The SmartSimple Blog

Welcome to another installment of  Chin's Musings ! In this series, Systems Controller Chin Chuah will create helpful rundowns of various system features and processes to help you better understand the SmartSimple platform. These articles are geared toward experienced SmartSimple system users. For further information about the SmartSimple Variable Processor , please visit our Wiki page or click on any of the accompanying links in this article.  The Variable Processor is used to dynamically replace various values throughout the system with context to the current user or the object being viewed. While the Variable Processor is a very powerful and useful tool, one must understand the basics behind how it functions to configure it properly. In general, any time that you retrieve a variable for use in a calculation, evaluation, or assignment to another standard field , you need to always encapsulate it within double quotes. In Template Formulas Problem 1: @l...

Welcome to another installment of  Chin's Musings ! In this series, Systems Controller Chin Chuah will create helpful rundowns of various system features and processes to help you better understand the SmartSimple platform. These articles are geared toward experienced SmartSimple system users. For further information on correct data formats in your SmartSimple system, please visit our Wiki or click any of the accompanying links in this article. What are data formats and why are they important? When storing any information into any system (not just limited to SmartSimple) it's important to understand what type of information you're dealing with and how to format it accordingly. The purpose of this is to store information in a meaningful way such that you can perform calculations or analysis on it. Take the example of someone's name. The easiest way to store this would be to have a single field called "Name" for us to store our full name into. However, ...

Welcome to another installment of Chin's Musings ! In this series, Systems Controller Chin Chuah will create helpful rundowns of various system features and processes to help you better understand the SmartSimple platform. What are Template Formulas? Template Formulas provide a method for updating standard/ custom field values on an object behind the scenes upon saving. They let you perform extra calculations after saving an object. They can be handy because they let you: Update an object and perform calculations after it's been saved (i.e. support ticket subjects). Say you want to combine an autonumber field with the Level 1 subject, but when you first create the Level 1 the autonumber hasn't been reserved and stored yet until after you save. (For more information about the Universal Tracking Application ™ and the different Level Entities, read our wiki .) Affect objects at different levels (i.e. a Level 2 formula can be used to update a Level 1, an Level 1 fo...

Welcome to another installment of  Chin's Musings ! In this series, Systems Controller Chin Chuah will create helpful rundowns of various system features and processes to help you better understand the SmartSimple platform. SmartSimple is continually becoming more robust and enhanced with new features. This sometimes results in the ability to configure the same end functionality through the use of a variety of different techniques. This post will help you decide on the best approach for your situation by discussing different ways to update a field value . Default Text This is the simplest way to store a value into a field. Default Text is configured through the custom field settings page for open text input fields such as Text Box - Single Line . This setting works by populating the input field on the form with the specified default value when a field does not already have a value stored in it. This requires the user to save the form to actually save the field value. Adva...

Welcome to another installment of  Chin's Musings ! In this series, Systems Controller Chin Chuah will create helpful rundowns of various system features and processes to help you better understand the SmartSimple platform. Let's learn about some common issues encountered when configuring SmartSimple. Workflows Not Firing Ensure that the workflow has connectors between the tasks. There needs to be a start and end (or connection) to another workflow. When using branching logic within task connectors, ensure that every outcome and possibility is accounted for in your conditions and that each condition is mutually exclusive from each other. Do not overlap logical conditions with each other. Ensure that the object you're triggering the workflow on is enabled for it. For example, Universal Tracking Application ™  L1 templates need to have workflows enabled and specific association workflows selected. Companies need to select specific company/contact workflows. Multipl...