What is it?
There might be situations in which you want to easily copy information from one content element to another. To do so, ITONICS offers different options that are described in the following:
- copy content element (of the same entity)
- inherit visibility from parent to child element (of different entity)
- inherit information from one element to another (of different entities)
- inherit aggregated (rating) values from multiple child elements on one parent element
How does it work?
Copy an element
The copy function allows you to create an exact copy of an already existing content element. The feature first needs to be enabled via the entity configuration of a specific entity. Navigate to the Settings Wheel > Entity Configuration > Entity Configuration. Use the pen icon for the respective entity.
In the overview of the enabled modules, look for the 'copy element' tile. Check the box to activate the copy functionality.
Do not forget to also set the permissions via the 'permission configuration' tab. Search for the permission 'copy [entity]'. While checking the boxes, you can define what user roles should be allowed to use the copy function.
Users will thus find a copy element on the respective content elements: Read on to see how to copy
Inherit visibility from parent to child element (of different entity)
It is further possible to inherit an element's specific visibility settings to other elements. While doing so, a relationship is set between the parent element and its children elements.
If activated by your Customer Success Manager, you first need to enable the parent-child feature on the entity-level of the parent element via the Settings Wheel > Entity Configuration > Entity Configuration and by clicking on the pen icon of the parent element.
Here, you can select which entity (from the list of available entities) should become the child element. Once set, a new configuration tab will appear called 'parent-child configuration'. Via this tab, you can now check the box to inherit the visibility of the parent to the children.
Note: When the Parent-Child feature is activated for an entity, a new static field Allow Submissions is added to the Field Configuration of the respective parent entity. The status of this static field controls whether a user is able to create child elements or not. If the Allow Submissions button is set to Active, the Submit Child button is available on the parent element, otherwise if the status is set to Inactive the Submit Child button will be disabled on the parent element. Also, if the Allow Submissions field is set to Inactive, no parent element can be added to a child element via the Relations tab. This can be set from the create/edit form of the specific content element. Please do not forget to add it to the create/edit form configuration.
Users will thus find a button on the parent element with the option to add a child element: Read on to see how to inherit visibility restrictions from a parent to children elements
Inherit information from one element to another (of different entities)
If you want to copy over (some) information from one content element to elements of other types, you can make use of the workflow trigger type 'convert'. This action allows you to transfer one entity into another entity. As another use case, you can also use it to keep the original content element and create content elements of other entity types.
To do so, you can either use the independent button (if it is not tied to a workflow) or the workflow configuration.
The following describes the process for the independent button. In general, the procedure is the same for the workflow configuration apart from the requirement that you need an actual workflow/pearl chain defined.
After the independent button configuration was enabled by your customer Success Manager, you will find it in the configuration menu of a specific entity. Use the 'Add Action Button'-button and start to add a new action button for the convert action.
During the configuration, you are asked to add a label of the button, who can access this button?, and the trigger type=convert. After selecting 'convert entity', you will be asked to select the target entity type, e.g., idea in the image below.
You will be also asked to determine what should happen to the source entity, i.e., archiving, deleting, or keeping it.
At the bottom of the popup window, you will be also asked to indicate whether you want to take over relations, references, ratings, and/or whether you want to indicate a relation to the source entity.
After this setup, you will also find another tab called 'mappings'.
By clicking the pen icon, you will find further options to map the content from fields of the source entity to fields of the target entity. This will actually ensure the transfer of content. If you thus want to copy all information, you need to map all the fields from the source to the target entity.
This also allows you to copy information from one entity type to multiple other entity types. In this case, you just need to create multiple convert action buttons, i.e., one button for each conversion into one other entity type.
Inherit aggregated (rating) values from multiple child elements on one parent element
There might be situations in that you want to collect information from multiple content elements as an aggregate on a higher-level element. For instance, you are running multiple projects or tasks that are set up to contribute to an objective. You thus want to collect the completion status of the project content elements to see how close you are already to achieving your goals.
Technically speaking, this constitutes a parent-child relation. You inherit information from child elements, e.g., the tasks' completion status, to a parent element, e.g., the goal achievement.
To make this work, you first need to enable the parent-child feature on the parent level in the entity configuration. This means via the Settings Wheel > Entity Configuration > Entity Configuration. Click the pen icon and find the Parent-Child Tile.
Here, you first need to indicate the entity of the child elements. Once configured, a new tab becomes available with the name "parent-child configuration". Here, you will find an option to check 'enable average rating of child elements'.
You will be asked to provide a name with that the aggregated rating will thus be displayed on the parent element's view page. The aggregation of the child ratings will be displayed in the right menu.
At this stage, you will also recognize that you need an aggregated rating criterion that you can put into the 'included rating criteria' field. To create such an aggregated rating, you need to create a group field within the entity configuration of the child element.
After navigating to the tab 'Group Field Configuration', you can add a new grouped rating criteria. You need to provide a name for the rating group. You need to check the box to indicate that this group field is a rating group field. Now, you will be able to select from your individual rating criteria defined, the rating criteria that should be grouped and aggregated. This can also be only one rating criterion.
It is important to check the box 'aggregate this rating group'. You will be asked for the name of the aggregated rating criteria. You are also asked to provide the values.
Please note: The number of steps of the Aggregated Label must be equal to the maximum number of steps of the rating criteria used for aggregation. Example: There are 3 evaluation criteria. The evaluation criterion with the most rating steps has 6 rating steps. Then the aggregated label must also be configured with 6 steps.
Do not forget to save your created rating group field. You will now be able to select this aggregated rating criteria in the aforementioned parent-child configuration tab on the parent entity. You also need to define at which position of the right sidebar, the aggregated rating criteria should be displayed via the view configuration within the entity configuration of the parent element.
On a specific (parent) content element, you will now find the option to submit a child element, e.g., 'submit technology application'. This will create a parent-child relation. You can also set the parent-child relation from the edit form of a child and within the relation tab. At the bottom of the relation page, you will find the option to 'link parent entity'.
If ratings have been submitted on the child elements, their aggregate will now be inherited by the linked parent element.
Please note: Children can only have one parent element.