This post covers the following topics:

• Context
• Availability/Requirements 
• Where can you sign up?
• What is the Sunshine Data Manager?
• What can I do in Sunshine Data Manager
• Highlights
• How does it work?
• What’s next?

Related information:

• Introducing Custom Objects for general availablity
• Sunshine Custom Object Guide for non developers

Context

In 2018, we released the Custom Objects API. We started working on Sunshine Data Manager to be the place where admins or agents can view, create, update, and delete Sunshine custom object records and relationships. 

We believe that by building a Zendesk application using the Custom Objects API, Sunshine components, and possibly the upcoming App package management functionality, we can demonstrate to customers how to get started using Sunshine, as well as show what’s possible.

Availability & Requirements

The Sunshine Data Manager is available in EAP (early access program) starting December 13, 2019.

The data manager is available for customers:

• Restricted to customers n the Support Enterprise plan or above (Customers with custom objects)
• Who have signed up for our EAP via this form (LINK)

How Can I sign up?

• Make sure you pass the criteria above
• Sign up using this form (LINK)
• Our team will activate the feature for your account within a few days

What is Sunshine Data Manager?

The Sunshine Data Manager gives you a complete native user interface to manage your custom objects and relationships. Admins previously were able to configure the schema (a.k.a. object types, relationship types) in Admin Center. Now there’s an interface to manage the actual instances as well (a.k.a. object records, relationship records).

The user interface is almost completely in feature parity with the APIs and we plan to fully support new endpoints on the UI side as they are built. 

We have create, read, update, delete functionality for your objects and relationships, and we really see this as a starting point for a robust yet simple-to-use data manager.

Giving customers a native, user-friendly solution to update, edit, and delete data related to objects and relationships helps increase adoption and decrease time spent per tickets by showcasing the most accurate information (objects) for the agents to interact and engage with their customers. 

A seamless experience around editing that data adds more flexibility and value. Agents can access the Data Manager through a link on the left side in Support.  

What can I do in Sunshine Data Manager?

Object records

- View object records

You can view the individual instances of your objects for each type. Object types - the schema for your object - can be configured in Admin Center. For example, if `movie` is your object type, you can view all of your movies in Sunshine Data Manager.

[List of movies]

- Create object records

You can create individual instances of your objects. During creation, your object record are validated against your previously configured schema to make sure your data is clean and up to date.

How to create an object record

To create an object record, you must have configured your object type (schema) first with the Admin Center or the API.

[Create object type in Admin Center]

After creating an object type, the type shows up in Sunshine Data Manager. Then you can click the table to view the records within that type. If you’re doing this for the first time, you should see an empty table. You can click the `Add object record` button in the top-right to start adding a new record.

[Empty list of movies with Add object record button]

You should see a populated form based on your previously configured schema. The form validates the data and only lets you save if the data is valid. You can see guiding UI elements in the form such as an asterisk for required fields and tags representing the data type required for the field.

[Create new movie form]

After successfully saving, your object record should be visible in the table.

Edit object records

Clicking the object record row in the table displays the details of the record. Hover over each row to see an edit icon. Clicking the icon converts the value to an editable input field. Change the value and hit the checkmark to save you changes or the x to cancel.

[Update details of object (object properties) ]

[Details page - inline edit object properties]

- Delete object records

Click the trash icon (appears upon hovering the row) in the right to delete a single object record. After confirming your action, the object record will no longer appear in the table. Please note that you can’t delete objects that have existing relationships with other objects.

[Delete an object record ]

Relationships

View related objects

Next to the details tab of each object, you will see a `Related` tab. Under Related is where you will find the related objects to that particular object record. Relationships are grouped by relationship type - the schema of your relationship that you have to preconfigure in Admin Center or via the API. The related objects page shows the related object records where the source of the relationship is the object record you are looking at.

[Actors related to the movie]

Create relationships

Click the `Add relationship` button in the top right. This takes you to the Create Relationship page, where the source is already preselected. You can choose the relationship type and the object you want to create a relationship with (target). The information is validated against your relationship type (schema) and you won’t be able to create a relationship between two objects that are already related.

[Button to add relationship]

[Select the object you want to be related]

Delete relationships - aka unlink related objects

On the related objects page, hover over the table row to display an `unlink` icon. Clicking the icon and confirming your action deletes the relationship between the two previously linked objects. This action only removes the relationship. The two objects will still exist in your system.

[Unlink related objects - aka delete the relationship]

Highlights

• View object records by type
• View the details (all attributes) of an object record
• View the related objects to an object record
• Create new object records
• Relate two object records together
• Data is validated against your schema
• Unlink related objects
• Delete object records

Several steps need to be completed to gain access to this app:

1. Be on the Support Enterprise plan or above
2. Sign up
3. Open activation email

We’d love to work closely with EAP customers to gather feedback. If you participate in the EAP, you should expect someone from the team to reach out for a quick chat. This feature has been long in the making and we’re excited to have reached our first major milestone and look forward to working with you!

What's next

We recognize this is just a start, but we believe it is the start of something great, a robust data manager for all of your Sunshine data. Here’s a few things that are on our radar for the next coming months:

• Search 
• Bulk uploads
• Support for enums