July 15, 2016
Here’s a little sneak peek of what’s coming in the next version of Dovetail Carrier. CallToolkit Message Need a Hint?
July 7, 2016
Rule properties are used mainly within business rules. They’re used within business rule conditions, and also in business rule messages. We also use them as part of Dovetail Task Manager, and within Canned Responses. Out of the box, Clarify defines properties for Object ID and for Database ID. Object ID Looking at the Object ID properties, we see: Looking at the path_name for each of these, notice that most of them map to the id_number field, but some map to the objid field. Confusing. For Case and Subcase, Object ID means the id_number. But for Part Requests, it means the objid. Ugh. Database ID Looking at the Database ID properties, we see: Notice that they all map to the objid field. So between Object ID and Database ID, what we have is a mix of objid and…
Back in 2002 (when we First Choice Software), we had a company trip to the Turks & Caicos. While cleaning out my closet recently, I found one of the T-shirts we had made to commemorate the event. No idea why, but I have this picture of Sam and I looking down into a hole on the island during that trip. I’m sure we were contemplating something very important though. Bugaloo’s Conch Shack – best conch on the island.
July 6, 2016
I was recently speaking with a customer who wanted to allow his sales team to have access to data within the Dovetail / Clarify system. For example, before a sales person speaks with a customer, he probably wants to review recent cases for that customer, see the state of their contracts, what orders they’ve placed recently, etc. Normally, it’s just the support reps and logistics team that might be working with the system. But there’s no reason we can’t grant access to the information within to others in an organization. Request The request I got was to build a custom web application that allowed members of the sales team to have access to all of this data in a read-only way. Allow the sales rep to search for a customer site, and then view all sorts of information about…
June 30, 2016
One of our wonderful customers sent us a bottle of Dovetail sake – very cool! Perfect for a dev team retrospective / planning session. Dovetail Sake is a New England Sake brand based in Waltham, Massachusetts (which just happens to be where I grew up – doubly cool!) We occasionally get emails that are intended for other Dovetails, including Dovetail Games, Dovetail Dental Software, Dovetail Systems, and Dovetail Logistics Software – but we hadn’t crossed paths with Dovetail Sake before. None of us here are serious sake connoisseurs, but it was a nice change of pace. And for the record, should anyone else want to send us more alcohol, we’d be happy to receive it! (Our address is on our Contact page) Cheers!
June 29, 2016
We recently released Dovetail Agent version 11. Here’s a quick rundown of the major changes. Canned ResponsesCanned responses are re-usable text snippets that you can use when logging emails or notes. Canned responses can save you time if you’re often typing similar responses. Users can create personal canned responses, and can also share canned responses to workgroups, or to everyone.They can include dynamic properties, such as the Case Title, Status, or Customer information. Markdown is supported as well, meaning these canned responses can contain rich text, tables, images, hyperlinks, etc. Example: Salutation and Signature Example: Images and Links Select a Canned Response for useOnce some canned responses have been created, from a Log Email or Log Note, users can select one, which will automatically insert that response into the text area. Canned Response inserted into a note I’ll have another post soon that covers Canned Responses…
June 22, 2016
There are so many things I love about the newer Dovetail Agent compared to the older versions. Here’s a few of my favorites. (For reference, when I say “new”, I mean version 5 and higher. As of this writing, the latest version is Agent 10. Although I say “new” Dovetail Agent, it’s really been out since 2013. But it is much newer than our older Agent app (version 4 and below), which is over 10 years old now.) 1. No popups This is probably one of the biggest complaints we had about the older app – every page was a new popup window. Start with the console, then open a case, then click on the Site, then click one of the contacts, then click on Log Phone Call. You now have 5 windows open. Ugh. It’s difficult to manage…
June 20, 2016
I’ve received a few questions asking how Dovetail Task Manager compares to Clarify Task Manager. So let's cover that here.First, a quick refresher on what Task Manager is. Task Manager OverviewTask Manager is an optional module that allows actions to occur automatically when a task set is selected from a case.The most common action is creating a subcase.For example, when the New Employee Task Set is run:Create a General subcase for setting up the employee's network account and dispatch to the Network queue.Create an Administrative subcase for ordering business cards and assign to a specific employee.Create a General subcase for creating the user's account in the CRM system, and dispatch to a queue based on auto-destination rules.Dovetail Agent can work with either Clarify Task Manager or Dovetail Task Manager. High level comparison ClarifyDovetailTask evaluationTasks are evaluated within the Clarify Classic Client itself, or…
June 17, 2016
With Dovetail Task Manager, a Task will define the properties that get set when the task is executed. Set a Property to a Static Text ValueFor example, I can have a task that creates a subcase, and I can set it up so that the subcase title will be set to Do something awesome!The task property setup would look like:So when the subcase is created, its title will be Do something awesome! Set a Property to the Same Value as a Case PropertyAlternatively, instead of setting a property to a static text value, we can set it to be the same as a case property.For example, we can set the subcase title to be the same as the case title, as shown here:So when the subcase is created, its title will be the same as whatever the case title is. Dynamic Property NotationWhen…
June 15, 2016
In this post, I’ll cover calling a custom action within Dovetail Carrier by pushing a message directly onto Carrier’s queue, without using Rulemanager (or Task Manager). To recap how we got here: Dovetail Task Manager Overview – What it is, how it works, etc. Creating custom tasks for Dovetail Task Manager – How to create a custom task action, namely a Get Stock Quote action Invoking custom actions in Dovetail Carrier without using Task Manager – How to call a custom action using Rulemanager to publish a message to Carrier Now, lets look at calling a custom action within Carrier by pushing a message onto Carrier’s queue, without using Rulemanager. We’ll use the same action created in the previous post – namely GetStockQuote. Custom executable For this example, we’re creating a custom executable – publish.exe This exe will simply…
