Personalizing the Navigator

[Using IFS Enterprise Explorer Clients] [Personalizing the User Experience in IFS Enterprise Explorer] [To Personalizing User Experience in Enterprise Explorer]

Explanation

The Navigator can be customized to fit your needs. Items and folders can be added, moved, renamed and removed. The changes you make are personal and stored in the user profile. Since it's the same navigator structure shown in the Navigator Page and in Bread Crumbs any changes you make will be visible there as well.

Prerequisites

N/A

System Effects

The navigator changes are stored in the user profile.

Window

N/A

Related Window Descriptions

N/A

Procedure

General

There are many options to personalize the navigator. Most options are available in the Navigator context menu, right-mouse click to open it.

Figure 1: Navigator Context Menu

The Context menu includes the following:

Option Action
Open Opens the page or unfolds the folder. Another option is to click on the node to open it.
Open in New Window Opens the page in a new IFS Enterprise Explorer window. Another option is to hold the Shift key pressed when clicking on the node
New / Item Opens the New Item dialog where you can create navigator nodes for new Application Pages, Search Folders, Reports, Process Models and Internet Pages. You specify Title and Address and depending on the item type there are different options available. Click OK to save you changes.
New /  Folder Opens the New Folder dialog where you specify the name of the folder and attributes such as if it should be hidden or not. Click OK to save you changes.
New / Top Folder Opens the New Top Folder dialog where you specify the name of the top folder. Click OK to save you changes.
Edit / Cut, Copy, Paste Copies/cuts folders and pages and pastes them into other folders. Another option is top drag-and-drop-nodes to new folders. You may also use the Alt key and Arrow Up/Arrow Down buttons to move folders/pages in the structure
Edit / Rename Opens the Rename dialog where you can change the name for a navigator node.  Click OK to save you changes.
Edit / Delete Deletes the navigator node from the navigator
Edit / Copy Address Copies the address of a navigator node and it's placed in your clipboard. Example: ifsapf:dlgCreateDocument
Edit / Copy Navigation Path Copies the navigation path and it's placed in your clipboard. Example: Document Management\Create Document Assistant
Hide Hides the navigator node.
Unhide Un-hides the navigator node
Show Hidden Items Shows all the hidden navigator nodes. Hidden items are shown but the name is crossed over.
Add to Shortcuts Will create a shortcut for the item you have selected
Sort Alphabetically Sorts the contents of a folder in alphabetical order
Restore / Restore Navigator Restores the navigator to default settings, e.g. all your changes will be removed.
Restore / Restore Node Restores the navigator node to default settings, e.g. all your changes in the node will be removed.
Restore / Collapse All Collapses the navigator
Properties Opens the Properties dialog where you can make changes to the navigator node. Here you can for example change the start-up behavior of a page. E.g. you can define that you want to page to be automatically populated, be prepared for entry of a new object, or populated with the result of a saved search.

Note that you can move folders/nodes up and down in the Navigator by highlighting it and holding the Alt key and using Arrow up/Arrow down keys.

New Item

The New Item dialog is used to add new Application pages, Search Folders, Reports etc. to the Navigator.

Figure 2: The New Navigator Item dialog

Follow these steps to add a Application Page or a Report:

  1. Place the cursor in the folder you want to add a new item in. Right mouse click and select New/Item from the popup menu to open the New Item dialog.
  2. Select the type of page you want to create from Link Information, e.g. Application Page or Report.
  3. Enter a title for your item.
  4. Enter the address of the item. The address includes the URL protocol and the page identification, read more about URL protocols here. If you don't know the address you can chose from the Available section in the dialog. Use the radio buttons Show All or Show Unused to view available pages/reports and pick from the list. Note: You can also open the page you want to create a navigator node and copy the address from the Address bar and paste it into the Address field.
  5. For Application pages you can define startup behavior. Empty means that the page will open empty. New means that the page will open prepared for entry of a new record. Populate means that the page will open with all records populated. Search means that the page will open with the search dialog. Note that if you chose Search you also have the option to select a saved search from the drop-down list. This means the page will open with the search result from selected saved search. It is also possible to define the page to open in Chart Mode and to select which predefined chart to use.
  6. Click OK to save your new item or Cancel to quit

Follow these steps to add a Search Folder/Saved Search:

  1. Place the cursor in the folder you want to add a new item in. Right mouse click and select New/Item from the popup menu to open the New Item dialog.
  2. Select Search Folder from Link Information.
  3. Enter a title for your Search Folder
  4. Enter the address for the saved search. If you don't know the address you can chose from the Available section in the dialog. Use the radio buttons Show All or Show Unused to view available saved searches and pick from the list.
  5. Click OK to save your new item or Cancel to quit

Follow these steps to add a Process model:

  1. Go to the process model web page and copy the URL.
  2. Select Process Model from Link Information.
  3. Enter a title for your item.
  4. Enter only the section part (<Section>) of the complete URL, locating the Process Model page as the URL is dynamically generated and might change depending on the Base URL and the current language. The syntax for the generated URL is:

    <URL Help Base>/<Language>/default.htm?openpage=<URL Help Base>/<Language>/<Section>

    Note: You might copy the entire URL from a web page and paste in the Target field. If it's a recognizable Process Model page, the Application will automatically resolve the section part from the complete URL.
     
  5. Click OK to save your new item or Cancel to quit.

Follow these steps to add a web page:

  1. Browse to required webpage you would like to link to and copy the URL.
  2. On the Navigator select the folder into which you want to put a new item, right-click and select New/Item from the popup menu.
  3. Select Internet Page as the type you want to create from Link Information.
  4. Enter a title for your webpage.
  5. Paste the URL you copied as the address. Remove any unnecessary parameter from the address and click OK.

Follow these steps to add a Custom Page

Note: This option is only available if the installation includes Custom Objects and Custom Pages are defined. Read more about this in the Technical documentation.

  1. Find the navigator folder where you want to add a Custom Page. Right mouse click on it and select New/Item… from the context menu to open the New Item dialog.
  2. Select Custom Page from Link Information.
  3. In the Available group box, select the Show All radio button.
  4. Select the custom page you want to add from the list.
  5. Click OK to save your new item.

Add a new Help or Documentation item
You can add items pointing to documentation for the IFS Enterprise Explorer pages and some predefined pages by using ifshelp: links. The links are constructed by selecting the help type and by supplying additional parameters. An optional parameter allows you to decide whether to open the help page inside the Enterprise Explorer work area, or to open it in a new browser window. Opening it in the external browser is the default.

The ifshelp: address is defined as with the following syntax:

The Help Types are as follows:

The Parameter Types which can be used in the Enterprise Explorer are as follows,

Procedure:

  1. Select the folder into which you want to put a new item, right-click and select New/Item from the popup menu. This will open the New Item dialog box.
  2. Select the type Application Page in Link Information.
  3. Enter a title for your item.
  4. In the Address field enter ifshelp:<help type>
  5. In the Parameters field  add <parameter type>=<parameter value>

Examples:

Add Folder

The New Folder dialog is used to add new folders to the Navigator.

Figure 3: The New Folder dialog

Follow the steps below:

  1. Select the folder or item to hold the new item.
  2. Right-click on it, select New / Folder...
  3. Enter the folder name
  4. Press OK

Add Top Folder

The New Top Folder dialog is used to add new top folders to the Navigator.

Figure 3: The Top Folder dialog

Follow the steps below:

  1. Right-click on any item or folder in the navigator, select New / Top Folder...
  2. Enter the folder name
  3. Press OK

Own Process

Adding own process to a navigator item.

Figure 3: The Properties dialog

Follow the steps below:

  1. Right-click on any item or folder in the navigator, select Properties...
  2. Select the Own Process check box to get a unique process id for the navigator item.
  3. The process can be named i.e. PROCESS=MyProcess.
  4. Press OK

The process will be appended to the page url. If the process was created for a copied item it will be disconnected from the original page and treated as a separate process. When navigating to another page via the Context Menu, the process id will be appended to this page. This enables the user to set up pages to match a certain procedure, let them share the same process id and achieve a coherent process.

URL Protocols used in IFS Enterprise Explorer

When looking at addresses you may wonder how these are constructed. The addresses consists of protocol identifiers and resource paths. This is very similar to your browser where an internet web address is identified as http://www.ifsworld.com. http: is the protocol and www.ifsworld.com is resource location. Protocols reveals the type of the information and how to interact with the data,

The following are the protocols used when you navigate in IFS Enterprise Explorer.

A protocol is used in an address like below.

<protocol>:<assembly name>.<page identification>

Example: ifswin:Ifs.Application.ManageTemplates.TemplateOrganizer

<protocol> - ifswin
<assemby name> - Ifs.Application.ManageTemplates
<page identification> - TemplateOrganizer