Understanding App (Portal Page) Entities

Apps have been renamed to Apps in 7.1.0.

Entities are a way to tie Apps with specific types of objects in Metric Insights to be able to interact with them programmatically. Currently, the system supports the following types of Entities:

  • Internal Entity to store data specific to an App.
  • Dataset to read from Datasets.
    • NOTE: The Dataset Entity will soon be deprecated. It is no longer recommended to be used. The best practice for interactivity with Datasets is to use the Dataset Data API.
  • Data Source to manipulate Data Source properties, download files, upload files.
    • NOTE: Uploading is available only for Local Filesystem Data Sources.
  • Custom Script to trigger scripts from the App on a schedule (for example, to retrieve data from a third-party resource or create new Elements en masse).

NOTE: See Filtering Internal Entity Info for information on how to apply filtering and pagination to App Entities' data with Entities API.

Adding Internal Entity

  • For MI v7.1.0+: Access Content > Apps > Select an App > Entities tab
  • For MI versions prior to 7.1.0: Access Content > Portal Pages > Select a Portal Page > Entities tab

Aside from specifying Name(1) and Entity Type(2), adding Internal Entity requires to specify its Access Type(3):

  • Public – all App viewers have access to the Entity data.

For example, all Users will be able to see file Owners on an App.

  • Private – the Entity data is available for a specific user.

For example, Users will be able to see a set of Filter choices on an App that will persist individually for each User.

  • Managed (Beta) – provides object storage that can be granted to specific users.

For example, Dashboard 1 is granted to User A, User B, User C. Dashboard 2 is granted to User X, User Y, User Z.

  • Inherited – provides the ability to inherit access from a Dataset, Element or Folder.

Setting an Internal Entity to App Dataset(4) allows performing full CRUD operations on the data sourced from a Dataset via the Entity API, while also supporting flexible access control.

Adding Dataset, Data Source, or Custom Script Entity

The Dataset Entity will soon be deprecated. It is no longer recommended to be used. The best practice for interactivity with Datasets is to use the Dataset Data API.

The algorithm for adding Dataset, Data Source, and Custom Script Entities is essentially the same and requires specifying:

  1. Name
  2. Entity Type: Dataset, Data Source, or Custom Script
  3. The actual Object with which you want to tie the App