How to rename, reorder or retire an Object

An Object is a kind of record your team defines, and it is not fixed once you have built it. Objects are maintained in Settings › Objects, introduced in What is an Object?.

The name, the web address, the icon, the order of the fields, the field that titles every record, and whether the Object is in use at all are all yours to change later. None of them deletes a record you already have.

Before you start

You need to be an admin, as What is an Object? explains. Open Settings › Objects and click the Object. The changes on this page sit on three of its six tabs:

• Configuration: the two names, the web address and Archive this Object.
• Appearance: the icon and colour.
• Fields: the field order, the Display field picker and archiving a single field.

How do you rename an Object?

Open the Configuration tab, edit Name and Plural name, and press Save. The Name is what one record is called: an Object named Repair gives you a New Repair button and a Repair row in the Objects area of the menu.

The Plural name titles the list page and the Object's rows on Settings › Objects and Settings › Permissions. Both pick up the new words straight away.

Three things to expect:

• Each name can be up to 60 characters.
• The Name must be one no other Object is using. If it is taken, you are told "An Object called "Repair" already exists." Two Objects may share a Plural name.
• Renaming changes the words only. Everything your team typed inside the records is untouched, and so is every automation that reads from the Object.

The web address stays where it is when you rename. The note on the tab adds that older links to the Object's records keep working, even after a rename.

If Fairgreen Golf Co. starts calling repairs "warranty claims", this is a two-minute change with no cleanup afterwards.

Tideswell's built-in records, such as suppliers and purchase orders, are renamed on Settings › Terminology instead, covered in How to use your own words for Tideswell's records.

How do you change its web address?

Edit the Web address box on the Configuration tab and press Save. The box holds the last part of the list's current address, for example "repairs". The old address keeps working, so links already shared still open the right page.

Use letters, numbers and hyphens, up to 40 characters; capitals and spaces are tidied for you. If another Object already uses the address, you are told "The address "repairs" is already in use by another Object in this workspace." Pick another one.

How do you change its icon and colour?

Open the Appearance tab. Under Icon and colour, pick an icon and a colour, or the No icon tile to clear it, and press Save on the Unsaved changes bar at the top of the page.

The preview labelled "In the sidebar" shows the result before you save. Once saved, the icon shows in the menu, on Settings › Objects, on the Object's list page and in every record's breadcrumb.

How do you change which columns show on the list?

Reorder the fields on the Fields tab. The first six fields, in the order they appear there, are the columns on the record list, and the header on the tab says so. Moving a field into the top six makes it a column, and moving it down takes it off.

Each row has an up arrow and a down arrow at the left. Press one and the field moves a place. The record list and the order of boxes on the record form follow straight away.

The arrows switch off while the Search fields… box has text in it. Clear the search, then reorder.

Because the first six are shared by everyone, they are a real decision about what the list is for. Fairgreen's Repairs list leads with the customer, the supplier and the date in, because that is what a person scanning the list needs.

Each person can also drag the columns on the record list into their own order. The first column stays where it is, and their order applies only to them. Finding a record by a field outside the top six is covered in How to find and open your records.

Which field titles every record?

One field on each Object titles every record: in search, in the record's breadcrumb, in an @ mention in chat and on any record that links to it. A grey Titles records chip on the Fields tab marks the field that has the job.

To hand the job to another field, choose it in the Display field picker at the top of the Fields tab. The message "Display field updated" confirms it.

The picker appears once there is more than one field that can do the job. A Linked record or Person field cannot title a record, so neither is offered.

Pick the field a person would say out loud to identify the record, and pick it before your team starts adding records: records saved from then on carry the new title. A new Object starts with its Name field in the role, which suits anything people identify by name, like a fabric trial or a press loan.

For something with a running number, point it at a reference number instead. Each repair is then titled by its number, such as 1042, rather than by a row of near-identical names, and the reference number's own column on the list shows it in full, as RPR-1042. How to set up choice lists and reference numbers covers setting one up.

How do you archive a field?

Press the archive icon at the right of the field's row on the Fields tab. The dialog, titled with the field's name, checks what depends on it before you commit:

• Nothing depends on this field. Press Archive field. Records that already hold a value keep it, and no new values are collected.
• Published automations use this field. Each one is listed with a link. Edit those workflows, covered in What are workflows?, so they no longer read the field, then come back. Until then, Cancel is the only button.
• Calculations read this field. Under "These calculations will stop working", each one is listed. Archiving clears the calculated value on every record and shows the reason instead, so point those calculations at another field first if the number still matters.

The field that titles records has its archive icon greyed out. Hand the job to another field with the Display field picker first, then archive the old one.

Make sure you are finished with a field before you archive it, because it does not come back. If you later add a replacement, give it a different label from the one you archived.

How do you retire an Object you no longer use?

Archive it. Open the Configuration tab and press Archive in the red Archive this Object panel. The dialog, titled "Archive Repairs?", spells out what happens:

• Every existing record stays in place. Archiving hides, it never deletes.
• Nobody can create a new one. If fields or links on other Objects point at it, the dialog names each one, because those links stop resolving.
• Any automation that reads from the Object stops running.

So check two things first. Switch off or repoint any automation that touches the Object, and look at the links the dialog names, which How to link one Object to another explains.

The record count on the dialog is the quickest check that you are archiving the right thing. Press Archive Object to finish, and you return to Settings › Objects.

The Object leaves the Objects area of the menu and the main list on Settings › Objects. Its four permission rows stay on Settings › Permissions, marked "(archived)", so a restore brings back the access you had set rather than a blank slate. See How to set who can see and edit an Object.

How do you bring an archived Object back?

Go to Settings › Objects and look under the main list, where an Archived section lists everything you have retired. Press Restore on the row. The Object returns with its records, fields, statuses and permissions, and the message "Restored Repairs" confirms it.

A restore stops only when a live Object has taken the archived one's Name or address in the meantime. You are told so, for example "An Object called "Repair" already exists. Rename that one first, then restore this." Rename the live one, restore, then decide which of the two the team is actually going to use.

If you want a fresh start on the same idea, build a new Object instead. How to create an Object takes a couple of minutes, and How to plan your fields before you add them is the four minutes that keep you from doing it twice.