Understanding App (Portal Page) Entities

Portal Pages 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.
  • 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 Portal Page Entities API for information on available API calls for Entities configuration.

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 – 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 storing data in a Dataset format, enabling structured storage and optimized performance for large-scale use cases. It supports full CRUD operations via the Entity API, while also allowing flexible access control. The data is stored in a dedicated table, making it suitable for Apps that require scalable, persistent, and queryable data without relying on a separate Dataset Entity.

Adding Dataset, Data Source, or Custom Script Entity

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