Enabling a custom entity

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  2. Shotgun Admin Guide
  3. Getting started

Video transcript

If you need to track something new, which doesn’t exist in Shotgun by default, then you’ll want to enable a Custom Entity. For example, you might want to track Seasons for your TV series.

Seasons entity

To enable a Custom Entity, first head to Site Preferences under the Admin menu.

Site preferences

Expand the Entities section and choose one which isn’t enabled. The available entities will appear as a light grey.

Enable it by selecting “Yes, use custom entity...” Then give it a new name, such as "Seasons."

Next, decide if that entity needs to have Tasks, Versions, or Pipeline Toolkit/File Publishes. Save the changes and you’re done!

Note: If you choose to enable Tasks, once the new preferences are saved, two things will happen: Tasks will be linkable to the newly configured entity type, and it will support the use of Task Templates.

Custom entity enable

Seasons will now appear under Projects > Other. And you can add it to the Project Navigation bar if you need to.

Project navigation bar

To learn how to link your new custom entity, see part 2 of the video: "Linking a custom entity."

Creating a connection entity with a custom entity

To create a connection entity with a custom entity, follow these steps:

  1. Enable your custom entity. One example of a custom entity is Outstanding Items.
    custom
  2. Add a new record and some information about it.
    new record
  3. Create a multi-entity field on your custom entity that links to another entity. For example, to link Outstanding Items to Shots so that you can track which items are outstanding for which Shot, choose Shot from the list of entities to link. You will then see a new Shots field on your Outstanding Items page, and a new Outstanding Items Shots field on your Shots page.
    multi-entity field
  4. Design the detail page of your custom entity. Add the tab for the entity that it is linked to, and remember to save when you are done.
    new tab
  5. Click on Configure Columns, and hover over the name of the connection to find the field name.
    field name
  6. Under Site Preferences > Advanced, add the connection entity type on the Enable List Pages for Connection Entity Types pref. Use the name of your entity and field:
    • Connection
    • For example: CustomEntity05_sg_shots_Connection
      connection entity type
    • Remember to save your changes.
  7. Now you will be able to see and access the page for your new custom connection entity.
    new page

For more on connection entities, see “Using Connection Entities.”

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6 Comments

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  • 0
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    Chris Burgess

    What if we need to delete (reset) or modify a Custom Entity after we've created it? It disappears from the Site Preferences > Entities page, so how can we reset a Custom Entity if we no longer need it, or edit the Custom Entity if we want to make changes to it?

  • 1
    Avatar
    Daniel STEIN

    The Custom Entity shouldn't (and most likely won't) disappear from the Site Preferences > Entities section. It will be sorted alphabetically by whatever you've chosen as the Display Name though.

    For example, if you activate CustomEntity04 and give it a Display Name of PreProduction, it will appear later in the Entities tab as PreProduction (CustomEntity04) sorted with the other entities that begin with 'P'. Hope that helps.

  • 0
    Avatar
    Chris Burgess

    Ohh I see it now :) thanks Daniel!

  • 0
    Avatar
    Christopher Stack

    Can an entity be edited to change it into a multi-entity? We started with a field that we thought would just have one entry, but now we need it to have multiples.

  • 0
    Avatar
    Christopher Stack

    To answer my own question - No.

    From SG Support:
    "Unfortunately, there's no way to change a Field from entity to multi-entity. The best way to go about this would be to create a new multi-entity field and then export your data from the old entity field and re-import it into the new one. Then you can retire or delete the old field (it's also worth noting that if you need the new field named identically to the old field, you'll have to fully delete the old field before creating the new one)."

  • 0
    Avatar
    bryan money

    Is there a way to use an existing entity as a template for a custom entity? And is there a way to then customize what to use from said template?

    e.g. say I already have a Shot entity that I linked to and require Scene info on, and then I want an entity that works very similar to the Shot entity that doesn't require the link to any Scene info, could I make a custom entity that uses the Shot as a template except for specific links?

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