5. Tonkean Foundations - Fields
Fields contain the individual pieces of data that are pulled in from connected systems or are created in Tonkean. Fields are the essential building blocks of a Tonkean workflow, as these are what contain all the information required to power your workflow.
The two main types of fields are those that are pulled in from connected data sources as matched entities and those that are created directly in Tonkean. Fields from data sources include the fields specific to the system or application, such as Opportunity and Account Name in Salesforce or Issue in Jira. Fields created in Tonkean can vary widely in their use but are often fields created for an intake sequence, such as fields to capture the category and amount for a purchase request process, for example. Regardless of whether a field comes from a connected data source or from Tonkean itself, all fields belong to the item created by the module workflow.
There are several kinds of fields in Tonkean, each with their intended uses and processes for creating and maintaining them:
Basic fields - These fields are native to Tonkean and help power business workflow logic, though not all basic fields are used by every item.
Manual fields - These fields are created directly in Tonkean and are designed for manual input. Manual field values are initially empty and are populated during the workflow either by a form or by certain workflow actions, such as the Update Field action.
Matched entity fields - Matched entity fields are pulled from a data source and are specific to that data source. A matched entity is automatically created when you connect a data source to a module as the input data source. You can then add the fields from the matched entity for use in a module.
Formula fields - Formula fields allow you to extract, format, or in various other ways manipulate data from any field. These fields allow you to leverage any of the formulas available in Tonkean.
Global fields - A global field can be an aggregate, manual, or formula field and is not related to a particular item but can be used across all the items in a given module. Global fields are used to generate key metrics to display in a module's related business report the most important information in that module. They can also be used within actions. For example, a global field can be used as a static value you need to display in the same way in multiple places (a company or product name in different communication channels, for example).