Profile Management

Note: For older Profile Management features in 9.1.x and below, see Profile Management.

A user profile consists of some or all of the following elements (called 'profile objects'):

• Toolbar: All built-in or customized toolbar categories, items and their settings. Each toolbar category and each toolbar item is stored separately as a profile object. By default, a user always starts with a default toolbar containing several items for managing built-in tables such as Customers, Tasks and Opportunities.

• Layouts: Any built-in or customized data form layouts, including layout settings and all types of tabs. Each table layout and each layout tab is stored separately as a profile object. By default, only built-in tabs are shown. There may be multiple layouts per table.

• Homepage: A dashboard. A user can only display a single homepage, but different homepages may be assigned to different users. The default homepage contain some graphs and lists displaying information on built-in tables such as Tasks and Opportunities.

• Options/Settings: Various settings and configuration options, most of them defined in Tools/Options, the rest defined in the “Customize This List…” features (e.g. default columns in lists, filter lists, table lists, indicator lists, default sorted columns). Most settings have default values even if they haven't been configured. Each individual setting is stored as a separate profile object.

• Templates: Although Document Templates are by default stored only locally on the client's drive, they can also be shared and assigned to multiple users/roles as profile objects. See Sharing Deploying Templates for several other methods for sharing Templates.

For the locations of profile files on the hard drive, see Digital-Clay Files.

Tools for managing profile objects include:

• 'Customize Toolbar'. This tool by default shows toolbar items assigned to the current user only (public and private), unless the 'Profile Management' checkbox is checked. If checked, it shows all public profile objects in addition to private objects belonging to the current user. Use the 'Assigned To' button to change public assignments of each object or to make the object private.

• 'Customize Layouts'. This tool works identically to the Customize Toolbar tool above.

• The 'Profile Management' tool in the ClayStudio main menu provides management tools for three types of profile objects: Document Templates, Options and Homepages. The three lists display all public profile objects, as well as private objects belonging to the current user which can be promoted to public.

• The Document Template Builder (when generating templates) allows making templates public using the 'Assigned To' button.

All types of profile objects listed above may be either public or private.

A public profile object is one that has been assigned to 'All' or to specific Users or Roles using the 'Assigned To' buttons in any of the Profile Management tools. Note that even if the profile object is assigned to only a single user, it is still public.

A private profile object is one that has been marked as 'Private' in the 'Assigned To' form in any of the Profile Management tools. A Document Template file that has never been shared is listed as private.

All profile objects may be promoted or demoted from private to public at any time, and vice versa.

Public profile objects are always stored at ClayCentral and synchronized with all clients when they connect. Public objects can only be edited while online.

Private profile objects are by default only stored on the local client machine, unless 'Always Save Profile' is on, or if the user clicks on 'Save my Profile'. In these cases, the private objects are stored at ClayCentral and synchronized with any client connecting using the same User ID.

This setting is relevant only for toolbar items and layout tabs. Using the Assigned To tool, an item/tab may be marked as 'Inherit', which means it will use the same assignments of its parent category/layout.

This is very useful in order to change assignments for all toolbar items contained in a single toolbar category (or all tabs within a single layout), by simply changing the assignments once in the parent category/layout.

Individual items/tabs not marked as 'Inherit' will override the parent's assignments with their own. However, if a user is not assigned the parent, then that user will not see the contained item regardless of that item's assignments.

Public profile objects can only be edited by users with the appropriate permissions. Permissions are granted using the Permissions tool in ClayStudio for the 'Profile Objects' element.

Permissions may be granted globally ('Any') which means that that role can change any public profile object, or it can be more fine-tuned so that users can only change profile objects for users they are related to in some way. For example, the 'Manager' role can be given permissions to change profile objects belonging to his workgroup only, in which case he can only add/change/delete profile objects assigned to users belonging to his workgroup.

Private profile objects are only visible to the user to which the objects belong and can therefore only be edited by that user. Private profile objects may be edited even without permissions granted using by the Permissions tool mentioned above. In other words, any user may add/change/delete his private objects regardless of his role and permissions.

In addition, any user may add private toolbar items to public toolbar categories and private layout tabs to public layouts at any time.

This setting is only relevant for settings and homepages.

Whereas with layouts and toolbars the user may add private objects at any time without changing any public profile objects, with settings and homepages however, only one setting/homepage may be active at any time.

This means that, although there may be multiple homepages assigned to a single user, or multiple settings for a single option assigned to a single user, only one of them can be active for that user. The rules in these cases are:

- Private profile objects may override public profile objects (unless they are locked). Which means that even if a public setting is assigned to a user, the user may override this using Tools/Options which will add his/her own private setting.

- If there are multiple profile objects for the same homepage/option (public or private), the last one that has been configured will take priority.

- If a public homepage/option has been marked as Locked, it will take priority over any private objects regardless of when they were configured. In addition, the option will be disabled in the client's interface.

What this means is that, with homepages and options, assigning a public profile object will only define the default, allowing the user to override this default unless it is also Locked. Use 'Locked' to enforce a setting/homepage.

Settings and homepages may be locked using the 'Assigned To' buttons in the Profile Management tool.

Additional notes and details on specific profile object types:

• Any option/setting changed using Tool/Options is always saved as private profile objects. It can then be assigned using the Profile Management tool. If a public profile object exists for a specific setting, and the user reconfigured it using Tools/Options, a new private profile object is added in addition to the public one.

• I.e. to send different settings to different users for the same option: 1. Configure it using Tools/Options. 2. Assign it using Profile Management 3. Repeat steps #1 and #2 as necessary.

• Templates are shared along with all their linked local files (e.g. if the HTML template contains links to local picture files, these are sent automatically together with the template)

• Layouts may be duplicated in order to create multiple layouts for a single table. This allows configuring different colors and sizes for layouts for different users.

• If two different layouts for the same table are assigned to the same user, the user will only see one of them and it is unpredictable regarding which one will actually be active.

• Toolbar items may be associated with two toolbar categories and layout tabs may be associated with two layouts. This allows building and maintaining a single profile object for two users even though it is included under a different category/layout. For example, Managers may have a toolbar category called 'Management' and Executives a category called 'Reports', and then a complex dashboard may be built and associated with both these toolbar categories.

All changes to profile objects are saved at ClayCentral and synchronized with connected clients instantaneously. For example, a change to a toolbar item will be appear in the assigned client's toolbar immediately if they are currently connected, and a change to a layout will appear the next time the client opens the form for that table. With WebClay, there may be a delay for changes to appear in the toolbar.

If the client is not connected during the change, all relevant profile objects will be synchronized next time they login.

All private profile objects will only be stored on the local machine's drive unless 'Always Save Profile' is on, or if the user clicks on 'Save my Profile'. If the user uses more than one device with Clay and has configured some private profile options, he/she should use one of the above options to ensure the private changes will appear on all his/her devices.

Since profile objects are strictly modular and each item/tab/setting/homepage/template is stored and sent separately, conflicts will be at a minimum. I.e. multiple people may change public profile objects at the same time and the only time there will be conflicts will be if they are editing on the same profile object at the same time. In this case, the last save will overwrite all other concurrent edits.

Note that there is one exception with modular changes and conflicts: When the sort order is changed within a toolbar category or layout, this may affect all the items within the category/layout.