Treeview Builder – Screen

Loading & Saving Treeviews

Named Treeviews & Named Treeviews Set – Terminology

Screen to choose Treeview to load

Named Treeviews

A named treeview is any Treeview that is visible and available to users. They appear in lists of Treeviews, such as the list of Treeviews available to choose from, just after the user launches the UI Treeview Builder tool. The above screenshot shows a sample of such a list of named treeviews.

Named Treeviews Set

All of the named treeviews in the system comprise the system’s named treeviews set.

Load Treeview – Part 1

The first step in creating a customized version of a Treeview or in editing an existing Treeview is to load the relevant Treeview.

Load Treeview to Create Customized Variant

If Treeview Builder is launched to create a customized Treeview, the Treeview selected when you start Treeview Builder is used as the starting point (base) from which its menu items are edited, added, or removed. The modified Treeview is saved as a variant version, for a user, user interface configuration group (UIC group), or everyone using Enterprise (site level).

Load Treeview to Edit

If Treeview Builder is launched to edit a Treeview for a user, UIC group, or at the site level, the Treeview selected when Treeview Builder was launched is the Treeview that gets modified and saved.

Save Customized Treeview – [Save] vs [Save As]

UI Treeview Builder was designed to be versatile. Specifically, it allows versatility in how a company maintains its set of named Treeviews, giving a company more choice in creating its own protocol for using Treeview Builder in a consistent manner.

One of the intended results of this versatility is that Treeview Builder allows for the simplification of a user’s set of named Treeviews (set of Treeviews made available to users for selection), which is illustrated in the following section.

System Levels & System Level Objects

When a customized Treeview is saved, it is saved at a particular Enterprise system level, for a particular system level object. The following table provides details about the system levels, their objects, and the availability of Treeviews for particular system level objects.

Enterprise System Level	Enterprise System Level Object(s)	Treeview Availability & System Level Objects
Site Level	Only one object at the site level, the site, which is the Enterprise system.	A Treeview at the site level is tied to the site, and it is available to all Enterprise users.
Group Level	UIC groups: UIC groups group users in order to assign them a Treeview.	A Treeview at the group level is tied to a particular UIC group, and it is only available to members of the UIC group.
User Level	User IDs	A Treeview at the user level is tied to a particular user ID, and it is only available to the user with that user ID.

As an example, the CMiC R12 Default Menu Treeview has five variants of the displayed base version   

Since a Treeview is saved for a particular user, user interface configuration group (UIC group), or for the site, the user can save the customized Treeview without changing the name and overwriting the Treeview it was based on, using [Save] instead of [Saves As]. This keeps variant versions out of Treeview lists, as shown in the above screenshot. Also, this is possible because Treeviews are not only distinguished by their name, but also by the user, UIC group, and level for which they are saved.  As long as the modified Treeview is saved for a different user or UIC group, or at a different level, using [Save] results in a variant being saved, without overwriting the loaded Treeview. As would be expected, if the modified Treeview is loaded and saved using the same user or UIC group, or if it was loaded and saved at the site level, using [Save] results in the loaded Treeview being overwritten.

Example

If the user logs into Enterprise with a Treeview that is at the site level, use UI Treeview Builder to modify it, then use [Save] to save it at the group level for a particular UIC group, the loaded Treeview at the site level remains unmodified and a variant is created for the particular UIC group. Behind the scene, the system is able to distinguish between the two, and it will load the variant for members of the UIC group, and it will load the site level version for all other users.

Load Treeview – Part 2: Order in Which Variants are Searched & loaded

When a user logs into Enterprise, the user selects which named Treeview to use. The system assumes that all named Treeviews, whether they are a base (i.e. a generic, un-customized version) or a variant of a base, potentially have variant versions. Thus, regardless of the Treeview’s type, the first thing the system does is it checks if there is a variant version of the selected Treeview (with the exact name) at the user level for the user. If none is found, the system then checks if there is a version of the selected Treeview at the group level, for the user’s UIC group. If none is found again, the system uses the selected Treeview.

The first customized version the system encounters, in this order, is the version loaded for the user, and if no customized version is found, the Treeview loaded is a site level Treeview. The system does not check if there is a version of the selected Treeview at the site level, since all users have access to Treeviews saved at the site level.

NOTE: The following two suggested protocols are intended to give you an idea of a consistent protocol your company could establish to maintain its set of named Treeviews. They may be adopted, or the company could choose to create its own protocol that is a combination of the two.

Suggested Protocol 1: Keep Variants Out of Named Treeviews Set

This suggested protocol for creating Treeviews can be used by administrators that wish to have a smaller, neater set of named Treeviews, to simplify the choosing of Treeviews by users by not providing them with various variant versions of Treeviews. Such a simplified set of named Treeviews would only contain Treeviews that are bases, and only these base Treeviews are available to users.  Variants are kept out of the set of named Treeviews, and the system automatically determines which Treeview to use for a user.

Create Variant

To save a customized version of a loaded Treeview, without adding the variant to the set of named Treeviews, use [Save] instead of [Saves As]. As expected, since the modified Treeview is not saved with a new name, it will not be in the set of named Treeviews. The loaded Treeview remains unmodified, and a variant is created for the particular UIC group. Behind the scene, the system is able to distinguish between the two. When a user logs in, if the system finds a customized version for the user, it will load the customized version, otherwise it will load the base version.

NOTE: Due to the order in which variants are searched and loaded, explained in the preceding Load Treeview – Part 2 section, if variants of a particular named Treeview exist for a user at the user level and at the group level, only the user level version is ever loaded, since user level variants are searched for first and the first variant found is loaded. Thus, for each named Treeview, a user can have either a user level variant or a group level variant, but not both.

Create New Named Treeview (New Base)

If a new named Treeview is required in the set of named Treeviews as a base (i.e., generic versions), use [Save As] to save the customized Treeview with a new name. As expected, since the Treeview is saved with a new name, it becomes a named Treeview.

Edit Treeview – Base or Variant

To edit a named Treeview or a variant for a UIC group or the site, load the Treeview for the relevant system level object (UIC group or the site). For details about how to ensure that the correct Treeview is loaded, please refer to the Load Treeview – Part 3 section.

When saving the modified Treeview, save it for the same system level object using [Save]. The result is that the loaded Treeview is overwritten with the modified version.

Suggested Protocol 2: Keep Variants in Named Treeviews Set

If administrators wish to keep variants in the set of named Treeviews, along with the base versions, use [Save As] instead of [Save] to save new variant Treeviews with a different name. As expected, since the variant is saved with a new name, it becomes a named Treeview, completely detached from the Treeview on which it was based. To distinguish between the base and variant versions, include the system level object’s name for which the variant was saved.

To summarize, if this option is used, the set of named Treeviews will contain the base Treeviews and all of their variants, and the name used to save them is used to distinguish them. Since variants are in the set of named Treeviews, variants are also named Treeviews.

Create New Named Treeview – Base or Variant

To create a new named Treeview, based on the loaded Treeview, use [Save As] to save the modified Treeview with a new name. As part of the name, specify the system level object (UIC group, or the site) for which it was created. Since the Treeview is saved with a new name, it becomes a named Treeview, visible to the users for which it was saved.

Edit Treeview – Base or Variant

To edit a named Treeview or a variant for a UIC group or the site, load the Treeview for the relevant system level object (UIC group or the site).

When saving the modified Treeview, saved it for the same system level object using [Save].  The result is that the loaded Treeview is overwritten with the modified version.

NOTE: Due to the order in which variants are searched and loaded, explained in the preceding Load Treeview – Part 2 section, if variants of a particular named Treeview exist for a user at the user level and at the group level, only the user level version is ever loaded, since user level variants are searched for first, and the first variant found is the one that gets loaded. Thus, for each named Treeview, a user can have either a user level variant or a group level variant, but not both.

Customizing Treeviews for UIC Groups as Administrator

In order for an administrator to be able to save a customized Treeview for a UIC group or to load a UIC group’s Treeview for the purpose of customizing it, the administrator must belong to that UIC group.

A user can only belong to one UIC group at a time, so, if the administrator belongs to a different UIC group, the first step is to remove the administrator from that UIC group. With the administrator not belonging to any UIC group, add the administrator to the UIC group for which the Treeview is to be modified.

After the administrator saves the modified Treeview, the administrator can be removed from the UIC group for which the Treeview was modified, and added back to their actual UIC group.