Contacts

Contact Fields

The Contacts module contains a number of stock fields that come out-of-the-box with Sugar. For information on using and editing various field types, refer to the User Interface documentation. The below definitions are suggested meanings for the fields, but the fields can be leveraged differently to best meet your organization's needs. Administrators or users with developer-level role access have the ability to alter, add, or remove fields via Admin > Studio. For more information on configuring fields, please refer to the Studio documentation in the Administration Guide.

Contact Creation via Sugar Portal

The Sugar Portal allows your customers to file bugs, cases, and review knowledge base articles created in Sugar. Please note that customers have to be registered users of the portal in order to be able to access the portal. When a potential portal user visits the portal login page and completes the registration form, their information is entered into Sugar as a new contact record with the Lead Source field set to "Support Portal User Registration". Once the contact record is validated and approved for portal access, you can enable the Portal Active checkbox to activate their portal account. For more information on managing the Sugar portal, please refer to the Portal Deployment User Guide. 

Emails and Contacts

Emails Subpanel

The Emails subpanel in the Contacts module displays emails that are associated with the contact record in a variety of ways:

• Explicitly related to the contact: If the contact is selected in the email's Related To field, the email and contact are explicitly related, and the email will appear in the contact's Emails subpanel and History dashlet. Instructions for using this flex relate field are available in the Emails documentation.
• Implicitly related to the contact: If one of the contact's email addresses appears in the email's From, To, or Cc fields, the email and contact are implicitly related, and the email will appear in the contact's Emails subpanel and History dashlet. This implicit relationship is made for emails sent from Sugar as well as any email imported into Sugar via Inbound email contacts or email archiving.

The Emails subpanel allows the following functions to be performed:

• Email Details: To view the details of an email, click the subject to open it in detail view.
• Record Count: Subpanel headers display the total count of related records (e.g., "5 of 6+") next to the module name. The count captures the number of records currently displayed with an additional, hyperlinked number (e.g., "6+") where there are more records than currently displayed. Click the hyperlinked number to see the total count of related records.
• Collapse or Expand: Click anywhere in the subpanel's header to collapse or expand it. Subpanels will remain collapsed or expanded on future visits to the module.
  • Note: Administrators can choose to disable collapse stickiness or to collapse all subpanels by default via Admin > System Settings. For more information, please refer to the System documentation in the Administration Guide.
• Column Widths: Place your cursor on the column divider. When the double arrow cursor appears, click and drag the column to the desired size. Please note that the column width will not be preserved when you navigate away from the page.
• Column Sort: Click a column header to sort the subpanel's items by that value. Clicking the same header again will reverse the sorting order (e.g., from ascending to descending).
• Compose a New Email: Click the Plus button on the upper right of a subpanel to create a new email with, by default, both an implicit and explicit relationship to the contact you are currently viewing. The email will automatically select the contact in the Related To field as well as add the contact's primary email address as a recipient in the To field.
  • Note: To send email from Sugar, users must configure their outbound email server via Emails > Email Settings or, if using the system email account to send email, the system's outbound email server must be configured by an administrator in Admin > System Email Settings.
  • Note: Because creating a new related record opens a drawer on top of the current record view, you should use the Cancel button to return to record view. Using the browser's back button will return you to the previous page.
• More Records: By default, Sugar displays up to five records in each subpanel, though administrators can alter the number via Admin > System Settings as described in the System documentation of the Administration Guide. If additional related records exist, click "More {Module Name}..." (e.g., "More Emails...") at the bottom of the subpanel to load the next set of records.

Calls, Meetings, and Contacts

Contacts can be related to calls and meetings in two ways. First, they can be selected in the event's Related To field, indicating that the contact was the topic of the call or meeting. Second, they can be included as invitees to the call or meeting. 

Calls and Meetings Subpanels

Each contact's record view includes a Calls subpanel and a Meetings subpanel. These subpanels display all calls and meetings which include the contact as an attendee. If the contact is not an attendee but is selected in the call's or meeting's Related To field, the call or meeting will not appear in the subpanels.

When relating an existing call or meeting to a contact via the subpanels on a contact's record view, the contact will automatically be added as an invitee. When creating a call or meeting from the subpanels, the contact will automatically be added as an attendee and the contact's account will automatically be set in the event's Related To field.