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Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 13 Dec 06 7:27 PM
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fiogf49gjkf0d Has anyone tried to customize the Saels Dashboards yet? I have been trying to make a few changes and seem to be missing something. I would like to change the number of lines displayed in the datagrids on the tabs. I would also like to be able to apply some different filters to the data. There doesn't seem to be much documentation on the issue.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 14 Dec 06 2:55 AM
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fiogf49gjkf0d David,
I have not customized the 7.0 dashboard but I did find that there are some "SELECT TOP N" references in the code. Search for "top" and I believe you will find what you need.
I am not sure what Sage's requirements were but it appears that someone mandated the use of XML. While this may be "neat" I am not sure it makes for a customization friendly product. I will hold judgement since I have just begun to dig in, but my initial impression is that it doesnt look pretty.
Timmus |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 14 Dec 06 3:40 AM
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fiogf49gjkf0d I have done quite a lot of dashboard customisations - adding a whole new one. It is a fair bit of work, but focus on the XML (Text plugin). It has an area at the top that says how many max lines should be produced. And has a section called filters where you can see the selection criteria
Nick |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 14 Dec 06 3:43 AM
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fiogf49gjkf0d Sorry - should have added that in all my customisations I have yet to have to change any code. Everything I have done has merely required playing with the XML. Even when I have added my own dashboards, I have simply copied the form from the sales one, then copied and changed the xml. On the form itself all I have had to change is the title of the graph, and the field that it looks for (to match the one in my XML), and on the script very near the top, it points to the XML document, which also therefore needs changed
Nick |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 14 Dec 06 10:03 AM
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fiogf49gjkf0d We have done a bit of Dashboard customizations. Yep, a lot of XML. Would really be nice if Sage provided some documentation on how best to do these customizations. It requires quite a bit of trial and error and looking through a lot of code. Creating your own dashboard is a bit more challenging than modifying the standard ones. |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 17 Dec 06 9:02 AM
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fiogf49gjkf0d Stored in a new plugin type.
Go to the Architect..
Manage Plugins..
Select type "Text"
They are all there in RAW XML.. NO XML editor, etc.. real mess...
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rjl |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 18 Dec 06 2:17 PM
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fiogf49gjkf0d Oh good, I thought it was just me that thought it looked like a giant undocumented mess. I anyone can show me otherwise, I would appreciate it.
Thanks |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 19 Dec 06 4:45 AM
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fiogf49gjkf0d Yep.. it's a mess.. Isn't XML supposed to be "Self-describing - Self-documenting" ? 
Sorry.. no other documentation.....
Some of us have taken the effort to reverse engineer it for simple customizations but in reality there is a serious scaling issue w/the Dsahboard (mainview).
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rjl |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 19 Dec 06 7:17 AM
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fiogf49gjkf0d Originally posted by Bob (RJ)Ledger
Yep.. it's a mess.. Isn't XML supposed to be "Self-describing - Self-documenting" ?
Sorry.. no other documentation.....
Some of us have taken the effort to reverse engineer it for simple customizations but in reality there is a serious scaling issue w/the Dsahboard (mainview).
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rjl |
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Scaling issue....as in number of users accessing the Dashboard at month end?
What's the scoop on this?
RJ Samp |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 22 Dec 06 1:41 PM
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fiogf49gjkf0d More than 10 users (using the dashboard) can "croak" the SQL server. - KI..
Workarround.. limit access to the dashboard.
AFAIK.. not fixable unless you re-design the dashboard from the ground up (and trash the XML when you do it!).
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rjl |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 26 Dec 06 10:13 AM
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fiogf49gjkf0d RJ,
Excellent question RJ. I have no answers but I do have additional questions concerning Dashboard scalability!
What is SLX using to display the XML? I did a quick survey but could not 'confirm' which object was employed for the display. If it is Crystal or Excel, I could see why the system would croak with a number of individuals using it - my thoughts are in terms of open objApp.exe. Has anyone confirmed dispaly object out there? 
Carla |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 27 Dec 06 8:45 AM
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fiogf49gjkf0d Our Vendor told my manager we would need to learn Microsoft Chart before we could edit Dashboard.
I do not know if Microsoft Chart is used to display the XML or if it is just what they recommended for editing it.
They all forgot to tell me, so I edited the script in Architect when we needed a change made. It worked. |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 27 Dec 06 7:42 PM
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fiogf49gjkf0d The chart control in SalesLogix is NOT "Microsoft".. It is well known that it is the TeeChart from steema (www.steema.com).
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rjl |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 27 Dec 06 7:48 PM
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fiogf49gjkf0d Originally posted by Carla Tillman
RJ,
Excellent question RJ. I have no answers but I do have additional questions concerning Dashboard scalability!
What is SLX using to display the XML? I did a quick survey but could not 'confirm' which object was employed for the display. If it is Crystal or Excel, I could see why the system would croak with a number of individuals using it - my thoughts are in terms of open objApp.exe. Has anyone confirmed dispaly object out there?
Carla |
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Scalability: The issues is that there are many columns of data being sum'd /averaged, etc... "real-time". That is is being done thru SQL and it "burns" server power big time.
XML: Notepad or some other nifty tool of your choice is the only way to edit the XML... There is no "xml editor" or other tool there...
The "object" is the TeeChart from steema (www.steema.com). If you look in the SalesLogix directory you will see the "chart" ocx there.
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rjl |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 28 Dec 06 8:36 AM
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fiogf49gjkf0d Originally posted by Bob (RJ)Ledger
The chart control in SalesLogix is NOT "Microsoft".. It is well known that it is the TeeChart from steema (www.steema.com).
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rjl |
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Thanks for the confirmation. I figured someone was feeding her (my manager) balony.
The only relationship I had seen between Microsoft and SLX is that SLX works with Microsoft databases.
I was a little shocked when she told me we were supposed to know MS Chart to edit Dashboard. Especially, since I had just edited dashboard and I have never worked with MS Chart.
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 03 Jan 07 4:58 PM
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fiogf49gjkf0d XML or specifically XSLT has nifty functions regarding sums and all of that. If you utilized MSXML, which is local to the client, it would offload a lot of the heavy processing from the server. Since it seems obvious this data is not stored but merely generated for client content, it doesn't necessarily make any sense to have the server process the data, even though SQL is an order of a magnitude faster than XML.
I've only given the dashboard a very breif glance, so a lot of what I seem to know I picked up. It seems to me that if the chart control is client side, it makes sense to do most of the processing there. Dump the data to the client quickly, have it do the necessary processing then display the results, caching data as necessary. That doesn't seem too particularly easy to me, but it does seem doable. A .NET extension would be a good place to start. System.Xml could handle the xml, ADO.NET would handle the data in disconnected form, the only thing left would be a way to cache the data so you could load and unload the extension as necessary to build the data for the chart control. I only mentioned unloading the extension because I'm not entirely sure you can keep one up and continue working non-modally in a predictable way. |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 05 Jan 07 2:49 AM
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fiogf49gjkf0d Originally posted by Deb R
Thanks for the confirmation. I figured someone was feeding her (my manager) balony.
The only relationship I had seen between Microsoft and SLX is that SLX works with Microsoft databases.
I was a little shocked when she told me we were supposed to know MS Chart to edit Dashboard. Especially, since I had just edited dashboard and I have never worked with MS Chart.
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If someone who works for the "partner" had been participating in the Partner NG they would have known this (and more... a long time ago.
I'm amazed at how few partners participate in beta or in the partner NG.. they are missing out on a LOT of very valuable info. Ryan shows up.. and I'd say that threvast majority of folks who are partners that post to this forum also are readers/posters in the partner NG. We're in there every day and post (almost) every day.
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rjl |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 06 Jan 07 5:45 AM
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fiogf49gjkf0d Here's a quick custom for you - if you have upgraded from v5/6 to v7 you'll notice the sales pipeline is all black - this is because the the pipeline stage needs to be prefixed with nn-
A quick workaround is to open the VB Script "Sales Dashboard:Pipeline Support" and in the Sub SetColorAndOrder comment out the line:
' objRS.Fields("Color").Value = GetStageColor(stageNumber) 'DNL
This way, the chart will use the default coloring of the tee chart. This info came from SLX - whilst not self-documenting - they are pretty helpful. Obviously, would like to see some docs on this in the future. |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 18 Jan 07 3:53 PM
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fiogf49gjkf0d Just to update everyone. According to Kelly at SalesLogix support. None of the dashboards are meant to be customized nor will customizations be supported. If anyone finds out differently that would be great to know.
Thanks |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 20 Jan 07 9:53 AM
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fiogf49gjkf0d Here's a phrase I typically do not use.. BULL CRAP...
SalesLogix is a "customizable" system. As Such ALL forms/vbscripts are customizable. There's no such "policy", etc that says there's a form/mainview/vbscript that is not customizable.
Now there sre "some" situations where there are parts of SalesLogix that were:
A - NOT Designed well
B - NOT Implemented well or too "tricky/clever"
to make it easy to do customization.
The Dashboard MainView is one of those implementations...
One question I do have.. do you have your "certification" as an SLXE? If not, you cannot get "SDK support for tech support and you may have run into that.
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rjl |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 20 Jan 07 3:30 PM
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fiogf49gjkf0d Absolutely, I have certification. Below, I have copied part of the email conversation I had with support. I would agree, it probably isn't a policy that it is not customizable, but that is in fact how it is being handled by support. Kelly even asked me if I could find any of their sales literature that said that the dashboards were customizable. The product brochure does state that it is.
Not sure what your definition of "support" or "customizable" is, but if there is a system that is undocumented, internal support staff does not know how it was written or how to customize it, and also claims that it was not meant to be customized. I would call that unsupported and uncustomizable.
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From: Small, Kelly [mailto:Kelly.Small@sage.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 5:02 PM
To: David Saggio
Subject: RE: SalesLogix case# 3727706 -- customizing the dashboard
Dave,
No and at this point there is nothing that indicates this is customizable.
Kelly
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From: David Saggio [mailto:dsaggio@Effectium.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 2:53 PM
To: Small, Kelly
Subject: RE: SalesLogix case# 3727706 -- customizing the dashboard
So any updates on this?
Dave
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From: David Saggio [mailto:dsaggio@Effectium.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2007 12:50 PM
To: Small, Kelly
Subject: RE: SalesLogix case# 3727706 -- customizing the dashboard
Page 4 of the version 7 product bulletin says:
SalesLogix Dashboards were created using the SalesLogix Architect. The solution can
be customized so that customers can see the exact data that they are looking for.
Sorry to be a pain, but I really need this one.
Dave
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From: Small, Kelly [mailto:Kelly.Small@sage.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2007 2:37 PM
To: David Saggio
Subject: RE: SalesLogix case# 3727706 -- customizing the dashboard
Dave,
From the training I received with v7, the only changes available for the dashboard were what is documented as "personalized", meaning changes of charts and lame as it might be, being able to slide the divider. I never did see where the dashboard was "customizable". But I can't remember everything so I double checked. If you have some documentation where it states otherwise please let me know.
Thanks,
Kelly
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From: David Saggio [mailto:dsaggio@Effectium.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2007 12:29 PM
To: Small, Kelly
Subject: RE: SalesLogix case# 3727706 -- customizing the dashboard
So is that the official policy that the dashboards cannot be changed? Or is it just not documented yet? I did notice that in much of the sales literature, the dashboards are said to be “personalized”. Not sure how this differs from customizing, but I would like to know how that is done.
Thanks,
Dave
Dave |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 20 Jan 07 5:44 PM
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fiogf49gjkf0d Based on what Kelly has said.. yes, it is true that the Dashboard is very difficult to customize. However, there is next to nothing in terms of documentation on them.. in fact there is next to nothing on documentation on ANY of the Mainviews!
Kelly is "stuck" (like everyone else) and just has no documentation. She's just the messenger..
The REAL truth is that the Dashboad mainview is a real dog.. too many users and it will KILL the SQL server. It really needs to be trashed and a new one built from scratch.
Now if "someone" will come up w/the $$$ we'd be more than willing to do so.. and it WOULD be customizable!
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rjl |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 02 Jul 08 9:22 PM
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Hi,
I realize this thread is a bit old by now. Wondering if there is some documentation available on how to customize the sales dashboard.
I need to put a chart control on the Sales Dashboard Details View.
Regards
Ashish. |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 03 Jul 08 6:36 AM
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Originally posted by Ashish N.
Hi,
I realize this thread is a bit old by now. Wondering if there is some documentation available on how to customize the sales dashboard.
I need to put a chart control on the Sales Dashboard Details View.
Regards
Ashish. |
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No there is not and I don't ever expect there will be.
Unfortunately, you will have to struggle thru reverse engineering it like the rest of us. Now if someone has an interest in "sponsoring" (like in $$$) some of us may be encouraged to develop a guide to dashboard customizations. But I've been down this road before and nobody is willing to do so.
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RJLedger - rjlSystems
"...Customer First..." |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 03 Jul 08 11:14 AM
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Modifying the dashboards is certainly possible, it's just not any fun! Most of the OOTB dashboards read from an XML file to know how to construct the queries for each dashboard part. You can open the XML file in Architect (it is just another plugin type) and go from there.
As RJL, and others, have mentioned, this won't be one of your more fun projects  |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 18 Mar 09 5:13 PM
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Can somebody give me a clue on how to get a new plugin to show up where I can add it to the list of existing Sales Dashboard tabs? I just need to add a data grid form consisting of recent contacts - so the base table is contact. Of course, this makes the new plugin available to the Contact main view and not the Sales Dashboard.
How can I have my new plugin show up as an option in the Sales Dashboard? |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 21 Dec 10 6:49 AM
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fiogf49gjkf0d Hi, I know this is a very old posting but did you ever find out how to do this?? Kind regards, julie. |
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Re: Sales Dashboard customizations
Posted: 21 Dec 10 9:03 AM
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fiogf49gjkf0d I honestly can't remember if we found a solution or not - it was also for an old version of SLX. That was on the tail end of my organization's SalesLogix use, and I probably haven't looked at it in a 1.5 years. Sorry. |
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