Model: data/MenuLayout

Menu layouts, FDPs, and CFTs

When creating or editing a menu layout, you can (optionally) apply a field display policy (FDP) and configuration template (CFT) to refine the view of model entities for the user role. In this way, the FDP and CFT for a specific model is applied as part of the menu layout (in the menu structure); the FDP and CFT are attributes of the specific model entry for that menu layout. This means:

• Different FDPs and CFTs for a specific model can define menu layout variations for that model.
• The required FDP and CFT should be available before you create new menus.

Fixed and configurable filters

If a menu layout applies to the list view of a model, this list can be filtered by means of a number of filter options that apply to the displayed list. Only instances where the values of a model attribute that match the filter, are then shown. For details, see Fixed and Configurable Filters in Menus and Landing Pages

Default menu layouts

Automate ships with a number of default menu layouts for the following, hierarchy-based administrator user roles:

• System administrator
• Provider administrator
• Reseller administrator
• Customer administrator
• Site administrator

If you wish to create a new menu layout, you can create a copy (clone) of a default menu layout, edit the settings, and save it as a new, custom, menu layout.

You can also export a menu layout, edit it externally, and re-import it. For example, you can apply an alternative FDP or CFT, or change the order and grouping of items on the menu layout. Designers with access to tag or version tag can apply these to a menu layout so that it can be uniquely identified to track changes.

Best practice menus

In addition to the default menu layouts, Automate provides best practice menus for Provider and Customer administrators, including the associated access profiles and dashboards.

The best practice menus are more business-oriented, and include additional options based on best practice adaptations that may also be included in Automate.

The table describes the key features of the best practice menus:

Considerations when customizing and assigning a best practice menu

If you wish to modify a best practice menu and then assign the customized best practice menu to a user role, consider the following:

• To add or update menu layouts, see Create a Menu Layout

  Note

  A Menu Diff Tool allows you to easily modify menus. See the Advanced Configuration Guide for details.

• To view or configure FDPs (field display policies) associated with menu items, see Add or Edit a Field Display Policy.

• To view or configure CFTs (configuration templates) associated with menu items, see Configuration Templates.

• For details around access profiles available for the best practices menus, see the list in the Access Profiles menu. To modify any access profiles to align with a modified menu, see Access Profile Permissions and Operations.

• Note the dashboards available for the best practices menus. See the list under the Dashboards menu.

Menu layouts for a Business Admin role

Automate provides two sample menu layouts for use or further customization as a Business Administration Portal menu layout. These sample menu layouts display in the Menu Layouts list view:

• MenuCustomerAdmin
• MenuSiteAdmin

Administrators can clone these samples to a hierarchy, customize them as needed, and assign them to a specific user role that requires a Business Administration Portal interface.

The sample menus also use sample dashboards to complete this Business Administration Portal interface. For details on the sample dashboards, see: Automate Dashboards.

The image shows an example of a sample menu displaying the sample Call Groups dashboard:

Enhanced menu layouts and dashboards for multi vendor environments

Automate provides two sets of menus, dashboards, and access profiles for use or cloning and further customization for multi vendors scenarios. These sets offer best-practice reference role-sets that can be used by service providers.

The set of best practice menus and dashboards is comprehensive and includes some add-on options which are not currently included in the core solution. If you want to use a specific option and get a permission error when trying it using the MVS- set, please reach out to the Automate account team to discuss.

Microsoft-only deployment items contain MS-Only in the name, and menu names have the MVS prefix:

• MVS-EnhancedProviderMenu
• MVS-OperationsCustomerMenu

These menu layouts offer a number of benefits, for example:

• A compact main menu list
• Menu items directing users to dashboards consisting of items that can be selected to carry out a task - grouped into cards and all visible on one page

The comprehensive set of sample dashboards is provided and used in these menu layouts. They are identified by the dashboard name with prefix, MVS-, and suffix, -Dashboard. For example, the Role Management dashboard is MVS-RoleManagement-Dashboard.

This also includes home dashboards:

• MVS-EnhancedProviderAdmin-HomeDashboard
• MVS-Operations-CustomerAdmin-Home-Dashboard

These dashboards can therefore also be cloned and customized as required.

Access profiles associated with these menu layouts and dashboards can also be cloned and configured according to the customized menu layouts and dashboards. They contain the prefix:

• MVS-EnhancedProviderAdminAP
• MVS-OperationsCustomerAdminAP

The Condition field in menu layouts and dashboard widgets can be configured for multi vendors by using the macros as conditional values - as per enabled features in Global Settings:

• {{ macro.is_microsoft_enabled }}
• {{ macro.is_cisco_cucm_enabled }}

Sample administrator roles are provided that combine all these elements:

• MVS-EnhancedProviderAdministrator
• MVS-EnhancedCustomerAdministrator

Add or edit a menu layout

This procedure adds new menus and modifies existing menus. You can create a new layout for your system or update the default menu layout.

1. Log in to the Admin Portal as a Provider or Reseller administrator (or higher).

2. Choose the hierarchy for the new menu layout, for example, Customer.

3. Go to Menu Layouts.

4. Choose an option:

   Create a new menu layout, based on settings in an existing menu layout	Recommended method. Click on the menu layout you wish to copy. On the menu layout editing screen, click the toolbar Clone icon. A new record is created with pre-populated settings. Go to the next step to edit settings for the clone to create a new, custom menu layout.
   Create a new menu layout as a new record (without existing settings)	Click the toolbar Plus icon (+) to open the Menu Layouts/New Record page. Go to the next step to set up the new menu layout.
   Edit an existing menu layout	Click on the menu layout you wish to edit, update its settings, then save your changes. Log out, then log in again to see your changes.

   Note

   • You can click in a row to edit a value (either type in the field or select an option from a drop-down)
   • Rows with nested menu items or links contain a chevron (>) instead of a Plus icon (+) so that you can see which items have child lists.
   • An asterisk indicates required values.
   • For further details around menu configuration, see Menu Layout Field Reference.

5. At Menu Items, configure the main menus and sub-menus, as required

   • To re-order menus, click on the hamburger icon and drag items to the required position.

   • To add, clone, or delete rows for main menus and nested sub-menus, click the Plus icon, Clone icon, or Delete icon in the relevant row.

     Note

     Clicking the Delete icon in a row triggers a system message asking you to confirm that you want to remove the row. This allows you to review the change in case you clicked the Delete icon by mistake. Clicking the toolbar Save icon saves all changes to the menu layout you're configuring.

   • Add, clone, or delete sub-menus (click the Plus icon in the Menu Items column to display nested sub-menus).

   • At Filters, configure fixed and configurable filters.

   • At Icon, choose a menu icon (main menus only). See: Custom Icon Names Reference.

   • At Title, add or edit the menu title, and (optionally), provide a description.

   • At Condition (optionally), fill out a condition to define when the menu will display.

   • At Display As, choose an option to define how the menu or sub-menu will display. Options are: Form, List, External Link, or Dashboard.

     Note

     • The value for Display As must be Form when the value at Model Type is view.
     • The value for Display As must be Dashboard if you're choosing a dashboard.

   • At Type, choose the model type.

     Note

     When type is view (view/ModelType), the value in the Display As column must be Form.

   • At Href, create internal or external links.

     Note

     • If Display As is set to External Link, the Href value should start with http.

     • If Display As is set to List, the internal Href value should start with /api/.

     • If you wish to provide a sorted list view of a model in a menu item, the Href internal href value can be entered with additional parameters to specify attribute and sort order. In this case, Display As should be selected as List, with the direction parameter to sort.

       For example, if Href is:

       /api/data/Countries/?order_by=iso_country_code;direction=desc
       

       the list view from the menu item of data/Countries will be sorted in descending order, by iso_country_code: ZIM, ZAF, VNM, USA, UKR,... and so on.

   • At Field Display Policy, choose a field display policy, if required.

   • At Configuration Template, choose a configuration template, if required.

   • Select Set as default Model Type to define that when a user navigates to a form for that model from a location where any of the FDP, CFT, and title is not available, then the form will contain these elements configured as the default.

     Note

     If no default is set, or multiple defaults are set for FDP and CFT selection, the selection is random. Multiple defaults will also yield an error message in the browser console if the Browser Console Log Level is set to Debug (see: Introduction to the Admin Portal User Interface) The format of the message is:

     Multiple defaults configured for ... <model-type>
     

     It is therefore advisable to explicitly set the default and ensure that only one default is set.

   • At Dashboard, you can instead choose an existing dashboard to associate with the menu item.

     Note

     • You can choose a dashboard for a main menu, sub-menu, or sub-sub-menu.
     • When setting a dashboard, the value in the Display As column must be Dashboard.

6. Click Save. Updated or new menu layouts are saved.

7. Assign the menu layout to the appropriate roles.

Menu layout settings

This section describes menu layout configuration options:

Menu items

The table describes configuration options the Menu Items rows on the Menu Layouts page:

{
  "type": "view/QuickSubscriber",
  "display": "form",
  "title": "Quick Add Subscriber"
}

Custom icon names reference

This reference refers to the icons associated with the Icon name drop-downs in the interface.

For details, see: https://fonts.google.com/icons

To associate the icon of the in the drop-down, inspect the icon titles on the website, remove the title hyphens and capitalize the first letter of each word.

Related Topics

• Fixed and Configurable Filters in Menus and Landing Pages
• Automate Dashboards