Managing Entities

Use the Entities page to manage the entities defined for your implementation. Permissions required to access this page: Access Admin Tab and Manage Entities.

To open the page, choose Admin > Tools > Entities.

Entities

XFRACAS can be configured with a single entity (where all users share the same configuration settings and data) or with multiple entities (where each entity has its own separate permissions, settings and data. The system-wide preferences, companies, contacts and locations will be the same for all entities in the database. The user permissions, system templates, serialized systems, entity-specific preferences and configurable detail fields can be managed separately for each entity.

Your XFRACAS license determines the maximum number of active entities that can be defined for your implementation.

Adding or Editing an Entity

To add a new entity, choose Admin > Entities > Create.

Create

In the properties window, enter the required fields (at least a long name and unique record prefixes) and click Save.

IMPORTANT: After you create a new entity, it can be made "inactive" but it cannot be deleted! This could affect your ability to manage settings that are shared across multiple entities. We recommend that you plan your entity configurations in advance, establish a "template" entity that defines common settings for all entities, and implement changes in a staging environment before moving to production.

To edit an existing entity, select the name and then choose Admin > Entities > Edit.

Edit

Entity Properties

  • Long Name displays in the entity drop-down list at the top of many XFRACAS pages, and in other locations where the full entity name is used.
  • Record Prefix allows you to specify an entity-specific prefix for use in record numbers (e.g., "ENT-I-" for incidents, "ENT-P-" for problems, etc.). Record prefixes must be unique across entities in the same database, and only one entity can be configured without prefixes. Users who have the "Manage Entities" permission can change the number (including this prefix) for individual records. (See Record Types in the user help.)
  • Parent Entity (optional) allows you to display entities in a tiered structure in the entity drop-down list. The name of the parent will be appended to the entity's name in the drop-down list (e.g., "Parent - Child"). However, there is no implied inheritance for the data or settings. For example, if you search for incidents associated with the parent entity, results will not be returned for the child entity. Likewise, the configurable settings and permissions for the parent entity may not be consistent with the settings for the child entity.
  • Entity Status sets whether the entity is Active (available for use) or Inactive (unavailable for use). If there is only one active entity in the system, you cannot make it inactive, so this field will be disabled.Tip: In addition to using the Inactive status to retire/hide an entity, you can also use it to create a tiered structure in the entity drop-down list. For example, if you have an Automotive Power Train business unit with an Engine division and a Transmission division, you could set "Automotive Power Train" as the inactive parent to the active "Engine" and "Transmission" entities. The entity drop-down list would display the active entities as "Automotive Power Train - Engine" and "Automotive Power Train - Transmission."

Duplication Settings

When you create a new entity (or when you change the status to "active" for an entity that was "inactive" upon creation), some basic required settings will always be copied from another entity.

  • Text resources
  • Preferences
  • Detail fields that are required (e.g., Incident Description, Problem Description, etc.); if you select Copy Detail Fields, the rest of the configurable detail fields will also be copied.
  • Lists associated with required fields (e.g., Incident State, Problem Priority, etc.); if you select Copy Lookup Lists, the rest of the configurable lookup lists will also be copied.

In addition, you can also choose to:

For detail fields, lookup lists and action types, duplicated settings will be the same as the entity they were copied from unless you later remove the entity from each particular detail, list or type and replace it with something else. We recommend establishing a "template" entity that defines the settings that are common to all entities and using that template to copy settings for each new entity you create.

Note: Duplicating an entity can consume a large amount of database resources. When you are duplicating an entity, other users cannot access the Entities page; they will see a message stating that an entity is being duplicated.

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