Maintaining Customizations for a Base Component

The Component Summary contains all the base and custom presentation metadata for the component, including agency Help. By editing the presentation metadata for a component, you can customize the user interface to display information in a way more useful to your agency. Customizations made on the Component Summary are agency-wide and become the default view of the component for all user roles.

Note: Changes to the presentation metadata override changes to the business metadata. For example, if the RefVendor entity is sorted by Vendor ID in the business metadata, you can modify the presentation metadata for a specific component to instead sort vendors first by Vendor Type and then Vendor ID (Sort="VendorType, Name"). The custom presentation metadata overrides the business metadata only on the component where the customization is in place. For more information, see Customizing Entities.

To access the Component Summary, navigate to the Component Overview, and click the component Name link in the Components list.

The Component Summary opens on the Custom Metadata tab, which contains the following fields:

If the component is already customized, the Metadata field includes the custom metadata. If the Metadata field is empty, the component has not been customized. To modify an existing customization, click in the Metadata field and make changes as needed. For more information about using the code editor text box, see Using the Code Editor Text Box.

The Base Metadata tab contains a read-only copy of the base presentation metadata for the component as it was shipped with the application. You can view, but not change the information on this tab.

To create agency-wide customizations for this component, copy the entire contents of the Metadata field on the Base Metadata tab, paste them into the Metadata field on the Custom Metadata tab, and edit the presentation metadata as needed. For more information about using the code editor text box, see Using the Code Editor Text Box.

When you are finished, click the Save button. The system displays a message to confirm that your changes were saved in the database.

Future software updates will overwrite the base presentation metadata with the new version. Once you have customized the presentation metadata for a component, future system updates will not overwrite the custom presentation metadata. However, customizations should be evaluated after each software update to ensure that they have not been impacted by deprecated controls and that users have access to any newly added features.

To add or modify the agency Help for the component, click the Agency Help tab. For more information, see Creating Agency Help for a Component.

For more information and sample exercises, see the System Administration Customization Guide, included in the installation package.

Using the Code Editor Text Box

Code Editor text boxes are available on components where you customize system metadata. Clicking the magnifying glass button on the right side of the text box opens a secondary window that displays XML or IronPython code in numbered rows. This window provides basic code editing features, such as syntax color coding and indentation, in-line error and warning syntax validations, and the ability to expand and collapse elements.

While this window is open, pressing the tab key advances the cursor only within the text window; it will not advance the cursor to other areas of the page. Also, using your browser's search function (CTRL+F) will only search text that is currently visible on the component. To search the entire contents of the text window, click anywhere inside the window and press CTRL+F. A search field for use only in searching the contents of the window appears in the upper right corner of the window.