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Using items in Alloy

Store data for assets, tasks, projects and more​

Items store data and are created from designs.

In Alloy, a design defines the attributes that we want to record about something. An item of that design represents a set of values for those attributes. In other words, the design is the concept, and any items created from it are implementations of that concept. This makes it possible to define a data model for any type of thing!

For example, items can represent:

  • physical assets (bins, car parks, street lights) and their components

  • activities performed in the maintenance of those assets (defects, inspections, jobs)

  • lookup options (statuses, priority levels, material types)

  • people (teams, contacts, owners)

  • network references (roads, sites, boundaries)

  • finances (accounts, invoices, payments)

  • files stored in Alloy

Note

If you're new to Alloy, we recommend reading the Items concept article first, which provides a simplified overview of the key features 🙂.

View items​

Use the Alloy Apps to explore the data in your customer project and open items to view their details. The Item Viewer can display a wide variety of information about an item, including:

You can also see the item's properties, which affect its appearance and behaviour. Its context determines the extent to which it can be edited. Its collection determines whether it appears in search results and map layers by default.

An example Litter Bin item showing its attributes, properties, location and attachments
Note

To customise the visibility and order of the sections shown for items of a particular design/interface, see Item canvas in the Designer app.

Create items​

Add data to your customer project by creating items of designs. To speed up regular data entry, you can clone existing items, or make template items to base new items on.

Populating the new item's attributes with values
Note

To customise the visibility and order of the attribute fields shown for a particular design/interface, see Item forms in the Designer app.

Edit items​

Edit items to change the values of their attributes and properties. All changes are recorded in the item's audit log, so you can look back and see what was changed, who by, and when!

Editing the General section of a Litter Bin item

Most items have geometry, which you can easily define by drawing points, lines and polygons on the map.

An commercial building item with detailed geometry shown in the Map section

Remove items​

When items are no longer useful, you can remove them from service. To retain an item's data and relationships without it cluttering up your day-to-day operations, you can archive it for future reference.

Alternatively, you can permanently delete the item from your customer project!