When I create a Document or Whiteboard (whether stand-alone or embedded in an Entity), I would like to add a block displaying applicable metadata similar to what is available for an Entity; e.g., Created By, Creation Date, Modification Date. Am I missing a configuration option somewhere? From what I can see, it seems I’ll need to add a static Sticky Note to capture the info I would like to display and perhaps include a date in the object’s name. Additionally, I could guidance on how to find this metadata or how to search / query for Document and Whiteboard objects using metadata.

You could try using a database for documents. That’s what we do. We get almost all the functionality of the inbuilt documents feature, plus some more custom relations and the ability to create additional tags as fields. I don’t think there’s a way to get this functionality with whiteboards currently.

[image] Michael_Ichter: You could try using a database for documents. That’s what we do. We get almost all the functionality of the inbuilt documents feature, plus some more custom relations and the ability to create additional tags as fields. BTW, this is what we want to do in the core. Document will be transformed to a Database in near future (I hope)

It would be nice if there’s some way to get the navigation bars/Table of content feature into a documents database. I think this is the only feature that I miss from the traditional documents feature. [Screenshot_20250213_232313_Brave]

@Michael_Ichter - Thanks for the suggestion. Since I would like to support Whiteboards as well as Documents, I’m might give this a try: Create a new database called “Docs and Whiteboards” Add Single Select field called “Type - View” with Options = Document, Whiteboard Add the Documents field to the Database Add the Whiteboards field to the Database When creating an Entity, simply give the Entity a Name then create a Document or Whiteboard (not both) as you would with any other Entity and give the “embedded” Document or Whiteboard the same name as the Entity Use “Type - View” to set whether the Entity is for a Document or a Whiteboard When I make a Task (the Documents and Whiteboards are for a Project Management Space), I can link that Task Entity to a Docs and Whiteboards Entity. We are also building out a Software Development Space and I could do the same thing there. Re: 6., probably unnecessary, but going to try it until we don’t need it. I’d like to automate 6., but it seems you can’t include Advanced fields in a Formula… I tried to make an IF / THEN Formula to keyed off “is Documents null” or “is Whiteboards null”, but I don’t see how to reference these fields unlike “Name” or a Basic field I added. I suspect this will work, but isn’t particularly elegant and I’ll likely end up with Entities that have both a Document and a Whiteboard or incorrect “Type - View”. And I’ll end up with Users directly adding a Document or Whiteboard into a Task Entity rather than via the Docs and Whiteboards Database. Seems like a recipe for disorganization. If you have an improvement on this idea, I’m all ears.

[image] Michael_Ichter: It would be nice if there’s some way to get the navigation bars/Table of content feature into a documents database. I think this is the only feature that I miss from the traditional documents feature. Table of contents is available for any rich text field (which I presume a ‘documents’ database will naturally have).

I think using a db for whiteboards is a bad idea. Especially given the drawbacks you have identified, and others. For a ‘documents’ database, don’t use the Documents field, just use a rich text field directly for the contents.

@Chr1sG - I don’t really want to create a Documents database either. I would prefer to use a Document (and Whiteboard) embedded in an Entity. But there are the limitations I’ve noted… embedded Documents (and Whiteboards) don’t have the same “capabilities” as their stand-alone siblings. From @mdubakov comments, sounds like Documents will become a Database soon… any chance Whiteboards will get the same treatment?

[image] daoud: From @mdubakov comments, sounds like Documents will become a Database soon… any chance Whiteboards will get the same treatment? For Whiteboard it is hard to justify. Overall, internally we had many discussion what is Database and what is View. Document is mostly a database, while Whiteboard is more like a View.

I just finished watching the Products Updates Webinar (thanks Polina!). Seeing as whiteboard is in focus at the moment, I think this is relevant. Whiteboard as a view is really confusing to me… As it currently stands, a whiteboard is unstructured data, just like a document. Just like a rich text field, adding a “canvas” field into an entity could give it whiteboard powers. It has references (which are not, but should be shown in the target’s reference), inline comments, adhoc text, image embed. It would fit so much more nicely into the Fibery building blocks. I really do not see how a whiteboard is a view… Imagine adding an ability to Multi-entity-insert into Documents and calling it a view… Is it more of a technical limitation? Missing features to make it work and bring it to the same level as RTF: Include whiteboard content in global search and references - #3 by mdubakov Embed views. This is opposed to what others (myself included) have suggested before: to make a whiteboard act more like a view, but I think it is 2 different things. 1. Whiteboard (current, unstructured data) 2. Network view (just a view of entities which was originally part of Fibery V1 vision, not sure what happened to it.). I think you guys have been trying to get both in one, when they are totally different things in reality. Whiteboard has so much potential, and it’s a shame to not have the ability to use it effectively in the workspace (as it currently stands).

Displaying Metadata for Documents & Whiteboards

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RonMakesSystems February 13, 2025, 9:33pm 8

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Displaying Metadata for Documents & Whiteboards

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