User-Defined Components Overview
The User-Defined Components feature enables you to customize existing tabs, fields, and grids in some applications to suit your company's needs. You can also create new Info Centers and define specific properties, fields, grids, labels, and help URLs for those Info Centers.
Before you add new components, determine what information you need to gather that is not captured elsewhere in Vision. Also consider how you want this information grouped.
The User-Defined Components feature works differently in Project Planning than in other areas of Vision.
There are two types of tabs:
- Standard tabs are tabs that come as part of the product. In User-Defined Components, you can change the names and order of these tabs as well as add user-defined fields and grids to them.
- User-defined tabs are tabs that you add to Info Centers, Project Planning, and Activities Manager with the User-Defined Components feature. You can also add user-defined fields and grids to these tabs. User-defined tabs and fields can be used in any situation in which you need to track data that is not a standard part of the application.
For example, your company needs to track change orders for projects, as required for state architectural and engineering forms. You could set up a user-defined tab containing all the appropriate fields that are needed for the state form, and then place codes on the proposal templates that allow you to move information directly into the proposal forms.
You might want to create your own tabs or fields for information such as professional affiliations, bonding information, or contract types.
Creating a New User-Defined Info Center
Use the New Info Center and Info Center Properties dialog boxes to create custom, user-defined Info Centers (UDICs) that supplement the standard Info Centers. You can create an Info Center for a specific purpose and include appropriate functionality. You can also link the user-defined Info Center's information to the relevant Vision or Costpoint CRM data, which expedites data entry, reporting, and business processes.
Mapping Fields
The Mapping tab of User-Defined Components allows you to map user-defined fields and grid information between the Opportunity Info Center, Project Info Center, and Project Planning when you complete actions such as creating a project from an opportunity or creating a project from a plan.
Additional User-Defined Capabilities
- Field Labels: In , you can rename key fields, such as Project, Phase, and Task, to reflect the terminology used in your industry or firm. Your new names then display throughout the applications.
- Lookup/Report Labels: If you change field names on standard tabs, you can create custom lookup lists and report labels to reflect these changes.
- Calculated Fields: You can create custom calculations using any of the existing numeric columns available for a given report. You can create your own calculations using the current list of numeric columns for a given report. When you save a calculated field, it is available in the column selection, like all other columns.
- Custom Report Options: Reporting options determine which information displays in the current report, how the data is formatted, and the sequence in which the data displays. You can select options for each standard report on the Options dialog box, available in the Reporting application. Each report has options specific to that report.
- User-Defined Fields for Vision Analysis Cubes: If you use Analysis Cubes and you purchased the Performance Management application, on the Fields tab in User-Defined Components, you can select which user-defined fields populate the data cubes.
User-Defined Components and the Screen Designer
After you add your tabs, fields, and grids, you can use the Screen Designer to re-arrange tab elements, resize fields and labels, and determine whether you want certain fields hidden or locked, based on Security role.