April 29, 2020

Automate Site Provisioning with Dynamic Forms using TeamsHub by Cyclotron

Introduction

Dynamic request forms offer a robust team creation process that enhances governance and accountability for Microsoft Teams using TeamsHub by Cyclotron. In dynamic forms, the number of columns is not fixed but changes during runtime. By offering flexibility to vary columns, dynamic forms streamline data gathering, and storing. In this article we will see how to automate dynamic forms using TeamsHub by Cyclotron.

Automate dynamic forms in TeamsHub by Cyclotron, to allow capture team profile data as they come in. Before a team starts to function, the user submits a form so that administrator gets all vital details for verification. Also, users can submit team requests in various situations. For example – launching a new project, updating a project, commencing a new task, adding a new work scope, etc.

In TeamsHub by Cyclotron, administrators can create completely customizable dynamic forms without writing a line of code. Isn’t that great! They can modify the form template whenever they want as per organizational needs.

Let’s explore the benefits and technicalities of dynamic forms offered by TeamsHub by Cyclotron in the next few sections.

How Dynamic Forms Help

  • Firstly, dynamic forms help in process and workflow management.
  • Secondly, a dynamic request form clarifies the purpose of a team to an administrator.
  • Thirdly, it can trigger additional information and follow-up questions considering the requester’s input.
  • Lastly, it can help assign additional members or owners to a request considering the project for which the team is created.

Creating Dynamic Forms

To create a dynamic request form in TeamsHub by Cyclotron, click ‘Site Provision Settings’ in Settings. Then, click the link ‘Click here to update the form’. A pop-up form appears where custom columns can be added.

Dynamic forms for site provisioning

Now, click ‘Add Field’ icon to add a column, choose its type, and enter a value. You can also provide a tool tip for reference. Besides, you can mark the column as mandatory by ticking the ‘Required’ checkbox at the end.

Accessing Request Form

Now, to access dynamic form, click ‘Create a Team’ button. Thereafter, the team creation process will lead you through a few steps before you finally get team request form. The following columns are currently available in the form by default:

  • Name – It specifies team name
  • Description – It specifies a description of the team
  • Alias Name – It specifies group email id
  • Member – It specifies member(s) of the team
  • Owner – It specifies the owner(s) of the team
  • Classification – It specifies organizational classification to which team belongs

Besides, once you add dynamic columns, the team request form will look like this:

Team request form

Finally, the new request created by the user awaits the administrator’s approval.

Summary

Automating team request form is must-have functionality of modern collaboration tools. With TeamsHub by Cyclotron, administrators can automate workflows simply using a visual wizard. Creating and customizing powerful dynamic forms has never been easier.

For more information on TeamsHub by Cyclotron please visit our blog or our main site at https://teamshub.io

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April 20, 2020

Advanced Search using TeamsHub by Cyclotron

Introduction

Avoiding Teams sprawl and finding relevant information is an important consideration for Microsoft Teams governance. In this article we take a look at finding information using Advanced Search using TeamsHub by Cyclotron.

Performing an acute search in an organization that has thousands of collaborative teams is often overwhelming for administrators. TeamsHub by Cyclotron introduces smarter ways to find teams. We have integrated filters to streamline your search and render high quality matches in your results.

In this blog, we will discuss the following topics:

  1. Key Points
  2. How to Access Search and Create Hubs
  3. What are Filters
  4. What is Advanced Search and How to Access it
  5. Example Scenarios

Key Points

In TeamsHub by Cyclotron –

  • Search is performed based on team name, tags, and classification.
  • Advanced search can be used by both administrator and user.
  • Advanced search does not support hub creation.

How to Access Search and Create Hubs

  1. Sign in to TeamsHub by Cyclotron using appropriate user account and password.
  1. To search teams, go to All Teams and enter a search criteria in search input box.
Search criteria
  1. Use a search term – team name, tags or classification to search a team. For convenience, TeamsHub by Cyclotron provides tool tip in standard search.
Search Tags and Classification
  1. Now save the derived results as hub by giving a hub name after clicking Save Hub button.
Advanced Search: Save favorites as Hubs

Henceforth, if new teams are added to your Office 365 environment matching any search criteria in existing hubs, they get automatically added to appropriate hubs.

Filters

Filters are a set of parameters used to customize your search query to eliminate irrelevant content from your results. Filters help in finding exact information that you are looking for.

In TeamsHub by Cyclotron, to apply filters, you need to specify:

  • An Attribute to filter on
  • An Operator to set the filter condition
  • A Value to filter by

There are five types of attributes:

  1. Name – it specifies team name.
  2. Visibility – it is either public or private.
  3. Member/Owner – it specifies team member or owner name.
  4. Tags – it specifies tags used for labelling teams based on attributes such as team role, project, skill etc. For example – HR, IT, and Audit.
  5. Classification – it specifies classification labels used to categorize teams based on purpose, location or organizational structure. For example – Internal and External.

Now, there are three types of operators:

  1. Equal – this operator is used to match specified attribute with a specified value.
  2. Not Equal –this operator is used when specified attribute must not match a specified value.
  3. Contains –this operator is used to match a specified attribute with a specified value in the same sequential or contiguous order.

What is Advanced Search and How to Access it

Advanced search is a set of filters used to perform complex searches by creating a search query. A search query is formed by combining a field and a query operator as discussed above. To access advanced search in TeamsHub by Cyclotron, go to All Teams and click the Advanced Search icon next to search input box on top of the screen.

Advanced search button

Example Scenarios

Let us consider creating a search query using three different filters:

[Filter 1: Attribute=Classification; Operator=Contains; Value=”aud”]

Advanced Search Example 1

Now the results will fetch all teams with classification ‘Audit’. 

[Filter 2: Attribute=Member/Owner; Operator=Not Equal; Value=”Anton Adamson”]

Advanced Search Example 2

Now, the result returns a list of teams where ‘Anton Adamson’ is not a member. 

Let us use a combination of two filters now:

[Filter 3: {Attribute=Visibility; Operator=Equal; Value=”private”}{Attribute=Tags; Operator=Not Equal; Value=”it”}]

Advanced Search Example 3

Here, the result returns all those teams that are private and do not contain ‘IT’ tag. 

Similarly, you can refine your searches using two or more than two filters at a time.

Summary

TeamsHub by Cyclotron ensures that searching is an awesome experience for you. Gain control over your searches and get what you want in no time. If you are looking forward to make your searches straightforward, TeamsHub by Cyclotron is a perfect tool for you.

For more information on TeamsHub by Cyclotron please visit our main site at https://teamshub.io or our blog for more articles.

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