Configuring Non-Owner Dynamic Links

Follow these steps to configure entities that will have a non-owner, dynamic relationship to the owner entity in your shared embedded model:

1. Create a new Entities record or open an existing record that you intend to modify. See Creating a New Entity for instructions.
   
   • For this step, complete the top area of the Entities form, add security settings, and add entity fields (except for the embedded link).
   • Keep in mind that the security settings on the embedded entity and the container entity should meet the design requirements that you identified previously.
      
2. Open a new Fields record for the embedded link.
3. Enter a Name for the embedded link.
   
   • Aptify's standard naming convention for linked fields is the name of the linked entity (in its singular form) and the linked entity field. For example, the name of a field linked to the Addresses entity's ID field would be AddressID.
   • The Display Name fills in automatically when you specify a Name.
      
4. Select the embedded entity from the Linked Entity drop-down list.
5. Select ID from the Linked Field drop-down list.
6. Select Embedded from the Link Type drop-down list and press the Tab key.
   
   • The Mode field appears.
      
7. Set Mode to Dynamic.
   
   • The Dynamic Sharing tab appears. Leave the Dynamic Sharing tab blank.
      
8. Click the Validation tab and configure the embedded link's Is Required behavior.
   
   • If you want to require a user to specify a value for all of the required fields in the embedded entity (assuming that the user does not complete a field that would initiate a shared embedded flow-down), leave the Is Required option selected under the Validation tab.
   • If you want to allow users to save the container record without specifying all of the required embedded fields (again, assuming that the user does not complete a field that would initiate a shared embedded flow-down), clear the Is Required option on the Validation tab and select the Allow Null option on the General tab.
      
9. Click OK to save and close the Fields record.
   
   • You do not want to enable the field's Show In Find or Default In View options since you want the link to be transparent to users.
   • The Aptify Entity Virtual Fields wizard appears automatically when you close an embedded link's Fields record.
      
10. Use the wizard to create a virtual field for each of fields in the embedded entity that you want to display on the container entity's form. Make additional modifications to any of these virtual fields as necessary after you have used the wizard to create them.
11. If not already in place, add the entity object plug-in to the entity's Plug-Ins tab.
    
    • The initial embedded link flow-down to this non-owner record (such as the address flow-down from a company to a person) is controlled by logic that needs to be added to the non-owner entity's entity object.
    • A developer writes code that specifies this flow-down logic (either adding it to an existing entity object or creating one for the entity if one does not already exist) and then adds the object to the Aptify Object Repository.
    • See Adding Plug-Ins to an Entity for more information.
       
12. Save and close the Entities record.
13. Close and reopen the Aptify client.
14. Test your shared embedded object implementation.