AreaCacao Docs

Create, edit, duplicate, and safely delete your own formula types to validate any recipe.

What it is

A formula type is the template you validate a recipe against: a set of parameters (Water, Sugars, fats, aw, pH…), each with its target range (minimum, maximum, and optimum). AreaCacao ships three predefined types —Ganache, Soft caramel, and Pâte de fruit—, but you can create your own to validate recipes that don't fit those three families.

This guide explains how to manage them: create, edit, duplicate, and safely delete. To understand the panel where they're used, see Formula validation.

Before you start

Open any recipe in the editor (/reciview?id=<id>).
Expand the side charts panel and go to the Validation sub-tab.

Open the type manager

Click the panel's gear icon (or Manage custom types from the Complete analysis). The type manager opens, with two sections:

Your formula types — cards for the types you've created, with their name, category, number of parameters, and date. Each has Edit (pencil) and Delete (trash) actions.
Predefined — the three formulator types, read-only, with a Duplicate as custom action so you can start from one.

If you haven't created any yet, you'll see an empty state with the + Create formula type button.

You can only edit and delete your own types. The three predefined ones are read-only: to start from one, use Duplicate as custom.

Create a formula type

Open the blank form

In the type manager, click + Create formula type. The form opens with empty fields.

Fill in name, description, and category

Formula type name — for example, My raspberry ganache.
Description — optional, to remember what you use it for.
Category — a dropdown with the available families.

Add the parameters

In the parameter editor, click + Add parameter. Each row has:

An autocomplete search to choose the parameter. It's connected to the ingredients' nutrient set (Water, Sugars, fats, protein, fiber, salt…) and to the physicochemical aw and pH. It's accent- and case-insensitive and groups parameters by family.
Min, Max, and Optimum, in the parameter's unit (%, Aw, etc.).
An optional weight, to give a parameter more importance in the score.
The delete action for the row.

Save

Click Create type. The type becomes available in the panel's selector and in the management list.

Shortcut: add parameters from the recipe's ingredients

The parameter editor has an Add from this recipe's ingredients shortcut. It lists the nutrients that have a real value in the open recipe's ingredients and, when you pick one, inserts that parameter with a range pre-seeded around the current value. It's the fastest way to build a realistic type from a recipe you already have.

Edit a type

In Your formula types, click the pencil icon on the card. The form opens preloaded with the type's name, category, and all its parameters. Change whatever you need (ranges, parameters, weight) and click Save: the changes persist and apply the next time you validate a recipe against that type.

Duplicate a predefined type

In the Predefined section, click Duplicate as custom on Ganache, Soft caramel, or Pâte de fruit. A new type of your own is created, with the same parameters and ranges as the predefined one as a starting point. From there you edit it freely without touching the original.

Delete a type safely

Deleting a type is safe: the app checks first whether any of your recipes is using it.

Click the trash icon

On the type's card, click the trash icon.

If no recipe uses it

You'll see a simple confirmation ("Delete «X»?"). Confirm it and the type disappears.

If some recipe uses it

The app opens a double confirmation: it tells you «X» is used in N recipe(s) and lists those recipes (with a link and date). It explains the effect: those recipes will be left without a formula type, and you can reassign one whenever you want.

To enable the red delete button, you must type DELETE in the text field. On confirming, the type is deleted and the affected recipes are left without a formula type (no recipe is deleted and no composition is lost).

The double confirmation with DELETE only appears when there are linked recipes. It's a safeguard so you don't accidentally leave recipes without their formula type.

Consistency with the Filling formulator

The three predefined types (Ganache, Soft caramel, Pâte de fruit) are exactly the same ones the Filling formulator generates, and they read the same ranges. That's why a recipe validated in this panel gets the same score it would have in the Formulator. Your custom types extend that base with the templates you need, without altering the predefined ones.

Custom formula types