Route plan
Route planning allows users (or their manager) to use Resco mobile apps to create a daily route. It is similar to the global map in that it displays a map and a list of entities, such as contacts or accounts. However, it also allows you to tap any subject and create appointments. It can also suggest an optimal route for you that you can follow to visit all your today's appointments with the least overhead.
| Note | Route plan, just like the global map, displays only records with latitude and longitude properly set. |
Configuring in Woodford
Route plans are configured for each app project in Woodford. Select Route Plan from the Project menu of Woodford to display a list of route plans. You can design multiple different route plans. After you're done designing a route plan, add it to the home screen of the app.
The configuration of a route plan is divided into multiple tabs.
- Activity: Use it to configure created appointments
- Routes AI: This set of features extends the function of automatic optimization to support fixed appointments and opening hours.
- Filter Fields: Filter which appointments are shown on the map.
- Source Views: Select entities that should be displayed on the map. Users can click the map pins to add an appointment with the entity to their daily route.
Set up the route plan, then click Save & Close.
Activity tab
- Activity
- Define which entity should be shown/edited on the route plan. Often, this is the Appointment entity.
- Activity Name Field
- Define which field is displayed as the title of the record in the list and on the map. (Requires release 14.2.)
- Start Field
- Choose the entity field that defines the start time of the appointment.
- End Field
- Choose the entity field that defines the end time of the appointment.
- Related Entity Lookup
- Defines related entity or entities that will be shown on the map. Creating an appointment on the route plan will associate the entity record to the appointment using this lookup field.
- View-only Mode
- Make the route plan read-only for the app users. Users won't be able to modify route items.
- Filter user-owned records
- Check if the route plan should explicitly filter records owned by the current user of the app. Similar functionality can also be achieved by setting a proper Sync Filter for the route plan entity.
- Enable completion
- Check to allow users to complete appointments directly from the map annotation. When this field is enabled, you also need to define the Completion Status field and optionally also Excluded Status Values.
- Completion Status
- Choose the status code that's set when a user marks an appointment as complete on the map. Appointments with this status code are not shown on the route.
- Excluded Status Values
- Choose additional status codes that should also be not shown on the route.
- Workday Start Hour
- Enter the hour which should be used as the start for every route. Format: HH:MM.
- Default Duration
- Enter the default appointment duration in minutes.
- Default Work Location
- Enter the latitude and longitude of the default work location.
- Start/end route at work
- Check if work is used as the default starting and ending location. Clear if you want to use the current location instead.
- Alternative visit location
- If you define alternative location fields, you can then define an alternate location for route items (appointment/activity).
Routes AI tab
- Use Routes AI
- When this feature is enabled, the optimization process ensures that appointments are not planned outside of opening hours. Users can also mark appointments as fixed; these appointments stay in their original time slot during optimization. To enable Routes AI, contact your Business Development Manager.
- Fixed Visit Field
- Select a field from the appointment entity that determines whether the appointment has a fixed date and time. The time of the appointment does not change even when you start the automatic optimization of appointments in the app. This has to be a field of the type two options (Yes/No).
Filter Fields tab
This tab displays a list of entity fields of the entity selected on the Activity tab. Select which fields should be used for filtering. App users will be able to set the filter to display only the relevant appointments.
A good example of such a field is the field Owner. A manager can select a person in the owner field, add appointments for that person, and save the route; then proceed to the next team member.
Source Views tab
- List of entities
- Select entities that should be displayed on the map. You can select one or more views for each entity. This list displays entities that have GPS coordinates latitude and longitude enabled. Also, the Related Entity Lookup field of the entity selected in the Activity tab must have the entities among its lookup targets.
- Initial Entity
- Choose an entity that should be displayed by default.
Rules
You can use rules to customize the behavior of your route plan. The following actions trigger rule execution on a route plan:
- On Item Added
- Executed when a user adds a new appointment on the map. Often used for initialization, if you need to set some properties for the newly created appointment.
- On Item Completed
- Executed when a user marks an appointment as completed. This can be used to perform some finishing touches on the appointment about to be closed. You can also use it to validate the appointment before closing. If validation fails, completion can be canceled and a custom error message displayed to the user.
Few sample rules are described in a webinar. Webinar
If the no-code business logic via rules is not enough, you can further extend the functionality of the route plan using Resco JavaScript Bridge.
Opening hours
You can configure opening hours for the entities selected on the Source Views tab. Appointments for these entities can be only scheduled during the opening hours. See Opening hours for more information on how to configure them.
Using route plan in mobile app
- Select what to display on your map.
- Tap a location on the map to create an appointment with your account, contact, or lead. Route planner can navigate you on your way.
- The planner ensures that a visit is not planned outside of opening hours. (*) Administrators can define the default opening hours for all records, but the users of the mobile app can modify the hours of a particular record.
- Some appointments are not flexible; the time of the planned visit cannot change. Enable Fixed time for these visits. (*)
- Configure where to start and end your trip: current location, home, work, or define a custom location.
- Plans can change. You can modify the address of a planned visit or appointment.
- Once you have added all your appointments for the day, tap Optimize Route and let the AI do the work: rearrange your appointments for maximum efficiency. (*)
- You can finetune your optimization preferences:
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- Sometimes, you plan just a bit too much.
| Note | Items marked by an asterisk (*) require Routes AI. Also, route optimization without this feature ignores fixed appointments and opening hours. |
Appointment icons
- The first appointment has a solid icon; it has already been saved.
- Appointments 2 and 3 are in draft state.
- Appointment 2 has a warning indicating that the appointment is scheduled outside of the opening hours. You can tap the warning to fix this issue (replan).
- Appointment 3 has a lock icon, indicating that it's a fixed-time appointment
Map providers
- HERE services are used for traffic information and route optimization
- Platform-specific maps are used to draw the route (Google Maps on Windows Desktop/Android, Apple Maps on iOS; Bing Maps on Microsoft Store app)
See also