Metadata Engine Trail — SmartLite Academy

Unit 1 · Business Problem

Why a metadata engine matters

RK

Rina Kapoor · Operations Manager, Northwind Distributors

"We need to start tracking equipment warranties against our customer accounts. Our old CRM vendor quoted six weeks and $15,000 to add one custom object with a handful of fields. We needed it live before our next sales cycle."

In most systems, adding a new kind of record — a new "table" — means a developer, a database migration, and a deployment. That turns every new business idea into an engineering ticket with a multi-week queue.

💡

Business outcome

A new tracked business entity, live in minutes — with zero developer cost, zero deployment risk, and a data model that evolves as fast as the business does.

Unit 2 · How It Works

Anatomy of the Metadata Engine

Instead of one database table per business entity, SmartLite stores the shape of your data — objects and fields — as metadata rows, and the actual record data as JSON. Nothing about a new object or field requires touching the database schema.

Concept	What it is	Business translation
Object	A row in `object_definition` (e.g. "Warranty")	A new kind of record your team wants to track
Field	A row in `field_definition`, typed via the `FieldType` enum	An attribute on that record — text, number, date, picklist, lookup, formula, auto-number
Formula field	Evaluated live at read time, never stored	Computed values like "Tier" from `IF(amount__c > 10000, "Enterprise", "Standard")`
Lookup field	Relationship to another object; parent data injected at read time	Connects records together, e.g. Warranty → Account

✅

Naming convention

Anything an admin creates through the UI — a custom object or a custom field, even one added to a standard object like Lead — automatically gets a __c suffix in its API name. Standard, platform-seeded objects and fields keep plain names.

Every metadata read is cached per organization for speed; every metadata write evicts that cache and calls metadataEngine.invalidate(orgId) so the change is visible instantly, with no restart required.

Unit 3 · Hands-On Challenge

Build a "Warranty" object from scratch

Open Object ManagerSetup → Object Manager → New Object.

Name the objectLabel: "Warranty", Plural Label: "Warranties" — the API name warranty__c is generated automatically. Save.

Add a fieldOpen the new object → Fields tab → New Field → Label "Expiration Date", type DATE. Save.

Add a lookup fieldNew Field → Label "Account", type LOOKUP, related object: Account. Save.

Create a recordGo to Records → Warranties → New. Notice the form rendered itself automatically from the fields you just defined — no code was written.

🎯

Go further

Add a Formula field, e.g. Days Remaining using {expiration_date__c} - TODAY()-style logic via the Formula Editor, and watch it compute live on every record without ever being stored.

Unit 4 · Knowledge Check

Test what you learned

1. What suffix does an admin-created custom object or field get in its API name?

_std

__c

No suffix — all fields look identical

2. Where is the value of a FORMULA field stored?

In the record's data_json, updated on every save

Nowhere — it's computed live every time the record is read

In a separate formula_cache table

Metadata Engine: Build New Objects Without a Developer

Why a metadata engine matters

Anatomy of the Metadata Engine

Build a "Warranty" object from scratch

Test what you learned

Badge Earned: Data Model Architect