{"id":1423,"date":"2015-02-12T16:23:51","date_gmt":"2015-02-12T08:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/help\/?page_id=1423"},"modified":"2018-11-05T11:28:22","modified_gmt":"2018-11-05T03:28:22","slug":"comments-button-4-5-0","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/oihelp.corporate.ifs.com\/help\/p2-explorer\/explorer-studio\/controls\/comments-button\/comments-button-4-5-0\/","title":{"rendered":"Comments Button (4.5.0)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This article applies to versions 4.5.0 and later of P2 Explorer. For more, see Release History<\/a>. For the latest, see Comments Button<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Overview<\/h2>\n

The Comments Button displays a small icon (\"commenticonempty\"\u00a0or\u00a0\"image024\") which, when clicked, launches a window that allows users to enter and view comments relating to a specific entity, attribute value, or tag (including calculation tags) and context.<\/p>\n

Note: In this article, we use entity<\/em> to mean entity, attribute value, tag, or calculation tag. We use Entity<\/em> to specifically mean entity only.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The comments are stored in P2 Server and can be viewed anywhere in Explorer where the same context is used.<\/p>\n

The white icon indicates that no comments have yet been made for that entity and context within the page's default start and end times, whereas the black icon indicates that comments have already been made. When the button is clicked, a floating comments window appears on the page.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Note: The colour of the icon may change depending on the style used.<\/p>\n

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Users can add and view comments for an entity and context, within a time range specified by the page designer. Users cannot enter comments outside that time range. However, users can search for and view additional comments within other time ranges.<\/p>\n

Related: Using Comments for collaboration<\/a> in display mode, Adding a new Comments Button style<\/a>, Comments: Communicating with Context<\/a><\/p>\n

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Configuring the Comments Button\u00a0<\/h2>\n

There are 2 configuration modes for the Comments Button. Basic mode (shown below) shows the options most commonly used. Advanced mode (which we will use in the tutorial) allows you to change the type of properties used.<\/p>\n

Basic Mode<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Start Date\/Time<\/strong>:<\/td>\nThe\u00a0date\/time from which to display comments. This will be entered as the default start of the search date range.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
End Date\/Time<\/strong>:<\/td>\nThe date\/time at which to stop displaying comments.\u00a0This will be entered as the default end\u00a0of the search date range.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Comment Start Time<\/strong>:<\/td>\nThe start of the time range for which a comment applies. Users will still be able to search for comments outside this time (according to the start and end date\/time fields), but they will not be able to enter comments that start before this time.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Comment End Time<\/strong>:<\/td>\nThe end of the time range for which a comment applies. Users will still be able to search for comments outside this time (according to the start and end date\/time fields), but they will not be able to enter comments that end after this time. To make the comment apply for a single day, make the Comment End Time the same as the Comment Start Time.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Entity<\/strong>:<\/td>\nThe\u00a0entity, attribute value, tag, or calculation tag that all these comments apply to. If an Entity is specified here and a hierarchy is also specified in the next field, comments will be fetched for the Entity plus its child Entities in the hierarchy.\u00a0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Hierarchy<\/strong>:<\/td>\nThe hierarchy for which to get comments. This only applies when an Entity is specified above, and the Entity is part of this hierarchy.\u00a0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Context<\/strong>:<\/td>\nThe situation in which these comments apply. All comments entered in this box will have this context. If another comment button is placed on another page, with this same context and for the same entity, the comments for both will appear in both comment windows. If the entity is the same but the context is different, the comments will be shown independently.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Style<\/strong>:<\/td>\nThe style you want to apply to the Comments Button. If you are a Style Administrator,\u00a0you can\u00a0add a new Comments Button\u00a0style<\/a>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Alignment<\/strong>:<\/td>\nIf the alignment in the selected style is not appropriate, you can override the alignment here by clicking one of the boxes. \u00a0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Advanced Mode<\/h3>\n

In Advanced mode, you have the option of switching between variable and text fields for many of the component's properties. Initially, they are set to variables, and have default values associated with them. For the date and time fields, you can supply a specific date\/time. For the Entity<\/em> field, you can supply a specific entity.<\/p>\n

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Related: Variables<\/a>, Default Values<\/a><\/p>\n

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What is Context?<\/h2>\n

Context is the\u00a0mechanism by which P2 Explorer exposes all comments related to a specific entity, and this is something that the page designer does when creating a page.<\/p>\n

A comment\u2019s context is some extra information that is added to the comment, and is used to associate comments with other comments made for the same entity and context.<\/p>\n

As an entity can be used on lots of different pages, adding context to a comment means that you can see \u00a0all of the comments that have been made for that entity with that context, every time you open the comments box, no matter which page you are looking at.<\/p>\n

All comments entered via a Comments Button\u00a0component on a page have the context that is specified by the page designer. For example, if the comments on a page all have the context of \u201cReport\u201d, Explorer can apply filtering to all the comments in the system to only show comments for that entity with the \"Report\" context.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Taking this a step further, a page designer can use the same context for the same entity on a completely different page. When a comment is applied to that entity, users will see all comments for that entity and\u00a0context (e.g. Report), even though they are displayed on different pages.<\/p>\n

We will explore context in more detail in Part 2<\/a> of the tutorial below.<\/p>\n

<\/i> \u00a0SEE IT IN ACTION! Watch this video to see how comments with context work on a page.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\r\n\t

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Start Time and End Time<\/h2>\n

The Comments Button allows the page designer to specify two types of time ranges for the user:<\/p>\n