Managing UI Configuration Templates

• Service is paramount to OEC Computers. To improve the efficiency of service calls, customer support staff must be able to quickly scan key information in documents and master data.
• They need a simplified version of the standard forms, with fields that are service-related consolidated together on the same tab, with unused fields removed from the form, and with user-defined fields easily accessible. Users need a user interface that is streamlined and easy to work with.
• Standard forms can be easily simplified to meet the needs of a group of users. These edited forms are grouped into UI configuration templates which can be assigned to end users according to their role.

Instead of working with the standard forms, you can make them fit your requirements by hiding or deactivating unused fields, moving fields or buttons to a more convenient part of the form, moving fields from another tab onto the main tab for ease of access, and moving user-defined fields from the side window.

The first part of this topic explains the purpose of a UI configuration template.

• Authorized users can edit and modify forms for personal use using the Edit Form UI tool. The tools menu will become active when the user opens an eligible form. The authorization required for editing a form is found under the General subject area in the general authorizations window.
• Authorized users are able to modify forms for other users by creating a UI configuration template. The required general authorization is found under the Administration > Utilities subject area in the general authorizations.

• A UI configuration template is a collection of forms that have been simplified and/or modified to meet the common needs of a set of end users. In SAP Business One all forms and documents can be modified.
• To create a UI configuration template, choose the menu path shown in the slide, then choose Data > Add from the menu bar.

• The individual forms are selected from a dropdown list on the Forms tab, and then individually edited.
• Additional UI templates can be created for different sets of end users.
• Note: Some of the edit functionality, such as hiding fields, can also be achieved using form settings. Users can still make further changes to a form for personal use using form settings.

To edit a form, select the row for the form in the template then choose the Edit Form UI button. Note that this button does not become active until you select a form.

When you press the Edit Form UI button you enter edit mode. The form has a distinctive black title area. The title of the form changes to include the text "UI Edit Mode".

Now you are ready to make design changes!

When you click on a field it is immediately highlighted and you can perform an action on the field such as hiding it or moving it.

• After the set of forms has been edited, the UI configuration template is assigned to users:
  • Individually by name on the Assigned Users tab
  • As a user group on the Assigned Groups tab. The user group must be of type UI Configuration Templates or Cross All Types. See the companion course Users and User Groups for more information on user groups.
• These modified forms will automatically open instead of the standard forms when the assigned user next logs in.

In this section we show you how to edit and simplify forms.

• In edit mode, you can select a single field or multiple fields, and open the context menu by right-mouse clicking.
• If the field is editable, the context menu will allow you to hide or disable the selected field or fields. When you hide a field a space is left in the form. When you disable a field it becomes gray and cannot be changed by the user.
• If the field is inactive, (displayed in gray), the context menu will only allow you to hide the field.
• In the example the business partner master data form is shown, however, the same editing rules apply to all eligible forms.

• You can make use of the white space in a form to move fields to a more convenient position.
• You can move fields by selecting the fields and dragging and dropping them into position.
• You can move a field from a tab onto the main header of the form.
• You can also move a field from one tab to a different tab by parking it temporarily in the header area before you switch to the target tab.

• After you have moved fields, you can align them to existing fields by choosing Align from the context menu.
• To align fields with an existing field, select the existing field in addition to the moved fields, then choose left or right.
• To close up any spaces, select an existing field in addition to the moved fields, then choose top or bottom.

• A key advantage of editing a form is to move user-defined fields from the side window to the main header of the form or to a tab within the form. This is especially useful for UDFs added to marketing documents. Since you edit each document type separately, you can move user-defined fields relevant only for that document type without the need to use UDF categories in the side window.
• Only one UDF field can be moved at a time. To move a UDF:
  • Select the field, not the label, and hold with your mouse until a black border appears (see screenshot 1).
  • Drag the field to the main form (see screenshot 2).
  • Position the UDF on the main form (see screenshot 3).

• After you have made the changes, you need to save them. Click anywhere in the form white space and open the context menu. Choose Save to commit the changes. If you close the UI Edit window without saving you will lose the changes.
• The Restore Default option on the context menu acts as an "undo" button. So if you have hidden a field, it will be restored on the form in the original position.
• Be aware that the action of restoring defaults changes all fields in the form back to the original out-of-box format. Even if you have saved and closed the UI template, when you restore the form it will be set back to the original settings. Tip: If you decide to change an already heavily-modified document that is in use by several users, first make a copy of the UI template. This gives you the ability to restore the document, if necessary, from the copy, instead of having to restore it to the original settings.

If the form or document contains tabs, you can add a new tab. Select the option from the context menu. You can move existing fields to the new tab, including user-defined fields.

• In UI Edit Mode, when you open the form settings window you will see an additional tab called UI Elements. This tab shows every field shown on the header and each tab of the document, and you can hide and disable fields from this window using the Visible and Active columns. This is equivalent to hiding and disabling fields using the context menu.
• Note that the UI Elements tab only appears when form settings is opened from a form in UI Edit Mode. End users never see the UI Elements tab.

• You can also hide an entire tab by making the tab entry invisible in the UI Elements tab.
• In the example, we want to hide the Planning Data and Properties tabs from the item master data since they are not used in the company. In the form settings we deselect the relevant checkboxes for the Planning Data and Properties tabs. As a result the tabs no longer appear in the item master data form.
• The Header and General tabs in master data forms are grayed out in the form settings and cannot be hidden. In marketing documents the Contents tab cannot be hidden.

• The slide shows a comparison of the edit actions that can be done using UI Edit Mode, the form settings window using the UI Elements tab, and the standard form settings window.
• Note that the standard form settings window is only available for certain forms, such as marketing documents.

The next part of this topic looks at how you can manage UI configuration templates.

• Often there is a need to create multiple UI configuration templates and assign to different sets of users.
• Once you have made the changes to a form in one UI configuration template, you can copy the changes to another UI configuration template.
• To do this, select the rows for the forms you want to copy, choose the Copy To button, and select the target UI template.

• Instead of assigning a UI template to every user, you can designate a default UI template on the Display tab of the General Settings.
• The default template forms will be automatically applied to all new users created after the default template was set, and will also apply to existing users who are not currently assigned to a UI template.
• If a new user is later assigned to a UI template that is not the default template, the assigned template forms will take precedence over the default UI template.
• Let us examine how designating a default UI template affects existing users who may or may not have already been assigned to a UI template.
• In this example, we have an existing UI template Sales group 1. We create a new UI template Sales group 2 and set this as a default.
  • User A, who was previously assigned by name to the Sales group 1 template, is not affected by the default template. User A will still see the forms from the Sales group 1 template.
  • User B, who was not assigned to any template, is affected and will now see the forms from the Sales group 2 template.

Any user can show and hide fields in a marketing document form using the form settings icon (if they have the authorization General > Document Settings).

If the user presses the form settings icon for a form that they are assigned to in a UI configuration template, the name of the UI template appears in the form settings window. The user can still make changes to the form.

• The system allows you to assign multiple UI templates to a user. Since the templates could contain overlapping forms, how does the system know which one to use?
• The first template assigned to a user is considered the highest priority.
• The user has the option to choose a different UI template from a dropdown list in the form settings window, and switch to the forms in that template by choosing the Apply button.

These are the key points from this topic:

• Simplifying frequently used forms and documents can increase user productivity and reduce errors when processing forms
• A UI configuration template is a set of forms that have been simplified and/or modified to meet the needs of end users
• You can create different UI templates for different sets of users
• All forms and documents in the system can be modified
• Changes include rearranging fields using drag and drop, moving fields to a new tab, hiding and disabling fields, aligning fields, adding and removing tabs, moving user-defined fields from the side window
• You can assign users to the UI template individually by name, or from a user group.
• In the General Settings you can set a default UI template to apply to all new users