User Interface
Overview
CPQ is a multichannel commerce and configurator software suite, composed of a Configurator and a Designer. The Designer is a product lifecycle management application that enables business teams to design, implement, deploy and manage the various components of a service offering, as well as the associated pricing and branding.
Accessible using a standard web browser, it uses an innovative approach called Process-based Modeling™ that combines ease of use and collaborative workflow with industry best practices to move the modeling process from a back-office IT dependent activity to one that is more accessible to business users in order to accelerate the product launch process.
Process-based Modeling™ involves the creation of projects which are managed on a per step basis. The goal of each step is to focus on one group of actions (that required certain skills), fulfilling a specific goal. For instance, one step is dedicated to the product structure design, another to promote branding, yet another to define the sales strategy, a final one to translate, etc.
Process-based Modeling™ also involves team management features, allowing for multiple business teams to focus on specifically assigned projects or to cooperate on shared or global projects.
The Designer’s user interface has been designed in order to reflect Process-based Modeling™. As such, after logging into to the application, you will find a Dashboard, which looks somewhat like a project management portal. Through the dashboard, you can manage projects, test your implementation, deploy versions, etc.
Inside a project, the user interface is organized into 5 sections:
- The designer header shows global information about the user and the environment. It also allows you to navigate to the previously opened objects in the different processes.
- The menu toolbar contains some commonly used functions to manage the selected step.
- The process header allows navigating within a given process, from one step to another one.
- The explorer allows you to build, display and browse a project structure or an object repository. It also contains some functions to manage its content.
- The step details allow you to create, display or modify the information related to the currently selected object or step. It also contains some functions to manage its content.
You will find a detailed description of these different elements in the following paragraphs.
Tip:
- The availability of the steps inside a project depends on the role(s) assigned to the business user.
- The documentation related to the product is accessible by clicking on the “Help” menu in the top right corner of the user interface.
The Dashboard
The dashboard provides an overview of your working environment. It allows you to manage your projects in three steps. In more detail, it allows you to:
- Work on your ongoing projects in the Design section by
- Creating new projects
- Accessing projects in order to update them
- Deleting projects which have been emptied previously
- Validate your projects in the Test section
- Package and push your projects in the Deploy section
- See the history of last pages opened
- Stay informed about deployed versions
The designer header
The designer header provides an access to the history of pages that were opened by the user.
It also contains some global information such as the currently selected team, workspace, version or language. For each of these, the user can change the selected value or edit the current one.
The user will find in the header the search field.
The designer header provides as well an access to the online help, and to the user preferences administration.
Designer Header
At any time, you can access the dashboard by clicking on the PROS CPQ Designer logo.
The back button offers the possibility to “go back” to previously opened objects. By default, it shows the last accessed objects. The objects are organized by date descending.
Navigation History
The Reload button enables the user to reload the page to get the up-to-date version of data.
The star button offers the possibility to see and open favorite objects. It also displays the button that enables to add the currently displayed page to the favorites.
Enable Macro Language Traces
The user is able to activate or deactivate Macro Language Traces directly from the Designer. The activation/deactivation is performed in live.
Favorites List
Each favorite has a cross icon next to it so you can remove it.
Finally, a Restore Default function allows you to reset user preferences (grid size, number of records per page, etc...)
Restore Defaults
You can select an option to clear the history from there.
The process header
The page header contains the steps (represented as tabs) accessible for the current project (based on the users’ role). The step is selected by using two levels of tabs. The current step is highlighted.
Some steps need to display lots of information; in these cases, views can be used in order to limit the information shown in the step details. These views are accessible by clicking on the little arrow on the right of the step:
The explorer
The explorer allows you to browse the project structure or to search and retrieve specific objects in the repository. In order to achieve these tasks, 3 explorers have been provided, in order to “explore the project structure”, to “explore specific content in the project structure” and to “search”.
EXPLORING THE PROJECT STRUCTURE
This explorer is used to browse a hierarchical structure, displayed as a tree. This explorer allows for the following actions:
- Opening an element by clicking on its name or description
- Selecting an element by clicking on its icon or in the line in order to:
- Move it up or down
- Cut or copy it
- Insert or paste another element inside or below it
- Delete the element
- Collapse or expand the tree, by using the “+” and “-” functions for that.
Each node of the structure is symbolized by an icon.
The manipulation of a node requires that it first be selected. The different functions which can then be executed on that node are available in the explorer toolbar.
EXPLORE SPECIFIC CONTENT
This explorer is used to retrieve objects having a specific type (such as BRC or Rich Media Objects) which have been associated to an element in the structure.
This explorer allows for the following actions:
- Browsing the project structure
- Looking up the content for each element in the structure by clicking on its name or description
- Opening an element (only for search BRC)
- Dragging and dropping an element to the step details (only for explore rich media)
ACTIONS IN THE EXPLORER
The user can use actions in explorer’s elements.
Available actions for the current explorer content are displayed on top of the explorer part.
The following functions are associated to the explorer. Depending on the step and the type of explorer, some of these will be enabled or disabled, or not even present.
| MENU ENTRY | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| New | The New button will allow the user to create new objects to be inserted in the currently selected element. A dialog pop-up will be opened and the user will be asked to provide some details about the newly created object. |
| Cut | The Cut function is used to move an element from a source location to a destination location. It will copy the currently selected object in the clipboard. Note: The clipboard can only contain one object at a time. |
| Copy | The Copy function is used to duplicate an object. It will copy the currently selected object to the clipboard. |
| Paste | The Paste function is used to paste a cut or a copied object from the clipboard to a destination location. This function has two variants: Paste inside will paste the copied element as a child of the selected element. Paste below will paste the copied element as a “brother” of the selected element. Note: The Copy-Paste sequence will duplicate the pasted object in a nonrecursive way, meaning that related objects will not be duplicated but reused. |
| MENU ENTRY | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| Move | The Move function is used to reorganize the sequence of the project structure. It can be used as an alternative to the cut-paste sequence. This function has two variants: Move up will move the selected element up in the hierarchy of elements. Move down will move the selected element down in the hierarchy of elements. |
| Delete | The Delete function enables the deletion of an element inside the project structure. If the element selected for deletion is reused by another parent, the element will be removed from the structure, but will not be physically deleted. If however the element selected for deletion is no longer reused by any other parent, the application will ask if you want to remove it, or physically delete it. Note: Removing an element means that the element is removed from its parent, but still available in the workspace repository. Deleting an element means physically deleting it from the workspace repository. Reference: In order to recursively delete projects in the Designer, please refer to Managing the workspace dictionary. |
| Execute Filter | The Execute Filter function enables users to launch a search on the objects which can be used in the current step. In order to perform a search: Click on the “Filter Objects” explorer tab Select the “workspace” (mandatory) Select the “type” (mandatory) Enter a name or a part of a name (without using wildcards) Enter a description or a part of a description Execute the “Search” function |
| Show | The Show function will determine how the explorer should be displayed. This function has two variants: Show name will show all elements in the explorer using their name Show description will show all elements in the explorer using their description Note: Every object created in the Designer needs at least one description. If an object does not carry a description in the currently shown language, it will be displayed using its name followed by “(no description available)”. If this happens, proceed to the translation of all objects to the given language. |
| MENU ENTRY | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| Add Folder | The Add Folder function is only available on the step “Rich Media Gallery” and enables organization of the images, files and plug-ins in folders and subfolders. Note: The “Add folder” function will physically create a folder on the server on which Designer has been installed. |
| Remove Folder | The Remove Folder function deletes a previously created folder. If the folder to be removed is not empty, the folder as well as its content (subfolders and files) will be deleted recursively. |
SEARCH IN THE EXPLORER
This explorer is used to find and retrieve elements based on certain criteria, in order to associate them to an element in the structure. This explorer allows for the following actions:
- Searching for elements based on criteria like the workspace, the class, the name and/or the description
- Browsing through the results table (if multiple resulting pages have been found)
- Drag & drop a resulting element to the step details in order to use or reuse it (e.g. in order to associate a BRC with an element in the structure)
- For the specific case of Standard Items or Sales Products search, click on a result line to open the product in the Product 360 flyer.
Reference: For more information about product 360, please refer to Designer Catalogs – Content – Product 360 Flyer.
[In the explorer] If not activated yet, select Filter Objects in the dropdown located at the top of the explorer
[In the explorer] Specify the search criteria:
[In the explorer toolbar] Execute the Search function in order to retrieve the results.
[In the explorer] Use the arrows in the table in order to navigate from one result page to another.
Information: The elements displayed in the second frame can be dragged and dropped into the working area by selecting their associated icon.
The step details
The step details contain all the information related to the current step and, if present, to the currently selected element in the structure explorer. The step details normally show one or multiple sections, possible containing normal fields or tables. The following example shows 2 sections in a product & service catalog, showing the system properties as well as the content.
Areas which have a grey background can be dragged & dropped.
ACTIONS IN STEPS
Steps comes with dedicated actions that are displayed directly within step sections. This is especially the case for table sections.
Step actions will be described in their related step chapter.
The menu toolbar
The menu toolbar provides functions that can be used in the global context of the currently selected step. Each function is represented by a button with a label.
Functions available here are merely represented by an icon and a label, and can be triggered by a single user action. For instance, the save function executes instantaneously:
Following functions can be found in all screens of the Designer:
| ACTION | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| Save | The Save action saves all modifications performed by the user since the last – automatic or manual – save action. |
| Reload | The Reload action will reinitialize the current step content based on the last saved data, and will thus behave as a global undo action. This action is not available on the dashboard. |
The object search
SEARCHING FOR OBJECTS
Accessible at all time in the title bar of the Designer, the main search box performs searches in all the object gallery. To search for an object, the user just has to enter a text string in the search field and click on the search icon (or press the “Enter” key). The results are displayed in a dedicated search result page.
SUGGESTIONS
When the user starts typing characters, the Designer quickly displays some suggestions in a dropdown list below the search field. The suggestions are based on a textual search on the name and description of the objects.
The resulting suggestions are sorted by type of object: standard items, configurable products, business properties, Rich Media Objects, BRC, etc. By default, the search is performed in the current workspace. A configurable maximum of suggestions per object type is displayed in the list. If this maximum is not reached for a specific type of object, the search is then extended to all the workspaces of the Designer instance.
For more details on how-to set the maximum of suggestions per object type, please refer to the CPQ Administration guide.
If too many items are displayed in the list, the user has the ability to continue typing in the search field to refine his search, or to click on the “More” link at the top of the suggestion list. He is then redirected to the search result page.
A click on one object in the suggestion list redirects the user to the menu of the Designer allowing its configuration, or to the View Dependencies window. For instance, clicking on a standard item opens the product 360 menu for that product.
SEARCH RESULTS PAGE
As explained above, the search results page is displayed when launching a search from the search field or by clicking on the “More” link in the suggestion list if any. If no result matches the query, a specific message encourages the user to modify his search.
The number of elements listed in the results page is limited in volume to keep the search efficient. If the object the user is searching for is not in the results list, the user is encouraged to refine or modify his search input.