REQUEST A DEMO

Tag: clarify amdocs

Automatic Subcase Creation

November 14, 2007 While working with a customer this week, they asked about automatic subcase creation, similar to Clarify's Task Manager module.   For example, if a new case of type "New Employee" is created, then I want to automatically create 3 subcases: One subcase for setting up network accounts, dispatched to the network queue One subcase for ordering office furniture, dispatched to the furniture queue One subcase for ordering a new computer, dispatched to the hardware queue   This is easily accomplished with a business rule and a simple script. The script   A simple PowerShell script (my favorite new scripting environment) which takes 1 input parameter (a case id number), and then calls the CreateSubcase API that is part of the Dovetail SDK to create subcases and dispatch them to the appropriate queue.   $connectionString = "Data Source=moorea;Initial Catalog=dovetail;uid=gary;pwd=not4youris"; $databaseType =…

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…

What we need is a user story

October 31, 2007 There was an interesting discussion this week over on the Clarify IT Toolbox list - interesting (to me) not so much because of the technical question, but because how it brings to light user stories, or lack thereof. The original question: How Can I custimize the process of "Accepting" a case. I want to have a msgbox before a case is accepted. Some of the discussion: what is your customisation exactly ?  what will appear in your msg box ? I just want to display a message Box before a case is accepted.msgbox can contain any text message like "Hello". Do you want the message box to appear before the accept dialogue appears? "Before a case moves to the default wipbin (because I am having only one wip bin), a msgbox with some text should poped up." You still fail…

Modifying a case you don't own

July 13, 2007 Clarify employs a strict ownership paradigm with its application, meaning that only the owner of a workflow object can make a critical change to it. This ownership paradigm was baked into the product, and difficult to modify. For example, anyone can add notes to a case, but only the owner can change the status. What's a critical change? Let's take case as the object in question, and see what Clarify considers critical. Critical changes: Change any attributes of the case (title, priority, severity, etc.) Change the status Perform a workflow action (Assign, Dispatch) Close the Case Change the contact, product, or contract for the case Relate the case to a solution Non-Critical changes: Log Notes Log Email Log Phone Call Log Research However, organizations don't always want to follow these imposed rules. For example, it's not that uncommon to have a…

Having RuleManager invoke command line scripts

June 26, 2007 I've received a few questions on this recently, so I decided a post is in order.   One of the features in Rulemanager (both the Clarify/Amdocs Rulemanager and the Dovetail Rulemanager) is the ability to have it invoke command line scripts/executables via a business rule action.   For example:   if a case has been in a status of "waiting on customer" for more than 30 days, run a script that will close the case when a new contact is created, run a script that will send the contact data to another system (such as an ERP system) when a case is closed, run a script that will send the customer a satisfaction survey etc.   What kind of scripts can Rulemanager run? Basically, any kind of script or executable, as long as no UI activity or user input is needed.  …

Should log_notes update the last modified timestamp on the case?

June 13, 2007 On most workflow objects in Clarify, such as case, subcase, etc. there is a column which indicates the last modified date.  For example, on table_case, there is a modify_stmp column. In older versions of Clarify (including up to version 11.5), if you perform a log action (such as log notes), that timestamp is not updated. In later versions (such as 12.5), that timestamp is updated. The high level APIs in our fcSDK (such as log_case_note, log_case_phone, log_subcase_note, etc.) mimic the Clarify functionality. But, because they've been around so long, they mimic "older" versions of Clarify. So, our log* APIs do not update the last modified timestamp on a case. So, the question is: should our log APIs update the last modified timestamp? I could, but I would prefer not to, add version conditional logic, such as this: if (CLARIFY_SCHEMA_VER >= 59){…

Using the Tab control in Dovetail web applications (such as fcClient and fcAdmin)

June 12, 2007 We use a client-side JavaScript object for creating tabs in our web applications. Unlike in the Clarify Classic Client, tabs in our web apps are the same page as the parent. When you click on a tab, you are actually displaying the HTML elements on that tab, and hiding the HTML elements on the other unselected tabs. It's all a bunch of Dynamic HTML (DHTML) goodness.  It's trivial to make tabs visible/invisible, reorder tabs, resize, etc. The case page in fcClient is a good example of the use of tabs:   Here we will walk through the steps needed for creating and using tabs within a page. In your ASP page, Include the javascript code for building a tab <script language="javascript" src="../code/tab_builder.js"></script> In your ASP page, Include the stylesheet <link rel="stylesheet" href="../stylesheets/webagent.css" type="text/css"> Create an array of tabs var ArrayOfTabs= new Array(); Add…

Using the Tab control in Dovetail web applications (such as fcClient and fcAdmin)

We use a client-side JavaScript object for creating tabs in our web applications. Unlike in the Clarify Classic Client, tabs in our web apps are the same page as the parent. When you click on a tab, you are actually displaying the HTML elements on that tab, and hiding the HTML elements on the other unselected tabs. It's all a bunch of Dynamic HTML (DHTML) goodness.  It's trivial to make tabs visible/invisible, reorder tabs, resize, etc.   The case page in fcClient is a good example of the use of tabs:       Here we will walk through the steps needed for creating and using tabs within a page. In your ASP page, Include the javascript code for building a tab <script language="javascript" src="../code/tab_builder.js"></script>   In your ASP page, Include the stylesheet <link rel="stylesheet" href="../stylesheets/webagent.css" type="text/css">   Create an array of tabs…

Expanding your varchar columns beyond 255 in Clarify is easy with the right tools

May 16, 2007 We had a support case that came in this week asking if there were issues with expanding a varchar(255) field to a larger value, such as varchar(500). Specifically, this customer was asking about expanding the internal notes field on the notes_log table (table_notes_log.internal). This customer is on an older version of Clarify (version 8 or version 9, IIRC), but they're using a more current version of Microsoft SQL Server (either 2000 or 2005, I forget exactly which one). These versions of MSSQL can handle much larger varchar lengths. I believe MSSQL 2000 can handle up to varchar(8000). I think the 255 limit is left over from the Sybase and Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 days. It should work, I thought. One way to find out: let's try it. My environment for this test is Clarify 9 with MSSQL 2000. Clarify Data…

Making the app work the way the user expects it to work

May 9, 2007 Every morning I get an email report containing all of the Full Text Searches that our customers performed within our SelfService application, along with how many results each search resulted in, and if there were any errors. Our volume is low, so it's not too much information for me to process on a daily basis. This report allows me to gain some knowledge of who's using the app, what types of things they're searching for, and if they are finding answers to their inquiries. This morning's report showed that a customer searched for just an integer (for our example, we'll say they searched for 12345), and came up with no matches. Knowing the  customer, I knew they were searching for a case number. However, our search is currently setup to perform full text searches on the textual information with a…