Overview
As with all good ideas, there is always a way to make it better!
So if you’ve been following this blog you already know how we can take a simple action like taking out a new project in Vision and use some workflow, SQL and PowerShell to create folders for the new project on your file system.
Refinement
When I was developing this for my client I thought I had a pretty clever bonus feature when I started putting a shortcut to the new folder right in the Vision Project Files tab.
It worked but the limitation that you can only link Vision to a file and not a folder meant I had to improvise a bit by dropping a Windows Shortcut (.lnk) file into each new project folder so I could link to it.
I was proactive in that I made the shortcut name the same for every folder and made it read-only so no one could delete it and break the linkage.
But right from the start we had users asking what the file was there for and if they could delete it. So when one user suggested I just put all the shortcuts in one folder somewhere out of sight, a great new benefit came to light.
So that seemed easy enough….simply name the shortcut the same as the project folder and put them all in the same common folder instead of the project folder.
So what’s the big deal? Sure no one sees the shortcut file anymore but that doesn’t add any value. It was simple….don’t hide the folder full of shortcuts…..make it read-only and publicize it! Why you ask? Well think about this: a shortcut file is very small so a folder with thousands of shortcuts can be searched really fast. Now the users have a single place they can search on the Project Number and Short Name on every project in the file system and they are one double-click from the project folder. Now that’s added efficiency and added value!
If you have any questions or comments drop me a line: [email protected]