Configuration

Before you add new entities, plan a structure for your needs. The best way to show this is with a concrete Example: an organisation wants to manage their office equipment with CiviCRM. So before we create individual items, we need to create a common category. These are called ECK Entity Types. In our example, this would be Office Equipment. For this we can in turn create Subtypes for further categorizing items. We will take as an example computer screens that are used in the organisation. This gives us the possibility later on to give the individual "things" we create exactly the right properties.

Adding entity types

After installing ECK, you will find the following entry in the administration console under Customize Data and Screens » ECK EntityTypes, and also in the CiviCRM navigation menu. There you can create a new category with the Add Entity Type button. Enter the system name in the Entity Type field (following the PascalCase naming scheme) and a name that is easy for users to read or a translation in the Label field.

Adding subtypes

Before we can continue here, we must save once so that the new entity type is created. From the overview, edit the new type to create a new sub category with Add Subtype. Here you will also find a hint where new fields can be created later especially for this subtype.

Adding custom fields

Next, let's create means for adding Custom Data to entities of the entity type. This can be done using CiviCRM's Custom Fields, as for Core entities like Contacts and Contributions. First, as usual, create a new set of fields in the Administration Console at Add Set of Custom Fields, for our example with a name like Office Equipment Data. As Used For select the label of our ECK entity type and Any for the whole equipment, regardless of subtypes. As a field, perhaps something like Number of. And repeat the process to create special fields for our computer screens, with something like Size, Connections, Condition, etc.