Enforcing Entity Link Validation for Inventory Objects

Previously unenforced entity link validation is being updated and will be properly enforced beginning on May 23rd 2024.

What’s changing?

When creating an inventory schema (e.g. container, box, plate), Benchling users can link fields to a registry schema. Previously, a validation issue allowed invalid entity types to be linked. For instance, a 'Cell Line' field could be linked to a 'Protein' entity without error.

Moving forward, validation will be enforced on all entity link fields, returning an error for any invalid values. For example, attempting to update a 'Cell Line' field to include a 'Protein' entity will result in an invalid_request_error, like this:

{
  "error": {
    "message": "Linked entity has invalid schema: expected Cell Line, actual schema is Protein",
    "type": "invalid_request_error",
    "userMessage": "Linked entity has invalid schema: expected Cell Line, actual schema is Protein"
  }
}

This validation will impact both entity creates and updates, and impacts made by users in Benchling and integrations using the API.

When is this happening?

Entity link validation for inventory items will be enforced starting on May 23rd 2024. Based on our monitoring, this behavior appears to be rare; Benchling will proactively reach out to tenants that appear to be affected. If you believe your integrations that may be setting unsupported entity link values on inventory items, please reconfigure your schema settings or change the behavior of your integrations before this date.