TeamConnect Designer User Interface

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Most customization tasks do not require extensive technical skills because you perform them using the TeamConnect Designer user interface. For example, you can develop most business rules directly through the user interface.

Depending on your design, you may also need certain technical skills, such as a knowledge of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Extensible Markup Language (XML), to create custom pages. Some customization of rules and pages requires expertise with Java and JavaScript.

To access the Designer user interface

Log in to TeamConnect with Setup rights.
Click the Setup link at the top of the page (upper right).
The main access page of the Designer user interface opens in a separate window, as shown in the following image.

User Interface Overview

Most Designer user interface elements are self-explanatory. However, some procedures require knowledge of TeamConnect itself.

For example, you may define patterns to automatically name records, such as the date on which the record was created, the record's default category, and the name of the main involved party. To create such patterns, you must identify the location of these attributes within TeamConnect's object model (see the various Object Model appendices for details). Thus you would require Object Model knowledge for this task.

The Designer user interface has the following types of screens:

Record Screens—Most Designer configuration screens include tabs and a toolbar. For example, object definition screens include tabs where you can create and define the corresponding components, such as the Templates and Wizards tabs of the Account object.

Unlike the end-user interface, the Designer user interface does not have the Read-only display mode. Most fields in the screens are editable at all times.
Batch Screens—Many configuration screens include batch screens, which have a row of data entry fields for entering multiple items at the same time. For example, the Lookup Tables screen allows you to enter the names and tree positions of dozens of lookup table items at the same time.
Using Object Navigator—A user interface tool for defining paths to attributes in the object model. See Using Object Navigator and Object Model: Read This First provides information about the objects, attributes and relationships in TeamConnect's object model that you can use to create your custom designs. This reference points you to additional reference tables that provide more information about object models.

While developing your design, you are testing it in the end-user interface as well. You may also need to use that interface to create and define users and groups, access rights, system settings, and so on.

Designer Menu Bar

The Designer menu bar contains a set of drop-down lists, which provide a quick access to the appropriate records and functions.

Designer Menu Bar Fields

Field or control	Icon or option	Description
Logo		TeamConnect logo. When the image in the icon is "spinning," it indicates that the system is processing a request, such as opening a record, searching for a records, or another operation.
Home		Opens your Home page. For details on home pages, see Creating Home Pages and Portal Panes.
Help		Provides access to the Designer help files.
Sign Off		Allows you to sign off from TeamConnect..
Create a new	Object Definition	Displays the General tab of the corresponding screen.	For details on how to define objects, see Creating and Defining Objects.
	Route	Displays the General tab of the corresponding screen.	For more information on creating routes, see the Creating Routes.
	Home Page		See Home Pages.
	Portal Pane		See Portal Panes.
Go to	Object Definitions	Displays a list of available system and custom objects. Click the appropriate hyperlink and the corresponding object definition screen appears with its General screen opened by default. For details on the information displayed in this screen, see General System Object Information and General Custom Object Information.
	Routes	Click the appropriate hyperlink and the General tab of the corresponding screen appears by default.	For more information on routes, see Creating Routes.
	Home Pages		See Home Pages.
	Portal Panes		See Portal Panes.
	Lookup Tables	Displays the System tab of the tables screen, where you can add, modify, inactivate, and delete the necessary items in the appropriate system tables. For more details, see the Types of Lookup Tables. For details on creating custom lookup tables and using them in custom fields of type List, see Using Lookup Tables.
	Global Navigation	Click the hyperlink to show the tabbed work screen.	See Using Global Navigation.
Tools	Administer Custom Tools	Displays the Administer Tools screen where you can add or delete custom tools, and rename system tools. See Creating Custom Tools.
	Misc. Settings	Displays the Miscellaneous Settings screen where you can add custom fields for integration of TeamConnect with other products. See Miscellaneous Settings.
	Contact Sweeper	Run a tool that identifies possible duplicate contacts and allows you to choose which ones to consolidate and delete. See Using Contact Sweeper.
	Design Snapshot	Run a tool that captures complete information about the object definitions and other TeamConnect components in the current application.
	Design Import	Run a tool that uses information from Design Snapshot to change the current application design to match the snapshot.
	XML Worksheet	Launch a tool that allows you to upload XML requests to the application and view the responses.
System Settings	Rule Execution	Displays the corresponding tab in the System Settings screen, where you can configure the appropriate setting for your application.	See Accessing System Settings.
	Custom Messages	Lets you create custom messages and assign unique messages keys.	See Creating Custom Messages for more information.
	Clear Cache 2.x user interface Settings	Allows you to clear the cache, which may be required when you create custom pages. See Creating Custom Pages.
	Default Object Views	See Object Views.
	History	Displays a Search page where you can set your search criteria for the history entries associated with system settings.
	Backward Compatibility Settings	See Backward Compatibility Settings.
	System Appenders	Displays the corresponding tab in the Logging screen, where you can define logs and set the status of loggers.
	Audit Appenders

Backward Compatibility Settings

Each new version of TeamConnect contains new and updated features. The Backward Compatibility Settings page provides several options that let you return to previous behavior until you are ready to shift to the new features.

Important: You can check and uncheck these boxes at any time, but it is not recommended for settings that affect how data is stored. Make the switch in a test environment to ensure that everything work s properly.

To open the Backward Compatibility Settings page

Open the Designer.
In the System Settings drop-down list, select Backward Compatibility Settings.
On the Backward Compatibility Settings page, select one or more of the options in the Backward Compatibility Settings Page table.

Note: Most of the boxes on this page are unchecked by default. Adding a check-mark to a box indicates that you want to use the old behavior. This does not apply to the Optimize cascading security option, which is checked by default. Please see the details below.

Backward Compatibility Settings Page

Control	Options
Allow Duplicate Invoices (Same invoice number, invoice date, year, and vendor)	If checked, an error message appears when posting duplicate invoices. If unchecked, allows duplicate invoices for the purposes of data migration of duplicate invoices for the Dynamic Fields Conversion upgrade tool and Workflow upgrade tool.
Enable wild card characters in XML layer search requests	If checked, it is not possible to use wild cards when writing search requests in the XML layer. If unchecked, wild cards are valid.
Always use 'ISO- 859-1' for encoding characters entered in text/memo fields	If checked, the default is the ISO/IEC 10646 character set. If unchecked, the eight-bit coded character set is used in text and memo fields.
Optimize Cascading security	If unchecked, cascading security proceeds in a single batch with one commit. If checked, if cascading security is enabled for a custom object definition, the security cascade proceeds in batches of 100 and commits after each batch. Any failures in batches is logged and do not prevent the completion of later batches. Note: This box is checked by default.
Ignore security cascading from document folders	If checked, security propagates based on the Replace Rights on subfolders and/or Replace Rights on existing files sections in the security block of the document folder. If unchecked, modifying the security of a document folder will not propagate the security changes to its child files and folders.
Take user to document properties page when clicking on a shared persistent URL of a document--	If checked, clicking a document or document folder URL link in an email message opens the TeamConnect Documents General page for the referenced document. If unchecked: For documents—Clicking a document URL link in an email message opens the document in a browser. If the document URL links to a file that may contain other files, such as a zip file, the browser page opens the TeamConnect Documents page that contains the referenced file. For document folders—Clicking a document folder URL link in an email message opens the TeamConnect Documents page that contains the referenced folder. Notes: Users must be logged in to TeamConnect and have the appropriate rights to access documents, document properties, or document folders. Browser settings determine the way that documents are displayed. For example, if the browser is set to open a new tab whenever a document is opened, clicking a persistent document URL link always opens the document in a separate tab.