Table of Contents 
 

Outline 2 
Resources 2 
Scenario 2 

How-To 4 
Create a Reactive Web App 4 
Bootstrap an Entity and its Data from Excel 5 
Create an Entity 8 
Bootstrap Data into an Entity from Excel 10 
   

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Outline 
In this exercise, we will focus on creating the first entities in OutSystems. To do so, we will 
perform the following actions: 

● Bootstrap an Entity and its data from an Excel file 

● Create an Entity and its attributes 
● Bootstrap data into an existing entity 

Upon completion, we will end up with two entities and both will contain data that was 
bootstrapped from Excel files. 

Resources 
This exercise has some resources that are needed to complete it, two Excel files and an icon:  

● Employee.xlsx 
● Departments.xlsx 
● Data-Modeling-Exercise-Icon.png 

These files can be found in the Resources folder of this lesson materials. The Excel files will be 
used to bootstrap data to the Entities, while the icon is a suggestion to use when creating the 
application. Despite being optional, all the steps assume the use of this icon. 

Scenario 
In this exercise, we’ll create two entities: Department and Employee. 

 
We’ll start from an empty ​canvas​, so the first step consists of creating a new ​Reactive Web App 
and then add a B
​ lank m
​ odule. This blank module is where the entities will be defined. 

After having the module created, using the ​Import New Entities from Excel…​ with the 
Departments.xlsx file, the Department entity will be created and the data bootstrapped from 
the Excel file and stored in the Entity. 

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The second entity (Employee) will be created manually with the following attributes 

● Id (default) 
● Name (mandatory) 
● Email (mandatory and data type Email) 
● JobTitle (length of 100 characters) 
● IsManager (Boolean data type) 

After creating the entity, its data from the Employees.xlsx file should be bootstrapped, using 
the B
​ ootstrap Data from Excel​ action. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

   

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How-To 
In this section, we’ll show you how to do this exercise, with a thorough step-by-step description. 
If you already finished the exercise on your own, great! You don’t need to do it again.​ If 
you didn’t finish the exercise, that’s fine! We are here to help you.  

Create a Reactive Web App 

1. Click the ​New Application​ icon. 

2. Select ​Reactive Web App​ as the application type. 

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3. Set the application name to D

​ ata Modeling Exercise 

4. Click the ​Upload Icon​ and then select the D

​ ata Modeling Exercise Icon.png ​icon from the 
Resources folder. 

5. Click the ​Create App​ button 

6. Select ​Blank a
​ s module type, then click the C
​ reate Module​ button 

Bootstrap an Entity and its Data from Excel 

In this section, we will create our first Entity automatically from the Excel file Departments.xlsx. 

1. Switch to the D
​ ata​ tab 

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2. Right-click the Database element, then select I​ mport Entities from Excel... 

3. Locate the D
​ epartment.xlsx​ file from the exercise Resources, and open it 

4. Click ​Import t​ o create the Entity and the bootstrap logic (Timer) 

5. Publish the module to save the changes to the server 

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6. Right-click the ​Department e

​ ntity and choose ​View Data 

7. The loaded data should be displayed: 

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Create an Entity 
In this section, we will create the Employee Entity, and all its attributes, manually.  

1. In the Data tab, right-click the ​Database​ element, then select A

​ dd Entity​. 

2. Set the Entity ​Name t​ o ​Employee​. 

3. Right-click the Employee entity, and select A

​ dd Entity Attribute​. 

4. Set the new attribute N

​ ame t​ o ​Name​, and set it as mandatory. 

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5. Add another attribute named ​Email​, and set it as mandatory. 

6. Add another attribute named ​JobTitle​ with a L

​ ength ​of ​100​. 

7. Add another attribute named ​IsManager​ with B

​ oolean ​Data Type. 

8. Publish the module. 

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Bootstrap Data into an Entity from Excel 

Finally, we have the Entity created, but with no data. Let’s use the Employees.xlsx file to 
bootstrap some data to the Employee Entity. 

1. Right-click the Employee​ ​Entity, then select A

​ dvanced > Create Action to Bootstrap 
Data from Excel... 

2. Locate the E
​ mployees.xlsx​ file and open it. 

3. Validate that the four entity attributes were mapped to the four columns in the Excel file 

 
 

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4. Click ​Proceed​. 

5. Publish the module. 

6. Right-click the ​Employee e

​ ntity then select V
​ iew Data​. 

7. The data from the Excel file should appear on the data previewer. 

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