Data managed outside Relatics can be accessed in workspaces via external type elements. External type elements can be identified in the type list by their secondary icon. Elements of an external type element are references in a workspace where you can view data stored in an external interface. Furthermore, by giving external data an element in a workspace, users can create relations between data stored in Relatics and an external interface.

Internal vs. external types

There are several differences between external and internal type elements. Most notably, data stored outside Relatics cannot be edited in a workspace. So, it is impossible to manually create and delete elements when working with external type elements. Furthermore, external type elements can have both internal and external properties and relations. Internal relations and properties are no different than those of other type elements, but external properties are unique to external type elements. External properties can only contain data retrieved from an external source and are not editable but will be synchronized with their data source. Examples of external properties are file names or other identifiers stored externally.

Data synchronization

New elements of an external type will be created automatically by synchronization between Relatics and the external source. However, this continuous data synchronization has some implications. For instance, files that are deleted from an external document management system have their corresponding Relatics elements deleted as well. These deleted elements can still be found in the recycling bin but cannot be restored through the Relatics interface. If you want to restore a deleted external element in your workspace, you must restore the source first. Afterwards, it will be restored automatically via synchronization.