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 built and maintained in Settings › Objects, introduced in What is an Object?.

The name, 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 put the records you already have at risk.

This page covers the four changes an admin makes months after the Object was set up, usually because the team's language moved on or an Object turned out to be wrong.

Before you start

You need to be an admin, as What is an Object? explains. The first three changes happen on the Object's own page in Settings › Objects, and the last one on the list of Objects itself. Nothing on this page deletes a record.

How do you rename an Object?

Edit the two names at the top of the page and press Save. The singular name is what one record is called, and it names the buttons: an Object called Repair gives you a New Repair button. The plural names the list in the sidebar and the web address for it.

Older links to the Object's records keep working, even after a rename, so a link pasted into a chat message last March still opens the right record. The sidebar, the new-record menu and Settings › Permissions all pick up the new name straight away.

Three things to expect:

• Each name can be up to 60 characters, and both are required.
• A name another live Object is already using is refused, and you are told which one has it.
• Renaming changes the label of the Object only. Anything your team typed inside the records is untouched, and so is every automation that reads from it.

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

How do you change which columns show on the list?

Reorder the fields. The first six fields, in the order they appear in the field list, are the columns on the record list. So moving a field into the top six is how it becomes a column, and moving it down is how it stops being one.

Each row in the field list has an up arrow and a down arrow on the left. Press one and the field moves a place; the record list picks the change up immediately, and so does the order of the boxes on the record form.

If an order ever looks half applied after a lot of quick presses, press the arrows again to settle it. Nothing is lost either way.

Because the first six are shared by everyone who opens the list, they are a real decision about what the list is for. Fairgreen's Repairs list leads with the customer, the stage, the supplier and the date in, because that is what a person scanning the list needs. The serial number sits lower down and is found by opening the record, or by searching, which How to find and open your records covers.

The same order decides how the record form reads top to bottom, so group fields that get filled in together. Add a field and pick the right type covers adding new fields, which always arrive at the bottom for you to move up.

Which field titles every record?

One field on each Object is the display field. Its value is the record's title everywhere the record appears: in lists, in search results, in an @ mention in chat, and on any record that links to it. A coral Display pill in the field list shows you which field currently holds the job.

To change it, use the Display field picker in the Fields header and choose another field. The picker appears once the Object has more than one field to choose between.

Pick the field a person would say out loud to identify the record. A new Object starts with a field called Name in the role, which is right for anything people identify by name, like a fabric trial or a press loan.

For something that has a running number, point it at the reference number instead, so records read RPR-1042 rather than a row of near-identical names. Choice lists and reference numbers covers setting a reference number up.

One rule protects you here: the field currently acting as the display field cannot be archived while it holds that role, and the screen tells you so. Point the display field at another field first, then archive the one you are finished with.

How do you retire an Object you no longer use?

Archive it. Open the Object and use the red Archive this Object panel at the bottom of the page. The confirmation spells out exactly what happens before you commit, and it is worth reading, because archiving reaches further than most people expect:

• Every record already saved stays exactly as it is. Nothing is deleted.
• Nobody can create a new one. The Object leaves the sidebar, the new-record menu and Settings › Objects.
• Links pointing at it from other records stop resolving, so a record that referenced one of these will show the link as unavailable.
• An automation that reads from the Object stops doing its work.

So do two things first. Check which automations touch the Object and switch them off or point them elsewhere, and check any other Object that links to this one, which Link one Object to another explains. The Object's row on Settings › Objects tells you how many records and how many fields it holds, which is the quickest sanity check that you are archiving the right thing.

Its permission dials are kept for you and appear on Settings › Permissions marked "(archived)", so a restore brings back the access you had configured rather than a blank slate. See 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 and the Object returns to the sidebar with its records, its fields, its stages and its permissions intact.

The one thing that can stop a restore is the name. If you archived Repairs and later created a new, live Object also called Repairs, the name is taken and you are told so in plain words. Rename the live one first, then restore, then decide which of the two the team is actually going to use.

If you are restoring because you want a fresh start on the same idea, build a new Object instead. Create an Object takes a couple of minutes, and Plan your fields before you add them is the four minutes that keep you from doing this twice.