Models
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      1. Betty Blocks Documentation
      2. Building your application
      3. Models

      Getting started with your applications model

      Learn how to build the first model in your Betty Blocks application.

      After reading this article you’ll know:

      • The ways of setting up your first data model

      • How to add new properties to the model

      Data models define and store your application's data. It consists of multiple models, properties, and their connections (relations). In this article, we will learn how to create a new model for your application.

      Open your applications dashboard and go to the data model quick sidebar menu. Click on the ‘+’ icon to create a new model (1). Two buttons below will bring you to the canvas view (2) and data models list overview (3).
      An overview of your model builder

      It’s also possible to create a new model from the list overview.
      To do this, choose the ‘New model’ option.
      Highlight to the button that allows you to create a new model

      1. So, click on either the ‘+’ icon in the quick menu or the ‘New model’ button in the list overview.

      2. In the pop-up window, apply the appropriate name for your model. It’s recommended to use a singular form.

      3. Click on the ‘Create model’ button once you come up with a name for your model.
      A gif that shows how to create a new model via the quick menu

      By default, the following properties are included in all models:

      • Created at

      • ID

      • Updated at

      You can use the ‘New property’ button to assign additional properties for your model. Also, it’s possible to do that with the ‘Quick add properties’ option that enables users to add properties with the default settings. Learn more about adding and setting properties in this article.

      Best practices for building your applications model

      • We recommend not using more than 20 properties per model

      • We recommend to not have more than 5 relations per model (to other models)

      • Try to keep your data model permission levels filtered on max 2 layers. If you filter data over more than 2 layers your data handling will get slower.

      Going over these best practices might slow down your application. To keep the performance high, make sure to follow other best practices mentioned on our documentation.

      Index values

      In your property settings, you have the option to turn on the “index values” option. This allows you to load a set of your property data when loading on the page. This allows for faster search results when searched for.

      Make sure to turn on the index values option when you expect a property to be searched for often (think of names and email addresses), don’t use it on items not searched for often, causing it to make the page you are using data on much heavier (specific dates, ID’s. descriptions as example).