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How to Quickly Test Dovetail Carrier Messages

October 24, 2017 A common workflow is to have a business rule fire, and that business rule will send Dovetail Carrier a message. For example, when a customer updates a case via SelfService, we can have a business rule fire that sends an SDK Toolkit message to Carrier, and Carrier will change the case status to "Customer Update". Complete end-to-end Testing When I'm putting this all together, and testing it out, a full integration test would be to log into SelfService, and log a note to a case. That would cause Rulemanager to fire a business rule which would send the message to Carrier, then Carrier can do its thing. So I have multiple apps in play here: Dovetail Agent, for setting up the business rule Dovetail SelfService, which is how the customer updates a case Dovetail Rulemanager, which processes the business rule…

Parent-Child Cases Extension in Dovetail Carrier

September 5, 2017 One of the available extensions within Dovetail Carrier is the Parent-Child Cases Extension, which allows for automating workflow processes involving parent and child cases. Quick Refresher on Parent and Child CasesWith parent and child cases, we can relate a group of similar problems with a root cause. The parent case identifies the root cause. A child case is a customer problem that arises due to the root cause and is linked to the parent case.For example, suppose someone knocks out a utility pole, which causes an internet outage for many customers.Each customer may call into the call center and report the outage. We can relate all of these cases to a parent case, which is where the repair is being tracked. Updates on the repair are tracked within the parent case. Only one case needs to be updated, thus removing duplicate…

New in Dovetail – Configuration Item Rule Properties

August 29, 2017 We've recently added support for Configuration Item Rule Properties in Dovetail Rulemanager and Dovetail Agent. In this post I'll cover what they are, why you'd want to use them, as well as a few examples.   First, a quick refresher on Rule Properties and Config Items. Rule Properties Business Rule Properties are used in a number of places throughout the Dovetail suite, including: Business Rule Conditions Business Rule Action Messages Canned Response Variables Email Log Templates Traditionally, a rule property would traverse a path through the schema, starting from the base object, and ending at a column. For example, the Contact First Name property for a case would use the path case_reporter2contact:first_name. However, there are instances where a static value may be desired, and this static value cannot be traversed to via a schema path. In these instances, a Configuration Item Rule Property is…

What’s New in Dovetail SelfService 3

August 22, 2017 We recently released a major update to the Dovetail SelfService app. There's SO many great new capabilities here.I would group these enhancements into 2 major categories:Dynamic Content, Pages, and Menus - making it easy to create and edit content throughout the app Knowledgebase Enhancements - making the knowledgebase much more prevalent, approachable, and functional Lets take a run through the highlights of this release.  Dynamic Home Page ContentWhen a user logs into SelfService, they're immediately taken to the Home page.In the past, if you wanted to change what was displayed on the home page, you would need to customize the HTML page content, and re-deploy the application.Now, the home page content comes from a solution. So you can easily edit the solution using Dovetail Agent, and the home page is dynamically updated. SelfService Home Page Rich ContentSelfService supports the use of…

Introducing the Webhooks Extension in Dovetail Carrier

August 8, 2017 We recently added a new extension to Dovetail Carrier - a Webhooks Extension.  What's a webhook?Webhooks are "user-defined HTTP callbacks". They are usually triggered by some event, such as pushing code to a repository or a comment being posted to a blog. When that event occurs, the source site makes an HTTP request to the URI configured for the webhook. Users can configure them to cause events on one site to invoke behavior on another. The action taken may be anything.This allows for making a web request based on an event within your Clarify/Dovetail system. A business rule can fire based on the event. Dovetail Rulemanager will evaluate the rule, and send a message to Dovetail Carrier. With the webhooks extension, that message can tell Carrier to make an HTTP request.When Carrier receives a message with a type of InvokeUrl, the…

Free Collection of Business Rule Recipes

July 10, 2017 I've often stated that Rulemanager and Business Rules within Clarify/Dovetail are the most powerful (but often underused) components of the system.And when you combine Rulemanager with Dovetail Carrier, it gets even more powerful.To demonstrate some of this power, I've created a collection of business rule recipes that will educate and inspire you to make the most of your business rules.There's over 30 business rule examples, and they stretch across a number of areas, including:User NotificationsWorkflow AutomationCustomer NotificationsIntegrating with third-party services/appsTask ManagerCalling external apps/scriptsSLA Rules (Service Level Agreement)Bonus!There's also a Business Rule Template, which is helpful when defining new business rules.It can be provided to business users, who can fill out the template and submit it to the technical staff.Get It!This Collection of Recipes and the Business Rule Template is completely free.Simply click the button below to get free access.Access the Business…

How To Customize the Clarify Rule Properties form to support function-based Rule Properties

January 11, 2017 Recently I discussed function-based rule properties, which allow you to add your own code for calculating a rule property value.I was asked last week about these – specifically, what if you’re using Dovetail Rulemanager, but not using Dovetail Agent. How do you define these properties?  BackgroundThe property can be defined as a function using the Rule Property UI within Dovetail Agent.But if you’re not using Dovetail Agent, but you are using Dovetail Rulemanager, you can still take advantage of these.Rule properties are stored in table_prop_name. There is a new custom field named x_is_function that defines this property as a function. If set to 1, this property will be evaluated as a function. If set to 0 (default), it will not be.So you can simply create your rule property as normal, then you just need to set the x_is_function column to…

Understanding Business Calendars and Holidays

January 4, 2017 When talking about calendars, notifications, and SLAs – questions around calendars and holidays often arise.So lets explain how they work within Dovetail apps.     Business CalendarsLets start with Business Calendars. They define the work hours.For example I may have a business calendar named “M-F 9-5” with the following work hours:Monday 9:00 AM – Monday 5:00 PMTuesday 9:00 AM – Tuesday 5:00 PMWednesday 9:00 AM – Wednesday 5:00 PMThursday 9:00 AM – Thursday 5:00 PMFriday 9:00 AM – Friday 5:00 PMPretty simple.Business Calendars can be setup using Dovetail Admin. HolidaysNow lets setup the Holidays.Using Dovetail Agent, navigate to the Admin page, and click on the Holidays icon: This takes us to the Manage Holidays page, where we can create, edit, and delete holidays.  Clicking the green plus icon allows us to create a new holiday We can give the holiday a name, a start…

What’s New in Dovetail Agent 14

January 3, 2017 We recently released Dovetail Agent version 14. Here’s a run-down of the highlights.   User-Configurable home pageUsers can now set their home page to be any page within the app - such as a queue or a query.For example, perhaps you’re a manager who doesn’t work cases. In this case, you may wish your home page to be My Workgroup's Open Items or one of your custom queries.By default, Home is the same as My Work.To set your home page, use the s+h keyboard shortcut while you’re on any page in the app. Or set it on the User Preferences page.Clicking the Home icon (or using the g+h keyboard shortcut) will take you home.Clicking the My Work icon (or using the g+w keyboard shortcut) will take you to My Work.From the User Preferences page, you can also set or reset your…

How to Automate a Workflow Process by Combining function based Rule Properties and the SDK Toolkit extension

December 21, 2016 When working with parent-child cases, a common workflow is to close the parent case when all the child cases have been closed.We can easily automate this workflow using Dovetail tools and applications. Business RuleHere’s the rule that I want to create:When the last child case is closed, close the parent case.In order for this rule to function, I need to know when the last child case is closed.I can do that by looking at the number of open child cases on the parent case. When this number is equal to zero, I know that all of the children have been closed.But, out of the box, this number is not an available property.But I can easily create my own, using the function-based rule property functionality.  NumberOfOpenChildCasesOnParent Rule PropertyFollowing the examples, I can create my own function-based rule property.Given the child case objid, I…