ALTER ENTITY

ALTER ENTITY modifies an existing entity’s attributes, indexes, or documentation without recreating it. This is useful for incremental changes to entities that already contain data.

ADD Attributes

Add one or more new attributes:

ALTER ENTITY Sales.Customer
  ADD (Phone: String(50), Notes: String(unlimited));

New attributes support the same constraints as in CREATE ENTITY:

ALTER ENTITY Sales.Customer
  ADD (
    LoyaltyPoints: Integer DEFAULT 0,
    MemberSince: DateTime NOT NULL
  );

DROP Attributes

Remove one or more attributes:

ALTER ENTITY Sales.Customer
  DROP (Notes);

Multiple attributes can be dropped at once:

ALTER ENTITY Sales.Customer
  DROP (Notes, TempField, OldStatus);

MODIFY Attributes

Change the type or constraints of existing attributes:

ALTER ENTITY Sales.Customer
  MODIFY (Name: String(400) NOT NULL);

RENAME Attributes

Rename an attribute:

ALTER ENTITY Sales.Customer
  RENAME Phone TO PhoneNumber;

ADD INDEX

Add an index to the entity:

ALTER ENTITY Sales.Customer
  ADD INDEX (Email);

Composite indexes:

ALTER ENTITY Sales.Customer
  ADD INDEX (Name, CreatedAt DESC);

DROP INDEX

Remove an index:

ALTER ENTITY Sales.Customer
  DROP INDEX (Email);

SET DOCUMENTATION

Update the entity’s documentation text:

ALTER ENTITY Sales.Customer
  SET DOCUMENTATION 'Customer master data for the Sales module';

ADD/DROP System Attributes

System attributes use the same ADD/DROP syntax as regular attributes:

-- Add system attributes
ALTER ENTITY Sales.Order ADD ATTRIBUTE Owner: AutoOwner;
ALTER ENTITY Sales.Order ADD ATTRIBUTE ChangedBy: AutoChangedBy;
ALTER ENTITY Sales.Order ADD ATTRIBUTE CreatedDate: AutoCreatedDate;
ALTER ENTITY Sales.Order ADD ATTRIBUTE ChangedDate: AutoChangedDate;

-- Drop system attributes (by name)
ALTER ENTITY Sales.Order DROP ATTRIBUTE Owner;
ALTER ENTITY Sales.Order DROP ATTRIBUTE ChangedDate;

ADD/DROP EVENT HANDLER

-- Before commit: validates and can abort (RAISE ERROR)
ALTER ENTITY Sales.Order
  ADD EVENT HANDLER ON BEFORE COMMIT CALL Sales.ValidateOrder($currentObject) RAISE ERROR;

-- After commit: runs after successful commit (no RAISE ERROR)
ALTER ENTITY Sales.Order
  ADD EVENT HANDLER ON AFTER COMMIT CALL Sales.LogOrderChange($currentObject);

-- Without passing the entity object
ALTER ENTITY Sales.Order
  ADD EVENT HANDLER ON AFTER CREATE CALL Sales.NotifyNewOrder();

-- Remove an event handler
ALTER ENTITY Sales.Order
  DROP EVENT HANDLER ON BEFORE COMMIT;

Moment	Returns	RAISE ERROR	Use case
`BEFORE`	Boolean	Yes — aborts on `false`	Validation, permission checks
`AFTER`	Void	No	Logging, notifications, side effects

Events: CREATE, COMMIT, DELETE, ROLLBACK

Parameter: ($currentObject) passes the entity to the microflow, () does not.

Syntax Summary

ALTER ENTITY <Module>.<Entity>
  ADD (<attribute-definition> [, ...])

ALTER ENTITY <Module>.<Entity>
  DROP (<attribute-name> [, ...])

ALTER ENTITY <Module>.<Entity>
  MODIFY (<attribute-definition> [, ...])

ALTER ENTITY <Module>.<Entity>
  RENAME <old-name> TO <new-name>

ALTER ENTITY <Module>.<Entity>
  ADD INDEX (<column-list>)

ALTER ENTITY <Module>.<Entity>
  DROP INDEX (<column-list>)

ALTER ENTITY <Module>.<Entity>
  SET DOCUMENTATION '<text>'

ALTER ENTITY <Module>.<Entity>
  SET POSITION (<x>, <y>)

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