Navigation Option - Main

Select Admin > System > Navigation Option to maintain a navigation option.

Use the Navigation Option Query portal to search for an existing navigation option. Once a navigation option is selected, you are brought to the maintenance portal to view and maintain the selected record.

Description of Page

Enter a unique Navigation Option code and Description.

CAUTION: When introducing a new navigation option, carefully consider its naming convention. Refer to System Data Naming Convention for more information.

The Flush System Login Info button is used to flush the cached navigation options so you can use any modified navigation options. Refer to Caching Overview for more information.

Owner indicates if this navigation option is owned by the base product or by your implementation (Customer Modification). This field is display-only. The system sets the owner to Customer Modification when you add a navigation option.

Note: You may not change navigation options that are owned by the base product.

Use Navigation Option Type to define if the navigation option navigates to a Transaction, launches a BPA Script or opens an Attachment.

Note: The Attachment option type is only applicable to navigation options that are used to launch a file attached to a record in the Attachment maintenance object.

For navigation option types of script, indicate the Script to launch. You can use the Context Fields at the bottom of the page if you want to transfer the contents of specific fields to temporary storage variables available to the script. The script engine creates temporary storage variables with names that match the Context Field names.

For navigation option types of transaction, define the Target Transaction (navigation key) and optionally a specific Tab Page (also a navigation key) if a specific tab on the transaction (other than the Main tab) should be opened when navigating to that transaction.

Note: Finding transaction navigation keys. When populating the Target Transaction and Tab Page you are populating an appropriate navigation key. Because the system has a large number of transactions, we recommend using the "%" metaphor when you search for the transaction identifier. For example, if you want to find the currency maintenance transaction, enter "%currency" in the search criteria.

The additional information depends on whether the target transaction is a fixed page or a portal-based page:

  • For portal-based pages:

    • Navigation Mode is not applicable and should just be set to Add Mode.

    • If navigating to a query portal, by default the query portal will open with the default search option defined. If the navigation should open a different search option, define the Multi-Query Zone for that query portal and indicate the Sub-Query Zone to open by default. Note that for this configuration, it is common to define Context Fields to pre-populate search criteria in the target query zone. When using this configuration, be sure that the target query zone's user filters are defined to populate data from context.

  • For fixed pages:

    • Navigation Mode indicates if the Target Transaction should be opened in Add Mode or Change Mode.

    • Add Mode should be used if the option is used to navigate to a transaction ready to add a new object. You can use the Context Fields at the bottom of the page if you want to transfer the contents of specific fields to the transaction when it opens.

    • Change Mode is only applicable for fixed pages and should be used if the option is used to navigate to a transaction ready to update an object. You have two ways to define the object to be changed:

      • Define the name of the fields that make up the unique identifier of the object in the Context Fields (and make sure to turn on Key Field for each such field).

      • Define the Search Transaction (navigation key) if you want to open a search window to retrieve an object before the target transaction opens. Select the appropriate Search Type to define which search method should be used. The options in the drop down correspond with the sections in the search (where Main is the first section, Alternate is the 2nd section, Alternate 2 is the 3rd section, etc.). You should execute the search window in order to determine what each section does.

        When you select a Search Type, define appropriate Context Fields so that the system will try to pre-populate the search transaction with these field values when the search first opens. Keep in mind that if a search is populated with field values the search is automatically triggered and, if only one object is found that matches the search criteria, it is selected and the search window closes.

  • Search Group is only visible if the Development Tools module is not turned off. It is used to define the correlation between fields on the search page and the tab page. You can view a tab page's Search Groups by viewing the HTML source and scanning for allFieldPairs.

The Go To Tooltip is used to specify the label associated with the tool tip that appears when hovering over a Go To object. Refer to the Usage grid below.

The Usage grid defines the objects on which this navigation option is used:

  • Choose Favorites if the navigation option can be used as a favorite link.
  • Choose Menus if the navigation option can be used as a user's home page or as a menu or context menu item.
  • Choose Script if the navigation option can be used in a script.
  • Choose Foreign Key if the navigation option can be used as a foreign key reference.
  • Choose Go To if the navigation option can be used as a "go to" destination ("go to" destinations are used on Go To buttons, tree nodes, and hyperlinks).
  • If your product supports marketing campaigns, you can choose Campaign if the navigation option can be used as a "post completion" transaction on a campaign. For more information refer to that product's documentation for campaigns.

The Context Fields grid contains the names of the fields whose contents will be passed to the Target Transaction or Script or used to launch an Attachment. The system retrieves the values of these fields from the "current" page and transfers them to the target transaction or to the script's temporary storage. Turn on Key Field for each context field that makes up the unique identifier when navigating to a transaction in Change Mode.

Note: For an Attachment, the grid should contain the Attachment ID.
Note: Navigating from a Menu. The standard followed for many base main menu navigation options for fixed transactions is that navigation options launched from the Menu dropdown are configured with no context.