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Entities

This page contains information about Entities and to use them in Enterprise Glossary.

About Entities

Entities are the main components of Enterprise Glossary. An Entity represents a business or technical object that is documented in the glossary. There are two types of Entities:

  • (Connector) Entities
    Entities are synchronized from connected systems, e.g., SAP systems, Microsoft Power BI or the Xtract Universal.iQ Designer. They can contain KPIs (key figures and metrics), reports and dashboards, data sources, business terms and more. All other information, such as metadata, lineage, descriptions, and relationships, is attached to or derived from the Entities.
  • Custom Entities
    Custom Entities are user-defined Entities that represent organization-specific business objects. They can contain definitions of key figures, reports, and applications to make technical information, business backgrounds and special features more transparent. Custom Entities can be linked to standard Entities to give more context for end users.

Entities generally adhere to Templates. Templates define which information / fields are available in an Entity. Authors can edit templates to customize the structure and content of Entities, e.g., to add Custom Fields to Entities. Templates are defined per object type.

Entities vs Custom Entities

Entities Custom Entities
Creation Automatically during synchronization with connected systems. Manually by the user.
Title Determined by synchronized object. Manually assigned by user.
Templates Enterprise Glossary provides templates - one per object type. Users cannot create templates, but they can edit existing templates. Custom Templates are created by the user.
Fields Fields that are filled during synchronization. Custom Fields to add custom information. Only Custom Fields that are filled manually.
Interaction Options • Edit
• Mark as Favorite
• Create Print View
• Link in Directory
• View Directory Locations
• Link as Source or Target in Entities and Custom Entities
• Attachments
• Discussions
• Comment		 Edit
• Mark as Favorite
• Create Print View
• Link in Directory
• View Directory Locations
• Link as Source or Target in SAP and Custom Entities
• Attachments
• Discussions
• Clone
• Delete

For information on how to organize Entities in the sidebar of the main window, see Organize Entities.

Find Entities

The main search bar at the top of the application uses keyword matching to find Entities and folders inside the sidebar of Enterprise Glossary. The search bar also contains:

  • a search history that displays the last search terms.
  • saved search operations that can be reused.
  • advanced search options

Use Advanced Search Operations to build searches with precise criteria and filters. This feature allows you to define Entity types, add custom filters, and save search operations for reuse.

Search for Entities with Advanced Criteria

To search for Entities using advanced search operations:

  1. Click the search bar at the top of the application. A search interface opens.
  2. Click Advanced Search Operations to access the advanced search toolbar. A toolbar for Entity types and filters appears.
  3. Define which Entity types to include in your search, e.g., objects types or SAP connections.
  4. Click [Add Filter] to select a Field and enter filter values for each Field.
  5. Click [Apply] to apply the filter and add more search criteria or click Search to display the search results.

Entities matching your search criteria are displayed in the sidebar.

Save Search Operations for Reuse

To save a search operation in Advanced Search Operations for later use:

  1. Build your search using the advanced search option.
  2. Click [Save]. A popup window opens.
  3. Enter a unique name for the search operation.
  4. Click [OK]. The popup window closes.

The search operation is added to the list of saved searches in the main search bar.

Analyze Entities

Entities contain various information, see Fields for a full list of features. Commonly used information for analysis include:

Last update: September 4, 2026