Identifying the Elements of the Goal Plan Template

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to identify the elements of the goal plan template

The Main Element of the Goal Plan Template

Individual goal plans are controlled by a goal plan template. The goal plan template is coded in XML and some aspects of the configuration can be modified from the instance by navigating to Manage Templates. SAP SuccessFactors merges the goal plan template with the user information found in the instance and displays the resulting goal plan. The main element of the goal plan template is the <obj-plan-template>, where most of the attributes that control the general settings of the template are found.

The Sub-Elements of the Goal Plan Template

Nested within the <obj-plan-template> element are all of the sub-elements and attributes of the entire goal plan template.

Sub-Elements

Sub-ElementDescription
<obj-plan-id>This sub-element is the unique number that identifies the goal plan in the system. This number must be between 1 and 1,000 for Total Goal Management (TGM) goal templates. If the same ID is used in a later goal plan template, the previous version is overwritten. A goal plan ID can be confirmed through Provisioning or reporting.
<obj-plan-type>This sub-element differentiates between the different types of plans. In this course, we use the Business Type for a TGM template.
<obj-plan-name>This sub-element is the name of the goal plan which appears in the user interface.
<obj-plan-description>This sub-element is used to store a description of the plan, and does not appear in the goal plan.
<obj-plan-lastmodified>This sub-element is automatically updated when the XML file is successfully loaded into Provisioning or when a modification to the template is made from Manage Templates.
<obj-plan-start>This sub-element contains the default start date value for each goal.
<obj-plan-due>This sub-element contains the default due date value for each goal.
<text-replacement>This sub-element allows text within the goal plan to be replaced with other text. This function is different to the text replacement that is configured in Admin Center, as the changes in this section only impact a particular goal plan template. The following items can be changed through text-replacement:
  • category
  • Instructions
<obj-library>This sub-element defines the option to associate a goal plan template with a goal library. Only one goal library can be used per goal plan template but the same goal library can be used in multiple goal plan templates at the same time.
<category>The category element defines a top-level category used to segment an objective plan. If one or more category elements are present in the template, the objective plans based on the template are divided in sections according to the categories defined. If no category elements are defined, the objective plan is not divided into sections.
<default-category>This sub-element defines an optional default or catch-all category.
<field-definition>This sub-element controls the fields that are part of the goal plan, such as Name, Status, Milestones or Description.
<permission>This sub-element is also known as "action permissions", and contains a list of general TGM permissions.
<field-permission>This sub-element contains a list of goal field permissions.
<form-layout>This sub-element specifies which goal fields display on the Goal Details and Other Details tab, within the Performance Management form.

Note

Other sub-elements found in the Goal Plan XML template, such as plan-layout, pdf-layout or details-layout are not used.

The order of the elements and attributes is fixed and important. Watch the video to learn more

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