What is an entity?

This article gives an overview of what an entity is and how it is used in inriver.

About entities

Entities help you to package the different parts of your industry into technology. An entity can be described as a container, or a box with any kind of attributes. Different types of entities are created when you and your Partner are setting up your elastic data model.

A new entity carries the data you have and any type of information you need to package in containers for your field of industry. In most cases they are unique for each company.

Why use entities?

The creation of different entities helps you to deal with the complexity of your product information and enables you and the selected Partner to deliver all the necessary relationships that connect the different entities together.

Entities make it easier to structure the data into a unique box (Entity) for each data package. You can organize the data so that you gather commonalities as one entity and the differences as other linked entities which will ease the work with managing the data.

The entities simplify the usage for everyone involved and working in inriver and it visualize and simplify the conversation around the implementation. What you see is what you get, for everyone working with entities.

Q: We've already set up a data model. Can we add more Entity Types later?

Yes, of course, you can! Talk to your Partner and they will help you add and extend the existing elastic data model with new entity types. Start small and scale up is one of many benefits using inriver. You are never stuck and forced into using other entity types. Everything is tailored for what's actually used and needed.   

Example: entities used in a data model

Travel and tourist

An entity for the travel and tourist industry could be location, stay, product, item, specification, and media resources.

Hotel and motels

An entity for the hotel and motels industry could be hotels, location, rooms, beds, product, item, specification, and media resources.

Pharmacy and healthcare

An entity for the pharmacy and healthcare industry could be care, how to use, advice, product, item, specification, and media resources.

Food and beverage

An entity for the food and beverage industry could be a product, item, cocktail, specification, recipe, and media resources.

Fashion

An entity for the fashion industry could be product, item, brand, outfit, influencer, colors, size, material, deals, specification, and media resources.

Education and publishing

An entity for the education and publishing industry could be literature, author, giveaways, merchandise, education, course, product, item, specification, and media resources.

Agriculture

An entity for the agriculture Industry could be a product, item, education and course, and media resources.

Automotive

An entity for the automotive industry could be a product, item, specification, fit, part, spare part, accessories, and media resources.

Cruise line

An entity for the cruise line industry could be a ship, destination, cabin, product, item, specification, and media resources.

Building and construction

An dntity for the DIY consumer industry could be how to use, advice, expert, rent, educate, product, item, specification, and media resources.

Other entities

Examples of other entities could be activities, campaigns, milestone, task, meeting, staff, budget, brief, media channel, bundles, promotion, and media resources.

Share your thoughts!

Do you have any more suggestions for entities that could be used in your industry or that's missing in the examples above? Please share in the comments below.

Further reading

Entity

Creating an Entity

inriver's Elastic Data Model