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

Specify the parameters listed below for Internal Entities, for other Entity Types proceed to the next step.

  1. Name
  2. Entity Type: Internal Entity
  3. Access Type:
    • 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.
  4. App Dataset: Specify whether to allow storing data in a Dataset format, enabling structured storage and optimized performance for large-scale use cases.
    • App Datasets support 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.
  5. Encrypt Values: Activate this setting to encrypt all attribute values stored for the Entity.
    • When enabled, values are masked in the App Editor UI and securely encrypted at rest in the database.
    • If unchecked, new values are stored unencrypted, but previously encrypted values remain secure unless edited or deleted.

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