Create an entity

Create an entity and do the following:

  • Logically organize attributes into meaningful groups. For example, Personal Information and Salary Information groups in an Employee entity. Similarly, you can create separate groups for data, such as holiday leave, payroll, and health.
  • Restrict access to specific resource by configuring groups. For example, restrict who can see the Salary Information group by giving access permission to only the Finance department. At runtime, the salary details section is only visible to Finance department employees. Doing so lets you protect confidential information.
  • Define an event handler process to track changes to your entities. Whenever an action is performed on an entity instance, a job is created based on the process.
  • Configure an Email node in the event handler process to trigger an email to an administrator as soon as an entity is changed.

In a site with several resources working on multiple entities at the same time, sending an email whenever an entity is changed helps administrator monitor which entity instances were changed, what type of change was made (add, edit or delete), who made the change, and what was changed (the values of the previous and current instances).

Add an entity

  1. On the Home page, click Data > Entity.
  2. Enter a Name and Description.
    By default, the entity is added to your working category.
  3. To change the category, consume the Category to use.
  4. To define an event process to handle the creation, update, or deletion of an instance, in the Process box, select one of the following options:
    • Existing: To use an existing process, consume the process.

    • New: To create a process, enter a name for the process.

    • None: To create no event handler for the entity, keep this option selected (default).

    TotalAgility assigns the following initialization parameters to the process:

    • PreviousEntityInstance: Contains the previous instance of the entity on which the event occurred.

    • CurrentEntityInstance: Contains the current instance of the entity on which the event occurred.

    • Action: Contains the Create, Delete or Update actions.

    • Resource_ID: Contains the ID of the resource who performed the action.

  5. By default, one group and one attribute are added to an entity. Add new groups and attributes, as needed. See the following sections.

Add a group

  1. Under Entity, click Group Add Group
  2. Enter a Name for the new group, such as Personal Details.
  3. To configure security settings for a group, consume the resources (individual or group) in the Resource Access box.
    Note Access permissions do not apply when you use entity attributes as input/output variables in a process map. Everyone can view these attributes.

    Once you add resources to the Resource Access box, delete the Everyone group. Deleting the Everyone group before adding an alternate resource generates an error.

  4. Rearrange groups within entities using the or Down Arrow arrows.

Add an attribute to an entity group

  1. Under Entity, select the group to add the attribute and click Attribute Add Attribute
  2. Enter a Name for the attribute.
  3. Enter an optional Description.
  4. On the Type list, select the attribute type, and depending on the selected attribute type, configure other properties. For more information, see Attributes types.
  5. Set the Options as Mandatory, Key Field or Unique.
    Note At least one attribute must be set as mandatory, and one as key field.
  6. Enter the Default Value for the attribute, if required.
  7. Expand Layout and enter the width and maximum height.
    Note If the combined height of the rows exceeds the maximum height, TotalAgility displays a scroll bar at runtime. If you do not specify a maximum height, the list height is unrestricted.
  8. Move attributes between groups using the or Down Arrow arrows or move attributes between groups.