Document vs General Updates

[MichaelMa9]

Hello Everyone, Question....we are heavy users of the general updates area and the document updates area ....in terms of, well, updates, and dialogue, back and forth conversation. I never thought to officially ask in two years because for some reason I assumed it couldn't work but, is there a way to filter all conversations into one area in a given project? I know you can "filter system updates" so it just shows conversations and not the auto-updates. But can we get the document conversations funneled over to the general area or some other area I don't know about. Sometimes we have some important info we are discussing off the documents that will be valuable in the general area. Thank you in advance, Mike Mike Marando Excelsior College

[pco88]

Hi Mike, We do an updates reports, picking up all the note text and then putting this in a dashboard. The dashboard is then included in the projects layout so it picks up only the updates within the project. This ensures all document and general update text are in one area. Polly Co

[bpilarski]

This is something I also have wanted for a long time but assumed it wouldn't work. It would be such a tremendous help in our workflow to make this an option! Barb Pilarski Pittsburgh Penguins

[andrewq25594695]

@Polly Co , can you elaborate on how you produced that report? Is it just a project report that surfaces the updates? Not sure how it could be configured to pull across different object types (e.g. project, task, document, issue, etc.) on a single project. Andy Qualls

[pco88]

It's not a project report, it's a note report. When you don't filter the report and put it within the project, it automatically picks up only items within the project. Polly Co

[andrewq25594695]

Thanks @Polly Co a few follow up questions. When you created the dashboard and added to your project templates were you able to set it up so it knows to pull notes from the project your on automatically? Or did you have set it up on a per project basis manually? Any tips on formatting? I grouped it by entry date, but it would great if you group it by parent note (so you get to group the threaded conversations) and include a link to where the update is so you can easily reply. Andy Qualls

[pco88]

I put the dashboard as a custom tab in the layout template. The autofiltering to the project is done by the Workfront application and applies not only to notes but also documents and a few more objects. You should try it. I do not filter to per project, Workfront just does it. Formatting wise - lol -- I had thought about sharing this at some point at a leap session when we do find time to do it but - group it by threadID and then sort by entry date so that your users can see the latest first.We also identify the object type and highlight it if it's specifically coming from documents. Polly Co

[HectorGa]

Hi, This dashboard sounds interesting, would you be able to share a redacted screenshot, to see how it looks/functions? Thanks HG Hector Garcia *IEHP

[pco88]

Here you go. Polly Co

[MichaelMa9]

That is great to know there is a way. I am a little confused as to the setup though. I saw where I can get the Notes report in the reporting area. But do you have a tutorial you can send or can you share the commands/filtering/groupings that you executed to get the report?

Again I want to have a log appear of all document and general updates for each project, and it will live in the updates area of said project.

So you are saying there is a way to pull in the dashboard to the project level?

Thanks for all your help on this!

[pco88]

You'd have to create a notes report, do not filter to any project. Then put the notes report into a dashboard. On your projects layout template, add this dashboard as a custom tab.

When you access the project, click on more and find this dashboard. You should be able to see all the note text pertaining to that project only. This would be the most basic of the notes report.

As I've discussed in this thread, it's really up to you how you want to fancy up the notes report. Our users want to be able to identify whether the update came from the document, the other updates just roll up to general updates so I don't need to highlight that. So I open up the Object field as a column on the notes report and then made a rule that if the object type is Document, I highlight it so it's identifiable right away. I've also grouped things by threadID, so conversations are all together and then sorted by the entry date so users can see what's the latest.

[andrewq25594695]

Sorry for all the questions about this, but we have been searching of this solution for so long.

• Could you share the text mode used to pull in the columns for "go to the update?" I assume its just building a link using the threadID, right?
• Also how do you pull in the 'tagged people' column? could you share that text mode code?
• I also noticed on the object column, if the object note is on is the project itself nothing displays. Shouldn't it say PROJ or PROJECT?
• Is there anyway to clean up the threadID display on the grouping? It would b great group by threadID, but display owner and name, or note text for example.

[pco88]

valueexpression=IF(ISBLANK({noteObjCode}), CONCAT("https://your instance/project/view?ID=",{projectID},"&activeTab=tab-project-updates&commentID=",{ID},"&showCommentBox=true"),IF(CONTAINS("DOCU",{noteObjCode}),CONCAT("your instance/document/view?ID=",{documentID},"&activeTab=tab-documents-updates&commentID=",{ID},"&showCommentBox=true"), CONCAT("https://your instance/task/view?ID=",{taskID},"&activeTab=tab-task-updates&commentID=",{ID},"&showCommentBox=true")))

displayname=Tagged People

listdelimiter=<br>

listmethod=nested(tags).lists

textmode=true

type=iterate

valuefield=user:name

valueformat=HTML

The object code is blank when it's project as you can see in the value expression above.

Your grouping is up to you. For our team, I'd like to give them the context of what the whole conversation was all about. There's no "subject" like it would be in an email thread so the only identifiable group would be threadID.

[MichaelMa9]

Thank you so much for this information. I will give it a shot. We have been looking for this for a long time as well. I always told out team there was not a way but I finally had to ask. thanks again Mike Mike Marando Excelsior College

[HectorGa]

Thanks! Hector Garcia *IEHP

[MichaelMa9]

One other question if you don't mind. What is the access level like? Can a worker and planner access that tab? What about a reviewer license? Thanks! Mike Mike Marando Excelsior College

[pco88]

This would be based on who you share the dashboard with. Also, in our instance, our requestors do not see updates where they are not specifically tagged in the thread and so that applies on the report as well. Polly Co

[MichaelMa9]

That makes sense. Thanks for all your help. I am building it now, so far it looks like this can work for our needs! Mike Mike Marando Excelsior College

[MichaelMa9]

@ Polly Co I am having a problem finding the Thread ID grouping. I have done a search and can't seem to come up with it. If I can find that and group the comments together by thread I think I can have exactly what I am looking for. thanks! Mike Mike Marando Excelsior College

[andrewq25594695]

to group by threadID us the following text mode:

group.0.displayname=Thread

group.0.linkedname=direct

group.0.namekey=threadID

group.0.valuefield=threadID

group.0.valueformat=string

textmode=true‚

[MichaelMa9]

Thank you Andy! -Mike Mike Marando Excelsior College