S6 106: Configuring Project Directories + Profiles

Hi, this is Chris from Knowledge Architecture. In this video, I'll walk you through the basics of configuring project directories, project profiles, and managing the map fields which drive directories and profiles. Let's start with Project directories. I'm in the default view of our project directory. You can see that I have a search bar filters for Project Type, Client State and Status, that the default view is called All Projects, that the directory is sorted by Project Name ascending, that we're in Grid layout by default, that the list layout has columns for Project Name, Project Number, Client, Project Manager, and City state, and that we have a map layout. The first thing I want to change about our default view is filters. We've decided that in addition to Project Type and Client, the most important filters for our project directory are Construction, Cost and Square Footage. While I can always get to those filters using the More Filters option, we like to have them available via the Filter bar by default. To edit the Filter bar, I'll click on the Directory Options Ellipsis and then select Edit Filter Bar. I'll start by switching out Construction Cost for State and then Square Footage for status. Perfect. I'll click Apply. Now my default filters are Project Type, Client, Construction Cost, and Square Footage. The next change I want to make is to sort our directory by completion date. So I'll click on Sorted by Select Completion Date, ensure that we are sorting the newest projects first, and then click Apply. I'd like to show the location for each project in the grid layout, so I'll click on the Directory Options ellipsis and select Edit Data Displayed. I'll choose City and State for the tertiary data option and click Apply. Great. The last change I'd like to make to the default grid layout is to use a smaller project thumbnail size so we can fit in more projects per row. I'll click on the Directory Options Ellipsis and select Edit Thumbnail Settings. I'll switch the thumbnail size to Medium and click Apply. Ok. The next thing I want to do is configure the default columns for the list layout. So I'll switch my layout to List. I'd like to add in the Construction Cost and Square Footage columns to the default list layout. So I'll click on the Directory Options ellipsis and select Edit Columns. I'll enable Construction Cost and Square Footage and then click Apply. You can see that Construction Cost in Square Footage won't currently fit on the screen with the width of the other columns, but that they are available off screen using Horizontal scroll. Now I can certainly leave my directory like this, but I could also resize my columns so that they all fit on the screen using the column headers. Nice. So now that I've configured our filters, sorting, grid layout, and list layout, I want to save my changes to the default layout for all of our users. I'll switch back to the grid layout since I want that to be the default layout. I'll click on the Directory Options Ellipsis and select Save. Changes to Default View. I understand that I'm updating the default view called All Projects for all of our users, so I'll click Save. Now that we've configured the default view, let's talk about configuring additional global views. I'd like to add another saved view called Higher Education Projects to our Project directory. I'll click on the Project Types filter, select Higher Education and click Apply. I'll switch to Map Layout since we want that to be our default layout. For the Higher Education's Projects view, I'll click on the Directory Options Ellipsis and select Create New View. I'll name my new view Higher Education Projects. You'll see that I have the choice between a global view in a personal view. Global views are available to all end users, while a personal view is available only to the user who created it. I want this new view to be available to all users, so I'll stick with Global View. I'm also given the option to set this new view as the default view, but I'm happy with the default view we previously configured, so I'll click Save. You can see that the name of my active view has changed to Higher Education Projects, and if I click the caret next to the view name that Higher Education Projects has been created as a global view alongside All Projects, which is the default view, as well as Featured Projects and Lead Projects, which are also Global views. Okay, so that's configuring additional global views. Our next topic is adding Global Views to navigation. The way that your end users navigate to your project directory will vary based on the information architecture determined by your intranet team. Generally, though, it will be something like Projects in Practice Directories Project Directory. If we navigate to the Projects and Practice community and then open the Content Outliner and Expand Directories, you'll see that the Project directory is a link. In order to add the new Higher Education Projects Global View to our navigation, I'll add that as a link as well. I'll click Add and select Add Link. I'll search on Higher Ed and select the Higher Education Project's Global View Result I'm happy with the title of my link, so I'll click Apply. If I close the Content Outliner, I can then navigate to higher education projects using the Mega menu. Here's a helpful fun fact. The Project directory isn't added to Synthesis via the Content Outliner like pages, guides, or libraries, and it can't be deleted from synthesis. If you direct your attention to the top of my browser, you'll see that the URL structure for the Project directory is the name of the intranet, in this case demo.synthesis6.com projects 523, which is the unique ID of the higher Education Projects view, and then Higher Education Projects, which is the name of the view. The Project directory lives at Intranet Name Projects and if I strip off the View ID and the view name and just type in Projects, you'll see that I am redirected to the default view. So if somebody accidentally deletes your link to the project directory, don't worry, the project directory isn't gone. You just need to restore or recreate the link. Okay, so that's adding global views to navigation. Let's move along to configuring Project profile layouts. I'll start by clicking on the Canal Street Studios project. You can see that the Canal Street Studios project profile is made up of a header with the project name, client name, and project number, as well as a collection of project images. It has a Basics block with project type, completion date, and status fields a project map block a Project Partners block showing the owner, consultants, and contractor from this project, as well as a project description. In the right column. I have a Project Employees block, as well as a list of project contacts and project links. Now I want to make some changes to our project profile layout, so I'll click the Edit pencil in the utility bar in the upper right and select Edit Global Web Layout. I understand that I'm editing the profile template that will change the web layout for all project profiles, so I'll click Continue. You'll notice that I have entered a wireframe template with placeholder text and that we're not looking at the Canal Street Studio's project data anymore. The first thing I want to do is add another field to the header block. I'll click on the header block's Settings cog and select Edit Data Displayed. I'll click Add Another field and select City and State. I'll then use the drag handle to drag and drop City and State into the second slot and click Save. You can see that the header block has been updated. Now I want to add the Office field into the Basics block so we know what Office worked on the project. I'll click on the Basic Blocks, Settings cog and select Change fields displayed. I'll click on Add Another field and select Office, and then I'll drag that field into the second slot and click Save. Now I want to add in a block containing the Construction Cost and Square footage fields. I'll click in the space between the Basics block and the Project Map block and then head up to the Page Editor toolbar. Click Insert and select Field. I'm asked to choose between a single field block, Multi Field Block, and Grid Block. I'll want to add a Multi field block, so I'll select Multiple Field Block and click Next. I'll select construction cost for Field 1 and square footage for Field 2, and click Next. I'll name my new block Cost and Size and click Finish. Cool. Okay, the last thing I want to do in the left column is to add in our Project Awards grid. So I'll click between Cost and Size and the Project map to insert a new line and then I'll head up to the Page Editor toolbar. Click Insert and select Field. Pick Grid Block and click Next. I'll select Project Awards and click Next. I'll choose the Table Layout and click Finish. I'll scroll up to the top of my page so we can talk about the Project Employees block. Now, the Project Employees block and the Project Contacts block are pretty similar, so I'll just talk about Project employees. By default, the Project Employees block displays each employee's name and project role. It sorts employees using a custom order and shows up to 10 employees on a project profile. If a project has more than 10 employees associated with it, then show all appears and users can click through to see the full list. If I want to change the sort order of the employees displayed on Project Profiles, I'll click on the Project Employees Block Settings cog and select Edit Employee List Settings. You can see that I can switch the sort order to Number of hours or Employee name, but I think I'll stick to sorting by Project role. I could switch the sort order to alphabetical, but I'm interested in reviewing the custom sort order and perhaps making changes to it, so I'll click on the pencil icon. Ah, I can immediately see that I'd like to make changes to the sort order of these project roles. I'll drag Principal in Charge to the top, followed by Principal, Project Architect, Project Engineer, Project Planner, and Project Manager. And I'll also switch Interior Designer and Engineer. Okay, great. I'll click Apply and then click Save. So that's editing the sort order of project employees to configure the logic to determine which employees show up for each project, I'll head into the Profile association section of Synthesis Global Settings. The Profile Associations feature will be released later in BetaOne, so so for now, I'm going to describe its functionality via a mockup. Okay, we're in a mockup of Profile associations. You can see on the left side of the page that we have screens for configuring the logic for employee and Project Associations, Employee and Opportunity Associations, and more. The Employee and Project Associations screen lets me configure how employees are associated with projects and profile blocks, including which projects show up on employee profiles as well as which employees show up on project profiles, which is what we're concerned with in this Getting Started video. There are three filters on this screen. An Employee Directory filter, a Project Role filter, and a billable hours threshold filter. By default, Synthesis shows all past and present employees on project profiles. Shows all employees on project profiles, whether or not they have been assigned a role in Deltec. Applies a billable hours threshold of at least 10 hours to employees without an assigned project role in Deltec. As I mentioned earlier, the Profile Associations feature will be released later on in BetaOne. Let's head back to Publish our changes to the global web layout of the project profile. Now that I've finished with my configuration changes, I'll click Publish. Okay, I can see on the Canal Street Studios profile that city and State have been added to the header, that the Basics block is showing the Office field, that our new Cost and Size block is showing construction cost and square footage, that our Projects Rewards grid has been added, and that our custom sort order was applied to the Project Employees block. Now that I've finished editing the Global web layout of the project profile, I'll head back to the Project directory. Over the last several minutes, you may have wondered to yourself, where do these fields come from? What if I want to add new fields or remove them or change their names or the way they are displayed? Well, the answers to all of these questions can be found in our Manage Fields feature. To open Manage Fields, I'll click on the Directory options ellipsis and select Manage Fields. You can see that Manage Fields is broken down into two sections, Enabled fields and Disabled fields. Enabled fields can be displayed via your project directories, project profiles and Project blocks, whereas disabled fields cannot be displayed in synthesis. Let's add a new field to our Project directory By clicking Add Field, the first thing I'll be asked to do is select a source system. You can map project fields from either Deltec or Open Asset. The field I'm looking to map is coming from Deltec, so I'll select Deltec. Next, I'm asked to either select a Deltec field or Grid. I'm looking for the Featured field, so I'll search for it. I'll click Next. On the next screen. I can confirm that I've mapped a new field from Deltec and that field is featured by default. Synthesis brings over the display name from Deltec for mapped fields, which I can override in Synthesis. I'll change it to Featured Project. I'll click Finish. You can see that the data for my new mapped field is syncing and will be done in five to 10 minutes. I'll click OK. You can see that Featured Project has been added to my list of enabled mapped fields and is available to display in project directories, project profiles and project blocks. Now that we've added a new mapped field, let's look at configuring existing fields. We've decided that we want to change the source system for our Latitude and Longitude fields from Deltec to Open Asset, since we tend to have more accurate location data. In Open Asset, I'll scroll down to Latitude and click on the Edit pencil. I'll switch the source system to Open Asset and select Latitude from the list of available options. I'll keep the display name and field, type the same and click Finish. I'll now do the same for Longitude. Finally, we've decided to make some changes to our Completion Date field. Instead of showing the full date, we just want to show the year the project was completed. I'll click on the Edit pencil next to the Completion Date field. I'll change the Synthesis display name to Year Completed, Click on More options and select the Year Only date format. And click Finish. If I scroll down to the list of fields, you'll see that completion date was indeed renamed to Year Completed. And if I close Manage Fields and click on Canal Street Studios, you'll see that Year Completed is now displaying in the Basics block. So that's it for our Getting Started video on configuring project directories and profiles. Please feel free to reach out with any questions or comments and happy building.