System Pages (Setup Admins Only)

Transcription

1 System Pages (Setup Admins Only) 1

2 Primary System Pages 2

3 More on Page Views & Sub Page Views 3

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5 System Lookup Pages 5

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8 Distinguishing Tables, Pages, Filtered Pages, & Page Views 8

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10 Reasons to Create a Filtered Page Approaches to Create Filtered Pages 10

11 Filtered Pages Tips & Tricks There are instructions and a video at: Sometimes you can use the view clause of a page view on an existing page as the filter clause for your filtered page. If you want a filtered page to be user aware then your filter clause must contain dp_userid. This value is passed to the filter clause by the application. You can find creative ways to determine what the person who is using the page is allowed to do on the page. Ask yourself the following question about the filtered page: o Am I risking hiding rows from all users? o How confident am I regarding my filter clause? Does it handle all possible data scenarios including null values in non-required fields? o Am I willing to increase the complexity of managing my security roles to give users a more focused page? o Have I considered what reports, tools, page views, and sub-pages the users of this filtered page may need? o How will a new page impact Processes (ex. user creates a record, submits, and someone else gets a task). 11

12 Getting Help with Filtered Pages Do you need help with filtered pages? a description of your filtered page goal to support@thinkministry.com. Tell us: The existing page name The ministry reason you feel the data should be filtered The rule you believe we should apply to filter the page The name of a user who would use the newly filtered page 12

13 Custom Fields in Ministryplatform 13

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15 EXAMPLE SCENARIO: We want to know that every Attribute added to our system is reviewed and approved. We will add _Approved as a read-only, custom bit field to the Attributes page. We will create a process that assigns a get approval task to John Smith each time an attribute is added. When he completes the task the attribute will automatically have the _Approved bit field set to true by the Process record. We will ask Think Ministry to add the field to our database because we are cloud hosted and do not currently have root level access to our SQL Server. We will create the Process in MinistryPlatform ourselves because we know how (or want to learn). 15

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17 Warnings, Tips & Tricks For Custom Fields Tip : Integer Foreign keys are needed for drop down lists. Making a custom field into a Foreign Key is not covered here. Foreign Keys are added in Management Studio in the standard manner for an SQL Server relationship. IF you want a drop down of values not already present in MinistryPlatform a custom page may need to be created first. Tip : Bit fields are most commonly added as not nullable with a default value of 0 (aka. False). Tip : There is a special type of bit field called the dp_separator:bit. This field can be added to provide a header/separator between fields on a large form (ex. Events.Public_Website_Settings) Tip : By default, you can t save a table in SQL Server Management Studio s Designer if fields were re-ordered. This is because the table has to be dropped and recreated. This is fairly safe to do, but the more data you have the longer it takes. Go to Tools Options Designers and uncheck the option titled prevent saving changes that require table re-creation. Tip : Computed fields are supported, but should be read-only. So, start their name with an underscore. Contacts. Age is an example. DEVELOPER NOTE : The API does not know new fields exists. A user with admin=true must go to about refreshe cashe. Warning : If you are re-ordering fields on a table always make a backup of the entire database first and do this after hours. Warning : never delete or rename any field. Errors may result unless care is taken to find views, pages, stored procedures & application using that field. Warning : never add or edit a table in your MinistryPlatform database that starts with dp_. Those tables are the guts of MinistryPlatform. Did you know? Every MinistryPlatform church has dozens of custom fields! We add those when we import your data. Most of them are hidden fields that store the foreign identifier from your legacy database. Adding a custom field is so easy that you should always combine this request with some other professional service request. It will take us less than 15 minutes to add a custom field and our minimum professional service charge is one hour. As far as MinistryPlatform (the application) is concerend, all fields are custom fields except those on tables with names that start with dp_. The only exception is the Contacts table. This means you can expect Assign, Export, Advanced Search, Audit Log and Security Roles to treat custom fields just like other fields. Applications like Check-in, Portal, MobileTools, Reports & Core Tools will simply ignore custom fields. NEW in 2016: Default values will appear in new records in MinistryPlatform. 17

18 SQL Server Field Types in MinistryPlatform Text Field Types varchar(n) o If n is 4000 or over = WYSIWYG (HTML Capable) o If n is 256 or less then = small text box nvarchar(n) o If n is 4000 or over = WYSIWYG (HTML Capable) o If n is 256 or less then = small text box char(n) nchar(n) text/ntext o Not recommended, use varchar or nvarchar instead o WYSIWYG (HTML Capable) Date Fields Types date time datetime Numeric Fields Types tinyint smallint real float decimal numeric bigint Money Field Types money smallmoney Special Field Types bit varbinary binary dp_ varchar(255) Custom uniqueidentifier dp_separator:bit Custom, Add a header/separator to the page Foreign Keys (Int) Foreign Keys Store the primary key of a record on another table or even on the same table. Required for drop down lists. Unsupported Field Types image xml sql_variant hierarchyid 18

19 geometry geography datetime2 Custom Pages datetimeoffset 19

20 Types of Custom Pages 20

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23 A report is: Where do Reports Come From? A file that ends in.rdl that is deployed onto the Reporting Services instance of your Microsoft SQL Server. Authored in Visual Studio according to MinistryPlatform conventions. Listed by name and location on the Reports page of MinistryPlatform System Setup Associated with specific Pages Assigned to specific Security Roles A report can be: Aware of the page/church/user running it and their rights. Aware of the selection of records or open record about which the user wants to report. Designed to work specifically with one table/page (ex. Donor Statements) Designed to work generically with contact records from any selection on many pages (ex. Labels) What do you need to author reports? Enough knowledge about SQL to query the database Enough knowledge about Visual Studio to author any reporting services report (not just an MP report) A report authoring environment (computer, visual studio) Read-only access to your MinistryPlatform database Are there other ways to report on your data? Export a view to CSV/Excel Self-hosted customers can connect directly via Access/Excel/Tableau API (programmatic) 23

24 Changing Data with Processes & Routines Processes: 1. Can change data on the record when a record is submitted 2. Can change data on the record when a process is complete 3. Can change data as a step in the process 4. Can be created by anyone on any edition through the UI Routines: 1. SQL Server Stored Procedures in the MinistryPlatform database (ex. Service_Data_Quality) 2. Executed by SQL Agent as a job on a schedule (ex. nightly, every 15 minutes) 3. Able to crunch through a lot of data, correct data, log things, send s. 4. Must be created by someone with root access to SQL Server. 24

25 Learn about Processes at: 25

26 What does a sub-page do? Sub-pages show data that is related to the open record. Are there different types of sub-pages? Yes: Sub-pages can show 4 types of related data: Sub Pages One-to-many: The rows in the sub-page have a foreign key back to the Primary Key of the open record. For example, a contact can have many contact log entries. Therefore, we can make a Contact Log sub-page under an open contact. Many-to-one: The rows in the sub-page share a foreign key that is the same as a foreign key on the open record. For example, a contact is in a particular household and there are other contacts in that household. Therefore, we can have a Primary Family sub-page under an open Contact. Many-to-Many: The rows in the sub-page have a foreign key back to the Primary Key of the open record AS WELL as a foreign key to another primary key on another table. For example a contact can be related to many other contacts in many ways. One person could be both friend and fiancé of another contact. Therefore, the Relationships sub-page under an open Contact can show us all the people to whom the contact is related and all the ways in which they relate. This relationship type reveals the Add button. Recursive: The rows in the sub-page have a foreign key back to the Primary Key of the open record and the rows in the sub-page are in the same table as the open record. For example, a group might be the parent group of any number of other groups. Therefore, the sub groups sub page on the group records shows all the child groups or groups where the open record is set as their Parent Group. 26

27 Before you add a sub page Sub Page Tips Generally a sub-page would be based upon a previously existing page which is based on a pre-existing table (create a table and page if needed). Generally a sub page is based upon a pre-existing Foreign Key (add one to the sub-page s table if needed) Sub-page fields are complex. They are described below. Also, tool-tips exist that will allow you to get a description of the field s purpose when you hover of the field name on the form. How to add a sub page: Option 1: Copy an existing sub-page and modify it to suit. Option 2: Create it from scratch Option 3: support@thinkministry.com and ask for help as a professional service. After you add a sub page: Make sure some security role has rights to it. There are some sub-pages that will not appear in security roles. These sub-pages are based upon tables that lack a Domain_ID (int, not null) field which would make these sub-pages visible ONLY to those whose dp_users.setup_admin is set to true. 27

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