Attributes & Data Types

Attributes are the fields inside an entity. They define what you capture for each record. If the entity is a drawer, attributes are the columns on the form inside it.

For a Customers entity, attributes might be Customer Name, Registration Number, Address, Industry and Status.

The attribute table

Each row in the entity form is one attribute. The columns are:

Column	What it decides
Display Name / Description	What people see in the grid, and an optional note shown under it in this form
Name (DB)	The column name used in the database, in exports and in the API. Renaming it changes what integrations must send
Type	The kind of value the column holds
Length/Target	Maximum length for text, decimal places for numbers, the date format for dates, or the entity a domain column points at
Filter	The parent domain column for a cascading dropdown
Neg.	Whether a number column accepts values below zero
Required	A row cannot be saved while this column is empty
Role	Marks the `CODE`, `NAME` and `DATE` system fields
Visible	Whether the column appears in the data grid

The attribute table in the entity form, with one row per attribute(click to enlarge)

The database name is derived from the display name in PascalCase — "Regional Director" becomes RegionalDirector. Type your own name to override it; once you do, it stops following the display name.

A hidden column is dimmed in this table. Hidden columns still hold their values, and they still come out in exports.

Data types

Type	Use it for	Settings
Text	Names, descriptions, addresses, any string	Length — maximum characters. Leave empty for no limit
Integer	Quantities, counts, sequence numbers	Neg. — allow values below zero
Decimal	Prices, percentages, measurements	Length — decimal places, 0 to 10, default 2. Neg. — allow values below zero
DateTime	Dates, with or without a time	Length/Target — the date format, picked from the installation's format library
Boolean	Any true/false flag	Length/Target — the display format
Domain	A reference to a record in another entity	Length/Target — the target entity

Text fields filter by substring and sort alphabetically. Booleans are stored as 1 or 0 and shown as a pill badge; they work with search, paste rows, export and import.

Boolean display formats

Pick one per attribute in the Length/Target column:

Yes / No — the default. A green "Yes" or a grey "No" pill
True / False
1 / 0
Custom… — uses the labels set in General Settings → General → Boolean Display

Dates and domains

A date attribute picks a format from a shared library rather than typing a mask — see Date & Time Formats. A domain attribute points at another entity — see Domain Attributes & Hierarchies.

Add, reorder and delete

Click Add above the attribute table. A new row appears and takes focus.
Enter the display name, pick the type, and set the type's own settings.
Click Save.

Reorder an attribute in two ways:

Drag the row by its grip handle to a new position.
Or click the up and down arrows at the end of the row.

Code and Name cannot be moved, hidden or deleted. Neither can the Created and Last Modified system dates — only their format is yours to choose.

Click the trash icon to remove an attribute. The change takes effect when you save the entity.

Change the data type of an attribute

You can change the type after data has been entered. Primentra reads every stored value first and shows an impact preview before it applies anything.

The Change Data Type dialog, showing how many values convert and how many are cleared(click to enlarge)

The dialog reports three numbers:

How many values can be converted automatically, in green
How many values cannot be converted and will be cleared, in red
The total number of values affected

Your choices:

Button	What happens
Convert All / Convert & Continue	Convert what can be converted. Values that cannot are set to empty
Clear All	Empty every value, whether or not it could be converted
Cancel	Abort. The type and every value stay as they were

When nothing can be converted, the only action offered is Clear & Continue.

What converts

Integer → Text always succeeds.
Text → Integer succeeds only for a valid number. 42 converts; hello is cleared.
Boolean → Integer always succeeds. Yes becomes 1, No becomes 0.
Text → Boolean succeeds for yes, no, true, false, 1 and 0.
Domain → any other type always clears. A domain reference cannot be converted.

Safety

The whole conversion runs in one database transaction. If anything fails, everything rolls back.
A summary is written to the audit log: attribute, old type, new type, and how many values were converted or cleared. Individual values are not backed up — take a SQL Server backup first if you need full recovery.
When the attribute has no data yet, the type changes silently with no dialog.