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What Happens When You Save a Table

Goal​

Understand what the platform does the moment you save a table or a field, so you know when your change is live and what to do if it is refused.

The short answer​

Saving is applying. Create a table and its data table exists in this environment before the screen comes back. Add a field and its column exists. There is nothing to press afterwards, nothing staged, and nothing waiting: what you see in Tables is what exists in the database.

What happens behind the scenes​

Each save that changes the shape of a table runs the same three steps:

  1. The definition is validated against the platform's entity schema — the same check applied whether the definition came from the designer, an imported solution file, or an AI assistant.
  2. The data table is created or extended in this environment's isolated data area, with a column for each field and a reference (foreign key) for each lookup whose target table exists.
  3. The audit trigger is reconciled to match the table's auditing setting, so turning auditing on or off takes effect immediately (see Enable Auditing on an Entity).

Only this environment's data is touched. Another environment gets the change when you import the solution there, never automatically.

A form and a view come with it​

Creating a table also creates one form (Information) and one view (All followed by the table's plural name), each holding the primary field. They exist so the table can go into an app straight away.

They are made once, when the table is created. A field you add afterwards is not placed on them for you: the field and its column exist, but nobody sees it until you drag it onto the form and into the view. That is deliberate, because a form someone has laid out should not change under them every time a field is added.

If the change cannot be applied​

The save is refused rather than half-done. When a field's column cannot be created, the field is taken back out again — so a field you can see in the Fields list always has a column behind it. Whatever the error says, nothing was left in a half-applied state and you can safely fix the problem and save again.

Resizing a field changes a real column​

Because the column already exists, changing a text field's maximum length is a change to the database:

  • Making it longer always works.
  • Making it shorter fails if a record already holds a longer value. The platform refuses rather than truncating anybody's data, and the field keeps its old size. Shorten or clear the offending records first, then make the change.

Troubleshooting​

  • "The environment … does not exist." — the environment's data area has not been provisioned. Create the environment first; a table needs somewhere to live.
  • "The entity definition is not valid: …" — the definition failed schema validation. Correct the reported field and save again.
  • "Some records already hold a value in … that does not fit the new size." — you made a field shorter than something already stored in it. Nothing was changed. Keep the current size, or edit the records with the longer values and try again.
  • "Failed to provision the entity table: …" — a database-level error. Retry, and if it persists, contact an administrator.
  • I added a field and it is not on the form. — fields are not placed on existing forms or views for you. Open the form and the view, and drag the field in.
  • I used to press Publish and cannot find the button. — it is gone, along with Publish Customizations. Both applied schema that the save already applies.
  • Create an entity.
  • Add a field to an entity.
  • Create a relationship between entities.