Working with WorkZone Client configurations

Important: Before you change configurations for users, units, or for the organization, ensure that you are aware of types, priorities, and merging rules of configurations. See About WorkZone Client configuration

Important: WorkZone Client configurations created in WorkZone Client 2017 or earlier versions are no longer possible to migrate, and they will be lost when you upgrade WorkZone Client to version 2021.1. This is a consequence of the fundamental dashboard improvement and new functionality introduced in WorkZone 2018 and later.
WorkZone Client configurations created in WorkZone Client 2018.0 can be migrated after an upgrade to a newer version of WorkZone except dashboard and navigation pane settings. This is a consequence of the multiple dashboard functionality introduced in WorkZone 2018.1.

To manage and distribute configurations, you must be assigned the CONFIGADM access code.

 

What is a WorkZone configuration

WorkZone configurations are collections of user-interface elements (dashboards, lists, widgets, etc) that can be customized and applied to either a single user, a unit or the entire organization. Organizational configurations are available to all users in the organization while Unit configurations are available to members (users) of that unit only. User configurations are only available to the user the configuration is applied to.

Typically, an administrator customizes the configurations and applies them to users, units and/or the organization, but users can customize their own configuration, with some limitations. Administrators can also rest configurations, effectively removing all customizations and restoring a configuration to the standard configuration supplied by default when WorkZone is initially installed .

Configurations can be exported to a file, either to create back-ups of the configurations or as a means to transfer configurations from one WorkZone installation to another.

Users and Administrators both can access an overview of all the changes to the configurations that have been applied to and are available to the current user. The overview lists the changes to the configurations by type and also by configuration type (User, Unit and Organizational). While the list of changes is somewhat technically detailed, a rough understanding can be made about the scope and depth of any potential changes to the configurations a user might be affected by.

 

Access rights and the configuration

The actions you can perform on a configuration depend on your access rights:

• If you are not assigned the CONFIGADM access code, you can:
  • Create or edit your own WorkZone Client configuration.
  • Import someone else's configuration.
  • Reset your personal configuration.
• If you are assigned the CONFIGADM access code, you can:
  • Create a new configuration or adjust an imported configuration.
  • Distribute a configuration to selected users, units, or to your whole organization.
  • Save configurations of all users to a configuration file.
  • Apply configurations to all users from a saved configuration file.
  • Withdraw configurations that were previously distributed to a user, unit, or organization.
  • Add custom fields to the case, document or contact detail pages.

 

What a configuration includes

When a configuration is customized, you create or change one of more aspects of the WorkZone Client user interfaces, for example when you add, remove, reorder, or resize the following elements:

• Dashboard items
  • The default dashboard cannot be removed (meaning deleted from the configuration). You can chose not to display the default dashboard, but you cannot remove it.
• Widgets
• Lists (columns, order of columns, sorting)
• Tabs
  • Filtered tabs cannot be removed (meaning deleted from the configuration). You can chose not to display a filtered tab, but you cannot remove it.
• Panes and panels
• Fields and drop-down lists
• Case, document and contact detail pages
• Ribbons
• Custom fields and custom types

 

Configuration types and priorities

There are four types of WorkZone Client configurations, listed here by priority , highest to lowest:

1. Personal: A configuration where you have applied your personal customizations. The Personal configuration contains customizations of your views, dashboard, changes made to lists (for example switching columns or adding/removing columns in a list), adding tabs to detail tab pages and adding lists to navigation. Personal configurations can be edited by any user and are available to the user when it is saved.
   You can reset your personal configuration.
2. User: A configuration that an administrator has customized and made available to a user, including the same administrator. User configurations are also displayed in the user interface as Default configurations. The User configuration is identical to the Personal configuration but also includes changes to fields in the detail tab pages.
   User configurations can be edited by any user assigned the CONFIGADM access code and is available that user or other users when it is saved.
   User configurations can be overwritten with another user configuration.
3. Unit: A configuration an administrator has customized and distributed to an organizational unit. The composition of a Unit configuration is identical to the User configuration. Unit configurations can be overwritten with another Unit configuration.
4. Organizational: A configuration an administrator has customized and distributed to the entire organization. The composition of an Organizational configuration is identical to the User configuration. Organizational configurations cannot be saved to as a Unit or User configuration.
   Organizational configurations can be overwritten with another Organizational configuration.

Determining the configuration type

When you create or edit a configuration, you must select which type you want to edit. The configuration type determines which configurations can be selected for editing.

The Private configuration

There is a Priority 0 configuration called a Private configuration. Private configurations cannot be opened, or edited by any user and contain user-defined filter settings and stored field values, much like a hidden layer of default field values.

The values in a Private configuration are only updated when a user updates default, filter, and/or search field values through normal operations in WorkZone.

Configuration names

WorkZone configurations are named automatically cannot be renamed by WorkZone users.

• Organizational configurations are simply named Organizational.
• Unit configuration names consist of Unit ID, Unit name (Unit).
• User configuration names consist of named User Id, User name (Employee).

How configurations merge

When more than one configuration exists for a user or a unit, the configurations are merged.

• If there are no conflicts between settings of applied configurations, they are all applied. For example, if a user adds the Changed contacts list to the navigation pane and an administrator adds the Followed contacts list to the same location. In this case, both lists will be displayed on the user's navigation pane.
• If there is a conflict between settings of saved configurations, the settings of the configuration with higher priority will be applied. In the following example, the widget size for the Open cases list has conflicting configurations:

  • Personal: Display 20 rows.

  • Distributed-to-user: Display 5 rows.

  • Organizational: Display 10 rows.

  In this example, the Open cases list will display 20 rows. If the user resets the Personal configuration, the settings with 5 rows are applied. If the administrator resets or clears the configuration for the user, the settings with 10 rows are applied.

• The Saved search list is only visible for the user who creates it. The search lists cannot be distributed or imported together with a configuration created by someone else.

Editing WorkZone configurations

If you are an administrator, you can edit, update, export/import, configure and reset WorkZone Client configurations for yourself as well as other users, organizational units or for the entire organization.

When you open a configuration to edit it, the configuration is displayed as it would look if you had opened the configuration normally, meaning all changes to all underlying configurations (Organizational, Unit and/or User) will be displayed. These changes will also be subject to the configuration merging rules described above so a change in the Organizational configuration might not be displayed in the Unit or User configuration since these two configurations have a higher priority than the Organizational configuration.

When you save another user's configuration, the changes will only take effect after the user has updated the browser.

Editing your own configuration

If you, as an administrator, want to configure your personal WorkZone Client configuration, you must follow the same steps as a regular end user. See WorkZone Client User Guide.

Reset your own User configuration

You can always update or reset your own User configuration. When you reset your own configuration, all your customizations and changes are removed and the standard User configuration will be restored.

If you only want some of your customizations to be restored and the rest kept, you should not reset your configuration as it will remove all customizations. Instead, you should manually remove the customizations you not longer need and then save the configuration.

To reset your User configuration

In the Home ribbon, click Settings > Reset configuration to display the Confirm dialog and click Yes to reset your personal configuration.

To edit your User configuration

Every time you customize your views, your dashboards or make changes to your lists, add or remove tab to detail tab pages and add or remove lists to your navigation panes, you are editing and saving your personal configuration. The changes are saved automatically and you are ready for you to use immediately. Your changes are also available to you if you log on to WorkZone from a different machine.

Reset an Organizational, Unit, or User configuration

When you reset an Organizational, Unit or User configuration, you must first load the configuration into WorkZone, then reset the configuration and finally save the configuration as the original Organizational, Unit or User configuration.

1. In the Home ribbon, click Settings > Edit configuration to open the Edit configuration form.
2. In the Edit configuration form > Search in field, select which type of configuration you want to reset.
3. In the Edit configuration form > Select configuration to edit field, select the specific configuration you want to reset. Configurations that contain changes are displayed with a small gear icon (). You can filter the drop-down list by entering filter criteria in the field.
4. In the Home ribbon, click Settings > Reset configuration to open the Confirm dialog.
5. In the Confirm dialog:
6. Click Yes to reset the selected configuration and exit configuration editing
7. Click No to return to configuration editing
   
   
8. Save your changes on the current configuration:
   1. In the Home ribbon, click Settings > Save configuration and in the Confirm dialog, click Yes to save your changes and exit configuration editing.
9. Save the configuration as another user's configuration: 
   1. In the Home ribbon, click Settings > Save configuration as to open the Save configuration as form.
   2. In the Save configuration as form, > Search in field, select which type of configuration you want to save your configuration as.
   3. In the Save configuration as form > Save current configuration as field, select the specific configuration you want to overwrite. Configurations that contain changes are displayed with a small gear icon (). You can filter the drop-down list by entering filter criteria in the field.
   4. Click Save to open the Confirm dialog and click Yes to save your changes and exit configuration editing.

Edit a User, Unit, or Organizational configuration

1. In the Home ribbon, click Settings > Edit configuration to open the Edit configuration form.
2. In the Edit configuration form > Search in field, select which type of configuration you want to edit.
3. In the Edit configuration form > Select configuration to edit field, select the specific configuration you want to edit. Configurations that contain changes are displayed with a small gear icon (). You can filter the drop-down list by entering filter criteria in the field.
4. Click Edit to start editing the selected configuration. The configuration you are currently you are editing is displayed in an orange message bar is displayed on the page.
5. When you are done editing the configuration, click Settings > Save configuration to open the Confirm dialog.
6. In the Confirm dialog:
   • Click Yes to save the selected configuration and exit configuration editing.
   • Click No to return to configuration editing.

Save a configuration as another configuration

You can save changes made to the current configuration to another configuration, effectively overwriting another user's or unit's configuration.

1. In the Home ribbon, click Settings > Edit configuration to open the Edit configuration form.
2. In the Edit configuration form > Search in field, select which type of configuration you want to base the new configuration on.
3. In the Edit configuration form > Select configuration to edit field, select the specific configuration you want to base the new configuration on. Configurations that contain changes are displayed with a small gear icon (). You can filter the drop-down list by entering filter criteria in the field.
4. Click Edit to start editing the selected configuration. The configuration you are currently editing is displayed in an orange message bar is displayed on the page.
5. When you are done editing the configuration, click Settings > Save configuration as to open the Save configuration as form.
6. In the Save configuration as form, > Search in field, select which configuration you want to save your configuration as .
7. In the Save configuration as form > Save current configuration as field, select the specific configuration you want to overwrite. Configurations that contain changes are displayed with a small gear icon (). You can filter the drop-down list by entering filter criteria in the field.
8. Click Save to open the Confirm dialog.
9. In the Confirm dialog:
   • Click Yes to save the selected configuration and stop configuration editing.
   • Click No to return to configuration editing.

Exit configuration editing

If you need to, you can discard all changes you just have made to the current configuration and exit configuration editing without saving the configuration you are working on.

1. In the Home ribbon, click Settings > Exit configuration editing to open the Confirm dialog.
2. In the Confirm dialog,
   • Click Yes to discard all changes to the selected configuration and stop configuration editing.
   • Click No to return to configuration editing, keeping all changes.

View configuration changes

You can open a view of the current configuration to gain an overview of any changes made to the configuration compared to a standard configuration. You can only see configurations that contain customizations which affect the current configuration. Customized configurations that affect other users or units are not displayed. Open and view another user's configuration to display changes to configurations that affect that user.

1. In the Home ribbon, click Settings > View configuration to open the Effective configuration form.
2. The Effective configuration form only displays configurations that contain customizations which affect you. Customized configurations that affect other users or units are not displayed.
3. In the Effective configuration form, expand the nodes for each listed configuration to navigate to each changed element.
4. Double-click the element to open the Changes applied by selected configuration form, where the customizations that have been applied to the configuration are displayed.

Import and export configurations

You can export WorkZone Client configurations and save them to a single JSON file. The JSON file can be placed locally or stored centrally as well as sent to other users for later import.

For the export, you can select only specific configurations or all configurations that exist in your organization.

When you import the JSON file, you can apply the configurations to a user, unit or entire organization. This is a useful option if you want to have a backup of configurations.

Export configurations to a file

1. In the main ribbon, click Settings > Import/Export > Export to file.
2. Select the Export all configurations check box to export all existing configurations;
   - Or -
   Start typing user's or unit's name in the Export selected configurations field to export only specific configurations. Repeat this step until you select all configurations which you want to export. Configurations that are suffixed with the specific language and culture code, for example da-DK or en-GB, will only contain customized label text and do not contain any other customizations.
3. Click Export. The file with configurations is saved to Downloads.

Import configurations from a file

1. In the main ribbon, click Settings > Import/Export > Import from file to open Import from file dialog.
2. Select the configuration file you want to import.
3. Select a way of how to apply new configurations:
   • Merge with existing configurations – Select this option to merge new and existing configurations. See How configurations merge for an overview of the configuration merge rules.
   • Drop existing configurations – Select this option to overwrite existing configurations with the configurations from the import file.
4. Click Import, and then click Yes to confirm the import.