limits in External Lists