About WorkZone Client configuration

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.

What a configuration contains

When you customize WorkZone Client according to your needs, you create a personal configuration of WorkZone Client. Examples of customizations are when you add, remove, reorder, or resize the following elements:

  • Dashboard items
  • Widgets
  • Lists (columns, order of columns, sorting)
  • Tabs
  • Panes and panels
  • Fields and drop-down lists
  • Case, document and contact detail pages
  • Ribbons

Tip: For more information about how to configure these elements, see User interface.

If you do not change anything of the above, your personal will be empty of changes configuration. In this case, you either use the Organizational , Unit or User configuration that an administrator has made available to you, your unit or the entire organization.

 

Configuration types and priorities

There are five types of WorkZone Client configurations (from the highest to lowest priority):

  1. Private: A configuration that contains your filter settings and stored field values, much like a hidden layer of default field values. Private configurations cannot be opened or edited by any user but can be overwritten by another user's Private configuration when importing configurations.
  2. Personal: A configuration where you have applied your personal customizations to the elements listed above (Dashboard items, Widgets, Lists, Tabs, etc). You can import another user's exported Personal configuration and either overwrite your own or merge the configuration changes into your own.
    An administrator can apply changes to the configuration.
  3. User: A configuration that an administrator has customized and distributed to you. The User configuration is identical to the Personal configuration but also includes changes to fields in the detail tab pages.
    An administrator can apply changes to the configuration.
  4. Unit: A configuration that an administrator has customized and distributed to your unit.
    An administrator can apply changes to the configuration.
  5. Organizational: A configuration that an administrator has distributed to the whole organization.
    An administrator can apply changes to the configuration.

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, say that 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 applied configurations, the settings of a configuration with a higher priority will be applied. In the following example, the widget size for the Open cases list has conflicting configurations:
    • Personal: Display 20 rows.

    • 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.

 

What administrator and users can do

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

Note: The actions described above are in the WorkZone Client Administrator's Guide which is available in English only.