Creating and Editing Contact Types

You use InterAction to create and edit contact types. You must log into Windows Client as a user with Manage contact types permission to create or edit contact types. For instructions for granting this permission, see Give Users Permission to Manage Contact Types.

Note that there are two ways to add and edit contact types:

1. Edit the type directly from the folder list, as you do with other classes of folders.
2. Choose Folder > Contact Types and use the Manage Contact Types dialog box. This dialog box is especially useful for making changes to multiple contact types at the same time.

When you create a contact type, you must specify information for the fields in the following table.

Field	Description
General Tab
Name	This is the name of the contact type.
Name Plural	This is the name of the contact type in plural form. This is also the name that displays in the folder list in the Windows Client.
Description	The description for a contact type appears in the Web Client when users choose contact types to apply to a contact. It also appears on the contact types page when selecting a list.
Contact Type Group	The group categorizes the contact type. Contact types are organized by group in the folder list in the Windows Client. They are also presented in groups in some areas of the Web Client. For details, see Managing Contact Type Groups.
Permitted to Request Adds/ Removes	This manages the list of users who can request to add the contact type to a contact or remove the contact type from a contact. For more information, see Allowing Users to Add/Remove the Type for Contacts.
Contact Type Display Order	This represents the order in which the contact types are displayed in the Web Client when showing the contact types applied to a contact. These are sorted in ascending order with the lowest display order value being displayed first. Also note that this affects which contact types appear for a contact if you choose to limit the number contact types displayed in the contact header. For example, if a particular contact has eight contact types applied, but you’ve configured Web Client to only display four, the first four in the sort order are displayed. For more information, see Controlling How Contact Types Appear in the Page Header.
Frequently Used By	Allows you to add the contact type to the set of Frequently Used Lists for a user or group. For details, see Adding Folders to Users' Frequently Used Lists.
Data Change Management Tab
Use Data Change Management	This option is always selected for contact types.
Add Request Action	This indicates what Data Change Management does when a user adds this contact type to a contact. You can choose one of the following three options: Accept - automatically adds the contact type to the contact without creating a Data Change Management ticket. Review - automatically adds the contact type to the contact, however a ticket is sent to the data steward indicating that the contact type was added to the contact. Submit - does not add the contact type to the contact. Instead, a ticket is sent to the data steward for the contact type. The data steward can then approve or reject the addition of the contact type to the contact. For more information, see the InterAction for Data Stewards and Marketing Users guide.
Remove Request Action	This indicates how Data Change Management handles the removal of this contact type from a contact. You can choose one of the following three options: Accept - automatically removes the contact type from the contact without creating a Data Change Management ticket. Review - automatically removes the contact type from the contact, however a ticket is sent to the data steward indicating that the contact type was removed from the contact. Submit - does not remove the contact type from the contact. Instead, a ticket is sent to the data steward for the contact type. The data steward can then approve or reject the removal of the contact type from the contact. For more information, see the InterAction for Data Stewards and Marketing Users guide.
Owner	This sets the Data Change Management user or group who is the data steward for this contact type. If you have chosen settings for the contact type that will send tickets to the data steward, the tickets will be sent to the user or group specified. For more information, see the InterAction for Data Stewards and Marketing Users guide.
Rule Collection	This sets the rule collection used to determine what actions are taken to process edits made to contacts that have this contact type. For more information, see the InterAction for Data Stewards and Marketing Users guide.
Priority	This sets the ranking of the contact type for processing the Data Change Management rules related to the type. For more information, see the InterAction for Data Stewards and Marketing Users guide.

For a list of fields on the Options tab, see the “Folder Attributes – Options Tab” table in Options Available Across All Folder Classes.

Manage Contact Types Dialog Box

New Contact Type - General Tab

New Contact Type - Data Change Management Tab

Recommended Settings for Contact Types

Contact types should have the following attributes:

• The type must be configured to allow the kind of contacts that the type applies to – people, companies, or both. Setting this correctly makes the list of possible types for a contact more relevant. For example, the type “College/University” allows only companies, so it doesn’t appear as an option for a person contact.

  Some contact types should apply to both people and companies. For example, a client can be either a company or a person, so the Client contact type allows both.

• A contact type can store folder-specific information for use on Web Client profiles. However, it can be useful to store this information in a separate information folder instead, especially if the same fields apply to more than one contact type.

  For an example of why, see What is the Purpose of the Information Folders?

Give Users Permission to Manage Contact Types

The Manage contact types permission controls whether a user can create, edit, and delete contact types.

This permission also determines who can manage Web Client profiles and searches. See Creating and Managing Web Client Profiles or Creating and Managing Web Client Searches.

1. Log in to InterAction Administrator.
2. From the main window, double-click User Account and Group Configuration.
3. Choose the Permissions button to display the Permission Settings dialog box.

4. Under Configuration Permissions, select the user or group that should be allowed to Manage contact types.

   Setting	Result
   Everyone	Anyone with access to the Windows Client can create and edit contact types, Web Client profiles, and Web Client searches.
   System Administrator Only	Only the System Administrator User can create and edit contact types, Web Client profiles, and Web Client searches.
   Specific Group	Only members of the group can create and edit contact types, Web Client profiles, and Web Client searches.

   Normally, you select a group composed of data stewards or marketing users, such as the Data Administrators group.

5. When finished, choose OK.

Create a Contact Type

Additional detail on all settings listed in this procedure can be found in Creating and Editing Contact Types.

1. Log in to InterAction Windows Client as a user with permission to create contact types.
   • The Manage contact types permission is required to create or edit contact types.
   • This permission is granted using InterAction Administrator. For details, see Give Users Permission to Manage Contact Types
2. Choose Folder > New Contact Type.
3. Enter the Name and Plural Name for the contact type.
4. Enter a Description for the contact type. Users see this description in the Web Client.
5. Select the Contact Type Group you want to use. For details about groups, see Managing Contact Type Groups.

6. Select which users are Permitted to Request Adds/Removes. This specifies which users can select to add or remove the contact type for a contact.

   Setting	Result
   Everyone	Anyone can select to add or remove the contact type from a contact.
   System Administrator Only	Only the System Administrator User can select to add or remove the contact type from a contact.
   Specific Group	Only members of the group can select to add or remove the contact type from a contact.

   Note that the action that takes place when a user requests to add or remove a contact type is controlled by the add/remove requests options for the type (covered in step 10).

7. Enter the Contact Type Display Order for the contact type.
8. If you want to “push” the new contact type out to end users’ Frequently Used Contact Types lists, select the user or group from the Frequently Used By list. For details, see Adding Folders to Users' Frequently Used Lists.
9. Select the Data Change Management tab.

10. Configure the Add/Remove Requests Actions. Optionally configure follow-up text for each action.

    Choose Follow-Up Text to enter a message that reminds the data steward to complete another action after resolving any tickets created because of the Add or Remove request action.

11. Configure the Change Management Rule Set settings.
12. Choose the Options tab.
13. Select any of the options on the Options tab as needed.
    • Choose whether the folder can contain people, companies, or both. When displaying contact types on the new contact wizard, the Web Client only displays types that are valid for the kind of contact (person/company).
    • Select the check box if this folder normally contains a large number of contacts. If this option is selected, when you open this folder in the Windows Client, InterAction only displays a subset of the entire folder and you can use the letter bar to change which contacts are displayed.
    • Select the check box if this folder supports flagging. If you want to change the meanings of any of the colors, select the flag in the list, choose Edit, and enter a new description.

    • If you want to automatically flag all new contacts added to the folder, select the color you want to use for all new contacts, choose Edit, and select the Flag new contacts check box.

      For more about the flagging settings, see “About Flag Settings” in Options Available Across All Folder Classes.

    • Select the check box if Contacts sourced in this folder are audited. If you select this option, InterAction tracks changes to global data for contacts stored in this folder as part of the audit trail. You can only view the audit trail in the Windows Client.
14. Choose OK. InterAction opens the Edit Contact Type dialog box for the new contact type. You can then add access rights and other settings.
    • When you create the new contact type, you are assigned as the folder owner and granted folder administration rights.
    • For more information, see “Edit a Contact Type”, below.

Edit a Contact Type

1. Log in to InterAction Windows Client as a user with permission to manage contact types.
   • The Manage contact types permission is required to edit contact types.
   • This permission is granted using InterAction Administrator. For details, see Give Users Permission to Manage Contact Types.
2. Choose Folder > Contact Types to open the Manage Contact Types dialog box.

3. To update multiple contact types with the same change, mark the types by clicking in the far left column. Select the Action you want to apply and enter the related Value, then choose Apply.

   For example, if you wanted to add multiple contact types to everyone’s frequently used lists, you would select Add as Frequently Used Type for the Action, then Everyone for the Value.

   

4. To edit a contact type, select it in the list and choose Edit. In the list of views on the left, choose the item for the information to edit.

   Use This Section	To Edit the Following ....
   General	Name, Description, and other general settings.
   Security	Access rights for the folder. Although contact types primarily handle security through Data Change Management, you still do need to set some access rights for them. For details, see Web Client Security for Contact Types.
   Data Change Management	Rules for using Data Change Management on the contact type. For details, see “Data Change Management for Contact Types” in Web Client Security for Contact Types.
   Profile	Values for folder profile fields. This only appears in systems upgraded from InterAction 4.x that previously used these fields.
   Additional Fields	Additional fields for the contact type. For details, see Creating and Editing Additional Field Definitions.
   Web Profile and Search	The Web Client profile and Web Client search “tied” to this contact type. For details, see Associating Web Client Profiles and Searches with Contact Types.
   Classifications	Classifications for the contact type. These do not appear in the Web Client and should not be used.
   Options	Edit the same options that are available on the Options tab from the new folder dialog box For details about these settings, see Folder Attributes - Options Tab

5. When you are finished editing the contact type, choose either OK or Close (depending on which section you are viewing).
6. Choose Close to close the Manage Contact Types dialog box.

Delete a Contact Type

When you delete a contact type, it is converted to an administrative folder with the type set to Archive. If necessary, you could restore the contact type as described in Restore an Archived Folder. When you are certain the folder is no longer needed, delete it as described in Delete Old Folders from the Database.

You cannot delete a ‘system’ contact type. These are contact types that are provided with InterAction.

1. Log in to InterAction Windows Client as a user with permission to manage contact types.
   • The Manage contact types permission is required to delete contact types.
   • This permission is granted using InterAction Administrator. For details, see Give Users Permission to Manage Contact Types.

2. Choose Folder > Contact Types.

   You cannot delete a contact type directly from the folder list. You must open the Manage Contact Types dialog box.

3. Select the contact type you want to delete and choose Delete.
4. On the confirmation dialog box, choose Yes.
5. Choose Close to close the Manage Contact Types dialog box.

Why Can't I Delete a System Contact Type?

Some contact types provided are system contact types. These contact types cannot be deleted from the system. The following contact types are considered system types:

• Our Personnel
• Client
• Alumni
• Our Consultant
• Prospect
• Client Personnel
• Prospect Personnel
• Deceased
• Out of Business
• Former Client

Change the Folder for a Contact Type

Although contact types appear in the folder list in the Windows Client like regular folders, they behave differently than regular folders. There are actually two “parts” to a contact type – the contact type itself, and a folder it is “tied” to that stores the contacts assigned the type.

In some circumstances, it is necessary to change the folder that a contact type is tied to. This typically occurs during upgrades from earlier versions of InterAction. For example, during the upgrade you might choose to make your “Personnel” folder into the Our Personnel contact type. Later you realize that this folder contains additional fields that need to be shared with another type (such as Alumni). In this case, you would do the following:

• Create a new folder.
• Change the Our Personnel contact type to point to this new folder.
• Make the old Personnel folder an information folder.

You can remap a contact type from the Manage Contact Types dialog box.

1. Log in to InterAction Windows Client as a user with permission to manage contact types.

   The Manage contact types permission is required to delete contact types.

   This permission is granted using InterAction Administrator. For details, see Give Users Permission to Manage Contact Types.

2. Choose Folder > Contact Types to open the Manage Contact Types dialog box.
3. Select the contact type you want to change and choose Change Folder.

4. Find the folder you want to “tie” to this contact type, select it in the list, and choose OK.

   The contact type is re-mapped to the selected folder. The type is updated to use the folder name as the plural name. You can edit the contact type to change this.

5. Choose Close to close the Manage Contact Types dialog box.
   • The folder mapped to the contact type is “moved” from it’s old class and type to the appropriate contact type group.
   • The folder that was previously mapped to the contact type is changed to the class Administrative and the folder type Other Administrative.