Using the Related Content Framework to avoid Customizations

We run a pretty Vanilla shop here and we frown upon unnecessary customizations to the applications, but with that said we do have a few customizations.  To be precise we have 18 total objects customized.   So when I got a request to add the ability for employees and managers to add attachments to the ePerformance Appraisal document, I searched for a way to do this without touching the delivered pages.  This got me thinking about Related Content, if I could create a simple Component that used the Appraisal Document ID as a key and I shared this Related Content with both the EP_APPR_MAIN1 and the EP_APPR_BASE1 pages, then managers and employees could attach and share documents regardless of what phase the document was currently in.

So I built a Component that was keyed by Appraisal ID and allowed for multiple Documents to be attached.

Then I created the assigned the Related Content at the page level.

Assigning Related Content to Page

 Then press the configure button to pass the Document ID to the related content component.

Make sure you click the Related Content Menu at the bottom!

  Now when I navigate to the Establish Criteria, it has the related Content Menu on the top right and the bottom o the page now has a place for employee's to add attachments.  And since the key is just he document id, all I have left to do is to configure the Manager and Employee evaluation pages to share this content.