Summary
Join Brian Hatch as he reviews the topic of Comments in RecTrac and how they can be linked at various levels within the application to provide additional information to your patrons.
Video
Transcript
Brian Hatch 0:05
In this video, we're going to review the topic of comments in RecTrac. These can be linked to different items in the database and provide different functions that we'll review in this video. To highlight this, I'm gonna open up activity section management, I already have the pin open here. And I'm going to open up just one individual section of an activity. And you'll notice at the top, I have a comments tab, I'm going to Click on this is going to display all the different options for comments on this individual activity section. But it would be the same layout and concept for other modules as well. So to highlight that, I'm just gonna switch over, we've got facility management already open. And if I were to open up a facility record, it's a very similar layout where I have comments at the top. And then all the same comments are also listed for that module as well.
Brian Hatch 0:56
So that applies to all modules in RecTrac. I'm gonna switch back over to my activity section. So on this Screen, there are a number of different types of comments. The first one being our being our brochure comments. And for each Type of comment, there's two ways to implement there is brochure or code codes or freeform text. So the code method basically allows you to create a system code that you can tie text to, and then gives you the option for managing that text on the code level. And then obviously, that code will be linked out to all items that it applies to in the database. The freeform text method, which I find a little bit more straightforward, allows you to apply the text directly to the section. And you'd manage the texts at the section level as well. And using our bulk change utility, it's very easy to update this text for one or multiple sections using the Bulk Change utility. So you can use your personal preference for which method you'd like to use and implement in your database for each Type of comment. So the brochure guide Type of comment is specific to WebTrac.
Brian Hatch 1:20
So any information you list here is going to be listed on the website. And to highlight that I'm going to switch over to site that I have opened here. So I'm already on my activity search page, I'm looking at two different activities that are listed here. And underneath each activity activity, I have my individual sections. So the main brochure text is listed here. It's out in front of the customer. And from there, they find what they're hopefully interested in and clicking and drilling down into the details from that main card. It's important to note that this brochure text is actually pulling from the first section listed. So as a general recommendation, we would set up our sections that all share the same description. And we linked that description to all sections so that no matter which section is either active or displaying, you'll get the same text displaying for the overall activity. And just to highlight an example from another module, I'm going to open up a facility.
Brian Hatch 3:03
So I'm on my facility search page in this Window. Same concept, you can see the brochure text is displaying, I can right out in front with the facility. And then obviously they can make their selections below for the times and days that they are looking for. So brochure text is really important for getting that information out in front of a customer, because it's the first thing they see when they initially dive into the details. Below that we have our comment Type comments. And this is what's going this is going to display in two places. Going back to WebTrac. Pull up my example again. So again, the brochure text displays in the main activity. But if a customer drills down into any of the detail records, so an individual section, for example, you'll see the brochure text is linked again on this page, because you actually could have direct links to this information along with the comment text. So this is where that information would display if they choose to drill down into those details. So you can never assume that they're going to drill this far down in but this is a great place to put this information.
Brian Hatch 4:11
In addition, it's also going to display on the receipt. So I actually have an example receipt here that I'm going to pull up. And this is where you can also have the information displayed here. So you're kind of covered in both places. As far as getting that information out to the customer. I'll switch back to RecTrac. And below here, the next Type of comment I have is an activity reservation maintenance comment. So this is information that's tied to the section that then is passed over to the Facility Reservation. So typically, this would be setup Type information that you want to get in front of your facilities team. They know what to do for this particular activity if you're reserving the facility with the activity. The next Type of comment is your roster Type comment. So this is information that will display at the top of a Roster Report. Typically, if you're handing rosters out to your instructors, this would be information that almost applied to them for either reminders or details about the program.
Brian Hatch 5:10
And the final Type of comment is your tickler Type comments. So these are really reminders that can pop up either for your staff and RecTrac, or for patrons on WebTrac, or both. And it's something that patrons on the web actually have to acknowledge, that's a great way to either restate information or get kind of key information out in front of the customer, along with all the other details and information that's getting displayed and communicated. And the final thing I want to show on this topic is just an example that this can all be customized and laid out differently. So I'm gonna pull up a separate database here. And I've already got it open to Section management. And I'm gonna open up one of these sections. So in our default layout, there's a comments tab where all the information is displayed. And you can customize that through Screen design to either hide the ones that you're not utilizing, or the method you're not utilizing when it comes to those codes.
Brian Hatch 6:06
In this example, I actually decided to hide the comments tab altogether. And I took the comments that I wanted to utilize my receipt comments, freeform Field, and my brochure freeform Field and incorporate it right into my core Screen. So I have it right out in front of folks actually also changed the description just to make it a little bit more descriptive as far as where this information displays. So this information displays on receipts versus this information displayed on WebTrac. So just want to highlight an example that with Screen designs, you can really customize the labels and the Screen layouts to highlight and hide the information that you want or, or don't want on a Screen. But that is a review of comments in RecTrac