Managing entities

Manage solution entities by using a solution agent, or by using the REST APIs. You can create, delete, and modify entities and also retrieve information about existing entities in a Decision Server Insights solution project.

About this task

A Decision Server Insights solution includes business entities, for example, a customer or an account. The schema for an entity is described by an entity type. For example, John Doe is an entity with the entity type Person. REST APIs are provided so that you can manage the entities in a solution project.

Retrieve information about existing solution entities by sending a GET request to the Insight Server. You can create, modify, or delete entities by sending PUT, POST, or DELETE requests.

  • REST URL and endpoints
    To use the REST APIs, make sure you can access the Insight server by entering the generic REST URL in the browser address field.
  • Retrieving entities
    You can retrieve information about a solution entity by sending a GET operation request to the Insight Server. The response to the GET request includes a single entity representation that is identified by the entity ID.
  • Listing entities
    Retrieve information about existing entities in a Decision Server Insights solution project by using the GET operation that is provided by the REST API.
  • Updating entity data
    Update the data in an entity by sending a REST API PUT request to the server.
  • Optimistic updating and retrieval
    Optimistic updating is a technique for managing concurrent access to an entity, and a way to prevent simultaneous updates of resources. When you add an ETag header to a PUT request, multiple changes to the same entity do not overwrite each other.
  • Updating and retrieving entities by using ETag
    An entity tag, or ETag, is a mechanism that is provided by the HTTP protocol so that a browser client or a script can make conditional REST requests for optimistic updating or optimized retrieval of entities.
  • Creating entities
    You can create and insert entities by sending a REST API POST request to the server.
  • Deleting entities
    You can delete entities by sending a REST API DELETE request to the server.
Parent topic: Administering Insight Server
Related reference:
User roles for REST API access