Layouts can be defined across all user roles, or can be defined separately for each user role. Layouts can be defined at a global level, and are then inherited within each Business Area and /or Project that is defined. This is a powerful mechanism that allows you to define a separate layout for each user role, each Business Area and each Project. However it is more likely that you will use this mechanism to define some unique layouts with each business area, while you share other layouts across the system, or at least across a business area and its projects.
Each layout is typically a matrix showing the fields defined within the data dictionary that make up the layout. Layouts may also have layout cell attributes defined for different fields or combination of fields on each layout, to provide conditioning and logic. For example, you may make a field visible or invisible based on the value of another field.
Lastly, you may created more complex layouts by embedding one layout within another. This includes the embedding of related issue layouts which might allow you to present, or to insert and upate issues within a different Business Area.
Layouts are maintained in the Design Center (Administration --> Site Configuration --> Design Center). From this screen you will see that the layouts are organized by their Business Area. The layouts are then displayed by their different purpose, such as add and update layouts, report and email notification layouts.
When you edit a typical layout in the Design Center it will look like this:
The administrator can drag-and-drop fields from the left-hand side of the window to the layout. There are many other functions available, such as being able to set logic into the layout and being able to embed other layouts into the current layout. When an end user views the layout, it will look like this:
