fSeries settings and data sources may be customised to add your own options. These will be included in the fAdmin Settings and Data Sources administration pages as they are part of the standard system.
All settings and sources are configured in the fSeries Data folder’s fAdmin subfolder. The main system configuration is in the Settings.xml file and all others including your own customised options are in separate files within the fAdmin\PluginSettings folder.
To configure your own customised settings, create an Xml file in the PluginSettings sub-folder to contain your definition. All definition files in this sub-folder are included automatically and so there is no need to make multiple files, other than for your convenience.
All settings configurations follow the same pattern:
The settings element contains an element defining each individual setting including its name, help text and format.
The settingsGroups element lets you group your settings into logical groupings if there are a large number.
The sourceTypes element contains a sub-element for each new source type that you are adding, which in turn contains definitions of each setting for the source.
Click here to see an example of the MSCRM definition which contains settings, groups and sources.
Settings
Each setting is specified in a single element whose attributes define the way in which the user will view and enter the setting in fAdmin. The attribute available are:
| key | The setting’s identity. |
| help | Text to be displayed from the help button in fAdmin to assist the user. |
| format | The format in which the entry is to be made by the user: text, longText, boolean, number, select, checkbox, textarea. |
| mandatory | If “true” the entry will be enforced. |
| notInstanced | If “true” the setting will not be available when an instance is selected by the user. |
For select and checkbox format settings the options available may be added in two ways:
- In the options attribute as a comma separated list (e.g. OPTIONS=”blue,red,green”)
- In option sub elements to include a description as well as the returned value:
<option text=”[Default]” value=””/>
<option text=”Orange” value=”orange”/>
The two methods are used together so specifying in either or both formats is acceptable.
Note that if the key occurs in more than one definition then the first found is the one used.
Setting Groups
There will be a great many settings in a full system and so it is possible to group settings for easier access.
To form a setting group add a settingGroup sub element to the settingGroups element.
The name of the group is an attribute in its element. This is shown as an option in the fAdmin Settings selection area.
Then each setting to be included is specified as a setting sub-element with an attribute of “key” to specify the setting to be included. The sequence of the setting element specifies the order in which they will be showm.
<settingGroup name=”Microsoft Dynamics CRM“>
<setting key=”MSCRMPrivilegedUser“/>
<setting key=”MSCRMSourceType“/>
<setting key=”MSCRMSource“/>
<setting key=”MSCRMFetchXmlPath“/>
</settingGroup>
Note that you can include common groups in your definition in order to add your settings to other groups. For example you could add a custom server location setting and then specify it in a setting group called “Server Locations” in order to have fAdmin include it in the main Server Locations group.
<settingGroup name=”Server Locations“>
<setting key=”MyLocation“/>
</settingGroup>
Source Types
You can add your own data source types to fSeries. These can then be accessed by your custom data plugins to know how to connect to a specific source of data. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM data source is an example of this.
To add a custom data source, include a sourceTypes/sourceType element. This has two attributes:
- type: the source type’s identity (e.g. MSCRM) – must not ciontain spaces or special characters
- name: a description of the source type
Then add setting definitions for all of the settings available for the source type. The setting definitions are exactly as for main settings detailed above.
