Digital Clay Knowledge Base advanced

Analysis/BI Overview

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T14:59:17+00:00

Analysis/BI Overview This article is not a how-to guide or a tutorial on how to build analysis graphs and pivot tables, but a conceptual overview on the various tools and settings that are available. It is recommended that you get a basic acquaintance of the analysis tools first and then use this as a reference to learn about more advanced capabilities. Also see the

Auto-Attaching Documents and E-Mails

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T14:59:45+00:00

Auto-Attaching Documents and E-Mails There are several tools and methods in Digital-Clay to auto-attach documents and e-mails to items. First, some concepts: * A document can be attached to an item/record. This means it is attached to the specific item only and is related to the item.

Barcode Readers

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T10:40:40+00:00

Barcode Readers Although explicit support for barcode scanners in Digital-Clay is minimal, they can be used on a Digital-Clay system with minimal effort. Here are some guidelines and tips: * The barcode scanner must be setup so that it sends what it scans as keyboard input. This is usually done by hooking up the scanner via a keyboard cable splitter. As soon as this is done, the input from the scanner will be processed just as if the user entered the number via the keyboard.

Bulk Actions

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T15:00:34+00:00

Bulk Actions Bulk Actions, in a nutshell, provide the functionality of Automation 'Set Field', 'Create' and 'Delete' actions for massive amounts of records as quickly as possible. See Automation for more details on these actions. In other words, Bulk Actions allow administrators to change, add or delete large amounts of records in the shortest time possible. When dealing with hundreds of thousands of records, the time Bulk Actions take can be in seconds rather than hours.

ClayCentral

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2021-07-19T08:52:36+00:00

ClayCentral Some administration tips for ClayCentral, the Digital-Clay server application. ClayCentral is the middle-tier server sitting in front of the database, and it handles security, automation, and all the queries and requests from clients, managing its own connections to the database (see

Custom Links

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T15:02:39+00:00

Custom Links What Are Links? A Link is used to join two tables together so that fields in one table may be filtered or sliced by fields in a second table, or so that values may be displayed from more than one table at the same time. For example, to query on Opportunities filtered by the Customer's Country necessitates a Link between Customer and Opportunity.

Custom Logo

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T15:03:17+00:00

Custom Logo For branding and first-line of support purposes, third-party developers, VARs and OEM partners may customize the logos that appear in the Digital-Clay Splash screen and About window. There are two options: Primary Logo This method replaces the background image of the whole window and displays a small

Add-On Tabs

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-01-27T08:00:25+00:00

Add-On Tabs Using Custom Layouts, a URL tab or Document Template tab may be added to any data form which displays a custom web page. In addition to the content of the URL and Document Template, this page may optionally also contain HTML elements that will be used automatically by Clay for changing field values in the current record. I.e. these custom tabs may be used for both input and output. We shall call this functionality 'data entry fields'.

Data Injection

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2015-08-05T09:45:11+00:00

Data Injection Data Injection is an advanced feature for integrating with non-Digital-Clay applications. It provides several techniques with which to add or update data records from an external program or web site into Digital-Clay. External programs may read data directly from the Digital-Clay database, but they are not allowed to write into the database since this would bypass the many integrity checks, automation, auditing and synchronization features of ClayCentral. Data Injection provides…

Database Maintenance

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2022-07-17T08:43:00+00:00

Database Maintenance A quick reference for common database tasks like compacting, repairing and creating a backup for databases and setting up SQL Server. Notes on Compacting: Both MDB and SQL Server databases can automatically grow much more than needed due to fragmented data. For this reason it is recommended to regularly compact the databases. Compacting obviously can also make backups and copies much smaller.

Design Overview

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2018-01-24T08:20:27+00:00

Design Overview An overview of the Digital-Clay platform from a design and architectural point of view. Goals Digital-Clay is a generic and comprehensive platform enabling users to build almost any conceivable system that revolves around data, without writing a single line of code, script or SQL query.

Desktop vs. Web Clients

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T10:40:32+00:00

Desktop vs. Web Clients This article attempts to present a definitive discussion regarding typical Desktop (installed) client applications and web-based (browser) clients, with a focus on relevant Digital-Clay features in both areas. Digital-Clay offers both desktop and web versions of ClayStation, each complementing the other's weaknesses.

Digital-Clay Files

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2017-10-26T08:15:37+00:00

Digital-Clay Files A summary of the files installed by and used by Digital-Clay. Note that this article lists the default locations and filenames although some may have been customized. Program Files The program itself is installed by default under C:\Program Files\Digital-Clay\. This folder may contain the following sub-folders:

Document Templates

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2017-10-26T07:35:53+00:00

Document Templates This article is a technical overview on the purpose and capabilities of Digital-Clay Document Templates. It is not a tutorial on how to build Templates. Introduction Document Templates are templates that are used in Digital-Clay to generate documents. The Template may contain static content, as well as instructions for generating dynamic Digital-Clay content which is only filled when the document is generated. In other words, the procedure is:

Document Types

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T15:05:50+00:00

Document Types 'Document Types' is a special system table in Digital-Clay that is managed via the ClayStudio Data menu, and which has several uses: * A 'category' table for categorizing attachments and documents. Attachments may be sorted or filtered by their Document Type in attachment lists and in the Document Repository.

External Functions

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2017-04-26T11:36:45+00:00

External Functions Purpose External Functions are used for integrating with other systems, data sources and custom code. For example: * Notify other systems of data changes in Digital-Clay. This includes calling external triggers, or sending e-mails and SMS messages via the web.

Add-Ons/External GUI

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-01-27T08:00:46+00:00

Add-Ons/External GUI This article provides an overview of the various ways in which a custom user interface (which was programmed externally, as opposed to an interface built using Clay's built-in features) may be used with Digital-Clay. Obviously, Digital-Clay allows customizing its own various

Failover & Load Balancing Clusters

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T15:06:45+00:00

Failover & Load Balancing Clusters This article discusses options for scaling-out, and for increasing availability of Digital-Clay systems using redundant failover machines. For scaling up, or for first-stop tips on increasing performance see Increasing Digital-Clay Performance. Although this article focuses on Windows Clusters, note that most of the issues and concepts also apply to other solutions such as hardware-based network load-balancers.

Indicator Matrix Combinations

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T10:40:31+00:00

Indicator Matrix Combinations Note: This page is archived and is no longer relevant after version 9.0. This feature has been replaced with the Analysis Matrix feature. Purpose This is a unique feature for combining indicator values retrieved from multiple analysis queries. Indicator values can be single values retrieved using specific filters, or a multi-dimensional array of indicators and records.

Installation Tips

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2023-05-16T16:27:55+00:00

Installation Tips Overview There are four installation files for Digital-Clay: * DigitalClayInstall.exe for installing the server or a full development workstation: ClayStation, ClayStudio, ClayIntegrator, and optionally, ClayCentral. Note that if an end-user requires the ClayStudio or ClayIntegrator tools then you must run this installer. Otherwise:

Limiting Results

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T15:08:16+00:00

Limiting Results By limiting the results retrieved from a query, several goals are achieved: * The user may only be interested in the first x records in any case * Results are returned faster and Central CPU time is not wasted unnecessarily on overly large results

Links to Multiple Records

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T10:44:05+00:00

Links to Multiple Records Definitions * When a linked field is defined, for example, in the Contact table that links to a Customer, this is a many-to-one link. I.e. many Contacts can be linked to one Customer. In Digital-Clay terms, this link has Contact as its base table and is a link

Maximum Threads Setting

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T15:08:40+00:00

Maximum Threads Setting Technical Overview The above diagram shows ClayCentral's threading system: * Multiple connections access the ClayCentral main thread and requests are added to buffers and queues for handling. This includes a queue for Automation events generated by the requests.

Merging Records

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T10:40:31+00:00

Merging Records Definition: Merging of two or more records into one record. The destination record is the record that stays, and the source record(s) are merged into the destination and then deleted. This is what happens when records are merged:

Offline Usage

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T10:40:30+00:00

Offline Usage Purpose Working offline with Digital-Clay clients is used in the following scenarios: * A temporary solution while ClayCentral or the network/internet is down. * Remote locations where access to ClayCentral is blocked. For example, at home or while travelling. Offline work is a fallback even when a VPN, e-mail connectivity and remote control are not available.

Outlook Add-In Overview

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T15:09:12+00:00

Outlook Add-In Overview This topic covers technical information on the ClayStation for Outlook add-in in order to aid administrative and troubleshooting tasks. ClayStation & Outlook Add-Ins ClayStation for Outlook runs just like any other Outlook add-in: It runs inside Outlook, it is started and stopped by Outlook, and it runs by receiving events from Outlook (see

Outlook Contacts

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T10:42:03+00:00

Outlook Contacts Synchronized Fields Clay <-> Outlook -------------------------------------- FirstName <-> FirstName LastName <-> LastName Notes <-> Body Salutation <-> Title Title <-> JobTitle Customer <-> CompanyName Birthdate <-> Birthday EMail <-> Email1Address WorkPhone <-> BusinessTelephoneNumber MobilePhone <-> MobileTelephoneNumber HomePhone <-> HomeTelephoneNumber Fax <-> BusinessFaxNumber Address1&2 <-> BusinessAddressStreet City …

Outlook Integration Overview

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T15:09:36+00:00

Outlook Integration Overview This section presents an overview of how and where ClayStation integrates with Outlook and what features it provides. The main areas of integration are: * The main ClayStation toolbar that appears in the main Outlook window. This provides the same customizable profile, tools, queries, lists, graphs, dashboards, etc. that other Digital-Clay clients provide and is not covered here. This allows a user to run all of Digital-Clay's tools from inside Outlook w…

Outlook Recurring Appointments

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T10:42:03+00:00

Outlook Recurring Appointments Recurring Tasks and Appointments in Outlook have the same field mappings and behaviours as normal Outlook Tasks & Appointments, with the following additional functionality: An Outlook Recurring Task is simply a normal Task that creates a new Outlook Task every time the currently open Task is closed. This is handled as expected in Digital-Clay, with a new Digital-Clay Task being created automatically for every new Outlook Task.

Outlook Tasks & Appointments

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T10:42:03+00:00

Outlook Tasks & Appointments Synchronized Fields Clay <-> Outlook ---------------------- Name <-> Subject Contacts <-> Contacts Notes <-> Body StartDate <-> Start EndDate <-> End Priority <-> Importance Duration <-> ActualWork Special Notes:

Profile Management

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2017-10-26T08:16:52+00:00

Profile Management Note that this page is only relevant for versions 9.1.x and below. For Profile Management in 9.2.x and above, see Profile Management. User Profile A user profile consists of some or all of the following elements: * Toolbar: All built-in or customized toolbar categories, items and settings. By default, a user always starts with a default toolbar containing several items for managing built-in tables such as Customers, Tasks and Opportunities.

Profile Management

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2017-10-27T07:58:21+00:00

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

Digital-Clay Hardware and Software Requirements

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2019-01-06T05:35:44+00:00

Digital-Clay Hardware and Software Requirements Digital-Clay itself requires very little if the solution involves a small user-base and database, but it can use more memory and hard disk space as usage grows. And if SQL Server is installed as the back-end database (a typical scenario), then the database has its own

REST API

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2026-01-27T07:58:33+00:00

REST API This is a technical guide for the Digital-Clay REST API. For an overview of other options for integrating applications, custom interfaces and systems with Digital-Clay, see Integration. Note that Data Injection is a non-standard but faster alternative for adding and updating data into Digital-Clay, as well as a method for updating data from external systems and web sites that do not have direct network access to the Clay server. As compared to Injection however, the REST

Role Deployment

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2017-10-26T06:54:34+00:00

Role Deployment Note that this page is only relevant for versions 9.1.x and below. For Profile Management in 9.2.x and above, see Profile Management. The purpose of this feature is to provide a way to deploy files needed by Clay clients onto the client machines as soon as the user logs in for the first time. The users receive the appropriate files based on their role. The files that are deployed are:

Search in Documents

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T10:40:29+00:00

Search in Documents The Document Repository tool contains a special filter called 'Search in Documents' used when searching for documents/attachments added to Digital-Clay. Whereas all the other filters use database fields to find the document you need, this filter searches inside the actual contents of the documents (i.e. 'full text search'). It does this by interfacing with Windows Search. See below for more details

Security

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2015-08-23T13:42:42+00:00

Security Security includes: The Authentication of users to ensure only the right users are allowed into the system, Privacy to ensure no-one is listening in on authenticated users and hijacking sensitive data, and Authorization to set up detailed access rules for authenticated users and to restrict their access to specific data records, documents and fields.

Self-Registration & Public Forms

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2025-04-08T11:24:59+00:00

Self-Registration & Public Forms Normally, to enter data into Clay, a Clay 'User' is required, and the person must first login to Clay using the username and password for that User before he can enter data. This raises the often-asked question of how one can provide a self-registration portal using Clay, where users add themselves to Clay and then login. This means a form must be provided which they can access

Sending Mail from Digital-Clay

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T10:40:29+00:00

Sending Mail from Digital-Clay There are many ways to send e-mails using Digital-Clay tools, each method with its own advantages and disadvantages: Document Templates, Mail Merge and Auto-Sending Document Templates are created using the Template Builder, and then generated either from lists of items using the Print/Save Document feature, or from the Documents tool.

Session Expiry Time Setting

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T10:40:28+00:00

Session Expiry Time Setting This ClayCentral setting (ClayStudio Administration/ClayCentral Settings) forcefully disconnects all clients after a period of inactivity. The default period is 5 minutes but this can be adjusted. This only applies in the following cases:

Clay Widgets: Sharing & Embedding Objects as Web Pages

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2020-11-02T13:42:14+00:00

Clay Widgets: Sharing & Embedding Objects as Web Pages Digital-Clay objects such as dashboards, lists, graphs, charts, analysis tables, document templates, etc as well as any document saved in Clay, may be shared with other users via a URL if Web ClayStation is installed.

Single Sign-On

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2022-03-07T12:52:01+00:00

Single Sign-On This covers authentication methods in Digital-Clay, including 'single sign-on' and 'same sign-on' features added in version 9.2.57. It is a guide for administrators to learn how to configure Clay and integrate Clay with external authentication servers.

Increasing Digital-Clay Performance

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2016-01-01T04:52:09+00:00

Increasing Digital-Clay Performance ClayCentral Methods * Limit the maximum results in lists/analysis as well as in drop-downs. See Limiting Results for details. * Do not add unnecessary Linked Fields. These add joins that may slow down queries, especially in the case of MDB databases. Use Lookup Lists or Text fields instead of Linked Fields whenever possible.

Advanced Topics

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2024-04-16T10:43:44+00:00

Advanced Topics In-depth technical articles and overviews to help with solution-building using Digital-Clay. Overviews Design Overview Custom Links Security Document Templates Analysis/BI Overview Bulk Actions Web ClayStation Offline Usage Advanced Features Sending Mail from Digital-Clay Auto-Attaching Documents and E-Mails Document Types Search in Documents Barcode Readers Integration Features Self-Registration & Public Forms Add-ons/External GUI Add-on Tabs Clay Widgets: S…

Troubleshooting Guide

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T15:12:49+00:00

Troubleshooting Guide A general primer on how to troubleshoot problems and report bugs, with an emphasis on Digital-Clay. Goals There are two alternative goals for troubleshooting problems: * Understanding the problem and possible causes as best as possible so that the issue might even be solved on the spot without R&D. I.e. the problem may be due to a lack of understanding or a missed detail, or it may be solved with a temporary workaround or alternative feature to replace the specific mi…

Troubleshooting With Logs

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T10:40:28+00:00

Troubleshooting With Logs There are many types of logs in Digital-Clay that help locate an issue, configuration problem or bug: Histories/Auditing * Every data form has a History button for keeping track of who changed what and when. This includes field changes, record merges, attachment changes, and record add dates (which may not always be the same as the record created date when synchronizing or importing data).

Visualization Gallery

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2014-05-22T15:13:25+00:00

Visualization Gallery This page showcases a variety of examples for visualizing data using Digital-Clay components. Note that any of these components may also be combined together in Dashboards and Document Templates, and fully customized visualizations may also be built using

Web ClayStation

Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) — 2022-03-10T17:02:32+00:00

Web ClayStation Overview Web ClayStation is a Web application, a Web version of the ClayStation client which provides the most important features of a Clay client through a standard Web-browser. It consists of: * Any standard Web-server that supports FastCGI with an installed FastCGI module.