08 — UX Flows

Flow 1 — Start With Empty Model

Goal:

Create a useful application model from nothing.

Steps:

Open Admin Console
    ↓
Create Draft Model
    ↓
Add Entity Types
    ↓
Add Property Groups
    ↓
Add Property Definitions
    ↓
Add Hierarchy Rules
    ↓
Add Relationship Definitions
    ↓
Add Templates
    ↓
Validate
    ↓
Publish

Outcome:

The runtime API and frontend can now create and manage entities using the published model.

Flow 2 — Add Entity Type

Example: Add Room.

Steps:

1. Open draft model.
2. Go to Entity Types.
3. Click Add Entity Type.
4. Enter:

key: room
name: Room
hierarchy allowed: true
can have children: true

5. Add hierarchy rules:

building can contain room
room can contain asset

6. Validate draft.
7. Publish.

Result:

The application can now create rooms and move assets into rooms.

Flow 3 — Add Property Group

Example: Add Network property group.

Steps:

1. Open draft model.
2. Go to Property Groups.
3. Add group:

key: network
name: Network

4. Add property definitions:

ip_address
subnet_mask
gateway
vlan

5. Assign property group to entity type asset.
6. Validate.
7. Publish.

Result:

Asset forms and detail pages can show a Network section.

Flow 4 — Add Relationship Definition

Example: Asset depends on Asset.

Steps:

1. Open draft model.
2. Go to Relationship Definitions.
3. Add relationship:

key: depends_on
source: asset
target: asset
cardinality: many_to_many
directional: true
self-reference allowed: false

4. Validate.
5. Publish.

Result:

Runtime users can add dependency relationships between assets.

Flow 5 — Publish Draft

Steps:

1. Open Publish screen.
2. Run validation.
3. Review errors.
4. Fix errors.
5. Review warnings.
6. Review impact analysis.
7. Confirm publish.
8. System archives old published model.
9. System publishes draft model.
10. System invalidates metadata cache.
11. Runtime API begins using new model.

Flow 6 — Block Dangerous Change

Example:

An admin tries to delete property definition ip_address while 12,000 assets have values for it.

Expected UI behavior:

• mark as destructive,
• show affected data count,
• prevent casual publish,
• require explicit migration plan or soft-deprecation first.

Preferred alternative:

Deprecate property
    ↓
Hide from new forms
    ↓
Keep existing values readable
    ↓
Migrate data later
    ↓
Purge after retention if safe

Flow 7 — Configure Generic Runtime CRUD

Steps:

1. Publish entity type and property metadata.
2. Runtime UI requests metadata for entity type.
3. Runtime UI renders form.
4. User submits entity create/update.
5. Backend validates against published metadata.
6. Backend writes entity and property values.
7. Backend writes audit event.

Outcome:

The application gains useful CRUD behavior without bespoke code for every type.