New features delivered in 23.05
The following features and enhancements were included as part of 23.05:
Specifying relative dates
You can now specify dates as they relate to the current date (such as 3 days ago or 2 weeks later) instead of specifying an exact date (such as May 18, 2023) (AFL-8279).
This functionality is supported in two areas of NexJ CRM:
- In New or Edit dialogs for activities, you can indicate a relative date in date fields, such as Start Date or Due Date for tasks. You can use the "day" interval to indicate a date which is in the past or the future, up to 90 days removed from the current date.
- In filter dialogs used to search for a record, you can specify relative dates in date filters, such as the Last Updated filter on the Contacts workspace or First Response Date filter on the Service Requests workspace. You can use "day", "month", or "year" intervals to indicate a date in the past or the future.
This functionality is not yet available in the Reporting workspace.
For more information, see "Searching and filtering in NexJ CRM", "Activities", and "Navigating the NexJ CRM user interface" topics in end-user documentation.
Displaying additional information about activities
When viewing a list of activities in a data table, you can now see the full notes associated with each activity. The note is displayed as a new row, below the row with all other information about the activity. To include the notes rows in the data table, use the Select columns command (which may be accessed from the More Actions menu for the data table) to select the Note field.
In a previous release, this feature was only supported in the Activities tab on the Contacts workspace.
It is now supported on the following tabs and workspaces (AFL-8242):
- Tasks workspace
- Home workspace on the My Contact's Recent Activities tab
- Document Manager workspace
- Opportunities workspace on the Activities tab
- Service Request workspace on the Activities tab
For more information, see "Activities" and "Adding notes" in end-user documentation.
Integrated Lead Management feature enhancements
NexJ CRM now supports two ways of managing leads, Classic Leads and Integrated Lead Management. The Classic Leads feature continues to use a separate Leads workspace to manage leads as separate objects from contacts. After a lead has been qualified, it can be converted into a contact.
The new Integrated Lead Management capability defines a lead as a regular contact with the status "Lead", which can be managed using the Contacts workspace. The experience of working with a lead is identical to that of working with other contacts. For example, you can update contact details or create activities for a lead, in the exact same way as you would for any other contact. The progress of a lead to a prospect or a client is seamless to the user.
If Integrated Lead Management is enabled, the new Leads subject area is displayed on the Contacts workspace (AFL-8318). By default, the data table for the Leads subject area displays leads-specific fields as Lead Status and Market Segment.
If you select the Leads saved filter on the Contacts workspace, you can run a batch process to assign an owner to multiple leads at once or change the lead status of multiple leads at once. The results of the batch processes can be seen in the Batch Processes workspace (AFL-7803).
For more information, see "Managing leads (Integrated Lead Management)" in end-user documentation.
Reporting enhancements
This release includes the following enhancements to the ad hoc reporting functionality:
- A confirmation dialog was added to ensure that users do not inadvertently lose changes when they select the Cancel or Revert button after configuring a report (CDM-5272).
- Updated the wording used in cases where the files generated by a scheduled report exceed the maximum allowed attachment size (CDM-5326).
- The naming of action buttons used in various dialogs across the Reporting workspace was standardized (CDM-5325).
- Updated the wording used in cases when a report needs to be updated (CDM-5323).
- Related (associated) records now respect filters (CDM-5185). You can specify how to display the associated records (for example, Related Activities for a Contact) in a report. Choose whether all available related records or only those matching the report filters are included. To control which associated records are included, use the new Include all related records field on the Details tab.
- It is now possible to include Object ID as a report field (CDM-5324). A new subject area configuration parameter
showObjectId
was added to control the visibility of the Object ID field, which is hidden by default. When enabled, the Object ID will be included in the list of available fields for the affected subject area and may be used in a filter.
Including calculated field in reports
You can now create new report fields based on calculations at run time (CDM-5085). When creating or editing a report, click Add Calculated Field on the Details tab to open the new dialog, which was introduced to facilitate the configuration of calculated fields for each report. The rich Domain Syntax Language (DSL) used in defining the calculations includes support for:
- Referring to an existing report field
- Common arithmetic and relational operators
- Functions that allow numeric, text, date, timestamp, and other computations
- Conditional logic and logical operators
Support for using calculated fields as filters, in sorting, or on Summary and Visualization tabs will be added in future releases.
Usability enhancements
This release contains the following usability enhancements:
If a schedule item has been cancelled, this status is now shown on the Schedule workspace as the [Cancelled] prefix to the schedule item description (AFL-8295).
- When adding or updating an address for a household, available options have been expanded to match those available for contact (AFL-7782).
- On the Today's Agenda card on the Home workspace, the activity status for cancelled and completed schedule items is displayed as a prefix to the schedule item description (AFL-8157).
Improved interaction filter options for predefined reports
When specifying which activities should be included in the predefined contact Details report, you can now select multiple activity types and templates (AFL-7832, AFL-7958).
For more information, see "Predefined reports" in the end-user documentation.
New icon for tasks and the Tasks workspace
Through the application, the icon used for tasks, the Tasks workspace, Add Task menu items, and the Tasks reporting subject area has been changed to , to better reflect the functionality (AFL-8023).
Technology enhancements
This release includes the following technology enhancements:
- Loading efficiency for the Schedule workspace has been improved (AFL-8332).
Automation enhancements
This release includes the following automation enhancements:
- UI automated testing has been upgraded to use Selenium WebDriver 8.4.3 (EAF-314).