Multichannel Activities on the Account Timeline

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The Multichannel Activity module can store custom activities from internal and third-party systems related to accounts. This allows users to automatically display custom activities in the Account Timeline and the CRM Home Page.

To display custom activities, configure custom record types.

Configuring Multichannel Activities on the Account Timeline

Ensure initial configuration is complete to use this functionality.

To configure custom activities on the Account Timeline, complete the following configuration steps.

Defining Object Level Permissions

To define object level permissions:

  1. Grant the following permissions: 

    Object OLS Record Type Fields FLS
    Multichannel_Activity_vod Read n/a n/a n/a

    Multichannel_Activity_Line_vod

    Read

    		 n/a n/a n/a
    Account_Overview_Layout_vod Read n/a n/a n/a
  1. Set the Multichannel Activities to Private. This is optional and should be used if record security is required.
  2. Build sharing rules accordingly. This is optional to support use cases when the Multichannel Activities object is set to private.

Creating Custom Page Layouts

Custom page layouts are used to display records online and to add a related list to the Account Detail screen. The page layouts can also be used to manually create new custom activity records. To create custom page layouts:

  1. Create custom page layouts for the following objects:
  • Multichannel_Activity_vod

    • Multichannel_Activity_Line_vod (if used)

  1. Mark all fields as read-only on the page layouts.
  2. Add the Multichannel_Activity_vod related list to the appropriate Account page layouts to enable the appropriate users to view Multichannel Activities records from an Account detail page.
  3. Remove the New button from the layouts. This is optional, but recommended.

The number of fields on the page layouts depends on the data from the third party. A minimum set of fields must be populated. See Adding Activities Through Data Mapping for more information.

Adding Record Types

Custom activities are created under new record types. The record type label displays on the Home Page and Timeline, so it should be as descriptive as possible. To add record types:

  1. Create a custom record type for the following objects:
  • Multichannel_Activity_vod

    • Multichannel_Activity_Line_vod (if used) - Depending on the source data, this object may not be needed

The API name should be the same as the Multichannel Activity. The Record Type label displays on the Home Page alerts. This label can be adapted or translated through the Translation Workbench.

  1. Assign the record types to the profile that will data-load information.
  2. Assign the page layouts to the custom record type for both objects.

Configuring the Timeline

  1. Grant the following permissions: 

    Object OLS Record Type Fields FLS
    Account_Overview_Layout_vod n/a n/a zvod_Timeline_Engage_vod read
  2. Add the zvod_Timeline_Engage field on the Account_Overview_Layout_vod page layout.

To configure the Timeline for offline mobile devices:

  1. Grant the following permissions: 

    Object OLS Record Type Fields FLS
    VMobile_Home_Page_Layout_vod n/a n/a zvod_mc_activity_vod read
  2. Activate the iPad VMOC records for the following objects:
  • Multichannel_Activity_vod - Review the Where Clauses, for example, LAST_N_DAYS is 30 days vs 90 days for Calls

    • Multichannel_Activity_Line_vod

  1. Ensure the end user profile has read access to all fields used in the VMOC.
  2. Expose the zvod_mc_activity_vod field on the appropriate layouts.

Adding Activities Through Data Mapping

Custom activities can be created manually by adding new records via page layouts, or they can be loaded in bulk using the data loader, or the force.com API. Review the source file and define whether additional fields should be created in the Multichannel_Activity_vod or Multichannel_Activity_Line_vod objects as well as any field used for sharing rules.

The following Multichannel Activities fields are required for the custom activities to display on the Account Timeline and Multichannel Home Page:

  • Record Type (Multichannel Activities) must be the custom record type
  • Start_DateTime_vod (Multichannel Activities)
  • Optional: URL_vod (Multichannel Activities) This can contain descriptive text of the activity that is displayed to field CRM users
  • Site_vod (Multichannel Activities) must be NULL to display the value in URL_vod
  • A child Multichannel Activity Lines record is optional. These lines never display on mobile devices.

Custom Multichannel Activity Displays on the Account Timeline

Admin users can configure custom Multichannel Activities to display additional information in the Account Timeline when using custom record types. This differentiates the variety of custom Multichannel Activities on the Timeline, for example, those associated with the Salesforce Marketing Cloud integration.

Users can view an additional icon and/or color to sub-categorize the custom Multichannel Activity.

Users can also access an expanded view of the Multichannel Activity displaying relevant information at a glance. This allows users to view customized data tailored to their business. See Timeline View for more information.

The following graphic illustrates the available icons.

Configuring a Custom Multichannel Activity Display on the Account Timeline

To configure the display of custom Multichannel_Activity_vod activities on the Account Timeline:

  1. Grant the following permissions: 

    Object OLS Record Type Fields FLS
    Multichannel_Activity_vod n/a n/a
    • Icon_vod
    • Color_vod
    		 read

2. Enable the applicable Icon_vod picklist values for the appropriate Multichannel_Activity_vod custom record types.

3. Enable the applicable Color_vod picklist values for the appropriate Multichannel_Activity_vod custom record types.

A default picklist value can be set by record type to help maintain a consistent color and icon for each custom Multi-channel Activity type.

Custom icons and colors are not supported.

Using Custom Multichannel Activity Displays on the Account Timeline

When the user has FLS permission to the Icon_vod or Color_vod fields, the expanded view of an activity displays up to the first six fields (excluding the Name, Account_vod, Start_DateTime_vod, and RecordType fields) configured in the first section of the Multichannel_Activity_vod page layout. Display order of the fields is based on their position in the page layout.

If Multichannel_Activity_Lines_vod records exist, and the related list is configured on the Multichannel_Activity_vod page layout, the first two columns (excluding the Name field) display. Records are sorted according to the related list configuration.

This feature is applicable only to custom record types on the Multichannel_Activity_vod object.

Simplifying the Custom Multichannel Activity Data Load Process

To provide a more efficient way for integration users to load Multichannel Activities, record types can be indicated by their DeveloperName in the load file rather than the record type SFDC ID. A process on both the Multichannel_Activity_vod and Multichannel_Activity_Lines_vod objects resolves the RecordType using the DeveloperName.

Configuring a Custom Multichannel Activity Data Load Process

To enable data loading using the RecordType DeveloperName, grant integration users FLS Edit permission to the Record_Type_Name_vod field on the Multichannel_Activity_vod and Multichannel_Activity_Lines_vod objects.