The main screen is where item information is managed, edited, created, and deleted.
The main screen consists of three primary areas.
- Sections: This is where you choose what data/channel you want to work with. When you choose a section, the content in areas 2 and 3 changes according to the configuration of the section.
- Categorizer/search: This is where you choose which items you want to see in area 3. When you choose a categorizer value (or perform a search), the matching items will be shown in area 3.
- Items: This is where you manage data for items related to the selected categorizer.
NOTE: Sections, categorizers and items are configurable and can vary according to implementation and user-settings. The above is an example from the Perfion demo database.
Sections
In Sections you can choose between the following:
- User sections
- Feature Data (only available to Super Users and Administrators)
- Features (only available to Administrators)
User sections
User sections (Products, Catalogs, Website, Image Database and Actions in the example above) are configured by your administrator. Access to user sections depends on individual user rights. Each section will load different content in Categorizer and Item areas.
Feature Data
Feature Data is a “hardcoded” section available only to users with Super User or Administrator rights. In Feature Data you manage the “value lists” available when editing information for Products and other items.
Example: When you edit information for a product, you may have to choose a Color for that product. The “value list” for Colors contains all the colors users can choose between. If you want to add a color to the list of available colors, this is done in Feature Data.
Features
Features is another “hardcoded” section. This section is only available to Administrators. In Features you configure the data model for products and other entities, for which you manage data in Perfion.
Example: Let’s say your database has products related to coffee and tea (like the Perfion demo database). So far you have not managed recycling information for Coffee Machines, but you want to start doing that. Your administrator would then go to the Features section, create a new text feature called “Recycling” and add it to Coffee Machines in your product data model. When done, users will see the new “Recycling” feature when managing data for Coffee Machines.
The Features section is not described further in this user guide. Please instead refer to the Windows Administration Guide.
Compact mode
Sections can be show as text or as icons in the main screen. This can be changed by clicking the three dots in the Sections area and checking/unchecking “Compact”.
Categorizer/search
In the Categorizer/search area you select which items to show in the Items area.
Switching between categorizers and searches
First thing you need to know is how to switch between categorizers and searches. This is simply done by clicking the tabs at the top of the categorizer/search area.
Available tabs depend on the configuration of your Perfion implementation. You may see only one tab, or you may see multiple tabs like in the Perfion demo database.
Categorizer
A Categorizer is really nothing more than a feature from your data model exposed in the Categorizer/search area. By exposing a feature in this area, users can click one of the values and see all items that have this value.
Example: The feature “Category” is exposed in the Categorizer area. When you click “Coffee Machines”, all products with the value “Coffee Machines” in the feature “Category” is shown in the Items area:
Untagged
“Untagged” is a special “value” available for all categorizers. If you click Untagged, all products with no value in the categorizer feature will be shown.
Search
A Search will typically look something like this (available search fields are determined by your Administrator):
General search tips
- As a general principle you can search for items with any combination of data by typing in values in more than one search field. Perfion will show items that match values in ALL fields (= perform an AND search).
- Example: If you type in 12 in the Item Name field and select Bodum in the Brand field, Perfion will show items that match both values.
- If you click Search without specifying any values, Perfion returns all items in the system
- If you click Clear, all values in search fields are removed
Item area
The Item area shows items which are
- related to the selected value in the categorizer section, or
- the result of a search performed.
The item area is built with five primary areas.
- Headline: The headline shows which items you see in the grid
- Toolbar: The toolbar allows you to change the way you view data in the grid
- Feature captions: This line shows the captions of the features you see in grid
- Grid: This is the main content area where you manage data
- Paging: The paging function allows you to control how many items are displayed in grid at the same time
Headline
The headline tells you what type of items you see in the grid. The headline is specific to each Section, so when you switch between sections (Products, Catalogs, Website, Image Database, etc) you may see different headlines.
The headline and the section have identical names in this example, but that’s not always the case. It is up to your Administrator to select names for sections and headlines/items.
Toolbar
The toolbar is an important tool in your daily work with Perfion. It gives you a lot of options to decide how you see data in the grid.
Example: The toolbar allows you to select a view which shows a limited set of features in grid.
Feature captions
Feature captions are the “user friendly” names of features. These are shown at the top of the grid:
Three important things about feature captions:
- Base value; The feature caption of the first feature is always identical to the Headline. This feature is called the base value. In the Perfion demo database the base feature for products is called Product and we have chosen to store the item number in this feature.
-
Language code; When a language code (en) is shown after the feature caption, the feature is configured to hold user defined (“explicit”) values in multiple languages. In Perfion we say that the feature is localizable.
NOTE: Selectable features (like Color) can also be localizable. They are however not shown with language code after the feature caption because users do not have to worry about translations. Translations are managed in Feature Data for each selectable value. - Unit; If a feature is configured with a unit [€], it is shown after the feature caption. This is typically used for numeric features.
The feature caption line comes with a context menu. If you right-click on any feature caption you will see this menu:
- Sort Ascending/Descending: Corresponds to clicking a feature caption. Sorts data in grid by values in the “clicked” feature. If these options are greyed-out, it is because manual sorting of items in grid is possible (typically used in catalog structures).
- Column chooser: Allows you to add more features to grid.
- Best Fit: Minimizes column width
- Freeze: Freezes left-most column(s); allows you to scroll horizontal without losing base feature
- Remove/Close Column(s): Removes clicked column, columns to the right or all columns but the clicked one from grid
Grid
The grid is where you see and manage data. As a general principle (with a few exceptions) you can double-click (or press Enter) in any cell to go to edit-mode:
The layout of edit-mode depends on the configuration of the feature. In the example, the Color feature is configured as a single-selectable. This means that you can choose one – and only one – value in the cell. By double-clicking (or pressing Enter) on a Color value, you set this value in the cell.
Paging
If you see the paging toolbar at the bottom of the grid, the base feature is set up with paging. This allows you to choose how many items you want to see in the grid at the same time (per page). It also allows you to jump between pages if grid contains more items than you have chosen to see per page.
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