About Active Classes
Active Classes are Magentrix's in-portal C# code units. They power the business logic behind Active Pages, Triggers, scheduled jobs, REST endpoints, and reusable utility code. Each Active Class is a record administrators create at Setup > Develop > Classes & Triggers; the source code is authored in the in-portal IDE that opens when you edit the record.
This page is the administrator's overview. The full language reference, controller patterns, database APIs, utility classes, and component documentation live in the Developer Guide.
Where Active Classes Live
Active Classes have two entry points, and they do different things:
- Setup > Develop > Classes & Triggers — the administrative list. From here you create new records, edit class metadata (Label, Description, Type, Version), configure sharing, clone, and delete. This entry point does NOT open the code editor.
- The IDE at /sys/ide — the in-portal code editor where developers author source code. It supports syntax highlighting, compilation feedback, and is the primary workspace for development work. Open it directly, or click the Open in IDE button on any Active Class's detail view. Most developers work entirely in the IDE. The IDE itself is documented in the Developer Guide.
Use the Setup pages when an administrator needs to manage records (sharing, deletion, dependency review). Use the IDE for everything related to writing or changing code.
Active Class Types
| Type | What It Is |
|---|
| Class / Interface | A reusable unit of business logic. Used directly from Active Pages, from other Active Classes, from Triggers, or as a Controller backing a page. |
| Controller | An Active Class registered as the Controller for one or more Active Pages. Handles requests, model binding, and Action Responses. See Controllers Overview. |
| Trigger | An Active Class that runs automatically before or after entity record events (insert, update, delete, undelete). See Triggers. |
| Test | A unit-test class run from the IDE to verify other Active Class behavior before deploying. |
Common Capabilities
What an Active Class can do is documented in the Developer Guide. From an administrator's perspective, knowing the categories is enough:
- Read and write entity records via the Database API.
- Send email and respond to messaging events.
- Read, write, and stream files in the Document Library.
- Generate PDFs from Active Pages.
- Make outbound HTTP calls to integrate with external systems.
- Process payments and respond to webhooks.
- Run on a schedule via Cron Jobs.
Use Cases
- Backing logic for an Active Page. A wizard, a form, or a custom dashboard delegates its data and business rules to a Controller (an Active Class).
- Cross-entity validation. A Trigger ensures that when an Account is updated, related Contacts stay consistent or pending Deals are checked.
- Scheduled processing. A nightly Active Class runs reports, syncs data with an external system, or aggregates entity records.
- Reusable utilities. A class library shared across multiple Active Pages, Triggers, and Cron Jobs.
Permissions and Sharing
- Only administrators can create, delete, or share Active Classes.
- Sharing controls who can execute Controller actions of an Active Class — not who can read its source. Source access is admin-only.
- Triggers are an exception — they are not shareable. The Share action is hidden on Trigger-type Active Classes because they run automatically on entity events rather than from a user request. Their reach is controlled by the entity-level Roles and sharing on the records they fire against.
- Sharing supports Roles, User Groups, and specific people. Group-based sharing was added so admins can grant execution access by segment without assigning new Roles.
- An Active Class with no explicit sharing is accessible to administrators only; child code paths invoked from a shared Active Page or Trigger run with the platform's normal permission checks.
- For the full sharing model, see Sharing Active Pages and Classes.
Where to Go Next
<< About Active Pages | Active Pages and Classes Checklist >>