Use-Case Examples

These walkthroughs show how to model common real-world scenarios in Entu using entity types, properties, and references. Each one is a complete recipe — copy it as-is or adapt it to your needs.

CRM — Contacts & Companies

You run a small business and your customer knowledge lives in three places: a phone's contact list, an inbox, and someone's memory. You want one place that knows which people belong to which company, and what was last said to whom.

Goal: Track companies, the contacts within them, and any notes or activities linked to each contact.

Entity types to create

Company

Property name	Type	Notes
name	string	Company display name
website	string	Store as plain text or use markdown on a text field for clickable links
industry	string
notes	text

Contact

Property name	Type	Notes
name	string	Full name
email	string
phone	string
company	reference	Points to a Company entity
title	string	Job title

Activity

Property name	Type	Notes
date	datetime
type	string	e.g. call, meeting, email
summary	text
contact	reference	Points to a Contact entity

Structure

• Create a Companies container entity as the root.
• Add each company as a child of that container.
• Add contacts as children of their respective company — the company reference property and the _parent relationship both link the contact to the company.
• Add activities as children of their contact.

Access control

Grant _editor rights on the Companies container to your sales team and enable _inheritrights: true on all children so rights propagate automatically.

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Project Tracker

Your team juggles a dozen projects, and "what's the status?" is answered by scrolling chat history. You want every project to carry its own status, owner, deadline, and budget — and get a project number and hour totals without anyone maintaining them by hand.

Goal: Manage projects with properties, counters, and a formula-computed field.

Entity type

Param	Value
name	project
label	Project
description	A client project or internal initiative
add_from	(reference to the "Projects" menu)

Property definitions

name	type	label	Notable settings
name	string	Name	mandatory, search
status	string	Status	set: ["Planning", "Active", "On Hold", "Done"], mandatory
description	text	Description	markdown
owner	reference	Owner	reference_query: _type.string=person
due_date	date	Due Date
budget	number	Budget	decimals: 2
tags	string	Tag	label_plural: Tags, list
code	counter	Project Code	readonly
notes	text	Internal Notes	hidden
total_hours	number	Total Hours	formula, readonly, decimals: 1

What this demonstrates

• set turns a string field into a dropdown.
• counter generates a unique code per entity (e.g. project numbers).
• hidden keeps a field out of the edit form but visible on the entity page — good for formula-driven values.
• formula on total_hours recalculates automatically on every save using child/referrer data.

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Media Library

Years of photos, videos, and documents are scattered across drives and cloud folders, and finding "that one picture" means opening thirty. You want albums with real metadata — who made it, what it shows, which tags apply — and the option to make chosen collections public.

Goal: Store and organise images, videos, and documents with metadata and tags.

Entity types to create

Collection

Property name	Type	Notes
name	string	Folder / album name
description	text

Media Item

Property name	Type	Notes
title	string
file	file	The actual uploaded file
type	string	image, video, document
tags	string	list: true — multiple values allowed
description	text
author	reference	Points to a Person entity
published	boolean
size	number	Set formula: 'file.size' on the property definition — auto-computed from the attached file

Structure

• Create Collections as top-level containers.
• Upload media items as children of the appropriate collection.
• Use _sharing: public on collections that should be publicly browsable.
• Use tags (with list: true) so each item can carry multiple tags for filtering.

Querying items by tag via the API

GET /api/{db}/entity?_type.string=media-item&tags.string=nature

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Library — Books, Patrons & Lendings

A school library, a company bookshelf, or a club's equipment room — things go out, and nobody quite remembers to whom. You want a catalogue of what you own, who has borrowed what, and an automatic flag when something is overdue.

Goal: Manage a book and audio-visual collection, track patron records, and record lending history including due dates and returns.

Entity types to create

Book

Property name	Type	Notes
title	string	mandatory, search
author	string	list: true — multiple authors allowed
isbn	string
type	string	e.g. book, DVD, audio CD; set turns it into a dropdown
copies	number	Total copies owned
description	text
cover	file	Cover image

Person

Property name	Type	Notes
name	string	mandatory, search
email	string
phone	string
card_number	string	Library card / patron ID
notes	text

Lending

Property name	Type	Notes
book	reference	Points to a Book entity
borrower	reference	Points to a Person entity
lent_on	date
due_date	date
returned	boolean	Set to true when the item is back
overdue	boolean	formula: 'due_date < now() && !returned', readonly — auto-computed

Structure

• Create a Books container and add each book as a child.
• Create a Patrons container and add each person as a child.
• Add lending records as children of the relevant patron — the borrower reference and _parent relationship both link the lending to the patron.

Access control

Grant library staff _editor rights on both the Books and Patrons containers with _inheritrights: true. Give patrons _viewer rights on their own entity so they can see their lending history through the API or a custom portal.