Your application includes predefined business entity basic, smart, and system fields. If the predefined fields don't meet the needs of your organization, edit the predefined field and add basic or smart fields that you need. These fields can appear in the business user interface as fields of records, such as the fields of master records and source records. Each field contains a single data item. For example, you can add a field to contain the full name and another field to contain the date of birth.
You can add the following types fields to business entities:
•Boolean
•Business Entity Record
•Date
•Date and Time
•Decimal
•Dependent Picklist
•Double
•Dynamic Field Definitions
•Dynamic Field Values
•Email Address
•Field Group
•Integer
•Picklist
•Postal Address
•Phone Number
•Text
•URL
You can also view system fields in business entities. System fields are predefined fields in each business entity.
For more information about system fields, see System fields.
Integer field
Use an integer field to store whole numbers.
In business applications, users can specify an integer value with a maximum of 16 digits. The maximum value that a user can specify is 9007199254740991. If the specified value exceeds the maximum length, the value is rounded to 16 digits.
Date and Time field
Use a date and time field to store date and time values, such as subscription timestamps and incorporation dates.
When you add the date and time field to a custom page, you can specify the date and time format. You can enter dates up to December 31, 9999, 23:59:59 UTC. MDM SaaS business applications display the date and time based on the time zone settings of your device.
When you specify values in data and time fields, ensure that you don't specify dates earlier than 1910. If you specify a date earlier than 1910, MDM SaaS applies an offset of 8 minutes and 50 seconds to the time value. For example, the value 04/06/1901 5:21:10 PM appears as 04/06/1901 5:30:00 PM.
Field group
Use a field group to group multiple related fields and store multiple entries of field values.
For example, an education field group can include the qualification type, qualification name, institution name, and student number fields. A record can have multiple entries for education.
Note:
To optimize the performance of custom pages in business applications, ensure that you include up to 15 picklists in a field group. For nested field groups, include up to 15 picklists in each nesting level.
Dynamic fields
When you want a set of fields to vary across records of a business entity, configure dynamic fields. Dynamic fields aren't fixed and can be added or removed as needed for specific records.
When you use dynamic fields, a business user can add suitable dynamic fields for different records. Records related through a hierarchy or a graph relationship receive the dynamic fields, and the business users can add values to the dynamic fields.
For example, consider the Grocery and Electronics records that belong to a business entity, such as Category. Fields, such as Allergens and Ingredients, might be suitable for records related to Grocery records. Fields, such as Display and Camera, might be suitable for records related to Electronics records.
Consider the Borges Penne and Teddy 5G Mobile records that belong to another business entity, such as Item. Assign the Borges Penne record to the Grocery record and the Teddy 5G Mobile record to the Electronics record in a hierarchy.
The Borges Penne record gets the Allergens and Ingredients fields from the Grocery record, and you can add values for them in the Borges Penne record. Similarly, the Teddy 5G Mobile record gets the Display and Camera fields from the Electronics record, and you can add values for them in the Teddy 5G Mobile record.
To configure dynamic fields, you require a dynamic pool asset, dynamic field definitions attributes in a provider business entity, and dynamic field values attributes in a consumer business entity. Dynamic fields are contained in an asset called the dynamic pool. Dynamic fields are basic fields and field groups and a collection of these is a dynamic pool. You can create multiple dynamic pools to address different use cases. For example, create a dynamic pool for Products and another dynamic pool for Suppliers. As fields are not shared between dynamic pools the recommendation is to use multiple dynamic pools only for distinct use cases.
The following image shows an example of a dynamic pool, dynamic field definitions attributes, and dynamic field values attributes:
Dynamic fields attributes
When you configure dynamic fields, you need to define dynamic field definitions and dynamic field values attributes.
Dynamic field definitions
Dynamic field definitions are associated with a dynamic pool and acts as a container for the fields and field groups in the pool that users can select in business applications. Add a dynamic field definitions attribute to a provider business entity. Business users can select the fields and field groups that are relevant to a record that they create. You can also configure inheritance settings to determine how the records in a hierarchy can inherit these definitions. For more information on inheritance of dynamic field definitions, see Inheritance of dynamic field definitions.
The following image shows the dynamic field definitions, Pasta Shape and Pasta Style, selected for the Pasta & Noodles record:
Dynamic field values
Dynamic field values are associated with a dynamic field definitions attribute that you added to a provider business entity. The dynamic field values attribute displays all the fields that are selected through the dynamic field definitions attribute. Add a dynamic field values attribute to a consumer business entity. Business users can enter values for the fields and field groups in records after they add these records to a hierarchy or relate through a graph relationship.
The following image shows the Borges Penne 400g record with the dynamic fields, Ingredient, Diet Type, and Allergen that are assigned to the Pasta & Noodles record:
The following image shows how a dynamic pool, a dynamic field definitions attributes, and a dynamic field values attributes are related:
For more information about configuring dynamic fields, see Add dynamic fields.
Inheritance of dynamic field definitions
Records in a hierarchy can inherit dynamic field definitions from their parent records.
When you configure a dynamic field definitions attribute, you can specify how the attribute can inherit dynamic fields definitions from the same or another dynamic fields definitions attribute. The inheritance depends on a hierarchical relationship between the business entities that contain the dynamic field definitions attributes and the direction of the relationship. The hierarchy that contains the hierarchical relationship must be set to be searchable. When you assign a record to another record in a hierarchy, the child record inherits the dynamic field definitions from the parent record based on the relationship between them.
For example, add a record named Food & Beverages and set the dynamic field definitions to include Allergens and Ingredients. When you add a child record named Pasta & Noodles to the Food & Beverages record, the Pasta & Noodles record inherits the dynamic field definitions, such as Allergens and Ingredients, from the Food & Beverages record.
The following image shows the Pasta & Noodles record and the Borges Penne 400g record that inherits dynamic field definitions from their parent records within a hierarchy such as, Pasta Shape, Pasta Style, and Ingredient Name, from the Pasta and Noodles record:
Note:
To update the dynamic field definitions that the related records inherit, run the process hierarchies jobs. For more information about defining and running the process hierarchies job, see Define and run a process hierarchies job .
Features applicable to dynamic fields
Before you use dynamic fields, ensure that you understand the features applicable to dynamic fields.
•You can configure survivorship for dynamic fields. Each field group within a dynamic field values attribute is considered a block.
•You can ingress and egress dynamic field values and dynamic field definitions by using Business 360 FEP Connector. You can also egress data from dynamic field values or dynamic field definitions by using Business 360 Connector. However, you can't import data into dynamic fields through file import.
•You can configure permissions for user roles to access dynamic field definitions and dynamic field values attributes, but not to the specific fields and field groups in a dynamic pool. However, you can't configure data access rules for dynamic fields.
•You can edit dynamic field values attributes when you edit a record. However, you can't edit dynamic field values attributes when you create a record.
•You can view the history of updates to dynamic fields. When you create, update, or delete dynamic fields, the corresponding change events now appear on the History page.
•You can search for dynamic field values and filter search results based on dynamic fields.
•When you export search results, the exported data includes dynamic fields.
•You can't configure declarative match rules for dynamic fields.
•You can't define basic and advanced data quality rule associations for dynamic fields.
•You can create business events for changes to dynamic field values. Reviewers can review and edit dynamic field values in the edit mode of tasks. Reviewers can also compare changes to dynamic field values with the existing ones. However, you can't create business events for changes to dynamic field definitions, so reviewers can't compare or make changes to dynamic field definitions.
•You can't create reports based on dynamic fields.
You need to understand the limits and thresholds of dynamic field configuration before you design your data model. For more information about these limits and thresholds, see Limits and thresholds.
URL fields
Use a URL field to access digital assets, such as images, documents, and videos, that are hosted in third-party services. You can configure URL fields to show a preview of digital assets that are images or display URLs for downloading or accessing the content from third-party services.
Business users can specify URLs of digital assets when they create or update records.
You can set the purpose of URL fields when you configure their properties:
Preview content
Set to preview the URL content in the user interface. Business users can specify publicly accessible URLs to display thumbnail images, such as those of a person, product, or company logo.
Download content
Set to download digital assets when users access URLs from the user interface. For example, users can download a regulatory document through a URL. Ensure that business users have access to the digital assets in the third-party services.
Open content from source
Set to open the digital assets in the source service when business users access URLs from the user interface. Ensure that business users have access to the digital assets in the third-party services.
To safeguard data security, Informatica renders images from cloud services that are approved after evaluating them for security and compliance standards. For more information about the list of allowed cloud services, see Cloud services for hosting images.
Guidelines for using URL fields
Consider the following guidelines before using URL fields:
•You can add a URL field to a business entity and dynamic pool. However, you can’t add URL fields as relationship attributes.
•You can configure rule associations for data enrichment for input mappings but can't configure for output mappings.
•You can use URL fields for exact match, but not for fuzzy match.
•You can't create reports based on URL fields.
•You can't define basic and advanced data quality rule associations for URL fields.
•You can't use DaaS rule associations for URL fields.
•You can't add URL fields to candidate selection criteria of a declarative rule.
Note:
In this release, business applications display only images when you view records and search results.
System fields
System fields are predefined, read-only fields that are automatically populated at runtime for every business entity. Unlike custom fields, you can't add or update the values of system fields.
The following table describes the system fields that a business entity contains:
System Field
Description
Business ID
Business ID of the master records.
Created By
Name of the user who created the master records.
Created On
Date when the master record was created.
Last Updated By
Name of the user who last updated the master records.
Last Updated Date
Date when the master record was last updated.
Record State
State of the master record, such as active, pending, or inactive.
Source Record Details
A field group that stores metadata details of source records that contribute to the master record. The source record details field group includes fields such as, Source Business ID, Source Primary Key, and Source System.
Source Business ID
Business ID of the source records that contribute to the master record.
Source Primary Key
Unique identifier of source records that contribute to master records.
Source System
Source systems to which the source records belong.
