SharePoint List Best practices

Question

I am creating an application using SharePoint List for storing the data. The data design would pretty much similar like if you are going to put it in a relational database, with items like many to many relationship, primary keys, foreign keys.

I would like to know what are the best practices?

There are a few questions that I have in mind already when creating the list:

• SharePoint itself contains a hidden ID. Should I create my own ID?
• What's the best way to reflect a foreign key? Is it just as plainly creating a lookup field? or do you think it's best to just create a single line text and then my program will link the ID. Which one to use which?

Any other tips on this would be helpful. Btw, I am using SharePoint 2010.

Answer 1

I would not do this. If it is going to perform like a relational database, you should just use a relational database. The problem you are experiencing with foreign keys is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to using lists as databases tables.