> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://coldbox-orm.ortusbooks.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://coldbox-orm.ortusbooks.com/v1.x/active-entity.md). # Active Entity This class allows you to simulate the Active Record pattern in your ORM entities by inheriting from our Active Entity class. This will make your ORM entities get all the functionality of our Virtual and Base ORM services so you can do finds, searches, listings, counts, execute queries, transaction safe deletes, saves, updates, criteria building, and even [validation](/v1.x/active-entity/validation.md) right from within your ORM Entity. The idea behind the Active Entity is to allow you to have a very nice abstraction to all the ColdFusion ORM capabilities (hibernate) and all of our ORM extensions like our ColdBox Criteria Builder. With Active Entity you will be able to: * Find entities using a variety of filters and conditions * ORM paging * Specify order, searches, criterias and grouping of orm listing and searches * Use DLM style hibernate operations for multiple entity deletion, saving, and updating * Check for existence of records * Check for counts using criterias * Use our extensive ColdBox Criteria Builder to build Object Oriented HQL queries * Validate your entity using our awesome [validation engine](https://github.com/ColdBox/cbox-validation/wiki) --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. Learn more at gitbook.com. ## Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter, and the optional `goal` query parameter: ``` GET https://coldbox-orm.ortusbooks.com/v1.x/active-entity.md?ask=&goal= ``` `ask` is the immediate question: it should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. `goal` is optional and describes the broader end goal you are ultimately trying to accomplish on behalf of the user. GitBook uses it to tailor the answer towards what is most useful for that goal. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.