Product Administration Guide > Customizable Product User Interface >

Grouping Items onto Pages

Groups are the way you define what items go on which selection pages. Depending on the product theme, all the items in a group display on one page. These pages display when the user selects the item for configuration.

For example, you design a customizable product that includes a computer monitor and a service plan. The user can select from among 4 monitors and 3 service plans. To display monitors and service plans on separate selection pages, you would create one group for monitors and one for service plans.

Setting up groups requires two steps:

  1. Create a group for each selection page.
  2. Add items to the groups.

All the relationships, resource definitions, and linked items in a customizable product are listed in the Product UI Designer. Each item has an Add Item to Group button.

The attributes of the customizable product are also listed. These are not the attributes defined for items in relationships. These are the attributes that the whole customizable product inherits from the class to which it belongs in the product table.

After you create a group and add items, you can verify your work by validating the customizable product. Validating a customizable product displays the selection pages a user sees during a configuration session. To validate the customizable product, from the Group Lists menu, choose Validate.

To create a group

  1. Navigate to Product Administration.
  2. Select and lock the desired customizable product.
  3. From the Customizable Product Show menu, choose Product UI Designer.

    4. The Product UI Designer view appears.

  4. Click New in the Group List tab to create a new group, fill out the group definition form, and click Save.

    5. The new group definition appears in the Product UI Designer.

  5. Repeat these steps until you have created all the desired groups.

Each group definition corresponds to one selection page. After you define a group, add the items you want to display on its corresponding page.

To add items to a group

  1. Select the desired group.
  2. In the display of the customizable product, click the desired item.
  3. Click Add Item.

    4. The item appears in the Group Item list, which lists the members of the group.

  4. Enter a positive whole number in the Sequence field.

    5. This controls the order of display on the page. Item 1 displays first and so on.

  5. Click the select button in the UI Control field.

    6. The Pick UI Control dialog box appears.

  6. Select the desired UI control type.

    7. The UI control type appears in the UI Control field in the Group Item List.

  7. Click Save to save the record.

    8. Records are not saved automatically when you step off the record.

  8. Repeat the steps above for each item you want to add to the group.

 Product Administration Guide 
 Published: 23 June 2003