The Dashboard is the default screen that displays when you log in to Contracts and is used to house portlets and global messages.
Portlets are miniature browse screens, which contain links to information and tasks relevant to the individual user, as well as links to the Contract, Company, and Project Profiles that the user recently visited. Portlets can be added, removed, resized, and repositioned one the home page.
Global messages are created by Administrators and display on the home page of users who need, or are affected by, the information provided in the message. Global messages typically display for a prescribed amount of time, which is determined by the Administrator who authored the message.
Portlets
Currently, there are 15 available portlets, included three navigation portlets: Recently Viewed Companies, Recently Viewed Contracts, and Recently Viewed Projects. The other portlets provide quick access to the Tasks and Workflow steps users need to complete, the Events users are monitoring, the Contracts for which users have some measure of responsibility, Recent Messages that are awaiting a user’s reply, the Document Packages that include a user as a member of the team, the eSignature Packages that include a user in the electronic signing process, and the contract requests (My Requests) users have made and are monitoring. For users with approval authority, they can also add portlets to monitor the contract requests (My Approvals) made by other users, and the Supplier Registrations that are awaiting approval. If a user frequently performs searches on the data stored in Contracts, they can add a Search portlet to quickly retrieve saved searches, which can be displayed graphically using the Charting portlet.
| Add Portlet button | Click Add Portlet on the top right hand side of the home page to display the Add Portlet window. |
| Add Portlet window | Locate the portlet you want to add by scrolling through the list. |
| Add button | Click to add the portlet to the home page.
Tip: The default display of portlets is two side-by-side portlets, but a single portlet can occupy the entire width of the home page by dragging-and-dropping it to a different location on the home page. |
| Close button | Click the red X icon to close the window. |
Global Messages
Administrators create the global messages that display in selected, or all, user home pages. There are three types of global messages: (1) Warnings, which display with a yellow background (2) Alerts, which display with a pink background, and (2) Information, which displays with a blue background.
A global message displays for a prescribed amount of time, as determined by the Administrator who sent the message, but the display can be collapsed to free up the viewing area in the home page for portlets.
| Alert message | Display for a message that has been designated as an alert. |
| Warning message | Display for a message that has been designated as a warning.
Tip: A global message may contain an active link to a URL (e.g., https://qa-dev.novatuscontracts.com/Contracts). |
| Important message | Display for a message that has been designated as important. |
| Collapse icon | Click the ^ icon to collapse the global message display. |