<entity>

The <entity> element defines the structure of one data entity and will result in a table in the database, and several Java classes. Example usage of the <entity> element:

<entity name="my_class">
    <description>This is my first entity.</description>
    <field name="name" type="string"/>
    <field name="investigation" type="string"/>
    <unique fields="name,investigation"/>
</entity>

<entity name="my_subclass" extends="my_class">
    <description>This class extends my_class and will have fields name,investigation and otherField</description>
    <field name="otherField"/>
</entity>

Required attributes

• name="name": globally unique name for this entity (within this blueprint).

Optional attributes

• label="Nice screen name": an user-friendly alias to show as form header (default: copied from name).
• extends="other_entity": you can use inheritance to make your entity inherit the fields of its 'superclass' using extends.
• abstract="true": you define what programmers call 'interfaces'. This are abstract objects that you can use as 'contract' for other entities to 'implement'..
• implements="abstract_entity": you can use inheritance to make your entity inherit the fields of its 'interface' using implements and refering to 'abstract' entities. The implemented fields are copied to this entity.
• decorator="package.class": you can add custom code to change the way entities are added, updated and removed. See the section on how to write a MappingDecorator plugin.

Child elements

The <entity> element can contain

• Zero or one <description> to describe this entity; a description can contain xhtml.
• zero or more <field> that detail entity structure.
• Zero or more <unique> indicating unique constraints on field(s).

Notes

• Cascading deletes can be configured via FieldElement where you can set xref_cascade