Creating Groups

The task group feature within the search view is a powerful tool to organize tasks and work orders in a convenient manner. Click on the icon to enable the group option. Disable this option to enhance performance if the query includes a large number of records. The group feature requires the system to load all records into memory before displaying the information. A virtual list is utilized if the group option is disabled. Records within a virtual list are not loaded into RAM memory until the information is displayed.

The task module groups information within multiple user-defined levels. This feature gives the user many display options within a specific view tab. For example, the Group option in the task list below was selected to schedule an employee. The Employee & Due Date setting groups the task by Employee ID, Past/Today/Future setting, and Date.

Folder groups will appear only if a task exists within that group or date. Note the No Due Date folder in the list above. This grouping is useful to identify tasks with no due date.  Create additional tab views if additional lists such as pending tasks, tasks that are on hold waiting for parts, or completed task are needed.  Open a task by double-clicking on the task. The Schedule entries are found within the Schedule tab of the task.

Click on the Groups button to change or edit a group setting.

Select a new group and click the Close button to select a new group.

Click on the Properties button to view or edit the group settings as shown below:

The group Description describes the grouping.

The Default Query setting allows the user to associate a query setting to the group. This option is left blank if the Group and Query settings are independent of one another. Review the Creating Queries section for more details on queries.

The Employee & Due Date example contains three levels:

• Level 1 – Employee

• Level 2 - Past/Today/Future

• Level 3 – Date

• Level 4 is extra

Check one or more of the options within the list to identify a field within the first level of the group. The selected field - EMP_ID in the example shown above, groups the first level of the task view by the employee id. Review the Standard Features > Advanced Query Options section in the Main documentation for details on identifying a field name.

Click on the Level 2 tab as shown below:

The Level 2 grouping option is using Advanced code to group the second level. The second level is not identified by a single field or two but is created using programming code as sown below. The Advanced option is enabled to change the grouping option from a field list to programming code. This code is similar to the advanced query code explained in the Standard Features > Advanced Query Options section of the main manual.

Click on the Level 3 tab as shown below:

Configure the Level 3 tab of the group by selecting the DUE_BY field. You may need to scroll to find the selected field within the group since the task record consists of a large number of fields.

The last level (Level 4 in example above) always contains a list with no selections. A new unselected level will appear each time fields are selected within the "last" tab.