Table of Contents
Join Brian Hatch as he demonstrates the role of custom screen design and walks through the process of setting it up in your database.
Screen Design Part 1
Summary
In part 1, Brian gives a brief overview of the basic screen design concepts and provides a few examples where you may consider implementing this feature.
Video
Transcript
Brian Hatch 0:05
In this video, we'll give an overview of the topic of Screen design in both RecTrac and WebTrac. Screen design allows you to customize the application to meet the needs of your organization. And we'll highlight how and where this is often used in RecTrac, and WebTrac. To highlight this, we're actually going to open up a couple different panels and RecTrac. So I've got global sales actually open up in two different panels. In the first panel, I can see our default view for global sales. So our default Screen is actually displaying. And you can see all the different columns that are listed at the bottom. And again, I can scroll to the right to see other information. And what you often find is that you're scrolling to the right more often than you maybe should be. So how do you eliminate the need, and customize this potential data grid to through Screen design to kind of get more out of it. If I switch over to my second global sales panel, I can actually see that the blank columns that I weren't using, so address 2 in my example, I've actually moved all the way to the right. And I've actually taken other pieces of information like category, email address, phone number, and I moved those to the left.
Brian Hatch 1:06
So now, hopefully, very little scroll, it will be needed in this data grid if I have most of the core information in the data grid by default. Another example to highlight Screen design is if I switch over to household update. So again, this is our default Screen. So you can see that there's very few required fields. And I kind of have my standard household fields that you probably see and expect. If I switch over to my other household update, you can see that I've actually made quite quite a few fields in this database required, right, they're showing up in red. And that's one of the kind of more popular functions of Screen design, at least when it comes to household updates. So I want to make sure that my users are filling out the fields that ultimately I want to be able to use later on in the application. So in addition to required fields, I've actually relabeled certain fields, I've relabeled the features Field, for example, just to kind of highlight what we're actually using it for. So my employee and nonprofit flags are actually features.
Brian Hatch 2:01
So I've just made that a part of the label of the fields. That's another very popular component of Screen design. In addition, I've actually disabled a Field. So I've disabled the Category Field. And that's just because I'm using the address lookup functionality. So the one I choose the address of zip code in my example. And that's actually going to set the resident non resident flag for me. So I wanted to kind of eliminate the need for my users even go to that Field, but I still want to display it. So disabling fields is another functionality of Screen design. And then down under the family member features, I just eliminated some of the fields that I'm not going to be using at the family member level just to simplify that grouping on this Screen. Few other examples might switch over to activity section update. And I can see that their default Screen for activity section, again, has certain required fields and as a quite a few different groups on the Screen that are again, some are expanded, some are not. And there's a lot of different settings that are available, obviously at the section level.
Brian Hatch 3:01
So if I wanted to show you an option of a customized Screen, you can see on this one, I've actually eliminated certain groups altogether. So I no longer have the expandable groups with all that under the fields underneath them. So I've kind of said, let's just hide all those fields. And I've actually moved Seblak some of the key ones up into the core and additional setting groups. So the ones that I know I'm going to be used that I want it to be kind of visible and an all on one Screen without having to scroll up and down or have to expand or an expanded area. So just kind of customize the Screen to hopefully meet the needs of the programmers are going to be entering in activities in RecTrac. On the WebTrac side, if I pull up a WebTrac site, you can see I'm on the activity search page. And one of the key elements of Screen design on the website is the search on it. So for any search for any module that you're using, you can see that I have the search elements in this case I have them all turned on.
Brian Hatch 3:57
So there's a lot of different options to search for by default on Screen design. But if I wanted to actually kind of highlight an example of Screen design on the web, you can see on this activity search page, I really only have to search elements, right want to give people the ability to search by keyword and maybe by Type. So I've really simplified and narrowed down what I want people to use to hopefully maybe give the patrons on the website and easier simplified experience for searching for programs. So just a few different examples of what Screen design is and how it could be applied. And we'll cover kind of setup and how this can be accomplished in an additional video.
Screen Design Part 2
Summary
In part 2, Brian highlights the steps necessary before customizing any screens, including systems code and design profile creation.
Video
Transcript
Brian Hatch 0:05
In this video, we'll walk through the topic of the setup components for Screen design in RecTrac. So these are the components that you would need in place before we could truly kind of customize any screens in RecTrac, or WebTrac. So the two components are a system code and a Profile or multiples. If you're going with multiple designs, I'm gonna jump to system code management. And I've actually already got it narrowed down to my design Type system code. So I have my custom code already in my database, you might already have a custom code, or you might have something else that you're using as kind of your default screens on your database. Or you might have multiples if you have multiple versions of screens that different users see. To add a Screen design system code, you can just hit Add at the bottom and hit change on mine. There's only three fields, it's the code, the Type of design and the description of the code that you're going with. So I've already got that setup in our database.
Brian Hatch 1:02
So that's step one, step two is making sure that you have a corresponding Profile for that design, or your other designs. I'm going to jump over to Profile assignments and scroll down actually, I already have my Screen design, profiles expanded. And I have my default Screen design. Again, it might be called Custom or labeled as something else in your database. But I already have one in my database, if you didn't have one, or if you want to adjust your existing ones, I'm just gonna hit update at the bottom. To open up the settings on that Screen design profiles, I can see. It's got the Profile code, the Type and subtype of Screen design and the description. But ultimately, what you're doing on this Profile is you're telling it what system code you want to use, or what design you want to use for anyone linked to this Profile. So you can see my database actually have my custom code, my example linked over as my Screen design of choice. And that's actually on the right hand side for both regular design. And also just in case I'm using tablets, or my mobile design, I've just got all three linked over for custom.
Brian Hatch 1:02
So that can be linked over. And it can be a hierarchy. So if you end up having kind of a custom Screen set up and then maybe other users, if you're having multiple designs, you can link over multiple codes. And it'll it'll be a hierarchy for that. In our example, we're just going to stick with a one design. So I'll just hit save on that. So once the system code and Profile exist at the final step is really just linking it up in Profile assignments in the middle part of your Screen. So if I expand default profiles in the middle, I can see that actually, I already have the Screen design Profile linked in the middle part of the Screen. So my default Screen design is set up. And that means that any screens that customize in the database, are going to apply to everybody in that in the database, assuming I don't have another Screen design Profile, maybe linked higher up in the hierarchy. So if you are going to go with kind of one design for everybody, which again, is probably most common, you just need to make sure that your Screen design is linked onto the default level. And now any screens that you customize should automatically be applied to your users in RecTrac. And we'll go over that setup in the next video.
Screen Design Part 3
Summary
In part 3, Brian demonstrates how to customize individual screens and adjust settings for specific fields on the screen.
Video
Transcript
Brian Hatch 0:05
In this video, we'll walk through the process of customizing screens in RecTrac. And depending on what Screen you want to customize is going to drive what menu option you ultimately want to go to. So from the menu, I'm just going to Type in the keyword of Screen. And you can see there's a number of different menu options. So there's mobile specific options, if you're trying to customize a mobile Screen, there's WebTrac specific options if you're trying to customize a WebTrac Screen. And on the RecTrac side, it breaks down into four different menu options. There's inquiry screens, management, screens, processing, screens, and reporting screens. So depending on what Screen again, you want to edit is going to drive drive, the menu option that you want to select, the most common screens that we see updated on the RecTrac side are going to be the management screens, or the processing screens. So for our example, we're gonna go to management, Screen management. And I actually already have it open here. And you can see that I already have four records or four screens that are already customized in my database.
Brian Hatch 1:04
And you might come to this Screen, and you might actually have a blank listing. And that just means you don't have any custom screens yet. And you're just using the base screens for that area that you're working in. If you don't have any screens, or you're looking at a brand new custom Screen, you can just hit Add at the bottom. And there will be two selections that you have to make on the Screen. The first one is which Screen in my example, which management Screen do I want to actually edit. And again, the really common ones that we would see would be the update update screens. So there's household update, there's an activity section update. There's all the different modules that you might actually end up wanting to adjust are typically the update screens what we see most common so once you select the Screen that you want to work with, then you can choose the design. And again, we talked about in previous videos. You know, most databases have kind of one core design, whether it's called custom or default or another name, but you choose the design that you set up for your database. And you just hit continue from there.
Brian Hatch 2:01
In my example actually jumped to household update that I've already started to customize. So I'll just double Click on that. And this Screen breaks down into three different areas. On the left hand side of the Screen, you're going to have your available fields, if you want to introduce a new Field that maybe isn't already in the Screen, you have those lists on the left. On the middle part of the Screen, you have the fields that are already in play for the fields and screens that you're you're viewing. So the fields on the Screen are going to be all listed in the middle part. And then the actual Field parameters or the settings are going to be listed on the right hand side. So I am in household update Screen and actually have a household open and another panel here. So in this lets highlight the layout. At the top, I have Tabs across the top core financial info, miscellaneous info, emergency contacts. And if I go back to management, I could see that is what's mimicked here, right core financial info, miscellaneous info, and that's listed here in this order. And from there, they break down from Tabs to groups.
Brian Hatch 3:01
So I have different groups listed here primary guardian, household information, secondary guardian. Again, I actually have those listed here primary Guardian secondary guardian, you can see those groups listed on this Screen. And then underneath the groups, you actually have the individual fields. So under primary guardian, you have your first name, last name, etc listed here. Once you find the Field that you actually want to update, you can just Click on that. And on the right hand side, you'll see of the most common updates or edits that you can make on a Field. So we've talked about this before Field required is a very common setting that we see people customize screens for so you they're setting that value to YES to make it required or no. Above that you have the Field labels. So if you want to adjust the Field labels slightly to kind of make it more applicable for your organization. That's an option that's available. And below the Field required we have Field status. So we have three different statuses that are available disabled will still display the Field, but it won't be editable. Hidden will hide the Field altogether and updatable will display the Field and allow users to update. So several different settings on the Field status side.
Brian Hatch 4:05
The same settings are available at the group level as far as label adjustments in the hiding functionality and at the tab level. So if you see a tab that maybe doesn't apply for, you know, either the modules you're using or the functionality using, you actually have the ability to kind of hide an entire tab all together with those same settings. On the WebTrac side. So the most common side for most common screens, we'd see edited on the WebTrac side would be WebTrac, management, Screen management. So those are typically going to be your search screens, you can see my examples I have listed here for the modules in my database. I'm customizing typically most any module that you're displaying on the web, you're typically going to modify or customize that search Screen. So I see I have an activity search Screen and of course search Screen membership search Screen. So these are the ones that we'd see edited most often. And it's really the same process same principles for the WebTrac side of things. You have the same layout on the Screen and then the same really values for the most part are going to exist here as well and that's a walkthrough of Screen management in RecTrac.