Oracle CRM On Demand
Use Weblinks for quick actions
Rob Attard v2.0 March, 2009
Table of Contents
Overview...................................................................................................................................3 Step 1 – Create you custom fields and initial layout with the common fields. ...................4 Step 2 – Workout what are the field names on the form to map to. ...................................4 Step 3 - Create the Weblink.....................................................................................................5 Step 4 – Place Weblink on Layout and test.............................................................................6 Known Limitations...................................................................................................................7
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Overview
For some customers entering an activity or SR, maybe only the first step of a series of functions they need to perform. They may need to create multiple service requests, or create an SR straight after they create a customer. The system certainly allows this and will keep association of keys fields but not of other fields, and maybe not easily navigatable to. With this config, a weblink can navigate a user to the next action quickly and prefill fields key and custom. The example in this case was for an airline that wanted to enter cabin crew voyage reports for a specific flight, each report was a separate SR and was entered individually, but had common fields and reference information (about 6 custom fields). As there may be as many as a dozen reports each flight, it was important to enter these key values only the once and accurately. The solution was to create weblinks that captured the values in the fields, created a new record and copied the values to the fields in the new record. It demo very well, and made the system look very ‘tuned’ to the customers requirements. Example – Accessing CRM OD from within Outlook
Key/Common Fields (custom) Weblinks to new SR
The key/custom fields were specifically kept in the top section of the layout, and the action links also kept in their own section.
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This approach speeds data entry and increases usability for the user. Additionally this approach was linked to dynamic layouts to capture different information based on the type of voyage report in question. The weblinks were kept common to all layouts so that a user could choose whichever voyage report to enter next.
Step 1 – Create you custom fields and initial layout with the common fields.
You need to create those common fields you need, and a layout that has them in. You need this in order to map the field values into the URL when creating the weblink. Do this under the application customisation section, the fields that you will use neednt all be custom, they can be predelivered fields, it doesn’t matter. Also create the layout you will use. In this example there was about 4-5 layouts to capture different information depending on the type of report. But each layout had the same common fields at the top and set of action links (weblinks). For the time being you can leave out the weblinks or just create placeholders for your layout. You need to get the URL syntax for a new record, in this airline it is for a new SR. The normal URL for a NEW SR is something like this, you can see this in your own environment, immediately after you click the ‘New’ button.
https://secureausomxbja.crmondemand.com/OnDemand/user/DefServiceRequestInsert?OMTGT=ServiceReq uestEditForm&OMTHD=ServiceRequestNewNav&OMRET0=ServiceRequestDetail%3fServiceRe questDetailForm.Id%3dABJA-E9JUY%26ocTitle%3d48151023960264%26OMTGT%3dServiceRequestDetailForm%26OMTHD%3dServiceRequestDetailNav %26ocEdit%3dY%26OCTYPE%3dCCVRAirport%252bOperations%26ocTitleField%3dSR%2bNumber&OCTYPE=
What we need to do is pad this URL with the field values we want to default in.
Step 2 – Workout what are the field names on the form to map to.
Ok this getting a bit fiddly now. What I did was bring up an SR with my new fields in it, and searched the HTML source for the fields (right-click the page and view source). The trick is you must do this straight after clicking the ‘NEW’ button, then you can see the field names you want to map to, in other words you need to be in form edit mode. If you are totally unfamiliar with HTML, this might be a bit daunting and you may seek some help. But its not as hard as you think, though it takes a bit of trial and error.
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When you see the source in your text editor do a ‘Find’ for the field label of the field you want to map into. Eg
Here you can see the field label ‘Flight Details’, and shortly after it the field id “ServiceRequestEditForm.ZText_31”. You need that ID value for all the fields you want to map across, so go through and copy and paste them onto notepad. This process can be tricky, especially if you have cascading picklists, you may find more than one candidate for the ID and may be unsure which one to use, don’t worry just try one and if that doesn work try the next… I did say it can be fiddly! TIP: If you have Firefox, then save yourself some hassle with this and install 'Firebug', just google it. It is awesome for filtering through the source of a web page.
Step 3 - Create the Weblink
Here you need to build a weblink to launch the new record (in this case a service request), and pass the parameters across. In my example the weblink is hown below. The first part of the URL is much the same as I captured above for the New SR URL (shown in gray). The text in blue represents the field names I captured at Step 2 from looking at the source. The text in red are the variables that you insert into the Url when creating the weblink. You need to make sure they are placed against the right fields. Note the value in green “CCVR-Inflight Ops”, is hard coded text, this is for this particular weblink so that is creates an SR of the type described by the weblink. Similarly for the description field.
https://secureausomxbja.crmondemand.com/OnDemand/user/DefServiceRequestI nsert?OMTGT=ServiceRequestEditForm&OMTHD=ServiceRequest NewNav&OMRET0=ServiceRequestHomepage&ServiceRequestEdit
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Form.Description=INflight report details here&ServiceRequestEditForm.ZPick_12=%%%plService_Report_C ategory%%%&ServiceRequestEditForm.SR Type=CCVR-Inflight Ops&ServiceRequestEditForm.ZPick_0=%%%plAC_Region%%%&S erviceRequestEditForm.ZPick_1=%%%plAC_Type%%%&ServiceRe questEditForm.ZText_33=%%%stReference%%%&ServiceRequestE ditForm.ZText_31=%%%stFlight_Details%%%
No doubt this looks complex, but is really very logical and structured; you just need to understand what is happening. All we are doing is creating a URL on a weblink that creates a new SR, and passes some values from the source SR to this new SR form.
Step 4 – Place Weblink on Layout and test
Once this is defined you have done the hard stuff, if you havent already, now just place the weblink on a layout and test. Get your first one working how you want then copy the URL to create more. You may find you are mapping values to the wrong fields, in which case after you click the weblink look into the URL generated and see if you can see where you went wrong.
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Also beware of picklists, especially cascading picklists that the values you pass are valid in the cascading list setup
Known Limitations
You need to click the link from a saved SR, it doesn’t work if a user enters all the fields in a new SR, then expects that clicking the weblink will implicitly save and navigate them to a new record.
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