Entity Type Setup

Entity Types allow you to model custom business objects across multiple data domains in Knowde’s Multi-Domain MDM platform. These configurable structures define the data, behaviors, and governance rules for user-created objects such as Competitor Products, Raw Materials, Customers, Vendors, etc. Entity Types allow you to design flexible models tailored to your organization’s needs and the desired 360° view of all interlinked master data.

In this article, you’ll learn how Entity Types work and how to configure them.

For more info, also refer to this Video Demo

Contents

Definitions 

Create an Entity Type

Definitions

Data Domain

A broad category of core business data that share common characteristics and governance needs. Examples include Product, Organization (Customer, Vendor, Facility), and Asset.

Entity Type

A configurable definition of a business object within a data domain. An entity type defines the attributes, behavior, rules, and data available data structures for a given class of objects.

Entity

An individual object of an Entity Type, such as “Acme Inc” as an instance of the Supplier entity type.

Note: This article uses Entity Types and Entities to refer to user-defined objects, and Resource Types and Resources to refer to standard system objects (Products, SKUs, Documents, Brands, etc.).

Create an Entity Type

To create a new Entity Type:

1. Navigate to Entity Types under Configuration.
2. Click Create Entity Type.
3. Provide a meaningful Name (e.g. "Customer"). The system will auto-generate a plural form of your word as that is used in some places in the UI. You can change the plural form if it's not correct.
4. Set the Data Domain. Select from Product Information, Organizations, or Assets.
   Note: the set of Attributes available to entities of the type will be derived from the Data Domain, so select the most appropriate one. E.g. "Raw Materials" would be "Product Information" and "Customer" would be "Organizations". 

5. Click Create
    

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6. Configure the Details tab
   1. Visibility - should entities of this type show directly in the left menu? In most cases, you want this enabled, but for entities that are always child-entities of other entities (e.g. Equipment under Facilities) you may not want or need the child-level to have an individual search grid.
7. Configure the Types tab
   1. Optionally create (sub)types. This is a simple way to distinguish different kinds of entities of the same overall type. Example: Company may be Customer or Vendor.
8. Configure the Record Template tab
   1. Select basic entity functionality by toggling them on or off. Do entities of this type need Categories, Documents, Media Assets, or Relationships.
   2. Define the Attribute Template. This defines attributes that will be visible immediate for any entity of this type so the user can just enter the values without having to "Add Attribute" first. 
      Note: You can always add additional attributes (matching the data domain) to an entity in addition to the attributes in the template. It's an accelerator, not a constraint.
   3. Fine-tune the Overview/Details tab for entities of this type. This helps the user get all the key data (attributes and relationships) on a single page rather than having to look across multiple pages.
   4. Configure Relationships that entities of this type participates in. Relationships are maintained on the "Relationship Types" menu item, but the tab on the Entity type gives an overview of the relevant relationship types for this entity type. We support relationships from entity-to-entity, from entity-to-product, and from product-to-entity.
      Note: Relationship Types support peer-to-peer and parent-child relationships used for hierarchies. The different is that peer-to-peer is between two "equal" objects whereas for parent-child relationships the child object is "owned" by the parent object and cannot also belong to another parent object using the same relationship type. 
      Tip: Relationships between data objects across domains is key to many of the ultimate business outcomes.
9. Choose status: Draft or Active. Only Active types allow creation and maintenance of entities of this type. You should keep a new entity type in Draft mode until you are ready to have it be visible to non-Admins in the system