Objects Overview

Cortex objects are containers for data and functionality. For data-modeling purposes, you can think of a Cortex object like a database table. However, Cortex objects come with many more inherited capabilities than just data storage. For example, a Cortex object lets you specify fine-grained access controls for the objects and their properties, they allow for sharing data with others using connections, you can sub-class Cortex objects into multiple types, and you can extend objects with custom logic via triggers.

Cortex provides a number of standard objects to get you going. You can also create your own objects for modeling your own data and creating your own functionality to meet your needs however you see fit.

Standard Objects

Label	Name	Plural Name	Description	Extensible
Account	account	accounts	$ The Account Object represents a user account within an Organization.	true
Organization	org	orgs	The Organization object represents the org, itself.	true
Connection	connection	connections	Connections enable access to an object instance for a target. For more details, see Using Connections	false
Notification	notification	notifications	Notifications are created when persistent notifications are sent. They contain meta-data about notifications that can facilitate notification handling in client apps.	false
Object	object	objects	The Object object contains the definitions for custom and extended Cortex objects.	false

Extending Standard Objects

You can extend standard objects by adding custom properties. You can do this via the admin UI and also directly via the Object API.

For example, if you'd like to track the most recent app login for a particular user, you might add a c_last_logged_in property that is a Date type to the Account standard object. Now, every user that registers in your app can be stored in the backend with this additional date property. You can pass in the c_last_logged_in parameter and the Medable API will know to store that field in a given Account.

You can add any number of custom properties of varying types to get the desired functionality for your application.

Custom Objects

You can extend the API by creating new custom objects and with custom properties, You can do this via the admin UI and also directly via the Object API.

Custom Cortex object and property names are prefixed with c_ to differentiate them from standard objects and properties. Additionally, custom objects are given a plural name along with the name you provide. So, for example if you create a custom objects named patient, the api name of your object will be c_patient and the plural name will be c_patients. If you were to create a custom name document property on your c_patient object, with sub string properties of first and last, then your c_patient object could look something like:

{
  "c_name": {
    "c_first": "Jane",
    "c_last": "Doe"
  }
}

Although a standard object's standard properties cannot be modified, custom properties can be added to extensible standard objects.