Custom Entities

>What Is a Custom Entity? >Prerequisites for Creating a Custom Entity >Creating a Custom Entity >Actions for Custom Entities >Viewing Custom Entity Records

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What Is a Custom Entity?

Custom entities in Sentinel EMS enable you to define and manage data models specific to your business needs. An entity can represent virtually anything—such as a person, a vehicle, an organization, or any other object relevant to your workflow within Sentinel EMS.

These entities function similarly to built-in system entities but are fully customizable. They offer the flexibility to store and manage information that does not fit within the scope of the predefined Sentinel EMS entities—such as products, features, or namespaces.

Custom entities streamline data handling, enabling for a more organized, scalable, and context-specific representation of information across your system. Using custom entities enables you to manage key data efficiently, without depending on traditional entities or navigating complex workflows to access specific information.

You can add attributes to a custom entity to record additional details. For every attribute, you specify a data type—such as string, integer, or date—to ensure that data is stored in a consistent and meaningful format. This enables you to manage specific information more efficiently, without relying on traditional entities or navigating complex workflows to access a single detail.

Prerequisites for Creating a Custom Entity

You must have administrative rights in Sentinel EMS.

Creating a Custom Entity

You create a custom entity from the Custom Entities page.

To create a custom entity:

1.From the navigation pane, select Configuration > Custom Entities to view the Custom Entities page.

2.Click the Add Custom Entity button.

3.Fill in the custom entities attributes.

4.(Optional) Click Add Attribute to display a new row in the Associated Attributes table to associate an attribute.

5.Click Save.

Defining Custom Entities Attributes

The following table explains the attributes that are used to create a custom entity:

Attributes	Description	Required/Optional	Valid Values
Name	Name of the custom entity.	Required	>Maximum: 100 characters >Alphanumeric >Must be unique >Cannot contain: % ^ [ ] < > & : "
Description	Additional information about the custom entity. For example, you may want to highlight entity features, differentiate between similar entities, and so on.	Optional	> Maximum: 500 characters >Alphanumeric >Cannot contain: % ^ [ ] < > & : "

Associated Attributes

After defining the custom entity, you can associate attributes with that custom entity. You can associate multiple attributes with a custom entity. The following table explains the values that you can define for each associated attribute:

Attributes	Description	Required/Optional	Valid Values
Name	Name of the attribute.	Required	>Maximum: 100 characters >Alphanumeric >Must be unique for a given custom entity. >Cannot contain: % ^ [ ] < > & : "
Data Type	Data type of the attribute.	Required	Possible Values: > String >Integer >Boolean > Date >JSON Default: String
Mandatory	The optional or mandatory status of the attribute.	Optional	Yes OR No Default: No
Unique	Make the value of an attribute unique and mandatory.	Optional	Yes OR No Default: No
Regular Expression	(Available only for String, Integer, and JSON data types.) Defines the restrictions for the input value of the attribute. Example: [-a-z0-9]+(\.[-a-z0-9]+)*	Optional	Must be a valid regular expression.
Description	Additional information about the attribute.	Optional	>Maximum: 500 characters >Alphanumeric >Cannot contain: % ^ [ ] < > & : "
Actions	Click the Delete button to remove an attribute.	Optional	An attribute must exist.

Actions for Custom Entities

The following table lists the actions available for custom entities:

Action		Description
	Edit	Enables you to modify information for an existing custom entity. You can: >Modify editable fields, such as the description. You can edit only those attributes that are not currently in use by any record. >Add new attributes to a custom entity. >Remove existing attributes from a custom entity using the Delete button from the Actions column if the attribute is not associated with any records.
	Copy	Duplicates an existing custom entity, enabling you to edit the copy and create a new custom entity. Records associated with the original entity are not duplicated.
	Delete	Deletes a custom entity.  Note: >You can delete a custom entity only after removing all its associated attributes. >All records associated with the attribute must be removed using the Delete Custom Entity Record endpoint in the Sentinel EMS REST API Reference.
	View Custom Entity Records	Displays the records created for a custom entity in JSON format. For details, see Viewing Custom Entity Records.

Viewing Custom Entity Records

You create records for a custom entity using the Sentinel EMS REST API Reference, but you can view these records directly from the Sentinel EMS vendor portal.

To view the records created for a custom entity:

1.In the Actions column, click View Custom Entity Records for the custom entity for which you want to display the records.

2.Enter the required values detailed in the table:

Attributes	Description	Required/Optional	Valid Values
Custom Entity Name	Name of the entity for which the records are displayed. This field is read-only and cannot be modified.	Required	Name of the selected entity.
Start from Record Number	Specifies the record number to retrieve the records from.	Required	Integer starting from 0, where 0 represents the first record.
Records per Page	Number of entries displayed per page.	Required	Maximum: 2000

3.Click View Records. The associated attribute records are displayed in JSON format. You can click the Copy to Clipboard button to copy the content.