A record is simply a row in a database table. Because GE Digital APM uses various types of database tables, in GE Digital APM, there are several types of records, including:
Entity family records (i.e., records associated with a specific entity family and stored in one or more entity family tables).
Relationship family records (i.e., records stored in relationship family tables).
Entity family records are the most common type of record and typically represent a physical, functional, or organizational element in your company or facility. For example, an Equipment record would store the information associated with a physical piece of machinery.
IMPORTANT: In most cases, throughout GE Digital APM and documentation, when we use the term record alone, we are referring to a record belonging to an entity family.
Because GE Digital APM is flexible in the type of information it can track, and because you have the ability to define how detailed your database will be, a record can represent almost anything. Some other examples of the types of records that you can set up include:
Planned and unplanned events (e.g., maintenance requests and recommendations)
Measurement readings
Processes
Each record is assigned a unique value, or key, that identifies it within the system and differentiates it from all other records in the database. When you access a record, GE Digital APM takes the record key, searches the database, and retrieves the data associated with that key. This data is then displayed through the interface.
Each record in the GE Digital APM database has a unique Entity Key that is stored in the ENTY_KEY field. The value in the ENTY_KEY field is unique to a given database. After you save a new record, it is assigned a unique Entity Key automatically.
You cannot display an Entity Key on a datasheet, but you can find it by running a query and including the ENTY_KEY field.
Note: All records also contain the system field CONTENT_GUID, which uniquely identifies a record across all databases. This field is populated automatically with a system-generated value when a record is initiated (i.e., when you initiate the record-creation process).
Throughout the documentation, we refer to the value that exists in the ENTY_ID field as the Record ID. A Record ID can help you identify a record in the database. A Record ID is determined via the ID Template configuration. If an ID Template has not been configured for a family, records created in those families will not have a Record ID.
While Record IDs are not required to be unique, if you set up your system such that you configure ID fields for all families and you enforce a policy of supplying unique values in all ID fields, the Record IDs of those records will be unique.
Record IDs are often required in URLs, so keep in mind that you can locate an Record ID by running a query and displaying the ENTY_ID field.
