How You Determine Interface Needs

When you clone an interface, the new interface is a duplicate of the original interface and has the same customized configuration.

For this reason, we recommend waiting to clone your interface until you complete configuring the original interface. This can help reduce the amount of customization you need to do on the cloned interface, particularly if you want the interfaces to be similarly configured.

Before you clone interfaces, you should consider how your staff members and customers will use the new interface and what changes you need to make to accomplish the intended purpose. As a starting point, consider whether the language will change, whether the new interface needs to send and receive email, what custom fields and customizable items you want to appear on the new interface, which configuration settings (site or interface specific) and message bases need to change, and whether you can use business rules to manage the new interface.

Note: Because configuration settings and message bases are categorized as site or interface specific, it’s critical to know which settings will affect all interfaces (site specific) and which ones will affect only one interface (interface specific). Since there are fewer site-specific settings, it is easier to identify those by searching for all site-specific settings on the Configuration Settings editor. Using this search criterion, you can easily see which settings are applied across all interfaces and decide what is best for your situation. See Search for a Configuration Setting and Search for a Message Base.

Also consider what level of access your staff members and customers should have to the new interface to determine if you need to modify profiles or reconfigure customer portal pages. You should also identify who, if any staff members besides you, will have administration permissions on all interfaces. Ideally, a limited number of administrators have access to all interfaces. If you have a large number of administrators, it can be challenging to prevent unwanted additions or deletions of fields or items that affect the incorrect interface.

While performing this step, start thinking about naming conventions for your staff accounts, profiles, customizable menus, and custom fields. For example, the names you select for profiles configured for an internal interface could begin with “internal” to make it easier to identify the profiles that belong to the interface.