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

      Setting your remote data source

      Configuring actions to get the most out of your remote sources.

      After reading this article you’ll know how to:

      • Build a new data source block

      • Add action steps connected to your data source

      • Share your block via the Block Store

      • Install the shared block

      Multi-entity blocks are the kind of blocks that include specific actions and action steps in their configurations that are called to speed up the development process. A no-coder can build a data source, fill the actions that come along with the data source with action steps and share it as a block via the block store to provide the citizen developer with functional data sources.
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      Make sure to check out this video we created on remote data sources as well:

      Data source configuration

      Adding a new data source

      1) Open models overview in the data model section. Find the data sources module on the right and press the New data source button.

      2) Choose a data source block from this overview. In our example, we’ll choose the HighQ block. Click on it once to open the detail overview, find the Add data source to application button and press it to proceed. Wait for a moment until the data source is added.

      Creating a new model

      Now let’s create a model using the newly added HighQ as a data source. Each data source has a set of models within it.

      1) Click on New model, then choose HighQ as a data source.

      2) The list of available models will appear when you choose a data source. Select the model(s) you need for your particular case and press Add models

      Note that you can add your own properties if the model from the remote data source is missing it. You can also delete and update the properties of remote data sources, meaning you can fine-tune the models precisely to your own preference.

      Actions

      Pre-defined actions

      The new remote data model (ours is called ‘Category’) will appear among other models in the data model overview list. Click on it once to see its details.

      Proceed to the ‘Actions’ tab when after you’ve opened our new model. As you may notice, there is a number of pre-created remote model actions used to do database operations to the data source - the classic CRUD (create, read one/all, update and delete).

      Configuring actions

      All of these actions can be opened and configured. Click on one of these and you will be redirected to the action builder canvas page. What you can do here is create an action flow by adding certain functions to the canvas.

      In the example below, we chose the ‘Create for remote model category’ action and placed the condition, as the result of which record will either be created or deleted. Set your action flow according to what your case requires. Action step functionality article to help you out can be found here.

      Sharing a data source block

      Saving data source as block

      After you finish configuring actions, you can share the block via the block store, right with the options we’ve just set.

      1) Return to the data model overview and click on your data source.

      2) In its detailed overview, press Save as data source block

      3) Come up with a different self-explanatory name from the original one. E.g. HighQ w/ Actions. Other options include uploading an image and adding a description - these are optional.

      4) Press Save data source block

      4) Lastly, to make this block available for certain organizations, manage its visibility and click ‘Release to block store’ when you’re done.

      Installing a data source block

      Following the previous configuration, you enabled the block to be used for builders that belong to your or other organizations. It means that it became available for installation at the Block Store. Let’s check how it is done.

      1) Open the block store and apply filtering by ‘My blocks’.

      2) Press Install block

      3) Select the organization and application you want this block to be installed.

      4) Click on Install block

      That practically describes the updated process of working with multi-entity data source blocks that enables citizen developers to simply install data source blocks containing pre-defined action flows to their applications. It significantly speeds up the process because previously the actions had to be set separately which took some amount of time and expertise.

      In case you need some extra information on sharing and installing different kinds of blocks, we recommend visiting the Block Store section in our documentation.