How to build (program) custom Role Centers for the RTC ?

Votuc

HI,

We have a client that wants us tp build a custom Role Center page for the RTC. He does not like any of the "out of the box" Role Centers. What can I add to that Page. For example, can I have two Activities boxes? What else can be added. :-k Please give examples if you can. Thanks.

lvanvugt

I would say: have a look at the 21 examples in NAV (i.e the 21 role centers that have been defined there). You can add multiple activity parts ... Use your imagination.

Alex_Chow

Budget 20-40 hours for development of a new role center.

Rob_Hansen

20-40 hours??? Are you serious? Can you elaborate on what type of role center development would add up to that amount of time? In a few hours I created a new one (added flowfields to a table to calculate quantities for the paper stacks, added new actions to access custom pages and add new records, etc.). It does the trick fine, but possibly I'm missing out on something if you think it's a multiple day task (?).

Alex_Chow

rdhansen wrote:

20-40 hours??? Are you serious? Can you elaborate on what type of role center development would add up to that amount of time? In a few hours I created a new one (added flowfields to a table to calculate quantities for the paper stacks, added new actions to access custom pages and add new records, etc.). It does the trick fine, but possibly I'm missing out on something if you think it's a multiple day task (?).

Well, you must be a smart guy.

This was the estimate that was expressed when they were introducing the role centers at Directions 2009. The question I posed was how long it would take to create a completely new role center.

David_Singleton

Sadly I see this all too often these days. Programmers look at what they can program in an amount of time, and confuse "lines of code" with "business solution".

In reality the time it takes to write code is generally insignificant. The cost of a project comes in the analysis and design, the usability testing, the project management the user acceptance and change process.

Sure anyone can sit down in 4 hours and write some code, but is it what the customer wants and does it help them to be more productive.

Votuc

Wait, I was just thinking along the lines of taking a role that is the most similar to what this client wants, then changing the Activities Box items to something more useful for them.

Can I do that - Can I save a current role as a new object? What number can I use to save the new one?

David_Singleton

Votuc wrote:

HI,We have a client that wants us tp build a custom Role Center page for the RTC. He does not like any of the "out of the box" Role Centers.

Votuc wrote:

Wait, I was just thinking along the lines of taking a role that is the most similar to what this client wants, then changing the Activities Box items to something more useful for them.

So which then? Build a new one or customize an existing one. This is why these things take so long when neither you nor the client are really sure what you want.

Marije_Brummel

I agree with David and Alex. I have been building and analysing dozens of rolecenters. To technicaly create one from scratch it will cost maybe half a day max. To analyse what a user does during the day and what stacks they need, what home items, reports etc will cost much more. This depends mostly on your knowledge of the customers business processes.

A well designed role center will make the daily work of an end user much more efficient, so doing the job thourough and spending some days on it is well worth the effort and money.

A role center may also need fine tuning and may not be 100% correct the first time. Take that time in account as well.

When doing an upgrade you may want to look at the old 3.x menus if they exist. Many end users have turned these into rolecenters by creating customised copies for each department.

Tip: If you convert a 3.x menu to a rolecenter using the Transformation Tool al the menu options get converted to actions. This is a good starting point for creating the home items.

Creating a copy of a rolecenter might be dangerous. If you need a rolecenter that is very similar to an existing one you might want to investigate personalisation on profile level.

Good luck.

Votuc

David Singleton wrote:

So which then? Build a new one or customize an existing one. This is why these things take so long when neither you nor the client are really sure what you want.

Clients NEVER know what they want.

I am working on discussing options with them now - this is why I am here asking questions. The first meeting on it was yesterday (after my first post and before my second post). Right now they are running 2009 Classic and RTC but they are bulking at using the RTC at the moment because they are not comfortable with the way things look out of the box. It is a small company where everyone does a little bit of everything - so the man in charge thinks that everyone would do best with a role similar to the Small Business Owner role but with some changes to the activities box. I'm doing my best to accommodate everyone's wishes. :-k

David_Singleton

Votuc wrote:

I'm doing my best to accommodate everyone's wishes. :-k

The best way to disappoint everyone, is to try to make everyone happy.

Alex_Chow

The first thing you need to do is to group the people within that company into job roles. Then ask the people in that role to find an existing role center that almost fit their needs. From there you can do your customizations.

Rob_Hansen

Sorry...I missed a bunch of posts here. I thought the 20-40 hour comment was purely the development work, assuming the needs were defined. My development time is in line with Mark's comment that it's a half day task. The development work is not complex here, especially if you're taking an existing role center that is close to what you need so you can duplicate it and modify it. In my case the definition of the role center is outside of the time I mentioned, and it's been assigned to the client to work through initially (with our guidance on the technical feasibility).

I agree that the design aspect is the critical piece (and complex piece) here. If you have a group of 8 people in a department and want to come up with a common role center for them, it can obviously drag out through many meetings and debates over how to structure it - each person will have their view on what their critical statuses and actions are.