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Hi all, is the following possible through the built-in customisation engine and if so are there any examples someone can point me at?
I have a customer who wishes to capture data that can pass about between screens. Attributes almost work. The data originates in Opportunities and carries through Project Quotes into Projects .... only ..... it doesn't (fair enough). The attributes added to the Opportunity class capture data that must be manually copy/pasted into the same attributes added to project (as "Project Attributes"), which naturally appear on Project Quotes.
Rather than use attributes I thought I'd see how far I could get using the built-in toolset and custom fields added to the main Opportunity table. I deliberately didn't want to use code if possible, and I'd ideally like to the use the Workflow engine to handle some state transitions that in some cases capture additional pieces of data on the way through from an Opportunity into a Project Quote into a live Project (lets call the data "Handover Data").
Soooo ... I can add my custom field (lets start with just one) easily enough to my Opportunites screen. I can see "Opportunity ID" already on the Project and Project Quote screens so was hoping to be able to find the field available through a DAC, which I know I would have to extend (using the Customisation Project editor remember). There is no data transfer requirement happening here - all I want to do is expose the fields from the Opportunity table into the Project Quote screen (on a separate tab ideally) and expose the same on the Project screen. What I need to be able to do is I guess is add more fields from the Opportunity table to the DACs used for Project Quotes and Projects. My questions are:-
a) Is this possible without code
b) Is this possible to do with the existing Customisation Project toolset
c) Is there an example anyone can point me at that I can use to get my head properly around this
All the other answers I've seen around this recommend I go through the T-Series training modules which is all great but require me to be a C# programmer, and my requirement seems to be more of a data mapping / data exposing exercise than anything that needs coding, but then again I have been know to be completely wrong.
Looking forward to comments and thoughts, my very best wishes all,
Graham
Good for you for not punishing yourself with Microsoft's Java, uh, I mean C# 😉
Hopefully there's a better way, but since I'm still learning I'll just go with my limited knowledge. Also, I must not have those features enabled because Project Quotes doesn't show up for me. So I'm flying blind!
Sounds like you created the custom DAC, so you'll need a custom View object and I only know how to make them with code.
- Go to the quotes form, inspect it, Customize, Customize business logic controller
- That will create the appropriate extension class
- Now you'll need to add your new view in C#. I don't know your tables, maybe someone else can fill in the blanks, but you'll need something like this: public PXSelect<CROpportunity>.Where<CROpportunity.opportunityID.IsEqual<PROJECT_QUOTES_DAC.opportunityID.FromCurrent>.View Opportunities;
- Publish the customization project
- Go to SCREENS
- Click CUSTOMIZE EXISTING SCREEN and pick the screen for the Project Quotes
- Find the Tab in the layout tree structure and expand it
- Drag a Tab Item from the Add Controls menu and drop it where you want in tab ordering
- Drag the type of layout item you'd like to use to display the data onto your new tab
- Select the new layout item and click on the LAYOUT PROPERTIES tab on the right
- Change the DataMember to the new view we created above: Opportunities
- Click Save (I don't think you have to publish yet, but it doesn't hurt)
- Click on the ADD DATA FIELDS tab
- Find your custom DAC field you created for Opportunities
- Check the far left checkbox next to it
- Click the CREATE CONTROLS button at the top
- It should appear in the layout tree structure
- Save and Publish
That's a quick and rough guess
@charles-craig THANK YOU very much for the reply - I'd completely missed the View - I'll try this out tomorrow and let you know.
Once again thank you for the guidance
- Now you'll need to add your new view in C#. I don't know your tables, maybe someone else can fill in the blanks, but you'll need something like this: public PXSelect<CROpportunity>.Where<CROpportunity.opportunityID.IsEqual<PROJECT_QUOTES_DAC.opportunityID.FromCurrent>.View Opportunities;
Not a bad blind guess @charles-craig - turned out it needed to be:-
public PXSelect < PX.Objects.CR.Standalone.CROpportunity, Where < PX.Objects.CR.CROpportunity.opportunityID, Equal < PMQuote.opportunityID.FromCurrent>>> QuoteCurrent;
I'm going to create a step-by-step guide to this that I'll post up here for correction and review as aside from that one line I didn't need to go near actual typed code - the Customisation Project Editor sub-system did it all for me once I knew where to look and how to create "containers" in the navigation panel that I could expand and work with
So I can now add new fields to my Opportunity screen that I can then attach to my Project Quotes screen - next step get them through to Projects which will require (I think) a double link as there is no direct field to link from on Projects like there is on Project Quotes (Projects holds a field for the Project Quote number, so I'm going to try using that to retrieve the Opportunity ID I can then link from)
I'll also try to document the "errors" I got along the way and what to do about them, which involves a break down of the elements in that PXSelect statement.
This is all being done to help a Construction customer who doesn't have in-house C# coding skills but wants to be able to add new fields to exsting screens - the awkward bit for them with this was the attaching of those fields to other (related) screens.
To give a bit more of a "Customer Story" to this, the customer does a lot of work for the UK Rail sector. As a subcontractor there are lots of bits of information the customer will feed them that they need to use in any communication, usually esoteric references that the customer requires use of in their own reporting portals. Gathering all that in one place and making it available across the business as a whole is a real challenge for them, and any slip can mean a problem when applications / invoices are presented which thus adversely affects cashflow. Gathering the data at opportunity stage in Acumatica Attributes has been their way up until now but is messy because they have to replicate the attributes to other entities (like Project Quotes and Projects) which don't necessarily carry the SAME attribute field for each object meaning an amount of copy/paste between source (Opportunity record) and target (Project Quote). They can't be the only customer with this kind of situation and as there is no "logic" element required to pre or post process the data they need to have sight of I thought the simplest thing was to add new fields to Opportunity, transfer all the current Attribute data across to them using an Import Scenario and then expose those fields on Project Quote and Project screens (requiring the identifcation and subsequent attachment of the DAC holding the source data to the target DACS)
Thanks again,
Graham
Awesome! Looking forward to your guide!
Just to let you and others reading this topic know, I haven't forgotten my promise to write this up - I just haven't had the time yet to complete it 😉
@gmartin Feel free to post it in pieces as you create it. That way it won't be as daunting and you can get feedback as you work through it. Then I could turn it into a blog post once the pieces are complete.
@timrodman fair point - but with XMAS coming up I'll have time 😉
(said I know and I hear all the shouts of "get a life" but then software is my life so that's what I'll be doing over Christmas - happy yuletide every people)
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