Can FM include online contact management features?

[greymanic]

I'm campaigning for our company to switch to FM 13 from Salesforce so that we can personalize and expand our sales database to include all the nice plugins and tools the app has to offer.  I will be expected to replicate some saleforce's more desirable features that they are accustomed to having.

 

One of these includes a list of recent items on a given individual record's layout.  For instance, they open the database and find themselves either on a Start/Home page or on the first single contact's record and on the left we have a small column listing the last five most recently modified contacts (pulled from contact records).  I have experimented with scripts and portals briefly but have yet to find a solution or work around.  It's almost as if I need FM to have frames so that multiple layout views can be viewed side by side, at once.  One frame showing one record (contact 1 with expanded details) and the other showing found/sorted contacts (records sorted by modification date) in a list view.

 

What I'd like to end up with is a Home or Portal layout either as a start page or in a separate part (like the footer) that gives users a overview and access to everything going on: recently modified contacts, tasks, appointments, etc.  

 

Of course I can create a script that finds and sorts all contacts with modification in a list view but then all they see is that one list.  What I need is one page for them to see just several of the most recent contacts next to a list of appointments, etc.. etc.

 

I hope I've belabored the point enough to describe what I'm after.  Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris

[comment]

they open the database and find themselves either on a Start/Home page or on the first single contact's record and on the left we have a small column listing the last five most recently modified contacts (pulled from contact records).

 

The only* way you can show a listing of multiple records on a layout of another record is by using a portal. Portals show related records, not found sets - so you need to find a way to make those records related (for example by defining your relationship to fetch records where Contacts::LastModifiedDate ≥ ThisTable::cYesterday).

 

---

Theoretically, you could also use a list in a text field - but that wouldn't be interactive, or a web viewer - which wouldn't have any advantage I can think of.