Blog

Dovetail Seeker Update

July 9, 2009 We will soon be releasing a new version of Dovetail Seeker our information retrieval tool for Dovetail/Clarify CRM. The big news in this release is that Seeker now includes a windows service for keeping your indexes in-sync with your database in near real-time. This release also adds the ability to wipe and re-index your search indexes after database purges. Previous Seeker Posts Seeker Introduced Previous Release Post Creating your own Seeker Client Real-Time Indexing Driver Gary and I have been thinking about different scenarios where Seeker could be used. One of them was to use search to replace how users find different types of data. I’ll leave diving into that scenario in more detail to Gary. Think Find Caller using a single search box. One of the requirements that came up was that the search index would need to in-sync…

Dovetail Developer Training, August 10-14

June 24, 2009 Our next Dovetail Developer Workshop is scheduled for August 10 through August 14 here in Austin, TX for developers interested in learning how to configure, manage and customize a Dovetail CRM environment. Space is limited, so please register ASAP by simply sending Nathan Shilling an email, or calling (512) 610-5455. The workshop will kick off with a review of the Dovetail CRM components and the base-line architecture. Later sessions will walk participants through the installation of each of the Dovetail CRM modules, with hands-on programming labs where students will acquire skills and develop expertise to build new functionality, which they then can utilize to extend and customize their own CRM environment. For instance, you will: Learn how to extend your schema using SchemaEditor; Import data using ArchiveManager; Perform data access operations using the Dovetail SDK; Learn how to use Dovetail…

How to notify additional people when a commitment expires

February 26, 2009 I was talking to a customer today, and they asked me about how to notify additional people when a commitment expires. For example, if a support agent makes a commitment to call the customer back at 4:00, but the agent goes home, we want to notify others within the department, so that someone else can call back the customer. When the commitment expires, Rulemanager uses a template to notify the commitment owner that the commitment has been missed. One way to accomplish this task is by customizing this commitment template. Baseline Commitment Template The baseline commitment template can be found with the following SQL: select * from table_com_tmplte where title = 'Commitment' You can also extract it using Dovetail ArchiveManager (or dataex) using a directives file that looks like: NO_EXPORT OBJECT ALL; EXPORT OBJECT com_tmplte UNIQUE_FIELD=title WHERE "title…

Clarify 6 – still running after all these years

April 22, 2008 I'm currently working with a customer who is running Clarify version 6. Not Amdocs CRM6, but Clarify version 6, or as the marketing brainiacs tagged it - CFO98 (Clarify Front Office 98). I'm amazed that they're still running a 10 year old enterprise application, and haven't upgraded at all in 10 years. On the other hand, it speaks to the power of the system that it continues to work and provide value, despite its age. They're now working with us, so that they can upgrade their database to something more current (Oracle 10g), and they're looking into using out toolset (SchemaEditor, ArchiveManager, fcSDK, BOLT, etc.) so that they can continue to reap value out of their system. Pretty cool.

A few of my common utilities

March 20, 2008 Whenever I have to do something more than a few times, I like to make a shortcut or a utility for it. I have all of these in my c:\bin directory, and I have my system path set to include c:\bin. These utilities mean that I don't have to think about a lot of heavy syntax most of the time. For example, to import a DAT file into my database, rather than using: c:\bin\diet.exe -license MyDietLicenseKey -user_name sa -password sa -db_server . -db_name dovetail -import file.dat -sqllog sql.log I just have to use: import dovetail file.dat Much easier to remember, and much easier and quicker to type. Most of these are geared towards running on my development system, which is primarily SQL Server running onlocalhost with an sa password of sa. Here's a few common…

Auto-Destination Rules have nothing to do with RuleManager

December 11, 2007 A very common misconception is that RuleManager is responsible for evaluating Auto-Destination rules. Perhaps it's because both contain the word "rule". Not sure. Let's all say it together: Auto-Destination Rules have nothing to do with RuleManager. Nicely done. OK, now, let's explore auto-destination rules in more detail.What's an Auto-Destination Rule?An auto-destination rule is a mechanism for assisting in the routing of a workflow object (such as a case) to the correct place.From the Clarify documentation:If your organization is large and uses many queues, auto-destination helps reduce the time a user spends searching for the right queue.Example (in plain English):When dispatching a case with a case type of New Employee, then the case should be routed to the New Employee queue.Example (in Clarify Syntax):OBJECT TYPE="rule", NAME="rule1" UNIQUE_FIELD = "title,operation" FIELDS title = "Case"; operation = "DISPATCH"; rule_text…

Migrate a business rule from one database to another

November 13, 2007 I was working with a customer today, and they mentioned that one task that is problematic for them is moving business rules from their test database into the production database. Currently, the business rule is manually created via the Clarify Client in the test instance, and then when its all working, it is then again manually re-entered into the production. Manual re-entry is a point of potential failure. The rule may have been perfect in test, but a simple typo when re-entering it in production can cause havoc.One solution to this issue is to archive the business rule using ArchiveManager or dataex from the test database, and then use ArchiveManager or dataex to import it into production.Business RuleFirst, I created a new business rule in my test system:Object Type:CaseRule Name/Description:New Employee RequestStart Event:DispatchCancel Events:NoneConditions:Case Type = New EmployeeAction Title:Create SubcasesMessage…

Firing Business Rules based on the business hours of a queue

November 6, 2007 One of our customers posed an interesting problem to me this week. They have offices in different locations, in different time zones, with different business hours. The employees in these offices work on different hours from one another, meaning that while one group is working, another group is not working, and vice-versa. The issue comes in when one group dispatches a case to a queue to be worked by the other group. More specifically, the issue is when the queue members should get notified by RuleManager. If the queue members are off-hours, then they should get notified as soon as their next work day starts. Seems like it should be straight-forward. Let's give it a go. First Try Let's create a specific test example to illustrate the notification process. I created two sites, the Texas Support Center (in CST), and…

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