Site Map

In the last step we looked at App Design, now we’re going to learn about Site Maps.

The site map defines the navigation for your app. Create a site map for your app by using the tile-based site map designer. Using the designer, you can drag components onto the design canvas, preview your work, and instantly publish the site map. Administrators and any user with the required privileges can modify site maps for apps.

The following illustrates using the designer to structure app navigation into Areas, Groups and Subareas.

The following image illustrates how the site map renders and allows the user to interact with the navigation in a model-driven app.

The first area should represent the collection of groups and subareas the user is most likely to use most often. The first item in this area is where the app will start when launched. You must have at least one area, group and subarea to have a working app. Build out your navigation and structure using logical groupings of related items.

The site map designer also lets you define the area, subarea, or group titles in the languages supported by the environment.

Sitemap Components

The following lists provide further details on each of the site map components and their settings.

Areas contain the following properties:

• Title: Title for the area in the base language of the organisation.

• Icon: A default application icon is selected. Select a different icon for the area from the list of web resources available in the solution.

• ID: The unique ID of this area. A unique ID is automatically generated, but you have the option enter a different one.

  • It is recommended to use the automatic ID because if the ID you enter is not unique, you might get an error when you import a solution containing this area.

• Show Groups: Select this check box to show groups of subareas in the navigation pane.

Under Advanced, you have the following options:

• More Titles: If your organisation uses multiple languages, you can use this option to create locale-specific titles. You can only have one title per language.

• More Descriptions: If your organisation uses multiple languages, you can use this option to create locale-specific descriptions. You can only have one description per language.

• URL: Enter the URL to render for the Dynamics 365 for Outlook folder that represents the area.

Groups contain the following properties:

• Title: Title for the group in the base language of the organisation.

• ID: The unique ID of this group. A unique ID is automatically generated, but you have the option enter a different one.

  • It is recommended to use the automatic ID because if the ID you enter is not unique, you might get an error when you import a solution containing this area.

Under Advanced, you have the following options:

• More Titles: If your organisation uses multiple languages, you can use this option to create locale-specific titles. You can only have one title per language.

• More Descriptions: If your organisation uses multiple languages, you can use this option to create locale-specific descriptions. You can only have one description per language.

• URL: Enter the URL to render for the Dynamics 365 for Outlook folder that represents the group.

• Set as Profile: Select this check box to indicate whether this group represents a user-selectable profile for the workplace. The group set as a user-selectable profile is made available as options in your personal options. This only applies for groups within the Workplace area.

Subareas contain the following properties:

• Type: The type of subarea you are adding (dashboard, entity, web resource, or URL).

• Entity: The entity that the subarea represents. This field is disabled if the subarea type is other than Entity in the Type drop-down list.

• URL: The URL the main page of the application will show when this subarea is selected. This field is disabled if you’ve selected Entity in the Type drop-down list.

• Default Dashboard: The default dashboard to be displayed for this subarea. This field only applies if you have specified the dashboard subarea type.

• Title: The title for the subarea in the base language of the organisation.

• Icon: A default application icon is selected. Select a different icon for the subarea from the list of web resources available in the solution.

• ID: The unique ID of this group. A unique ID is automatically generated, but you have the option enter a different one.

  • It is recommended to use the automatic ID because if the ID you enter is not unique, you might get an error when you import a solution containing this area.

• Parameter Passing: Enables the ability to pass information about the organisation and language context to the URL. This option only applies to web resource or a URL-based subarea.

Under Advanced, you have the following options:

• Privileges: This defines whether a subarea is displayed based on privileges available in any security roles that are assigned to the user.

• More Titles: If your organisation uses multiple languages, you can use this option to create locale-specific titles. You can only have one title per language.

• More Descriptions: If your organisation uses multiple languages, you can use this option to create Locale-specific descriptions. You can only have one description per language.

• SKUs: Defines which versions of Dynamics 365 that display this subarea.

• Client: Defines the type of client for which the subarea will be available.

• Outlook Shortcut: Defines the icon to display in Dynamics 365 for Outlook.

• Offline Availability: Defines if this subarea will be available to users when they are offline in Dynamics 365 for Outlook.

Up next, we explore Configure Model-Driven Forms.