Adding new fields to layouts

Hi Olivia,

The option to "restore default layout" means you are removing all customizations and going back to the layout defined when the module was created.

From a code standpoint, the Extension framework for sugar has default layouts are stored in 

/modules/<module Name>/clients/base/views/.

while the custom ones are in 

custom/modules/<module Name>/clients/base/views/.

When you put your custom field in the layout via Studio you are adding the field to the custom directory, the framework then knows to ignore the view in the core modules directory and replace it with the one in custom/modules

When you select "restore default layout" you are essentially deleting the version you had in custom so the system uses what is in the core directory. It does not save the version that was in custom.

I am not sure why you would need to move back and forth between your customizations and the default but perhaps one way do to that is to save your custom files so you can add/remove them as needed, or simply rename the custom file with a .tmp at the end to "deactivate" it, note that you need a QRR each time you remove/add them or rename them for the change to take effect.

I hope this helps,
FrancescaS

Hi 

I am not choosing Restore Default Layout - I am just switching back to the Standard Layout and Deploying it for the users - do you understand what I a doing?

So I am making test changes to the layout but obviously there are others using the system too so when I am temporarily finished I switch back to the normal layout

So I make changes to the above layout and deploy them and all is ok.

Then I switch back to Layout in screen shot below

When I go back into layout in top screenshot the previous changes are gone

Hi Olivia Forde ,

When you are changing the 'Layout determined by' option, you are changing how the layout is configured so it is expected it will lose the dropdown layout changes you made once you save & deploy the standard layout configuration. 

With that said, I would expect that save & deploying a dropdown-based layout would create an entry in the record history options to give you a restore point via the 'View History' button in Studio. That does not occur in my tests so you have no way to restore a dropdown-based layout from a prior configuration. I recommend raising that as a support case to confirm the defect. 

Chris

Hi Olivia Forde ,

When you are changing the 'Layout determined by' option, you are changing how the layout is configured so it is expected it will lose the dropdown layout changes you made once you save & deploy the standard layout configuration. 

With that said, I would expect that save & deploying a dropdown-based layout would create an entry in the record history options to give you a restore point via the 'View History' button in Studio. That does not occur in my tests so you have no way to restore a dropdown-based layout from a prior configuration. I recommend raising that as a support case to confirm the defect. 

Chris

Thanks Chris - yes I would expect that changes should not be lost every time. I will raise that.

Chris how does one test various layouts so if they are constantly overwritten

Hi Olivia Forde ,

I assume you are performing these tests in your production instance. If that assumption is accurate and you are hosted Sugar's cloud, then the best recommendation I have is to leverage a sandbox instance where you can keep the test layout in effect and not impact your user experience until you are ready to promote the changes to production. If you don't yet have a sandbox instance, you can request one to be created via a support ticket.

Chris

Hi Chris - no I am doing this in Sandbox so  I will just leave the layout as is while I test.