Context parameters for menu links

When an employee or a manager is logged in to the UI, the variable ngStorage-currentContext stores values that define the user context.

Employees

To execute on a link to a menu page with an employee, all context parameters are set to null and only the target page is required.

The value of ngStorage-currentContext resembles the following example:

{
  "timeframeId": null,
  "hyperfind": {
    "id": null,
    "type": null
  },
  "peopleIdList": null,
  "dateSpan": {
    "startDate": null,
    "endDate": null
  },
  "otherContext": {}
}

For employees, your app must:

• set the target URL to the menu link
• set the default null values for ngStorage-currentContext

After the values for the ngStorage-currentContext variable are set, pageContextService functions accordingly.

App Sequence for Employee Menu Links

1. Employee successfully logs in to the app
2. Employee selects an option that launches a UI menu link
3. The menu link is launched with the appropriate context parameters
4. The UI menu link successfully opens in the app

Managers

This example concerns a manager who has logged in to the app to view the timecards of direct reports. The manager navigates to the Timecard module in the app, sees a list of all direct reports, and selects a few of them. This is the point where the menu link occurs.

The value of ngStorage-currentContext resembles the following example:

{
  "timeframeId": 0,
  "hyperfind": {
    "id": null,
    "type": null
  },
  "peopleIdList": [
    234,
    235,
    236
  ],
  "dateSpan": {
    "startDate": "2020-03-05T05:00:00",
    "endDate": "2020-03-08T09:00:00"
  },
  "otherContext": {},
  "timestamp": "2020-03-05T05:45:14"
}

For managers, your app must:

• set the target URL to the menu link
• set the values for ngStorage-currentContext based on the selections the manager made in the app

After the values for the ngStorage-currentContext variable are set, pageContextService functions accordingly.

App sequence for manager menu links

1. Manager successfully logs in to the app
2. Manager views a list of direct reports and selects multiple employees and a date range and executes a task that launches a UI menu link
3. The menu link is launched and includes the parameters selected by the manager
4. The UI menu link successfully opens in the app and displays all of the selected data

Implementation details

For an external app to set context parameters for a UI module, that app must set the proper values in defaultContextService through PageContextService. In the UI, the user's context is always read from PageContextService before a module is loaded.

The code for defaultContextService.js is listed below. When a user login in to the UI an object of defaultContextService is associated with that login event and is injected into PageContextService.

When a user navigates from one module to another in the UI, such as from Employee Timecard to Scheduling, the context necessary to transfer the user to the Scheduling module is saved in an object of defaultContextService via PageContextService.

This object can save timeframeId, hyperfind, peopleIdList and dateSpan in PageContextService.

Before switching from the current module, all of the user's current selections are set in PageContextService. Before launching the new module, the contents of PageContextService are read and set in the page to be launched. This allows users to continue to view selections from one module to another.

The code for defaultContextService.js is as follows:

define(['angular', 'lodash', '../pageContext'], function (angular, _) {
  'use strict'

  angular.module('common.pageContext').factory('defaultContext', function () {
    var defaultContext = {
      timeframeId: null,
      hyperfind: {
        id: null,
        type: null, //can be 'hyperfind' or 'location'
      },
      peopleIdList: null,
      dateSpan: {
        startDate: null,
        endDate: null,
      },
      otherContext: {},
    }
    return {
      getDefaultContext: function getDefaultContext() {
        return _.cloneDeep(defaultContext)
      },
    }
  })
})

Context parameter values

timeframeId

The ID of the timeframe expressed as an integer ID. For example, if the user selected the Current Schedule Period in the UI, that corresponds to an ID value of 4 that is captured in timeframeId.

peopleIdList

An array of person keys representing the employees selected by a manager. For example, if a manager selects three employees in an app, the person keys of those three employees is passed in peopleIdList.

dateSpan

The dateSpan object defines a start date and an end date of a date range selected by a user. For example, suppose a user selected the 5th of March 2020 as the start date and the 8th of March 2020 as the end date. Those dates (and times, if selected) are captured in dateSpan under startDate and endDate.

hyperfind

The hyperfind object defines a reference to a Hyperfind using id and type.

The type parameter defines whether the filtering is based on a location or a Hyperfind query. Valid values include 1 for location and 4 for a Hyperfind query.

The id parameter contains the ID of the selected Hyperfind or location.