Change what an entity inherits from
In the Metadata Designer, Change inheritance on a parent link starts from what you mean: it was linked by mistake, it should inherit from another entity, it should keep the fields but stop inheriting, or it should stop from today with its history kept. Before anything changes, the screen counts what depends on the link.
Prerequisite
metadata.write at the scope the link belongs to: a platform link is changed at the platform, a tenant's link in that tenant. At the platform the change may move values held in every tenant; each tenant's audit trail records the values moved in it.
Start
- Open Metadata Designer, choose the entity in the tree and go to Inherits from.
- Press Change inheritance next to the parent.
- Choose what you mean, then press Check what depends on it. The screen shows, counted across every tenant: values held in fields inherited through that parent, links between records that rely on the entity being a kind of that parent, domain views that expose what the parent passes down, and inheritance decisions (use, rename, map, leave out) on those fields.
The four choices
| Choice | What happens |
|---|---|
| It was linked by mistake — remove the link | Offered only when all four counts are 0. Otherwise the screen names what depends on it and points you to the next two choices. |
| Move it to another parent | Choose the new parent (one that would make the entity inherit from itself is refused). For each inherited field choose: map it onto a field of the new parent with the same data type, keep it as the entity's own field, or drop it — only when no record holds a value in it. A field that already holds values on these records cannot be mapped onto; the screen says so. |
| Stop inheriting, keep the fields | Every inherited field becomes the entity's own, with the same data type and the name the entity used for it. If the entity already has a field with that key, the copy gets _own added, and the screen says so. |
| End the inheritance from today, keep history | The link ends today and is kept. Nothing is moved or deleted: the fields the entity inherited only through that parent are no longer shown on records, and new records do not get them. Their values stay stored and in each record's history. The screen lists those fields with how many records hold a value in each before you confirm. |
Ending from today
- The confirm button says the counts, for example “End it today (2 fields no longer shown, 42 values kept)”. It is done in one step.
- The ended link is listed under Inherits from as history, with the day it ended. Nothing is inherited through it any more, for the entity and for the entities that inherit from it.
- A record's History still lists the old values of those fields, marked “no longer inherited”.
- Links between records that relied on the parent stay as they are; no new one can be made through it. Inheritance decisions on those fields are kept and apply again if you add the parent back.
- To inherit again, add the parent again under Inherits from: a new link starts, and the ended one stays in the history.
Confirm and follow it
- The confirm button and the sentence above it say the counts, for example “Move 42 values and swap the parent”.
- A move or a stop runs in steps of at most 500 values, with a progress bar. Each moved value becomes a new version in the target field that names the version it came from; the old version is closed and stays in the history.
- Only when no value is left are the inheritance decisions on those fields removed and the link swapped (or removed). When it is done the page refreshes with the same entity selected.
If it stops
- A refused step says why, and nothing after it is done: the link stays as it was until every value has moved.
- If the connection stops or a step is interrupted, press Resume. A value already moved is not moved again, and a field already kept as the entity's own is not copied again.
- A link between records that relies on the old parent, and a domain view that exposes it, are not changed for you: end those links in Explorer, or set the exposure to hidden in the Workflow & EntityView Designer, then come back.