Properties

Each property value returned by the API is an object with the following fields:

Field	Description
_id	Unique identifier for this property value. Use it to delete a specific value.
type	The property name (matches the definition name, e.g. name, status). Not included when reading entities — there the property name is the key that holds the values.
string	String value. Present for string, text and counter type properties.
number	Number value. Present for number type properties, and for counter properties as the numeric part of the counter.
boolean	Boolean value. Present for boolean type properties.
date	Date value. Written as YYYY-MM-DD, returned as an ISO 8601 timestamp (e.g. 1999-03-15T00:00:00.000Z). Present for date type properties.
datetime	Datetime value (ISO 8601). Present for datetime type properties.
reference	Referenced entity ID. Present for reference type properties. In entity responses the value also carries string (the referenced entity's name), entity_type (its entity type name) and property_type (the property name).
filename	File name. Present for file type properties.
filesize	File size in bytes. Present for file type properties.
filetype	MIME type. Present for file type properties.
language	Language code (e.g. en, et). Present on values written with a language — used for properties whose definition has multilingual: true.
created	Object with at (ISO timestamp) and by (person entity ID) — who set this value and when. Returned only by GET /api/{db}/property/{_id}.

TIP

Save the _id of property values you may want to update or delete later. Without it, you can only delete the property entirely or add new values alongside existing ones.

Example: Entity with Properties

{
  "_id": "507f1f77bcf86cd799439011",
  "name": [
    {
      "_id": "507f1f77bcf86cd799439022",
      "string": "Acme Corp"
    }
  ],
  "status": [
    {
      "_id": "507f1f77bcf86cd799439033",
      "string": "active"
    }
  ],
  "revenue": [
    {
      "_id": "507f1f77bcf86cd799439044",
      "number": 1500000
    }
  ]
}

Writing Properties

POST an array of property objects to create or update values:

[
  { "type": "name", "string": "Acme Corp" },
  { "type": "status", "string": "active" },
  { "type": "revenue", "number": 1500000 },
  { "type": "is_active", "boolean": true },
  { "type": "founded", "date": "1999-03-15" },
  { "type": "owner", "reference": "507f1f77bcf86cd799439099" }
]

Use the value field that matches the property type (string, number, boolean, date, datetime, reference).

WARNING

When creating a new entity (POST to /api/{db}/entity), you must include a _type property referencing the entity type. Omitting it returns a 400 error.

Counters

To assign the next counter value, send counter instead of a value:

[
  { "type": "code", "counter": true }
]

The server finds the value of that property name with the highest number in the whole database — all entity types share one sequence per name — and adds the step (true = 1, or the given number) to the last number in its string, keeping the text around it (INV-41 → INV-42); leading zeros are not kept. With no earlier value the result is the step itself. Sending counter together with a string that contains a number keeps that string and sets number from its last number; leading zeros of that number are dropped from the string too (INV-0042 → INV-42).

Overwriting a Property Value

To overwrite a specific existing value rather than adding a new one, include its _id in the POST body:

[
  { "_id": "507f1f77bcf86cd799439033", "type": "status", "string": "inactive" }
]

This replaces the value of that exact property object: the old value is soft-deleted and the new value gets a new _id. Without _id, a new value is always added alongside any existing ones.

The _id must be a current value of the same entity, otherwise the request fails with 400 and nothing is written. The new value may have another type or language; overwriting then needs the rights to delete the old value as well as to add the new one — for example _owner to replace a rights value, and _type can only be replaced by another _type.

Multi-Value Properties

When a property definition has list: true, multiple values can exist under the same property name. Each value is a separate property object with its own _id.

Adding a value — POST a new property object:

{ "type": "tag", "string": "priority" }

Removing a specific value — DELETE the property by its _id:

DELETE /api/{db}/property/{_id}

Multilingual Properties

When a property definition has multilingual: true, each language is a separate property object carrying a language code.

Reading — the API returns one object per language:

"description": [
  { "_id": "...", "string": "Overview", "language": "en" },
  { "_id": "...", "string": "Ülevaade", "language": "et" }
]

Writing — include the language field when POSTing:

[
  { "type": "description", "string": "Overview", "language": "en" },
  { "type": "description", "string": "Ülevaade", "language": "et" }
]

The language code is exactly two lowercase letters (en, et) — anything else is rejected.

Deleting a Property

Delete a specific property value by its _id:

DELETE /api/{db}/property/{_id}

Returns { "deleted": true } on success. Deletion is a soft-delete — the property is marked as deleted and excluded from the entity, but remains in the database for audit purposes.

Restrictions

Property	Rule
Any property	Requires _editor rights on the entity
_type	Cannot be deleted
Other system properties starting with _ (e.g. _created)	Cannot be deleted
Server-managed billing properties (billing_*)	Cannot be deleted
_owner, _editor, _expander, _viewer, _noaccess, _sharing, _inheritrights, _parent	Requires _owner rights on the entity
_owner (last one)	Cannot be deleted — at least one _owner must remain
_parent	Also requires _expander rights on the referenced parent entity

WARNING

Deleting _type always returns 403. To change an entity's type, overwrite the existing value by POSTing with the old property _id and a new reference — see Overwriting a Property Value.