# Semi-Structured - manage partly-defined objects

## Types and Instances

TODO: add more instructions.


## Planned Features

These are some things I plan to add to the application:
- bulk extract from json to custom field: a way to define a Custom Field, and
  then systematically populate its value from the json blob.
- GUI/Wizard for adding custom field - this should be easier.
- Have Status field for instances, that allows customized values (per class),
  and also allows to mark some of the values as Archived.
- A Custom Field that will allow referring to instances of a different Type.
  For instance, have a Type for "OS" and a Type for "Software", and allow the
  Software type to have a field of "Supported OS" with a full selector.
- Customize Icon for type and/or instance.
- Allow instances to have their own view/edit Policy.

## Export and Import

There's an Export feature from the Instance Search which will produce full data,
and there are Conduit methods that allow mass export as well.

For import, currently only available method is to use Conduit and make 2 calls
per each instance - see `examples/load-xkcd.py` for an example.


## Dashboards

There's some strange interaction between Dashboards and Instance queries:
Instance queries can be added to dashboards, but they can't be //updated//
directly from dashboards.
Adding a query from the dashboard's Create Panel button will list all saved
queries for all instance types; It's easier to find the query in the Item List
page, and use "Add to Dashboard" from the Use Results drop-down.