External Entities

External entities are special entity types, which can be defined for a business use case. They are used for mapping and interacting with another entity from an external source which was integrated and modelled in an integration namespace. Since they represent a pointer to an entity that resides in another domain/system, they don't have to contain all definitions of the original external entity, just some identifier properties that help loading the external entity from wherever it resides through the external entity's load functionality. It can also contain its own properties.

The creation and editing of external entities are done within a domain namespace in the Solution Designer.

Create external entities

You can access an overview page of the existing entities by visiting the entities tab on the domain namespace's Overview page. You can create a new external entity by using the Create entity capability.

External entities are defined using the following master data:

  • Local Identifier: This is the local identifier (name) of the entity. It is unique within a namespace. Please note that only the characters A-z (without special characters), digits and the special character "_" are permitted for naming entities! Furthermore, local identifiers may not begin with a digit and the first character must be uppercase. The local identifier cannot be changed after creation (required)
  • Abstract: This is a checkbox field. When checked, it indicates that the entity will be abstract. If the field is checked, no instances of this entity can be created by the Solution Envoy environment. The default value is unchecked. This field is only available for entities and root entities
  • Label: This is used to name the entity (required)
  • Short Label: This is used to give an even shorter label (optional)
  • Notes: This is a long description of the entity and its lifecycle (optional)

An external entity has two types of properties, the Associated Properties and the Constructor Properties. The associated properties are those assigned to the local instance of the external entity. You can add and associate properties by using the Add button. The constructor properties are used as input to the constructor function of the external entities. See Domain Properties for further details on properties.

You can also use the Open after creation checkbox to open the entity for further editing after saving.

Edit external entities

You can edit the master data of the root entity by clicking the Edit entity details button in the Entity Details section on the entity's instance page. Alternatively, you can use the Edit capability of each table row on the Entities tab of a domain namespace's Overview page. The fields that can be edited are Type, Label, Short Label abd Notes.

Note:

It is not possible to change the Local Identifier.

Delete external entities

You can delete an external entity by clicking the Delete entity button in the upper right corner of the entity instance page. Alternatively, you can use the Delete capability of each table row on the Entities tab of a domain namespace's Overview page.

Warning:

You can only delete an entity if it is not in use. You can check the usages of an entity by using the Information capability and navigating to the Usages section. You will need to confirm the action before the selected entity is permanently deleted.

Entity inheritance

For external entities, inheritance is not supported.

Associate and remove properties to external entities

You can associate new or existing properties to the external entity by navigating to the entity's instance page and using the Add button within the Associated Properties at this Level section. Please see Associate properties to entities and Remove property associationsfor further details.