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Introducing Custom Function-based Rule Properties

December 20, 2016   Rule Properties Rule properties are used in a number of places throughout the Dovetail suite, including: Business Rule Conditions Business Rule Action Messages Canned Response Variables Task Manager Properties 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 path cannot be traversed, or where a calculation needs to be made.   Counts For example, you may wish to fire a business rule only if all of the subcases on a case have been closed. So your two business rule conditions would be: Number of Subcases is greater than zero Number of Open Subcases is equal to zero Or, you may wish to fire…

Demystifying the focus_obj2act_entry relation

December 5, 2016 I’ve had multiple people inquire lately about the focus_obj2act_entry relation.It’s definitely a bit of a magic relation, and can be confusing, so I figured it was time to blog about it. Business rule properties allow you to define a value that is determined by traversing through the schema starting from a particular object.For example, the Site Name property for a Case has a path of case_reporter2site:name. So when this rule property gets resolved, the property evaluator knows how to turn that schema path into actual SQL, such as:select name from table_case, table_site where case_reporter2site = table_site.objid and table_case.objid = {The Objid of the Case in Context}Pretty straightforward. focus_obj2act_entry propertiesWhen looking at existing business rule properties, you may notice that some of them start with the relation focus_obj2act_entry.For example, the Logger property uses focus_obj2act_entry:act_entry2user:login_name Notice the "focus_obj2act_entry" part of the path. If you look…

Replacing custom scripts with the SDK Toolkit extension

September 19, 2016 Recently, I talked about the new SDK Toolkit Extension in Dovetail Carrier, which allows for executing methods within the Dovetail SDK Toolkits, without writing any code. Once that was released, I was able to remove some custom scripts from our own production environment, and replaced them with this new SDK Toolkit extension.   Change Status This is the business rule that we has in place: Object Type Case Rule Name/Description When a customer logs a note via SelfService, change the case status to Customer Update Start Events Log Note Cancel Event None Conditions Logger = SelfService Action Title Change Status Create Activity Log Entry? true (checked) Who to Notify no one (leave empty) Start Action 0 minutes From Event Creation Using Elapsed Time Repeat    Never Message Type Command Line Message C:\Dovetail\custom\RuleManagerActions\ChgStatus\ChangeCaseStatus.bat [Object ID] 'Customer Status changed automatically due to action…

Introducing the SDK Toolkit extension in Dovetail Carrier

August 2, 2016 We recently released an updated version of Dovetail Carrier, and this version includes a new SDK Toolkit Extension. I’m super excited about this new extension – so lets get into the details. But first, a quick refresher on Dovetail Carrier.   What is Dovetail Carrier? Carrier is a flexible and customizable message handling framework for your Dovetail or Clarify CRM application. It allows the automation of virtually any internal CRM processes associated with communicating with external systems. Carrier uses messaging, a method of communication between software components or applications that enables distributed communication that is loosely coupled, to enable organizations to establish efficient dataflow between their systems.   Extensions The Carrier framework is designed to support extensions to its baseline capabilities, for implementing solutions to your organization's business needs. Extensions shipped by Dovetail have been designed to be customizable and…

Increasing user productivity with Canned Responses

July 21, 2016 In Dovetail Agent 11, we introduced Canned Responses. In a previous post, I gave an introduction to canned responses. Here, I’ll go into much more detail.     What are Canned Responses? Canned 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. Canned responses save users time, increase productivity, and enable more consistent responses to customers.   Creating Canned Responses From the User menu, click on the Canned Responses item:   Which will take you to the Manage Canned Responses page:   Click on the + sign in the My Canned Responses tab header to create a new one:   Canned Response Content Now that we’re…

Task Manager Comparison: Dovetail vs. Clarify

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…

Publish a message to Dovetail Carrier to invoke a custom action

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…

Invoking custom actions in Dovetail Carrier without using Task Manager

June 13, 2016 In my last post, I demonstrated how to create a custom action for Dovetail Task Manager – namely a GetStockQuote action.Now, let's see how we can invoke a custom action without using Task Manager at all.We’ll invoke the same GetStockQuote code within Carrier, but, this has nothing to do with Task Manager. It’s simply a way to get Carrier to execute some custom code.To invoke it, we’ll create a business rule, and have Rulemanager send this message into Carrier. (Recall that Dovetail Rulemanager version 2.0 added Carrier Message as a business rule action message type) ProcessHere’s the overall process:  A New Carrier Message TypeOut of the box, Dovetail Task Manager fires a business rule with an action of Carrier Message.The business rule action message content looks like:type=RunTaskSet caseId=12345 taskSetName=Do Something Cool Task Set  Rulemanager turns this into an actual message, and sends…

Creating custom tasks for Dovetail Task Manager

June 8, 2016 Out of the box, Dovetail Task Manager supports one action - Create Subcase. (See this post for a primer on Task Manager) But because Task Manager is extensible, we can add our own custom actions that can do almost anything. For this example, we’ll walk through  how to add an action named Get Stock Quote, that will call an external web service to get a stock quote. The quote will then be logged as a note to the case. Just for testing, we’ll use Alternate Phone Number field on the case to store the stock symbol.   Setup Add the custom Task Action Using Dovetail Admin, edit the Task Action user-defined list. Add an element named Get Stock Quote Add the custom Task Action parameters Using Dovetail Admin, add a new user-defined list named Get Stock Quote Params Add an…

Dovetail Task Manager Introduction

June 6, 2016 Dovetail Task 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 Task Manager is also extensible using customization, allowing it to perform other actions, within the Clarify/Dovetail system itself, or even as a mechanism for integrating with other systems. Dovetail Task Manager replaces the old Clarify Task Manager module. But it also opens up a whole new avenue…