The Edit Mode

Entities in CaosDB can be changed, created, and deleted using the Edit Mode. In the following chapter, you’ll learn how. You should be fairly familiar with the concepts of Records, RecordTypes and Properties in CaosDB. If you have doubts, please have a look at the data model documentation.

In usual setups of CaosDB, you have to log in to use the edit mode. Afterwards, you can access it by clicking on the button in the to panel as shown below:

After entering the edit mode, the button changes its text to Leave Edit Mode. Unsurprisingly, clicking here terminates the edit mode.

Note

The edit mode is only available if you have sufficient privileges. You can only create/edit/delete entities if your user is allowed to do that. User and group permissions can be configured in detail as explained in the server documentation.

When you have entered the edit mode, you’ll see the edit mode toolbox appearing on the right hand side of your screen:

You’ll learn more about its contents in the following sections. Right now it only contains the options for creating a new RecordType or Property which we’ll explain in Creating new RecordTypes and Properties.

Changing an existing Entity

We’ll start by changing and updating existing entities. First, find the entity you want to change and enter the edit mode. You’ll see an edit button in the top right of the entity card:

After clicking on this button, the edit menu for this entity is opened as shown below for a guitar Record from the demo. You’ll also note that the edit mode toolbox changes its contents: It now harbours two lists of the existing Properties and RecordTypes.

Property values can be changed in the entity card directly; additional parents can be added by dragging them from the list of RecordTypes to the corresponding area at the top of the Record. Similarly, Properties can be added by dragging Properties (or RecordTypes) from the list in the edit mode toolbox to the corresponding area at the bottom of the Record. Properties and parents can be removed from the entity by clicking on the trash-can symbol. Not that a Record must always have at least one parent.

Changes will be applied after clicking on Save or can be discarded entirely by clicking Cancel. Existing Properties and RecordTypes can be edited in the same way. Note that when changing a RecordType, the properties don’t have values.

Creating a new Record

If you want to create a new Record of a given RecordType, visit that RecordType and enter the edit mode (if your new Record will have more than one parent, visit any one of them - you can add the others later). A new Record is then created by clicking on the +Record button in the top right of the RecordType:

Clicking here opens an entity card with an edit menu for the new Record similar to the one discussed in Changing an existing Entity. In here, you can enter the name and the description of your new Record, assign values to its properties, and add further parents or properties from the corresponding lists in the edit mode toolbox. The new Record is inserted by clicking Save.

Creating new RecordTypes and Properties

You can extend the data model of your CaosDB by creating new RecordTypes and Properties directly from the WebUI. This is done by clicking on the corresponding buttons in the edit mode toolbox:

When creating a new RecordType, a RecordType card is added to the entity panel, similar to the new Record explained above:

As above, you can enter a name and a description. You can add parents and properties by selecting them from the lists in the edit mode toolbox and dragging them to the respective areas in the new RecordType. Note that in contrast to Records, the properties of RecordTypes do not have values.

When creating a new property name and description can be entered as above. In addition, the datatype can be selected from the CaosDB datatypes TEXT, DOUBLE, INTEGER, DATETIME, BOOLEAN, FILE, and REFERENCE. See here for more information on the datatypes. You can also choose whether the new property should have a single value or a list of values.

When creating a property with datatype INTEGER or DOUBLE, i.e., a number, you may enter a unit in an additional input field if applicable. In case of a REFERENCE property, you may specify the RecordType that all referenced Records must have. In the above example a REFERENCE property is created which may only have violins as values. Again, the new entity is created by clicking on save.

Note

After having created a new RecordType or Property, you may have to leave and re-enter the edit mode for the new entity to appear in the lists of Properties or RecordTypes in the edit mode toolbox.

Deleting an Entity

Entities can also be deleted by clicking on the delete button in the top right of the entity:

After clicking on delete you’ll be asked for confirmation. Note that entities cannot be deleted if they are needed by other entities, e.g., as a reference.

Uploading files

In case of properties with data type FILE, you can use the edit mode to upload a corresponding file directly. When editing the Record which will have the file to be uploaded as the value of the corresponding property (named SourceFile in the example below), add the property as described above if it isn’t present already. Next to the dropdown menu, in which you can choose from existing files, you find an uploaded button:

Click on it to open an upload dialogue in which you can choose the file that you want to upload. The files uploaded this way will be stored within /uploaded.by/<REALM>/<USER>/.

The same is true for properties with data type REFERENCE, too. In that case, the Record of the file that is uploaded will be assigned the RecordType of value of the original reference property.