CRM On Demand Learning Blog

There are a lot of good ideas that I see on our internal and external forums on the subject of Oracle CRM On Demand analytic reports and dashboards. These are very flexible, meaning that you can do a lot with them if you know what you’re doing. (And we have a class for you, if you really want to learn about some of the advanced features of creating reports – Advanced Analytics Workshop).

But, there are also some pretty easy ways to customize the application to help users get the reports they need. Here is a simple tip that could make a lot of people happy who rely on a certain dashboard – grouping of reports – to keep tabs on their part of the business.

The default Dashboard tab cannot be configured show a certain dashboard based on the role of the user. It is basically a public dashboard. However, you can use a custom Web tab to show role-based analytic reports. You just need to:

1. Create a custom Web tab for the role, using the URL for any dashboard that you want to show for that role in the Web tab. The dashboard could be one of the prebuilt dashboards or you could use a custom dashboard created in Answers On Demand.
   
2. Add that custom Web tab to the tab layout for the role.
   

As an example, here is how you would create a custom Web tab that shows the Marketing Effectiveness dashboard for the Marketing Manager role. (You have to be able to access the Dashboard tab, customize pages, and customize user roles to be able to perform these steps.)

Create the Custom Web Tab

1. Sign in to CRM On Demand, and go to the Dashboard tab. Select the Marketing Effectiveness Dashboard and click Show.
   
2. When it is displayed, right click somewhere in the dashboard area and select Properties.
   
3. Take a copy of the URL. (Example: https://secure-ausomxdsa.crmondemand.com/OnDemand/user/analytics/saw.dll?Dashboard&PortalPath=%2fshared%2fpre-built+Analysis%2f_Portal%2fMarketing+Effectiveness.) This URL will be different for your company, so make sure that you don't use my URL...it's just here to give you an idea of what it should look like.
   
4. Navigate to Admin > Application Customization > Custom Web Tabs. Click New to create a custom Web tab.
   
5. Give the new tab a name, such as Marketing Dashboard and enter the dashboard URL.
   
6. Click Save.
   

Add the new tab to the Marketing Manager role

1. Navigate to Admin > User Management & Access Controls > Role Management.
   
2. Edit the Marketing Manager role and go to Step 5 of the wizard.
   
3. Move the new Web tab to the Selected Tabs box and click the Finish button.
   
4. You may also want to remove the standard Dashboard tab from the role, if it is not used.
   

Now, the next time a marketing manager logs in, he or she will see the new tab. Don’t forget, though, if the user has personalized his or her tab layout, he or she will have to add the new tab to their personal layout (My Setup > Personal Layout > Tab Layout).

Let’s say your users need to enter an 11-digit number in a field. The number will always be purely numerical (not alphabetical or alphanumeric), but it exceeds the 10-digit limit allowed for fields with the Number field type. What do you do?

You can use a field validation on the text field and use the expression:

Len([<IndexedShortText0>]) = 11 AND (FindOneOf ([<IndexedShortText0>], "!
@#$%^&*_{[]:;<>,.?/=qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmQWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM") = 0)

So if one non-numeric character is found, the expression will evaluate to false, and the field validation error message will be displayed to the user.

As an example, we’ll set up a field validation on an indexed field for products.

1. Click Admin> Application Customization> Product> Product Field Setup. In this example, we’ll edit Indexed Short Text 1.
   
2. Next to Field Validation, click the fx icon.
   

3. Copy the expression listed above and paste it into the Expression field.
   

   In case you noticed, in our example, [<IndexedShortText0>] is actually the correct field value for Indexed Short Text 1. If you were setting up your own field validation, you’d want to replace the field reference in the expression with the correct one for the field. To do this, you’d use the field drop-down list to insert the correct field value.
   

4. Click Check Syntax and fix any errors. If you get no errors, click Save.
   
5. Back on the Field Edit page, enter a Field Validation Error Message.
   

6. Click Save.

Remember, you have to make the fields available on the page layout for you to test the validation.

For more information on building field valitation expressions, see “Creating Expressions with Expression Builder” in Oracle CRM On Demand’s Online Help.