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SMS notifications and alerts

April 6, 2009 Notifications and escalations generated by Rulemanager are an integral component of the Clarify/Dovetail system. Traditionally, email and in-application notifications are the most common notification delivery mechanisms. Digital pagers were popular years ago, but are pretty much non-existent today.   With mobile devices (iPhones, Windows Mobile, BlackBerrys, etc.) becoming almost ubiquitous, we can look to using these devices for notification delivery. And they all share a common communication platform - SMS. SMS (Short Message Service) is commonly referred to as text messaging.   So let's look at how we can use SMS as a delivery mechanism.   A while back, I detailed how to use Twitter as a notification channel, and then use Twitter to send SMS messages.   If we don't want to be coupled to a service like Twitter (which doesn't have guaranteed delivery, SLAs, etc.), we can use a very similar process, but instead…

The "From" Address of a Log Email

March 31, 2009 When sending an email out from a case (Log Email), Rulemanager is responsible for delivering the email. Rulemanager uses a template (com_tmplte) to determine the format and details of the actual email. These templates can be configured to specify a from address. Unfortunately, this configuration does not always work as expected when using the Clarify Rulemanager. Lets take a closer look at the template itself, as well as the differences in how Clarify Rulemanager and Dovetail Rulemanager each use this template.The send_email_about_obj templateWhen sending an email out, the send_email_about_obj com_tmplte is used.This template looks like:TO: <FOCUS.recipient>, <FOCUS.cc_list>FR: <FOCUS.sender>RE: Regarding Case Number <ADDITIONAL_INFO><FOCUS.message>Notice that the com_tmplte has an "FR:" token in it, presumably so that one can set the From address.Clarify RulemanagerWhen the Clarify Rulemanager sends an email, it does not interpret the FR: token as a From token - instead,…

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…

hMailServer: a free email server that’s great for demos and testing

December 3, 2008 When doing testing or demos, I often need to send and receive email. For example, Dovetail EmailAgent requires a mail server for receiving incoming mail. Dovetail Rulemanager needs a mail server for sending outgoing notifications by email, as well as for sending outgoing email.   When I'm in the office, I could use our corporate mail server (although I don't like to use production systems for testing). If I have internet access, I can use GMail, or another free hosted SMTP/POP3 server. But when I'm on the road, its not uncommon to end up in a conference room somewhere without internet access. So I prefer to have everything I need loaded on my laptop - and this includes a mail server. hMailServer   hMailServer is a free email server that's great for demos and testing. I've been using it for teh last 6 months or…

Support by Group Chat

June 9, 2008 One of the more interesting ideas I've seen kicking around the blogosphere is support by group chat. We use Campfire here at Dovetail as a group chat application, and we love it. It allows all of us to share information, even when we may be in different cities, and working different schedules. The chat history is saved, so its easy to catch up on past conversations. Campfire also allows us to easily upload and share files and screen shots. Overall, its been a great addition to our team's communication. (On a related note - we've shown examples in the past about sending Rulemanager notifications to Campfire here and here.) I like the idea of allowing customers to jump in and join the Campfire conversation. Probably have a room specific for this purpose. Not only would it allow interactions between agents…

Notify the case owner when someone else logs a note to their case

May 7, 2008 In a previous post, we learned how to use a variable on either side of a business rule condition. Now, we'll create a business rule that uses this type of condition.User StoryWe'll start with a story:As a case owner, I want to be notified when someone else logs a note to my case, so that I can be kept informed of any activity on my cases.The business ruleHere's the business rule which satisfies the user story.Object Type: Case Rule Name/Description: Notify the owner when someone else logs a note to their case Start Events: Log Note Cancel Events: None Conditions: Logger != [Current Owner] Action Title: Notify  Owner Who to Notify: [Current Owner] Start Action: 0 minutes From: Event Creation Using: Elapsed Time Repeat : Never Message:RE: A note was logged to [Object Type] [Object ID] by [Logger]A note was…

Creating A Twitter Integration

April 15, 2008 I have been doing some work using Twitter as a notification mechanism for case events taking place in Dovetail CRM. I also wanted to expose an API of sorts driven by Twitter direct messages which would allow support agents to work on cases via Twitter. I created a twitter account for Dovetail and went crazy. To the right is a screen shot of my favorite twitter client showing me being notified of a case created by a customer and accepting it via Twitter. This goal of this post is a brain dump what I have learned so far on my journey into Twitterland. Twitter? - what is this Twitter you speak of Twitter is a micro-blogging service on which you can post short messages called tweets. People usually post what they are up to, thinking about, and sadly what clothing…

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…

Having a voicemail create a case in our Dovetail/Clarify system

March 7, 2008 We recently moved into new offices here at Dovetail, and with our new offices came a new phone system.One of the features of the phone system is that we can get an email whenever we get a voicemail. The email contains a WAV file of the actual voicemail recording. This allows us to easily be notified of, and receive voicemails, even when we're out of the office.The same rule applies to voicemails left on our support mailbox. So, if one of our customers calls our support line and leaves a voicemail message, we can get an email alerting us, along with the WAV file of the message.This is all well and good.But many of us are not on email all the time, and we have other notifications setup using Rulemanager, such as notifications to our mobile devices, and notifications via…

More Campfire Integration

February 13, 2008 Kevin Miller recently had a recent post talking about how we have notifications from our Clarify/Dovetail system show up in Campfire.   When a case is dispatched to our support queue, we get a notification in Campfire. That tends to be where we all "hang out", so its a perfect place for group notifications.   Kevin had another great idea today that we should also post a message when the case is accepted by someone, so that we know someone has picked it up and is working it.   A quick business rule:   Object Type: Case Rule Name/Description: Campfire notification upon case accept Start Event: Accept Cancel Events:  Conditions: [Current Owner Workgroup] = Support Action Title: Notify Campfire Action Type: Command Line  Start Action: 0 minutes From: Event Creation Using: Elapsed Time Repeat: Never Message:   c:\ruby\bin\ruby.exe C:\repo\DovetailAutomation\focus\campfire\classic-campfire.rb " [Object Type] [Object ID]  has been accepted by [Logger]. : http://www.dovetailsoftware.com/fcclient/console/console.asp?command=casebyid&param1=[Object ID] "…