Start Center best practices

Start Centers

Use the following best practices for managing start centers:

• Maintain records in portlet tables.
  • Determine what users are inactive and delete their start center records.
  • If indexes are not present, put indexes on portlet tables. There should be an index on LAYOUTID for all start center portlet configuration tables.
• When a user record is deleted or a user is made inactive, we do not delete that user's start center data.
  • Create a trigger that watches when users are made inactive and deletes them from corresponding tables. (See the tables in blue on the ERD figure below.)
• A high number of queries are fired when a start center is loaded.
  • Starting with Base Services patch 7.1.1.7, start center layout and configuration of a portlet is cached when a user first logs in. Editing a portlet invalidates the cache. Editing the portlet layout invalidates portlet layout cache. Choosing a different start center also invalidates the cache. For administrators, creating a new template invalidates the cache.
    Administrators should make start center templates lean by making sure few templates are not packed with many portlets. It is recommended that only 1-2 result set portlets are configured in any template. Queries being used by the result set portlets should be reviewed. This is especially true for clients using releases prior to 7.1.1.7
    Make sure a user is not given the same template(s) multiple times. Although the user would not see multiple instances of a template on a start center, following this practice reduces some checking during log in.

Start Center Tables

The following table describes start center tables:

Table	Purpose / Contains
SCTEMPLATE	Start Center templates and presentation XMLs
SCCONFIG	Start Centers given to a user based on the group and template. For admins, GROUPNAME and SCTEMPLATE are null when editing a template until saved into SCTEMPLATE
LAYOUT	Configuration for a given start center, i.e., which portlets, which column, what order etc.
INBXCONFIG	Configuration of a inbox portlet, i.e., all available columns, which ones are visible, custom names etc.
ACTIONCFG	Configuration of a quick insert portlet, i.e., which app, which INSERT sigoption, custom name etc.
FACONFIG	Configuration of a favorite applications portlet, i.e., which app
KPILCONFIG	Configuration of records related to KPIMAIN records, i.e., which KPIs
KPIGCONFIG	Configuration of records related to KPIMAIN records, i.e., which KPIs
RSCONFIG	Configuration of result set portlet, all available columns, which ones are visible, custom names, used in condition or for graph display etc.
REPORTLISTCFG	Configuration of a records related to REPORT, i.e., which reports belong to which app
Additional Tables
RESULTSETCOLS	Holding table for persistent columns for a given object and table in maximo. Loaded when new query is selected in Result Set portlet.
EXCLUDEDACTIONS	Actions that are not allowed to be configured in Quick Insert portlet.

The following entity relationship diagram (ERD) shows Start Center tables.