With the Panel Designer, you can not only craft reusable panels that combine fields from many tables, but you can also define new data structures (business objects and properties) to manage information for your organization. Without special tools or knowledge of the iMIS schema, you can add data sources on the fly, right from your browser. When you save the panel, you have saved your newly created data sources as iMIS business objects.
Tip: You can see your new data source show up as a business object in Business Object Designer, but it will be read-only: continue to edit and manage these special sources in Panel Designer itself.
Access the Panel Designer by editing or creating a panel in a Panel Editor iPart.
To create a new panel source and properties
To create your own data source with properties, you work within Panel Designer. Each new source you create is available for immediate use in the current panel, but it is not limited to it: when you Save the panel, that new business object is saved into iMIS for use throughout the system. Once you save it, you cannot rename it.
1. Configure the Panel Editor.
2. From the Panel drop-down list, select (New panel).
3. At the top of the source tree, select Create Source.
4. Choose a Name for each new Source that meets these criteria and click :
□ Starts with a letter
□ Contains only letters, numbers, and underscores
□ Is unique across iMIS, not matching any existing iMIS data or SQL Reserved Words
Tip: Use an organizational prefix (such as ABC_*) so that your sources are unique, sort together in the tree view, and are easy to identify as ones that you created.
5. Select Add Property for the new source added.
6. Enter a Property Name.
□ Starts with a letter
□ Contains only letters, numbers, and underscores
□ Is unique within its Source
7. Choose a property type that best fits your purpose, within these valid ranges:
□ Currency: 19 total digits (precision), with 4 digits to
the right of the decimal point (scale).
The default masking shows 2 decimal
places.
□ Date, Date and Time, Time: January 1st, 1753, through December 31st, 9999
□ Decimal: 28 total digits (precision), with 12 digits to
the right of the decimal point (scale).
The default masking shows 2 decimal
places.
□ Email: Creates a mailto link, which launches the user’s default mail application when selected.
□ Integer: –2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647 (±2 billion)
□ Text: By default, the Text Property type allows:
■ Free-form entry up to 400 characters (defaults to 80). You can select to display the textbox as a single line or multi-line textbox.
■ Pre-defined values from a query or explicit list that display as a drop-down list at runtime:
□ Query – For example, you may want to use a query that returns a list of countries.
□ Explicit List – For example, you can add a list of colors the user can select as their favorite.
□ URL: Creates a live hyperlink, which launches a new instance of the browser to open the link when selected.
□ Yes/No: Boolean
8. (Text Property type only) The Pre-defined values option allows you to present a list from which the user can select.
□ The Query option provides validation-type properties based on the query results. For example, instead of typing out a list of countries, you could select a query that displays country values.
■ Enable the Pre-defined values checkbox and select the Defined by query option.
■ Click Browse, select a query, and click OK.
■ Two additional fields display, Data Value and Display Value. The Data Value is the field you want saved in the database. The Display Value is the field you want displayed in the list presented as a selection on the panel. While these values can be same, you may want to choose a different value to display on the panel. For example, the country code may not be as clear as the country name.
■ Select the fields from the drop-down list in the Data Value and Display Value fields.
■ Click OK.
□ The Explicit List option allows you to create a list to display on the panel. For example, you may want a user to select their favorite color.
■ Enable the Pre-defined values checkbox and select the Defined by explicit option. A table grid displays.
■ Click + to add a data row. The data row contains two icons: Insert and Cancel, and two fields: Data Value and Display Value. The Data Value is the field you want saved in the database. The Display Value is the field you want displayed in the list presented as a selection on the panel. While these values can be same, you may want to choose a different value to display on the panel.
■ Enter the appropriate values in the Data Value and Display Value fields.
■ Click the checkmark checkmark located to the left of the data row.
■ Click + to add additional data rows.
■ Click OK.
9. Drag the field(s) to the layout area.
10. Save the panel to save the source and properties. Once you save a property, you cannot rename it. Note that the sources will alphabetize properly on reopening.
Each new property you create is available for immediate use in the current panel, but it is not limited to it: when you Save the panel, that new business object property is saved into iMIS for use throughout the system. Once you save it, you cannot rename it.
Tip: Do not save until you create all of the properties. This way, you can view them as a set of properties and improve your naming convention before it is finalized.
11. Save and close the Panel Designer window.
12. Save & Publish the content record.