Create an Object

An Object is a kind of record your team defines: Repairs, Fabric trials, Press loans, the things your business tracks that Tideswell does not arrive knowing about. Admins build Objects in Settings › Objects, and each one then appears as its own list under the Objects heading in the sidebar, with its own records inside it. If the feature is new to you, read What is an Object? before this page.

Creating one takes a single short dialog and two names. The work that matters happens either side of it: deciding what the Object is for beforehand, and adding the right fields to it afterwards. This page covers the dialog and everything it sets up for you the moment you press Create.

Before you start

You need to be an admin. Settings › Objects does not appear at all for anyone who is not an admin of the workspace, and How to work out who can do what in your workspace explains how a person's role turns into what they can reach.

Read two pages first. Decide between a built-in record and your own Object checks that the thing you are about to build does not already have a home in Tideswell. Plan your fields before you add them gets your fields onto paper, which matters because a field's type is fixed once you save it.

Where do you create one?

Go to Settings › Objects. If your workspace has no Objects yet, the page explains what one is and puts the New Object button in the middle of the screen. Once you have at least one, the same button sits in the header, and the list below shows each Object with how many records and how many fields it holds.

The list shows only the Objects your team defined. Things Tideswell ships with, such as purchase orders and suppliers, are managed on their own settings screens rather than here.

What are the two names for?

The dialog asks for a singular name and a plural name. The singular is what one record is called, and it names the buttons: type "Repair" and the button people press to add one reads New Repair.

The plural is what the list is called, in the sidebar and at the top of the list itself, and it also sets the Object's web address. The plural box appears once the singular name has something in it.

Use the words your team already says out loud, not internal shorthand. Fairgreen Golf Co.

uses "Repair" and "Repairs", "Fabric trial" and "Fabric trials", "Press loan" and "Press loans". Somebody reading the sidebar for the first time should know what is in the list without asking.

A few rules apply to both names:

Both are required, so Create stays out of reach until each box has something in it.
Each is capped at 60 characters, which is far more than a good name needs.
Neither can match a name another live Object is already using. If you try, you are told which name is taken, in those words, and you can change it there and then.
If the plural name produces a web address that is already spoken for, including one an Object used in the past, Tideswell adds a number to keep it unique. The sidebar still reads exactly the words you typed.

Names are not a permanent commitment. You can rename an Object later and older links to its records keep working: see Rename, reorder or retire an Object.

Create the Object

The dialog is four moves. Cancel at any point throws away everything you typed and creates nothing.

Open Settings › Objects and press New Object.
Type the singular name, for example "Repair".
Type the plural name in the box that appears, for example "Repairs".
Read the two notes in the dialog, then press Create.

The first note tells you that a field called Name is added for you. The second tells you that everyone who can view this Object sees every field on it.

Pause on that one before you press Create: it shapes what you should keep on this Object and what belongs somewhere more tightly held. Who can see and edit an Object covers the decision.

What happens the moment you press Create?

You land straight on the new Object's builder page, which is where you add its fields and set up its stages. That one dialog also sets up four things people often do not connect until later, and each of them is worth knowing about.

A list of its own in the sidebar, under the Objects heading. It appears only for people whose role clears the Object's View setting.
An entry in the new-record menu, so anyone with permission can add a record without going through Settings.
A web address of its own, taken from the plural name, so you can link straight to the list or send someone a single record.
Four permission dials, named in plain words: View, Create, Update and Archive. A brand new Object opens View, Create and Update to every member and limits Archive to leads. All four are yours to change.

What is the Name field?

Every new Object arrives with exactly one field, called Name. It starts out as the Object's display field, so its value titles each record wherever that record appears: in the list, in search, and on anything the record is linked to. Nothing else is added for you, so the rest of the fields are yours to decide.

Fill Name with whatever identifies the record to a person at a glance. For Fairgreen's Repairs, that might be the customer's surname and the item together. For Fabric trials, the mill and the fabric, "Portside Mills, 240gsm piqué".

You are not stuck with Name in that role. You can point the display field at a better one whenever you like, such as a reference number that counts up on its own.

What should you do next?

Add the fields you were certain about in your sketch, then use the Object for a week before adding the rest. Records are cheap to add and fields are easy to get wrong, so the short version of the advice is: build less, then use it.

In roughly this order:

Add your fields, deciding each one's type before you save it, because the type is fixed afterwards. See Add a field and pick the right type.
Link the Object to the things it relates to, such as Repairs to your suppliers. See Link one Object to another.
Set the stages a record moves through, from the day it arrives to the day it is done. See The stages a record moves through.
Check who can see and change it before you tell the team it exists. See Who can see and edit an Object.

Then hand it over. Your team takes it from there with How to add and edit a record.