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Canned Responses within the Clarify Classic Client

Recently over on the Clarify forum on Toolbox.com, we had an interesting discussion around the use of canned responses within the Clarify Classic Client.

I introduced the term Canned Response into that post, as the original request sounded a lot like the Canned Response feature that we recently added in Dovetail Agent.

Other terms for this include snippets, templates, and saved replies.

canned-clarify-client

 

Request

The original request was:

Is it possible to assign a keyboard short cut for case notes field so we can auto populate certain text that is very repeatedly used.

 

Response

There’s nothing out of the box within the Clarify Client to insert commonly used text within a case note. Depending on what you want to do, it’s likely not a difficult customization though.

I’ve done some similar customizations in the past. In one instance, we took over the Response Templates functionality. Policies & Customers – Setup – Email Management – Response Templates

This allowed for creating system-wide templates/snippets that could easily be inserted into a log email or log note.

On the Log Email form, we added a drop-down list that had all of the templates. Pick one, and it would fill into the email body textbox.

Note: Depending on your Clarify licenses, you may or may not have access to Response Templates.

 

Canned Responses in Dovetail Agent

Recently, we added similar functionality into Dovetail Agent. We call them Canned Responses.

Canned responses are re-usable text snippets that you can use when logging emails or notes. Users can create personal canned responses, and can also share canned responses to workgroups, or to everyone.

Here’s an overview and a video demonstration.

 

 

In Dovetail Agent, we allow users to select a canned response using the mouse, or if you type “@@”, then an inline picker will appear allowing you to select a canned response.

 

 

Lets see how we could accomplish something similar within the Clarify Client.

 

Canned Responses in the Clarify Client

This is a fairly simple customization, so lets walk-through it.

We’ll add a dropdown list of canned responses to the Log Notes form.

Then, when you select one, add the text data into the notes text box.

Log Notes - Canned response

 

Keyboard Shortcut

You could also use a keyboard shortcut (such as @@) to open a popup menu that would allow you to do all this just from the keyboard.

Log Notes - canned Response Keyboard Shortcut

 

This is pretty neat, if I may say so myself.

I’m using the PopupMenu function, which is part of the core Summit BasicScript language.

Here’s the line of code:

result=PopupMenu(cannedresponsesTitleArray)

Pretty simple. The PopupMenu function takes an array, and displays a pop-up menu containing the specified items, and returns the integer of  the selected item.

After all of my years of Clarify work and ClearBasic coding, I think this is the first time I’ve ever used this function. Still learning…

 

Canned Responses Data Storage

Where would you store the canned responses data? Up to you.

You could go simple, and just put them in code. (yuck)

Or, store them in an existing table (such as table_template).

Or, store them in a custom table (such as table_canned_resp).

Or, store them someplace where you already have a UI available for creating/editing them. Such as Diagnostic Hints (ClearSupport – Select – Diagnostic Hints). Or Response Templates (Policies & Customers – Setup – Email Management – Response Templates)

Or solutions. You could use a certain solution type, or solutions whose title begins with “Canned response” or an asterisk (or some other convention).

For this example, I simply used solutions, and if it begins with an asterisk, I consider that a canned response.

In Dovetail Agent, we’ve created a custom table (table_canned_resp) to store them.

 

Video

Here’s a video showing this in action:

Direct video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwJVLzlsa6Q

 

Code

Here’s the ClearBasic code I used for this example: https://gist.github.com/gsherman/e5dd6a5223d617a856c604683f942116

 

Make it better

Here’s a few ideas that would make this feature even better.

  • Better data storage. As I said earlier, I simply used solutions, and if it begins with an asterisk, I consider that a canned response. Probably fine for an example, but if I was doing this for real, I would either store these in a custom table, or use the built-in Response Templates.
  • You could also include this same functionality on the Log Email form.
  • Add support for Dynamic Variables, similar to how business rules work. For example, [First Name] would resolve to the first name of the contact for the case. We have this functionality within Dovetail Agent canned responses, and it’s pretty awesome.
  • Personal and System-wide canned responses
  • Sharing of canned responses

 

Summary

So there you go – an example of Canned Responses within the Clarify Client.

If you want to discuss this in more detail, or need some assistance in implementing this in your environment, leave a comment below, or drop me an email. I’m happy to help.

Rock on.