Custom entities

Custom Entities are a new set of entities that users can define and use for their specific purposes within the system. These entities are not restricted by predefined names, offering flexibility in how data is structured and managed.

Overview

A shared space admin can create entities tailored to the organization's needs, such as for managing customers or cars. Custom entities are shared across workspaces within a shared space.

Example: A defect may have a Customer field to indicate which customer reported the defect. Typically, the names you can choose from are values in a List item. With custom entities, you can create an entity called Customers that has its own fields (such as License type, Agent, Industry), and business rules.

Back to top

Add custom entities

The activation process for custom entities is done using a space parameter. After activating the entities, need to set their display labels and allow access to them by selected roles.

To activate custom entities:

  1. Open the global menu and select Administration > General Settings.

  2. In the spaces sidebar, select a shared space node .

  3. Select the Parameters tab.

  4. Search for the NUMBER_OF_ACTIVATED_CUSTOM_ENTITIES parameter.

  5. Set the value according to the number of custom entities you want to add. The maximum value is 2.

  6. Click the Save button and refresh.

New entities are added to the space with temporary names: Entity A, Entity B, according to the number of entities that you activated.

System fields: The new entities are created with system fields for basic item management: Author, Creation time, Description, Has attachments, ID, Last modified, Name, Rank, Shared. The system fields cannot be deleted.

To assign display labels for the new entities:

  1. Select the Entity Labels tab. New entities are added: Entity A, Entity B, according to the number of entities you activated.

  2. For each new entity, define the editable display labels. For details, see Labels.

Note: You cannot change the custom entity's system name.

To grant access to the new entities:

  1. Select the Permissions tab.

  2. In the toolbar, select a role that should have access to the entities.

  3. In the categories panel, select Module Visibility.

  4. In the permissions panel, under My Views, select the new entities.

  5. Click Save.

  6. Repeat to grant access to other roles.

For more details, see Roles and permissions.

To define CRUD permissions for custom entities, see CRUD permissions.

Back to top

Customize custom entities

You can customize the custom entities, the same as system entities. Customization options include: Business rules, fields, forms, email templates, and dynamic labels. Customizations can be made at the shared space level, affecting all workspaces, and at the workspace level, affecting the individual workspace. For details on the hierarchy, see Space configuration.

To customize custom entities:

  1. Open the global menu and select Administration > General Settings.

  2. Select a shared space or workspace.

  3. Select the Entities tab.

  4. In the Entities pane, the new entities are located at the bottom of the list. Select a new entity.

  5. Customize the various entity settings using the following topics:Business rules, Fields, Forms,Email templates, Dynamic labels.

Back to top

Create custom entity items

Create and manage items of custom entities in the My Views module.

To create and manage custom entity items:

  1. Open the global menu and select My Views.

  2. In a new tab, click Create new view.

  3. In the list, select the custom entity. An empty grid is displayed.

  4. To add an item, click the Add button.

    Shared items: If you have permissions, you can create an item that is shared across workspaces. Click the down arrow adjacent to the Add button add click Shared <entity name>.

  5. Fill in details of the new item and save.

After you have added items, you can manage them in the grid by filtering, grouping, ordering and ranking. For details, see My Views.

Back to top

Use custom entities

You can use custom entities in the following ways:

  • Reference fields: Add custom entities as reference fields in other entities, For example, a defect can have a field that references a customer entity. For details, see Fields.

  • Widgets: You can display custom entities in summary widgets by selecting the custom entity for the widget's X Axis or Stack by fields. For example, if the custom Customers field is added to Defects, you can group defects in a widget by customer. For details, see Configure widget settings.

Back to top

CRUD permissions

To restrict CRUD actions for roles that have access to custom entities, you can create a business rule. Use the following settings:

  • Action: Alert user

  • Submission mode: Select the CRUD actions that you want to restrict.

  • Condition: Create a condition based on the Current User Role field. The rule should be activated for roles that you want to restrict.

For details, see Business rules.

Back to top

Limitations

Following are limitations regarding custom entities:

  • Deactivation: Once activated, custom entities cannot be deactivated.

  • Workflow: There is no phase workflow support for custom entities.

  • Relations: You can add relations to custom entity items using the API. For details, see Relations.