Saving referenced records

sales_bikefix · 07-05-2019 04:36 AM

Is there a way of saving referenced records automatically.

To create a job I have to
Create a customer
create a bike(to be repaired)
create a job
add items
then press save, save, save, save.

Can the saving process be streamlined?

1minManager

You could look at reducing the number of subtables if you don’t need a one-to-many relationship

Other than that the only other thing to look art might be a detailed view with editable columns.; But that would only benefit updates to records.

The KPI that I measure my apps against is this - Do I have to enter the same information any more than once, anywhere? If so then that needs imporving.

Hope this helps

Simon@1minManager.com

sales_bikefix

They are almost all new records and I am only entering the same info once - but customers own multiple bikes and bikes have multiple jobs.

Grant_Stead

Something to consider…
Sometimes if it’s a workflow thing you can get pretty crafty… So you just spelled out your workflow for a new customer… So execute that with actions… Conditionally change the save button to “next” or even better “add bike” “add job” then use navigation actions set to on save of the form… Something like a LINKTOFORM can go miles here… Then you have a special starting view, on probably it’s own slice… Titled “New Customer”

Grant_Stead

Then basically, after you’ve put in the customer details, you would be hitting next, which makes more sense, and kills the inception, also you can cancel the workflow at anytime to bail, while still having had added the customer and their first bike… I would setup the initial add assuming 1 customer, 1 bike, 1 job w/ multiple items… Then you could always go back and add more bikes and jobs after the initial add workflow

sales_bikefix

That perfect cos its like real life, but its going to challenge my basic skills. I am already stuck on the first bit - [quote=“Grant_Stead, post:4, topic:12170”]
Conditionally change the save button to “next” or even better “add bike”
[/quote] How?

Grant_Stead

CONTEXT(VIEW) tells you the view name…
Then in the localization tab, add in your expression. IF context then “add bike” else “save”… If you have quite a few then use SWITCH

sales_bikefix

Sorry you have to be more basic. How do I change the “save” button? Where do I put the expression?

Grant_Stead

@sales_bikefix Here’s a video of me muddling it all up…

Grant_Stead

Thats really the last thing you should do…
The first is to create a set of custom views position REF for that business process, BP… You can create those form views Customer_BP_Form, Bike_BP_Form, Job_BP_Form, etc…
Customer_BP_Form might be a menu view cause that kicks off your business process, and give it cool display name, “New Customer w/ Job” So then when a user clicks that in the menu it will start them out on Customer_BP_Form. That can apply to the localization for the save button.
For the next layer, when you “save” that Customer_BP_Form it actually needs to kick off a navigate action, LINKTOFORM, to Bike_BP_Form, pre-populated with the customer ID in the bike_REF_customer field…

sales_bikefix

Phew! Do you have to do all that in a slice? Is that so you can limit the fields in the input forms? Where do you put the LINKTOFORM? Are these in the actions or the workflow?

Grant_Stead

Slices are an effective way of controlling various aspects of the app. So, you can… But depending on your situation, you might not need to. Made you another video. Now I need to get back to work.

sales_bikefix

You nailed the process. This is exactly what I have to do.

The final link in the chain is the items - When I add an item to the job details form I need to be presented with a drop down for “categories” which then filters the items in the next drop down, as there are hundreds of them. I have been trying to do it with a VC that reads all the category fields but it doesn’t work or I just don’t know the syntax.

Have you got more videos out there?

sales_bikefix

I am also thinking a whole new BP for existing customers which takes you from finding the customer, straight to create a new job for the existing bike.

sales_bikefix

Had a frustrating time with this until I read “Form Saved action is only applied in top level forms”.

Its OK I can still use the process but not with a slice, which means I have to have all the default fields in the form.

Grant_Stead

Well, with this new method you shouldn’t have any nested forms that need a form save navigate action.
You’re statement is misunderstood I think. When you mark a record as IsAPartOf, and then while you’re filling out a form, you can jump right into child records to add them… That’s what you WERE doing. We blew that up, and now you’re doing navigate actions, so you need to recycle and kill those so that you don’t even see them…

Also, you could have an initial view that is actually a gallery view of your business process’ that when that you can apply an “On Record Select” action to navigate to the kick off form. Pretty cool way of doing it.

Of course all of this is some pretty advanced stuff. Also you can use that context function to show/hide various columns, etc…