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Built-in vs. Custom Entity Types | Yext Hitchhikers Platform
What You’ll Learn
In this section, you will learn:
- The difference between Built-in and Custom Entity Types
- Best practices for when to use each type
Differences between a Built-in Type and a Custom Type
Entity types can either be built-in by Yext or custom-defined by you for your specific account(s).
Yext provides a number of “Built-In” Entity Types for common data objects, like Locations, Healthcare Professionals, Products, or Jobs. These entity types are pre-defined by Yext and Yext controls properties like the display name and the API name. You can add additional custom fields to these types, but you cannot remove fields defined on the Entity. Over time, Yext will expose more Built-In Entity Types as we observe common patterns or behavior or as we build out more Entity Types in our Knowledge Network.
Can’t find an entity type that describes what you’re trying to do? Not a problem!
Customers can also define their own objects called “Custom” Entity Types. Custom entity types can be used for any kind of data – each brand can control the name and the properties of these types as needed.
If you can, we recommend that you use Built-In types so that you can take advantage of any pre-built configurations and product-wide compatibility. Unlike Built-In types, Custom Entity Types are not compatible with Listings and may not be compatible with all Third Party systems / integrations.
| Built-in Entity Types | Custom Entity Types | |
|---|---|---|
| Yext defines the core schema, customers can add additional custom fields to it | Customer defines the schema by adding any Built-in or Custom Field to it | |
| Compatible with Listings |  |
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| Compatible with Pages | |
|
| Compatible with Search | |
|
| Can control display name, API name, entity type description & all fields | |
|
Daily Quiz Streak: 0
Quiz Accuracy Streak: 0
Question 1 of 3
What can you control for Custom Entity Types? (Select all that apply)
Question 2 of 3
Can you sync an entity of a Custom Entity Type to Google Maps?
Question 3 of 3
If you are trying to list a Location, should you use the Built-in Entity Type or should you use a Custom Entity Type?
High five! ✋
