If your organization has information stored in databases other than the Aptify database, you can add links to this data as a virtual entity. A virtual entity provides read-only access to data stored outside of Aptify (or to data stored within Aptify but not accessible via a standard entity). Virtual Entities allow an organization to centralize all of its data in Aptify, even if some business operations store data in non-Aptify databases.

Organizations can use Aptify's feature-rich viewing system to create views (list view, charts, and calendars) or use the Report Wizard to run reports on this data. Note that since access is read-only, users cannot open forms, update existing information, or add new records for virtual entities.

Administrators can easily create virtual entities using the Virtual Entity Wizard. The wizard can add a virtual entity for the following types of data:

• External data stored in another database on the same SQL server as Aptify.
• External data stored in another location on the network that has a Linked Server relationship with the SQL Server on which Aptify is installed.
• Data within Aptify that is not available from a top-level entity, such as sub-type data or organization-specific SQL views. Aptify's hierarchies feature for List views provides visibility for sub-type information within the viewing system, but a virtual entity further extends this functionality, allowing an organization to create a filter relationship between a sub-type and its parent and to report on the sub-type data using chart or calendar views.

This section describes how to create a virtual entity using the wizard. It covers the following topics: