When customizing Method screens and Reports, there are some best practices that should be followed to ensure you can recover from mistakes and maintain a healthy system.

Creating screens

When creating a screen, it is easy to replace the existing links to the original screens before you are ready to show the custom screen. This can cause a number of issues, including broken links to screens. To prevent this, it is important to copy the existing screen first. When copying the screen, be sure to select the "Do not add tab links" option. This will allow you to edit your screen, while still keeping the current screen active to display when it's accessed. Then, once you've finished your changes and wish to make your custom screen the "active" screen, copy the custom screen as you did the original screen. This time, select the "Replace all tab links" option, and choose the original screen as the one to replace. This will replace the existing tab links with links to your new custom screen.

Report Designer

In the Method Report Designer, it is very easy to make changes and apply them to the stock Method templates. However, there are no safeguards in place to keep you from overwriting with changes, forever altering the stock template. To avoid making changes to stock templates, create a report from an existing template. Before you make any changes, go to File > Save As and save the template under a different name. This will allow you to make changes to the stock template without altering the original. This will allow you to create "versions" of the templates. You should use this tactic when altering existing custom templates, so you can revert back to the original if you need to.

Regenerate table

If you encounter an error when working with a screen (either editing or using it) you may need to re-generate the table on which that screen is based. To do this, follow the steps below:

1. Go to Customize > Tables/Fields
2. Click on the table you wish to regenerate; alternatively click Edit Fields...
3. Click the Finished Editing Fields button.