Planning Templates
Your template design depends on your organization's business requirements, as well as the object definition in question. To create useful and effective templates, you must do the following actions:
- Complete the object definitions for which you want to create a template. For more information, see Creating and Defining Objects.
- Familiarize yourself with the TeamConnect object model, whose attributes are described in the Object Model: Read This First plus the additional related reference tables.
- Learn how to use Object Navigator, which you may use to define fields in templates. See Using Object Navigator.
- If you need to use templates with wizards, plan any necessary wizards before creating templates. See Creating Wizards.
General Considerations
The following checklist helps you develop a general outline of the templates you may need to create and what kind of information has to be collected:
- Determine the possible scenarios that may take place when a record is created in your organization, such whether users create most records using wizards or also with new, blank records.
- Determine how many wizards and templates you need to create based on the various scenarios, such as one complex wizard with multiple pages and page transition rules creating multiple related records, or multiple small wizards, each taking care of a specific object record.
- Identify the information that must be automatically populated in every new record.
- Determine whether any related records need to be automatically created together with every new record. For example, tasks to be completed, an audit history record to capture the details of a new record, and so on.
- Determine whether any sub-objects need to be added to a record. For example, default categories to add certain blocks, assignees, and so on.
- Identify any fields that may be automatically prepopulated with static or dynamic values in every new record based on naming conventions, company procedures, and other known patterns.
Whether you are defining template fields, sub-objects, or related objects, make sure you understand the following subjects:
- Field Value Types
- Values, attributes, and using Object Navigator (see Using Object Navigator)
- TeamConnect attributes (see the Object Model: Read This First plus the additional reference tables related to this reference).
- Operator Options for Different Attribute Types
- Defining Values in Templates
- Sub-Objects
- Related Objects
Points To Remember
Keep the following points in mind when planning templates:
- Creating templates is optional, except for pre-population rules.
- Some fields, such as descriptions, dates, number fields, and so on, may be prepopulated using simple actions in a wizard--without the use of a template.
- Whether you create templates for use with wizards, for use with rules, or both, the methods of defining which fields to populate and records to create are the same.
- You may create several templates for the same object definition.
- You may use only one template per wizard or rule, yet you may link related object templates to the main object template.
- Once you create a template, you may select it from the Action tab of your pre-population or custom action rule screen.
If you are creating custom action rules for the User or the Group object definition, you cannot select a template from the Action tab. - You may select existing templates from the General tab of wizard screens.
- You may access or create templates on the Templates tab of the object definition. However, the following objects do not have a Templates tab:
- Contact Group (Address Book)
- Document
- Embedded objects
- Group
- Line Items
- User
- You may create templates for related objects and select them from the main object template. That way, you may reuse the related object template for multiple main objects and scenarios.