Purpose
The purpose of this technical bulletin is to cover the Custom Item Subject feature introduced in version 6.5 of Tour de Force. The Custom Item Subject feature is used to create custom field entries for the Subject field of different records and items in Tour de Force. These custom subjects are based on User Defined Fields that an administrator can use to create the custom subject.
This technical bulletin contains the following sections:
- Overview of the Custom Item Subject Feature
- Accessing the Custom Item Subject Creator
- Creating a new Custom Item Subject
- Item Subject Hierarchy
Note: Read the documentation completely before using the Custom Item Subject.
- Overview of the Custom Item Subject Feature
A new feature has been added to Tour de Force that allows companies to set custom subjects for records and items in Tour de Force. These custom subjects are created by select User Defined Fields, System fields, or some generic Tour de Force fields to create a custom subject when a new item or record is created.
For example, if the company wanted the Account name in every subject an Activity item, the custom subject for Activity items would be set to the User Defined Field called Account Name, or Company Name as shown in the screen shot below.
For each item or record there are eight different subjects that can be set. These eight different subjects are deteremined by the Parent record the item, or record is being created from.
- Accessing the Custom Item Subject Creator
The Custom Item Subject feature is an administrative feature located in the Administration Console. A new section called New Item Subject, has been added to the Company Preferences. This section of the technical bulletin provides instructions on how to access the Custom Item Subject Creator, located in the Company Preferences of the Administration Console.
Use the following procedures to access the Custom Item Subject Creator:
- Open the Administration Console.
- Expand the System Settings section, and select Company Preferences.
- Launch the Company Preferences option.
- In the Company Preferences screen select the New Item Subject option.
- Creating a New Custom Item Subject
Use the following procedures to create a new custom subject:
- Open the Company Preferences section from the Administration Console.
- In the Company Preferences screen, select New Item Subject.
- In the Item Type field, select the item or record that needs to have a custom subject created for that item or record. In this example, the Activity item is selected so the custom subject is going to be created for the Activity item.
- For this example, the Activity subject is going to be set based on fields from the Contact record. Select the drop-down menu under the Contact section of the New Item Subject screen.
By default this section is going to display all User Defined Fields related to the Contact record in Tour de Force. However, the drop-down menu at the top allows users to change which User Defined Fields to use. So if the company does not want to use any Contact record fields, even if the Activity is created from the Contact record, then the source form can be changed so a different UDF can be used.
What the custom subject is, and what naming conventions the company wants to use, is going to be solely based on the company’s practices and conventions.
- When finished, click the OK button to confirm the selection.
- Continue creating custom subjects for the desired records or items.
- Item Subject Hierarchy
In versions prior to Tour de Force version 6.5, certain items already have a default subject applied by code to create the Subject for the item. For example, when creating a Task from an Opportunity the Project Number, or Unique ID, and subject of the Opportunity were included in the Task item’s Subject field. If a custom subject has not been set for a record or item, then the default method that Tour de Force has always applied to the Subject field is going to be used. However, with the introduction of the custom subjects, a new Subject hierarchy has been added to the system that did not previously exist.
The Subject hierarchy is as follows:
Task Group Subject > Parent Specific Custom Subject > General Custom Subject > Hard Coded Subject
Even if a custom subject has been set for a Task item, the Task Group Subject is always going to take priority. In most cases this hierarchy only applies to the Task and Appointment items, but the hierarchy is important to keep in mind for all records and items when setting a custom subject.
Version: 6.5 Technical Bulletin 6510
©2014 Tour de Force CRM
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