1. Overview of the Global Grid Manager Utility

Tour de Force uses grids to control how information is presented to users. One of the features of Tour de Force is the ability to customize how this information appears in these grids. Having the ability to change how this information displays in the existing grids is an easy way to make data more useful.

Grid customization should be the result of careful upfront analysis and evaluation. Carefully planning customizations saves time and reduces frustration of correcting problems resulting from poor design.

Tour de Force gives users the ability to publish company standard grid layouts and views for all grids used within Tour de Force by using the Global Grid Manager utility.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Grid Management Tasks menu is used to switch between the various functions of the Global Grid Manager utility.

There are eight options available in the Grid Management Tasks menu:

 

• Manage Grid Layouts
• Manage Default Quick-Views
• Manage Globally Hidden Fields
• Manage General Grid Preferences
• Manage Grid Styles
• Manage Grid View Categories
• Clean up Grid Views
• Backup/Restore

 

2. Accessing the Global Grid Manager Utility
   

The Global Grid Manager utility is located in the Administration Console and should only be used by Administrators of Tour de Force.

Use the following procedures to access to the Global Grid Manager utility:

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1. In the Tour de Force toolbar, go to “Admin Utilities”, “Screen and Grid Design”, and select “Global Grid Manager”.

3. Manage Grid Layouts

 

When the Global Grid Manager opens, the first screen that displays is the Manage Grid Layouts screen.  The Manage Grid Layouts screen is used to configure all the Global Views located in the Linked Items Grid section of a Tour de Force form, the Global Search, and the Info Center.   The only views not available in the Manage Grid Layouts screen are the Personal Grids that have been created by individual users.

This section allows administrators to change any Global View created in Tour de Force.  Global Views can be deleted, renamed, or configured based on company preferences and practices.  The options available in the Manage Grid Layouts screen are the same options located in the Grid Manager.  The Manage Grid Layouts screen is used for quick access to those Global Views without having to open each Global View individually.

There are several options available on the Manage Grid Layouts screen.  The first available field to pick is the Item Category field.  For example, to view all the Global Views located in the Linked Items Grid for Account records, select Account in the Item Category field. 

To view all the views located in the Info Center, select Info Center in the Item Category field.  

 

To view all the Global Views available in the Global Search, select Search in the Item Category field.

Once an option has been selected the available records and items display under the Item Category field.

Selecting an option displays the Category Details for that selected record or item type.  There are three fields in the Category Details section but only two can be edited. 

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Visible – This field determines whether currently selected record or item type displays for the option selected in the Item Category field.  For example, if Search is selected and the Accounts option is highlighted, then enabling or disabling the Visible field checkbox determines whether users can search for Account records in the Global Search.  In general, this field is left checked and is checked by default.

Default View – This field is used to determine the default view that loads when the selected grid opens.  Click the Default View field to display a list of Global Views available.

Click the Plus sign to display all the Global Views available for the current record or item selected.

Selecting a view displays the options set in the Grid Manager for that view.  From here Administrators can configure that view and set new filters if necessary.  

Note:  These options are also available in the Grid Manager.

Click the Save button to save any changes made in the Manage Grid Layouts screen.

Additional Options

There are a few additional options available in the Manage Grid Layouts screen.  This section covers those additional options.

• The Quick View Finder – The Quick View Finder allows administrators to quickly find a view in the Manage Grid Layouts section without having to open each record or item.  Click the Quick View Finder button.

A list of all the Global Views available in Tour de Force, displays in the Quick View Finder window.

rom here Administrators can search for the view that they need to edit.  Double-click on a view to have that view load into the Manage Grid Layouts screen.

• Show Invisible Items – This field is used to enable or disable the records or items that have been marked as hidden in the Company Preferences.  If a record or item is marked as hidden, and this field is unchecked then those items do not display in the Manage Grid Layouts screen.  This field is unchecked by default.

• Add – This button is used to add a new view to the record or item type selected.  

 

4. Manage Default Quick–Views

 

Tour de Force records, such as Accounts, Contacts, and Opportunities all have a Linked Items Grid.  The Linked Items Grid is used to view items that have been linked to that particular record.  A default value can be set for the Linked Items Grid, which is typically set up during the initial set up of Tour de Force.

 

For example, when accessing an Account record, company’s typically set Contacts as the default option for the Linked Items Grid.  This helps users identify all Contact records linked to the Account record quickly when opening an Account record.

• Default Quick View – This field is used to set which record or item type loads in the Linked Items Grid when a Tour de Force record form is opened. 

Note:  Only forms that have a Linked Items Grid can have a Default Quick-View set.

 

 

 

 

Once you have selected the value you want, to save it, simply click off onto another field and the value will be updated immediately.

 

Manage Globally Hidden Fields

 

Administrative users have the ability to globally hide fields in Tour de Force, and prevent those fields from displaying in grids.  This is to prevent fields, such as Account Id, or other fields that could contain long strings of text, from appearing in the grids.  Any field can be entered in as a globally hidden field, and hidden fields are typically entered during the initial set up phase of Tour de Force.

 

To hide a field, on the left-hand side type the name of the field you want to hide and then click “Add”.  This will move the field to the right hand side where you can see all the fields that are globally hidden.  If you’d like to hide multiple fields, simply type each value on it’s on line by pressing Enter after each field.

 

 

 

Note: To remove a field from the list, select the field on the right-hand side and click the “Remove” button to make it visible.

 

 

5. Manage General Grid Preferences

 

The Linked Item Grids is a unique feature in Tour de Force that allows users to quickly view linked items while on a Parent Item form. The Linked Items Grid allows users to quickly view items, as well as create items that link to the Parent Item. However, certain Account record types, such as BSI Accounts and Master Accounts, may not need linked items.  Administrative users of Tour de Force have the ability to disable the Linked Item Grids for the each Account record type.  By disabling the Linked Items Grid, this generally prevents users from accidentally linking a record or item to a BSI Only Account or a Master Account.

Uncheck the Account Types that need to have the Linked Items Grid disabled. If they fields are check, that indicates that the Linked Items Grid is available for that Account Type.

For example, uncheck the BSI Only Account type to disable the Linked Items Grid for BSI Only Account records.  Once you have made your selections, click the Save button to save your settings.

6. Manage Grid Styles

 

The Grid Style Editor allows Administrative users to set special conditions on grids in Tour de Force that highlight rows to point out certain records or items to users. For example, Administrative users can set a condition that highlights any Opportunity record that has been closed in the last thirty days.  This feature is also useful for identifying what Account Type each Account record is, without having to open the Account record.

For further assistance with the Grid Style Editor refer to Technical Bulletin 6550 – Using the Grid Style Editor.

 

7. Manage Grid View Categories

 

The Manage Grid View Categories screen is used to created categories for the different Global Views located in Tour de Force.  For example, an administrator could create an Account category which groups all of the Account views together in the Views drop-down menu.

 

There are several reasons for grouping views together into categories. For companies that create a lot of views, the Views drop-menu could become large and hard to manage.  A user search for a view to use on an Accounts grid should not have to scroll through a list of twenty or more views to find the view that they need.  Another reason to create categories is that having the Views grouped together is just a more convenient way of organizing the views in the Views drop-down menu.

 

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Use the following procedures to create a new View Category for views related to Account records:

 

1. In the Manage Grid View Categories screen, click the +Add button.

 

2. Type the name of the new category and click OK to confirm the name.

 

 

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3. Click the Category field next to the view that needs to be included in the new category and select the new category.
   For example, to add the view, All Active Accounts to the new category created, click the Category field next to that view and select General Account Views.

4. Alternatively, you can highlight the grid view, and select the category from the drop down at the bottom of the screen, then select “Set Category”.  

8. Clean up Grid Views

 

The Clean-up Grid feature is used to clean up the grid views after an upgrade is performed to clean up any grid views.  While this technical bulletin covers this section, Tour de Force recommends users avoid using this feature without consulting Tour de Force first.  There are certain steps that need to be performed before a grid clean up can be performed and if done incorrectly user’s views could be removed and the filters could be deleted.  Users would then have to go and add in their views again.

 

In previous versions of Tour de Force this feature was used to prepare the grids for the Quick View feature, however, in version 6.0 and later performing this step is no longer necessary.  For more information on the Quick Grids please refer to Technical Bulletin 6813 – Using Quick Grids.

 

 

 

9. Column Cleanup

 

The Column Cleanup utility allows you to remove one or more field(s) from one or more grid views.  

 

To remove fields from one or more grid views, do the following:

 

1. In Column 1, select an Item Type (Accounts, Opportunities, Support, etc.)
2. In Column 2, select the columns that you want to remove from the Grid Views.
3. In Column 3, select the Grid Views that you want to remove the fields from.  You can select from both Personal or Global views here.

 

 

Once you have made your selections, click “Start Cleanup” in the bottom left corner.  It will prompt you to make sure you want to make the changes.

 

 

Once the utility is done making the changes, a confirmation will be displayed.

 

10. Creating Backups of Grids and Views

A feature has been added to the Global Grid Manager utility that allows administrators of Tour de Force to export or backup Global Grid Layouts to an .XML file in order to restore or to import into another system.  Backing up the grids is a good idea if the company plans to go into Tour de Force and make a lot of changes to the views and filters.  However, in most cases backups of views and filters are only performed by Tour de Force before an upgrade.

Click the Create backup of Global Grid Views and Create backup of Personal Grid Views buttons to create an .XML file for both the Global Views and Personal Views.  

 

 

These files can then be used to restore the grids and views to an earlier state by clicking either the Restore Global Grid Views from Backup or Restore Personal Grid Views from Backup buttons depending upon which needs to be restored.