Configuring task details

In this guide, we will show you how to configure the task details component. We will demonstrate how to organize the properties of your jobs, tasks and appointments.

Pane contents setup

Navigation

The setup of the task details component is done in the "Pane Layouts" settings view:

In the view, there are two distinct sections:

• The list of supported fields
• The order and grouping of the fields that are shown in the task details grid

The tree on the left-hand side is static and cannot be modified. When Dime.Scheduler is installed for the first time, there are already a few fields set in the tree on the right-hand side. For example, the first group shows essential information like the job and task numbers, as shown here:

There's nothing stopping you from changing these values. Everything - except the amount of groups - can be customized:

• The name of the groups
• The sequence of the groups
• Which fields are selected and in which groups they belong
• The sequence of the fields inside a group

Adding fields

Let's start with adding some fields. We'll use the empty group "Group 14" to show information about the appointments and their underlying tasks.

• In the "Fields" tree, expand the "Appointments" node. You can do this by clicking on the arrow or by selecting the node and pressing the right arrow key.
• Navigate to the "EndDate" item.
• Drag the record by clicking the record and hold it while you drag it over Group 14.
• When you've located the right group, release the mouse to drop the field.

This is how it's done:

Let's do the same for the start date. The situation is slightly different because there is already an item in the group. We'll have to decide on the position of the new field; for the start date it's probably best to place it before the end date. Fortunately, the drag and drop functionality provides a visual aid that shows where you'll drop the record.

Here's where you'd drop it above the end date:

Here's where you'd drop it below the end date:

As mentioned earlier, let's drop it above the end date at the first position:

We can keep adding fields until the cows come home, but let's end this section by adding a job field and task field. We'll choose the two most commonly populated fields: Task No. and Job No. Note that the fields may have different captions, we'll get back to this later (or you can go right ahead and check out the corresponding guide).

To sum up, there should be 4 fields in Group 14:

• Start date (Appointment)
• End date (Appointment)
• Task No. (Task)
• Job No. (Job)

Removing fields

A field can be removed from the tree at the right-hand side in two ways:

• Select the record and click the "Delete" button.
• Select the field and press the "Delete" keyboard key.

Just like all other actions in this view, changes are instantly and automatically saved.

If you use the default data that Dime.Scheduler provides, there's already a Job No. field in Group 1. Let's remove this item in Group 1:

Group sequence

Similar to the sequence of the fields within a group, the order of the groups themselves can be altered. This is done in the same way, by means of drag and drop. Let's put Group 14 somewhere near the top:

Localization

The standard naming convention doesn't really give us much information about the group. This can be modified by changing the captions of the groups in the localization settings view:

In the translations grid, filter the context group by "TARGETPANEGROUP":

This returns a list of 20 records, as many as groups in the tree in the pane layouts settings view.

Now it's just a matter of giving the groups some names. Select group 14 in the grid and add a caption. Don't forget to select the right language:

Validate

Validate localization

Let's go back to the pane layouts settings view, and straight away you should see "Group 14" has been renamed:

Validate task details

In the planning view, make sure there's a task details component in the profile. Here too you will notice the group is now shown:

Validate task details data

Create a manual appointment in the planning board and select it. Notice how only the start and end date are populated:

This is completely normal because the appointment doesn't have a task or job.

This is also true for open tasks: there's no data for the appointment fields so these are skipped:

However, for an appointment that was created via the open task grid, all data will be available:

Conclusion

This tutorial merely covered the setup of task details. We've seen how we can add fields to groups, change the order of fields and groups and how to localize the groups. However, it doesn't end here: the fields can also be localized and formatted (for dates and numbers). To learn more about this, check out this guide.

In this guide, you've already seen it in action with the Job No. field: