Solved: Re: Model Driven App Contact form - Timeline logic

ghdunn · ‎01-29-2020

Building a Model Driven App with Contact/Activity entities.

The Timeline sub-form on the Contact form seems to have a different logic to my Related Activities views - typically there will be activities which don't appear on the Timeline.

If I try to expose the Timeline sub-form to see how the filter works, it tells me I can edit in Classic view, but I can't then see anything to expose the logic of the filter.

SeanHenderson · ‎01-29-2020

Hi @ghdunn

Double click on the Timeline pane, then click the Activities tab. From here you can adjust what you want to see in the feed.

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HSheild · ‎01-31-2020

Hi @ghdunn , responses below in blue. It can be really confusing and sometimes the Microsoft documentation doesn't explain it fully.

@ghdunn wrote:
1. I am somewhat confused about 'Regarding' (and I have raised a question on this previously and not really got to the bottom of it). If I generate an email, or an appointment, I would really expect the event to show on the Timelines of all addressees or invitees, driven by the 'To' field, or even the 'cc' or 'bcc' field. After all, the event does involve those people to them. But 'Regarding' allows only one item to be selected. What are your thoughts?

The Regarding will get set automatically if you create the activity from within the Contact record. If you create an activity from the Activities section of the system then you have to manually set the To and Regarding fields.

2. If I wanted to extend the filter of Timeline to include not just Regarding, but all those above, how would i do that?

I don't think this is possible. In CDS it is best practice to always set Regarding and it you can do that by always creating the activity record from within the entity form that you want the Regarding to be set to.

3. There just seem to be too many different terms being used here for it to be clear. 'Timeline' suggests timeline of 'events' but it doesn't really clearly suggest what those events are. 'Regarding' is a clear field..though sadly allows only one entry. You then have 'Associated' and 'Related'. What do those two terms actually mean. Is associated that broader definition of To/cc/bcc etc

Timeline only shows records where the Regarding is set.

Related means that the Contact is in the To/cc/bcc

Associated means that if you were looking at the parent Account record for the Contact then you would see the Contact's activities where Regarding = Contact on the Account record's Associated Activities view. This is because the Account and Contact have a special Parent / Child relationship.

However, I have noticed that in my CDS environment the Associated Activities view is not working properly. It is showing all Activities in the system, even if they are not related to the Contact in any way. Very strange. I don't use the Associated Activities view normally.

4. Finally comes 'Include Related=On' What does related mean...does it broaden it to not just the regarding and to/cc/bcc but also every item that was sent by the user, even if it doesn't relate to the Contact in question? That just seems counter intutitive that setting that to 'on' tightens the filter not loosens it. It perhaps would better say say 'includes related only', perhaps?

Include Related = On is meant to include Activities that are related through the to/cc/bcc fields. When it is Off it's meant to not include Activities that are related through the to/cc/bcc fields. I think that makes sense. However, in my comment above I think there is an issue where all activities in the system are being included. This might need a support case to Microsoft.

5. As for your point about Posts entity etc. My MDA has brought in Account, Contact and Activity entities, but I assume makes use of any necessary dependencies in the broader CDS core schema. Are we suggesting that this full activity functionality has dependencies outside of that schema that are therefore missing?

Don't worry about Posts. They are a completely different entity that can also appear in the Timeline along with Notes and Activities. Post are only available with Dynamics 365 apps and are not related to Activities.

Thoughts?

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HSheild · ‎02-01-2020

Hi @ghdunn ,

Good point about "If I am writing an email to Fred and Bob, wouldn't I want it to appear in BOTH timelines as Regarding both of them?"

Yes I would. I just took a look at my Dynamics 365 instance (which is essentially a special type of MDA) and the Timeline in Dynamics 365 behaves differently to standard MDA with CDS. It shows the Regarding but also the related records through To, CC and BCC. For example, if there is an email to Fred and Bob and they are from Company (Account) XYZ. I set the Regarding of the email to XYZ so that it appears on the Account's timeline and when I look at the Contact records for Fred and Bob the email appears on the Timeline too. I come from a Dynamics 365 background and I've never had an issue with the Timeline not showing info. But working through this post with you there is clearly a difference between the Timeline control in MDA and Dynamics 365 apps. Either there is a bug in MDA or we haven't got some configuration set properly. If this is a real issue for you in your CDS environment I would raise a support case with Microsoft at this stage.

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SeanHenderson · ‎01-29-2020

Hi @ghdunn

Double click on the Timeline pane, then click the Activities tab. From here you can adjust what you want to see in the feed.

---
Please hit the "Accept as Solution" button if my post answered your question! If my post was helpful please consider giving it a "Thumbs Up."

ghdunn · ‎01-29-2020

Thanks ...@SeanHenderson

I didn't know that....I do now!

However I am still struggling to decode what it tells me.

Why should this Timeline view show nothing for this particular contact, when I know there are activities related to them in the database. Which one of these tabs/views etc contains the filter logic I need to examine?

SeanHenderson · ‎01-29-2020

On the general tab is Filter By set to Show all?

ghdunn · ‎01-30-2020

Thanks @SeanHenderson

Yes...it is..(screenprint 1)....but it does not show anything(screenprint 2), even though there are 'related' activities(screenprint 3)

(1)

(2)

(3)

SeanHenderson · ‎01-30-2020

I think changes must have been made to your Rules and Configurations. Go to the advanced settings and check your Activity feed config to see if some things have been disabled.

ghdunn · ‎01-30-2020

Thanks @SeanHenderson

I dont see quite the same options...nothing showing for Activity Feeds Config

HSheild · ‎01-31-2020

Hi @ghdunn ,

The reason that your activities do not appear in the Timeline is because they are not Regarding the Contact. i.e. the Regarding field on your activities is not set to the Contact. See red box in screenshot below.

Check out this article. It says "If the Regarding field of an activity is set, the activity appears in the record it is associated with."

The reason that you see the activities in the Open Activity Associated View is because you have the Include Related field toggled to On. If you turn that toggle off then it will show the same activities in your timeline (none).

Now my question is, is it possible to get the related Activities showing in the Timeline (as they do in the Associated view) without setting the Regarding?

@SeanHenderson is your CDS environment a Dynamics 365 environment? I think the Activity Feeds is specific to Dynamics 365. I have it in my Dynamics 365 environment but not CDS environments. Activity Feeds Config only controls the Posts entity and has nothing to do with Activities (unless I am mistaken).

SeanHenderson · ‎01-31-2020

@HSheild

The app I was testing was Dynamics, but I went into a CDS environment with no Dynamics apps installed and checked the main form on the Contacts entity and it still has a Timeline with Activities. I don't know if it has 1:1 functionality with the Dynamics app though.

ghdunn · ‎01-31-2020

thanks @HSheild and @SeanHenderson for the really thoughtful answers...i appreciate it.

Firstly, to confirm, I am using a CDS core schema environment....not Dynamics.

Can I just sum up where I am with my thinking and pose some questions:

1. I am somewhat confused about 'Regarding' (and I have raised a question on this previously and not really got to the bottom of it). If I generate an email, or an appointment, I would really expect the event to show on the Timelines of all addressees or invitees, driven by the 'To' field, or even the 'cc' or 'bcc' field. After all, the event does involve those people to them. But 'Regarding' allows only one item to be selected. What are your thoughts?

2. If I wanted to extend the filter of Timeline to include not just Regarding, but all those above, how would i do that?

3. There just seem to be too many different terms being used here for it to be clear. 'Timeline' suggests timeline of 'events' but it doesn't really clearly suggest what those events are. 'Regarding' is a clear field..though sadly allows only one entry. You then have 'Associated' and 'Related'. What do those two terms actually mean. Is associated that broader definition of To/cc/bcc etc

4. Finally comes 'Include Related=On' What does related mean...does it broaden it to not just the regarding and to/cc/bcc but also every item that was sent by the user, even if it doesn't relate to the Contact in question? That just seems counter intutitive that setting that to 'on' tightens the filter not loosens it. It perhaps would better say say 'includes related only', perhaps?

5. As for your point about Posts entity etc. My MDA has brought in Account, Contact and Activity entities, but I assume makes use of any necessary dependencies in the broader CDS core schema. Are we suggesting that this full activity functionality has dependencies outside of that schema that are therefore missing?

Thoughts?