Custom Tile Updates

The process to create and deploy constituent summary tiles was updated in Service Pack 4 to improve the developer experience and remove the need to manually update the database when you create custom tiles.

Tip: Existing custom tiles will continue to work as before, so you do not need to update them for Service Pack 4. However, we do recommend that you update custom tiles at your convenience to ensure that they can take advantage of future tile changes and so that you can avoid the need to update the database with a SQL script the next time you deploy new environments as part of an upgrade. Similarly, you can still create and deploy custom tiles with the old tile implementation method, but we recommend that you use the new, easier method to deploy tiles starting with Service Pack 4.

New elements are now available on view data form specs to designate forms as tiles, and these elements remove the need to update your Blackbaud CRM database with a SQL statement that designates forms as tiles. In addition, the tile-related CSS styles for modifying the appearance of tiles through their UI models were updated to be more consistent with CSS styles available elsewhere in Blackbaud CRM.

Note: For more information about tiles and detailed instructions about how to create custom tiles, see the Constituent Tiles section of the Data Forms guide.

Designate Tiles on View Data Form Specs

The SummaryTile element and its child elements now allow you to designate forms as tiles directly on their view data form specs. Previously, you needed to manually insert rows in the CONSTITUENTSUMMARYAVAILABLETILE table to designate forms as tiles. Now you can use the new SummaryTile element and its child elements to designate tiles and specify the details about how and when to display them.

Within the SummaryTile element, you include a Categories element. Then you include Category elements for each category to make the tile available for, and within the Category element's attributes, you specify the category name, a display label, and whether to display the tile by default. Tiles are still only available for the Constituent page, so the only valid categories for tiles are the four constituent types: Individual, Organization, Household, and Group. To make a tile available for multiple constituent types, you create a separate Category element for each type.

<SummaryTile>
  <Categories>
    <Category Name="Individual" TileName="Test" DefaultVisible="true" DefaultSequence="3" />
    <Category Name="Organization" TileName="Test" DefaultVisible="true" DefaultSequence="3" />
    <Category Name="Household" TileName="Test" DefaultVisible="true" DefaultSequence="3" />
    <Category Name="Group" TileName="Test" DefaultVisible="true" DefaultSequence="3" />
  </Categories>
</SummaryTile>

When you load a view data form spec with these elements in place, Blackbaud CRM recognizes the form as a tile.

Modify the Appearance of Tiles with Updated CSS Styles

The CSS classes to modify a tile's appearance were also updated in Service Pack 4. The new styles follow a naming pattern similar to styles used elsewhere in Blackbaud CRM, and they are now implemented in a way that makes them available elsewhere in the application and provides a more consistent look and feel. The old CSS classes are still defined for constituent tiles, but we recommend that you use the new styles instead.

The tile-specific value styles are refined versions of existing styles that are tailored for the smaller space in a tile, and they allow you to apply styles to the UI Model VB code rather than the UI Model HTML, just as you would for any other custom view data form.

Do Not Use SQL Statements to Designate Tiles

Because the SummaryTile element can designate a form as a tile directly from the view data form spec in Service Pack 4, you no longer need to create a SQL script to manually insert a row in the database to designate the form as a tile.

Tip: For custom tiles in Blackbaud CRM 4.0 service pack 3 or earlier, you still use SQL statements to designate forms as tiles.

You can still implement tiles by using a SQL script to manually insert rows in the CONSTITUENTSUMMARYAVAILABLETILE table, but we recommend the new, easier method to deploy tiles instead.

Tip: The tile changes for Service Pack 4 attempt to maintain backwards compatibility, and users who created custom tiles with Blackbaud CRM Service Pack 3 or prior should be able to upgrade to the new version without making any changes. However, since tile-related tables were removed from the Blackbaud CRM database and replaced with insertable views, there is some risk of backward compatibility issues. For information about the possible backwards compatibility issues, see Backwards Compatibility Issues for Custom Tiles.