You use InterAction Administrator to create and edit activity types.
New/Edit Activity Type Dialog Box
When you create an activity type, you must specify information for the following fields.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | The name of the activity type. This displays in both the Web Client and the Windows Client when users create, edit, and view activities. Because of this, an activity type name should be short yet descriptive. |
| Group | All activity types must be part of an activity type group. You must create the activity groups first. |
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Status For details about these settings, see Determining Where Activity Types are Displayed. |
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| Display this type to users (active) |
Indicates that this activity type is available to end users. When selected, you can specify how the type may be used:
|
| Hide this type from users (inactive) |
Indicates that the activity type won’t be available to end users. This is useful for removing a type without completely deleting it from the system. Any activities currently using the type are not changed. Note that you can completely delete an activity type if no activities are currently using it. See Removing Activity Types. |
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Expiration For more information about these settings, see Automatically Removing Activities. |
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| Automatically delete activities of this type from InterAction | Indicates that activities using this type are purged from the database after a specified time period. Note that deleting expired activities is part of a standard database maintenance script provided with InterAction. The automatic deleting does not take place unless you schedule this script as an automated process as described in “Set up the Script to Delete Expired Activities” in Automatically Removing Activities. |
| Delete activities of this type after |
Indicates the time period after which activities of this type expire and are automatically deleted by the database maintenance script. You can select a time period from the drop-down list (2 weeks, 30 days, 1 year, etc.) The actual expiration date is calculated based on whichever is later—the actual activity date or the date the user created the activity. |
| Allow users to override the default expiration days | Indicates that users can change the expiration date when creating or editing an activity. |
| Make this activity type available for calendar items | This is included if you are using calendar synchronization. Types with this option selected are available when adding appointments to InterAction. |
See the following topics:
- Create an Activity Type
- Edit an Activity Type
- Removing Activity Types
- Creating and Editing Activity type Groups
Create an Activity Type
- On the main window of InterAction Administrator, double-click Activities, Appointments, and Document References in the entity list.
- Choose the Types button to open the Manage Activity & Appointment Types dialog box.
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Choose the New button to open the New Activity/Appointment Type dialog box.
- Enter the Name.
- Select the group to which this activity type should be added. If you want to add the activity to a custom group, you must create the group first. For details, see Creating and Editing Activity type Groups.
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Under Status, indicate whether the activity type should be available to end users or not.
To Do This Make the activity type available Select Display this type to users (active), then select the check boxes for the areas where the type should be available. For details, see Determining Where Activity Types are Displayed. Hide the type from end users. This is normally only done for types that are used in special processing, such as the type used to record information saved in a duplicate merge. Select Hide this type from users (inactive). - If you want activities of this type to be deleted automatically after a certain amount of time has passed, select Automatically delete activities of this type from InterAction, then select the time period from the drop-down list.
- If you want users to be able to change the expiration date when creating and editing activities, select the Allow users to override the default expiration days check box.
- If you are using calendar synchronization and you want the type to be available for appointments, select the Make this activity type available for calendar items check box.
- Choose the OK button.
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Choose the Close button to close the Manage Activity & Appointment Types dialog box, and then Close again.
The new activity type is available in the Web Client and the Windows Client immediately. The places it is available depends on the settings you selected under Status. For details, see Determining Where Activity Types are Displayed.
Edit an Activity Type
Some activity types are used for special processing and cannot be changed. For details, see Automatically-Generated Activities.
- On the main window of InterAction Administrator, double-click Activities, Appointments, and Document References in the entity list.
- Choose the Types button to open the Manage Activity & Appointment Types dialog box.
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Select the Activity Type to change and choose the Edit button.
Note that you can filter the list of activity types in the dialog box if necessary. This is useful if you have a large number of types. Choose the Filter button and select the options for the kind of types you want to view.
- Change the fields as needed.
- Choose the OK button.
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Choose the Close button to close the Manage Activity & Appointment Types dialog box.
The changes are available in the Web Client and the Windows Client immediately. The places where the edited activity type is available depends on the settings you selected under Status. For details, see Determining Where Activity Types are Displayed.
Removing Activity Types
There are two ways to remove activity types from InterAction:
- Completely delete the type. You can only do this if there are no activities using the type.
- Hide the type from end users. In this case, users can no longer use the type in any searches or for new activities, but existing activities that use the type are not changed.
Hiding a type rather than deleting is safer because you can always restore the type if you change your mind.
- For example, if you change the status of the activity type “Letter” to Inactive, all existing activities that were assigned the Letter type will still be assigned to this type. However, the Letter type will no longer be available for use with new activities.
- You can also select options in between making the type completely available or completely hidden. For details, see Determining Where Activity Types are Displayed.
Remove an Activity Type
You cannot delete or inactivate the out-of-the-box activity types used for generated activities. For details about these types, see Automatically-Generated Activities.
- On the main window of InterAction Administrator, double-click Activities, Appointments, and Document References in the entity list.
- Choose the Types button to open the Manage Activity & Appointment Types dialog box.
- Select the Activity Type to remove and choose the Remove button.
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In the Confirm Delete dialog box, select the method you want to use to remove the activity type.
To Do This Hide the type from end users, but keep the information in the database. Select the Hide this type in the list of types... option. Completely delete the type.
Note that you can only delete the type if no activities currently use it.
Select the Remove this type from the system permanently option. -
Choose OK. If you are completely deleting a type, but the type is currently used by activities or appointments in InterAction, an error message displays. You need to either delete the items or change them to use a different type.
- Choose the Close button to close the Manage Activity & Appointment Types dialog box.
Creating and Editing Activity type Groups
Activity type groups are used for filtering activities in the InterAction Web Client. If you want to use a new activity type group with a new activity type, you must create the group first.
Activity type groups are also used for determining which activities are displayed in some areas of InterAction for Microsoft Outlook.
You use InterAction Administrator to create activity type groups. When you create a group, you just give the group a name.
Several activity type groups are included with InterAction. You can edit some of the groups to meet your needs, however some are used for special processing and should not be changed. These are the following:
| ID | Default Name |
|---|---|
| 10 | Name/Title Change |
| 20 | Employment Change |
| 30 | Phone/Address Change |
Manage Activity and Appointment Types Groups
- On the main window of InterAction Administrator, double-click Activities, Appointments, and Document References in the entity list.
- Choose the Types button to open the Manage Activity & Appointment Types dialog box.
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Choose Groups. From here, you can add, edit, and remove activity type groups.
To Do This Add a new group Choose New. Enter a name for the group and choose OK. Change the name of a group. Select the group and choose Edit. Change the name for the group and choose OK. Remove a group. Select the group and choose Remove. When prompted, confirm the deletion. Caution: Do not delete the system groups provided with InterAction. Also note that you cannot delete a group that is being used by any activity types. Before you delete a group, change any activity types that are using that group to a different group.
- When you are finished changing the activity type groups, choose the Close button. Choose Close again to close the Manage Activity & Appointment Types dialog box.
How Does a New Activity Type Group Appear in the Web Client and Windows Client?
Activity groups only display when they contain activity types, so you need to assign one or more types to a new group.
A new activity type group becomes available in the Web Client and Windows Client immediately. The group is available anywhere activity types are displayed within groups.
Note that the rules that determine where activity types are used apply to activity type groups indirectly. For example, the Configure Alerts page displays activity types by group. If all the types within a new group are set to not display on this page (that is, the Display on the Customize Watch List / Alertspage check box is not selected), then the new group does not display on this page.
For more about the options that control where an activity type displays, see Determining Where Activity Types are Displayed.