(2024.2) Pickers
- David Engblom
The term Pickers refers to a specific field type in PCR-360. This is a custom-built form interface that is designed to make the selection of records in a table quick and easy to populate a field on a form.
Data Selection
Pickers are designed to select specific records from a given table in PCR-360. They allow for any existing records to be quickly selected and associated with other records in the system. The data or table that a Picker will be able to access is defined in the label of the Picker. For example, the Equipment Catalog picker will select relevant records from the Equipment Catalog.
Data Restrictions
Pickers filter data based on a number of different factors to enable improved performance.
Referenced Record
The label of the Picker will tell the User what data the Picker will select from. This is different than the Picker's context because the context of the Picker will be a more specific set of data based on the label.
Active vs Inactive records
Setting a record to 'Inactive' will prevent any related Pickers from selecting that data. For example, if there was a Contact of "John Doe" in the Workers/Contacts grid that we did not want to show up as a select-able record in PCR-360 we could simply set that record to Inactive and any Contact pickers will automatically NOT display "John Doe" as a record that can be searched or found with a Picker. This is a great method for hiding old data that is grandfathered in but should be no longer used moving forward. An example of this would be an old Phone set type in the Equipment Catalog, that is still installed in the organization, but that should not be installed moving forward because of a business decision to phase out its use.
Picker Context
Pickers also filter the data in their grid based on the association that is related to the Picker. For example, the 'Replaced Equipment' picker (which can appear on the Service Desk Equipment form) will only have the Equipment that is already associated with the given Service. There are numerous examples of Pickers filtering based on their context. However, the context is always related to the specifics of the Picker, based on its label.
Autocomplete
Pickers are always associated with specific data. If the User clicks , they will get a grid with the columns specific to that Picker. The Autocomplete function will search all of the columns that are in the grid that opens when the User attempts to use it. This allows a User to search for things like the Part Number or Manufacturer in an Equipment Catalog Picker for example.
If the User begins to type into a Picker they can make use of the autocomplete function to quickly enter data when the User knows there is only one or very few items to select from. Autocomplete will only trigger after at least three characters have been typed into the Picker. For example, if the User wants to select the Owner - Contact "Bering, Myka", they can type "Ber" or "Myk" and the autocomplete function will trigger and fill in the Picker with "Bering, Myka". In this example, there is only one exact match for the Owner, which is why it auto fills into the Picker.
If there is more than one match for the data typed into the Picker, then the "Top Ten Results" will display in a scrollable list of the ten options.
If the User wants to see all of the results beyond 10, then the User can click on on the Picker. This will load the search that is entered by the User into the Picker, into the Search box of the Picker, which further reduces the results to that search. In this example, "phone" is entered into the picker. Once the User clicks the Picker's , the Picker opens with "phone" entered into the Search bar automatically. In this example, we can see that there are "15" records that match
Note: for User convenience, the Picker Form can be maximized to fit the whole screen
Picker tool-tips
Any time there is an Equipment Catalog selected in a Picker, the Catalog's image will be visible in the tool-tip. Other Pickers, such as for the Service Catalog or Location fields, have tool-tips that display the full field name.
This change only applies to Equipment Catalog pickers.
To assign an image to an Equipment Catalog the User must first set the Catalog to 'Orderable' and then add an image on the Catalog tab. If the Catalog in question should NOT be available in the CustomerCenter for the Customer's to Request the 'Orderable' flag should then be unset. This will hide the Catalog tab, but the Equipment Catalog will still have an image associated with it for Pickers to use on the back-end.