Entities: the record type builder

What is an entity

An entity is a custom record type: its own data table with an arbitrary set of fields, its own state model, and its own automations. Tickets, customers, employees, assets, projects — none of these are built-in platform modules, they're all regular entities configured by an administrator through the same builder.

All entity types are visible to administrators under Entities in the left menu (Application Management → Entities). This is a list of every record type created in the system, with a link to each one's editor.

For a concrete example of how an entity, a state model, automations, and a business process come together into a complete scenario, see Service Desk (IT Support) — it walks through the "Tickets" preset from start to finish.

Creating an entity

A new entity is created with a step-by-step wizard (3 steps).

Step 1 — basic information

1. Open Entities → Create
2. Fill in Name — a human-readable name for the entity (for example, "Tickets")
3. The table's system name is suggested automatically by transliterating the name, but you can edit it manually. The system name must start with a Latin letter and may only contain Latin letters, digits, and _ — this is the table_name the entity will be available at, under /e/<table_name>
4. Click Next

Step 2 — fields

This step adds the fields for the future record: the + Add Field button for each new field. For each field you set:

• a human-readable name (a system name is suggested automatically from it),
• a system name (Latin letters, digits, _),
• a field type — from a dropdown (see the full catalog of types in Field Types),
• a Required checkbox.

At this step a reduced set of types is available: text, integer, float, yes/no, date, date and time, email, multiline text, value list, user, file. The other types (category, related entity, image, point on map, etc.) are added later, in the full schema editor.

Step 3 — settings and creation

This shows a summary (name, system name, list of added fields with their types) and two settings:

• Add to menu — creates a left-menu item for this entity (enabled by default);
• Display field — which field is used as the record's "title" in lists and links (selected automatically by default).

Clicking Create saves the entity and takes you to its record list. Below the wizard's buttons is a link to the list of all entities — you can also go there to continue configuration through the full schema editor.

The wizard only creates the basic skeleton. The state model, relations to other entities, automations, templates, business processes, and fine-grained field settings (validation, role-based visibility, field dependencies) are configured after creation — in the entity's schema editor (opened by clicking the entity in the Entities list). The editor is organized into tabs: general settings, form layout, widgets, templates, processes, dashboard, relations, automation, computed fields, action buttons, list formatting.

For details on the state model, see State Models; for automations, see Automations. For relations between entities, see Relations; for tree-structured catalogs, see Categorization.

Entity record list

Opening an entity's menu item (or the address /e/<table_name>) shows a table list of all its records.

List capabilities:

• Search box at the top — quick search across all columns.
• Column header filter — a separate filter for each field (text, numeric, or date — depending on the field type).
• Grouping — the Group by dropdown lets you group records by the value of a field.
• Columns — the Columns button opens a checkbox list of column visibility, letting you hide fields you don't need.
• Inline editing — simple fields (text, number, yes/no, status, value list, etc.) can be changed directly in the table cell, without opening the record.
• Sorting — by clicking a column header.
• Context menu (right-click on a cell) — filter by value, exclude value, copy, sort, group by field.
• Bulk operations — selecting several rows with checkboxes opens a panel showing the number of selected records and a Delete button for bulk deletion (if you have permission).
• Export — download the current list as CSV or JSON.
• Create — a button in the top-right corner opens a new record form (available if you have create permission).

Clicking a row opens the record card; Ctrl/Cmd+click opens it in a new tab.

Record card

The record card is a single form used both for creating a new record and for editing an existing one (addresses /e/<table_name>/create and /e/<table_name>/:id).

What's on the card:

• Form fields, grouped into sections (sections can be collapsed). Field layout is determined by the form layout configured by the administrator in the entity editor. Required fields are marked with *.
• Buttons — Save, Save and Close, Cancel, plus any custom action buttons configured for the entity.
• Status tab — a timeline of the record's status changes, if the entity has a state model configured (see State Models).
• Related record tabs — one tab per configured relation to another entity (see Relations).
• Relation graph — a visual diagram of which records of other entities the current record is linked to.
• A sidebar with Processes (active business process tasks for the record, see Business Processes), Messages (an internal chat for the record), and History (the record's change log, see Audit Log).
• File and Image fields let you attach files directly within the form; there's no separate tab for files.

When creating a record, you can apply a template (if templates are configured for the entity) — this pre-fills some fields.

Importing data

If you need to load many records into an entity at once, use bulk import — a button with the tooltip Import Data in the record list. The import wizard accepts Excel files (.xlsx, .xls), CSV, and JSON, lets you map file columns to entity fields (including choosing a deduplication field, so a repeated import updates existing records instead of creating duplicates), shows a preview before running, and produces a report with the number of created and updated records and a list of errors once it's done.

The detailed import steps aren't covered in this section — it's a separate tool, available from the record list of any entity.