Return to the Setup menu for the Position object by clicking Setup Create Objects Position.

Add the fields described in the table below to the Position object, clicking Save and New each time.

Table 3. Additional Fields for Position object

Data Type	Field Label	Length	Required
Text Area (long)	Job Description	2,000 - Visible Lines - 5	N/A
Text Area (long)	Responsibilities	2,000 - Visible Lines - 5	N/A
Date	Start Date	N/A	Yes

The fields in the previous table give you a bit of practice using the Setup menu to add fields. In your every day development tasks, you can use either the Setup menu or the Force Platform IDE, which you will learn about in Chapter 8: The Force Platform IDE, to define objects.

The Force Platform includes a Metadata API, which also allows you to use a script for creating Force Platform components. You will use scripts to create almost all of the remaining objects and fields you use for examples in the rest of this book.

You have one more field to add to the Position object at this time, a field which unlocks some key flexibility in moving data from external sources into the Force Platform database.

Add a Text field and give it a Field Label of Legacy ID, a Length of 10 and an appropriate description and help text.

Select the Unique and External ID checkboxes.

The External ID provides an important piece of flexibility for the Force Platform database. Like many organizations, Universal Containers is creating a Force Platform application to replace and improve an existing application with an on-demand system. In the existing application, each Position has a unique ID.

As mentioned earlier, every record in the Force Platform database has an internal ID uniquely identifying the record. This ID is used to implement relationships between objects, among other things. As you load data into your Force Platform objects, the ID is assigned when the records are inserted into the database.

This simple fact creates a problem for records that are children in a relationship. The actual value stored in the relationship field is the ID of the parent. How can a child record know that ID in advance so the relationship can be established as part of the data load?

The External ID is the solution. When you define an External ID, you can specify that the value in that field be used to establish relationships. The Force Platform identifies the parent record with that value for the External ID and automatically copies the ID of the record into the relationship field of the child.

With this identification established through the External ID, you can complete the definition of the Position object.

Click Next to save the information, and Next again to accept the default security settings.

On the final page, uncheck the Add Field box, since there is no need to see this Legacy ID on the user interface page. Click Save.

Once the object is created, click the Positions tab to see the new layout. The Recent Items view displays, which currently only shows the Position ID. This view can be much more informative, a situation addressed in the next section.

Select the Position record you entered before to bring up the new detail page and then Edit to show the page below. Enter values for the fields displayed and click Save.