Pre-populating a template in Clearview is a great method of ensuring that certain key information is already available within entities at the point that they are created.
There are a few methods of adding information to templates, and understanding these is essential to understanding the results that should be expected when you wish for populated template information to be available within entities in your system.
Adding/removing entire sections from the template
Adding or removing entire sections from a template results in the entities based on that template getting pushed to an "in progress" state. Template changes such as enabling the section 'Internal Contacts' will appear within entities built upon that template immediately but will push entities into an in progress status.
Unlocked Template Data
Predominantly information that is added to templates in Clearview will be ‘unlocked’. Unlocked data can be added to any template section when populating a template and will only be available in entities that are created AFTER the information is added to your template.
It is not possible for unlocked information added to a template to be visible within entities that already exist and are based upon that template.
Unlocked template data can be edited by entity owners and maintainers within the individual entities created from the template that contains the data.
Changes to existing unlocked data will only be available in entities created AFTER the existing unlocked data has been edited.
Locked Template Data
The following template sections allow for populated data to be ‘Locked’ when it is added to a template in Clearview:
BIA Introduction
Plan Introduction
Key Teams
Activity Sub Phases
Activities
Conference Call Numbers
Global Documents
Data entered into these sections will include a ‘Lock’ option which can be set to either yes or no.
If data needs to be locked into a template, the lock option must be set to ‘Yes’ before the ‘Add’ button is clicked to add the data to the template. Data that has not been locked cannot be locked retrospectively.
When locked data is added to a template it will appear in all entities based on that template INCLUDING existing entities.
Locked template data cannot be edited by entity owners and maintainers within the individual entities created from the template that contains the data.
Changes to existing locked data will be available immediately within all entities based upon the template that contains the locked data.
Common issues with locked data in Clearview
There are two common scenarios that are encountered when adding populated entity data within Clearview.
- Adding unlocked data to a template and expecting it to be visible within entities that already exist in Clearview.
This is a question of understanding that unlocked data will only appear in entities created AFTER the data has been entered into the template. If the data is required in existing entities in an unlocked (i.e. editable) state then it must be added to each entity within which it is required individually buy the entity owner or maintainer.
- Data that shows as being locked within the template does not appear within entities already based upon that template within Clearview.
This generally occurs because the lock option was not correctly set to ‘Yes’ when the data was added to the template. As template data cannot be locked retrospectively the way to resolve this is to enter the required information into the template again, being sure that the Lock option is set to yes before the add button is selected. Once the information has been entered the original unlocked entry can be removed from the template.