Tag: Gary Sherman

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…

How to Include Calculated Data in Query Results

September 19, 2017 I've blogged before about the Filter Config and Filter Overrides within Dovetail Agent. I totally dig this feature, as it makes it super easy to customize the queries within the app without having to write code. We know it's easy to show data that comes from a database column within the query results - such as a contact's name or phone number. But what if we wanted to show something that is more dynamic? i.e. something that needs to be calculated? For example, in the result set for contact queries, what if we wanted to show the number of open cases that a customer has? There's not an existing field in the database that contains this data. The number of open cases needs to be summed up. So how can we do this in a query? SQL Views to…

Email Enhancements in Dovetail Agent 11 – Video walk-through

July 27, 2016 In Dovetail Agent 11, we've made a number of enhancements that improve working with email, including: Reply / Reply All / Forward The Log Email form can now be popped out to a full screen modal window Drag-and-drop file attachments Preview/download a file attachment Remove a file attachment Canned responses This video is a quick walk-through of these enhancements Direct link to video on YouTube

Canned Responses in Dovetail Agent & Video Walk-through

July 22, 2016 I recently posted some details about Canned Responses in Dovetail Agent, including detailed descriptions and a bunch of screenshots. That ended up being a pretty long post, so I figured a video walk-through of canned responses might be more useful. Enjoy. Direct link to video on YouTube

Throwback Thursday: First Choice – Turks & Caicos

July 7, 2016 Back in 2002 (when we First Choice Software), we had a company trip to the Turks & Caicos. While cleaning out my closet recently, I found one of the T-shirts we had made to commemorate the event. No idea why, but I have this picture of Sam and I looking down into a hole on the island during that trip. I’m sure we were contemplating something very important though. Bugaloo’s Conch Shack – best conch on the island.

What’s New in Dovetail Agent 11

June 29, 2016 We recently released Dovetail Agent version 11. Here’s a quick rundown of the major changes. Canned ResponsesCanned 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.They can include dynamic properties, such as the Case Title, Status, or Customer information. Markdown is supported as well, meaning these canned responses can contain rich text, tables, images, hyperlinks, etc. Example: Salutation and Signature Example: Images and Links Select a Canned Response for useOnce some canned responses have been created, from a Log Email or Log Note, users can select one, which will automatically insert that response into the text area. Canned Response inserted into a note I’ll have another post soon that covers Canned Responses…

What’s New in Dovetail Agent 6

June 24, 2015 This week we released Dovetail Agent version 6. Here’s a quick rundown of the major changes. Faster all around We’ve improved performance throughout the application, both on the front and back-end. On the back-end, we’ve upgraded our major infrastructure components (including FUBU MVC, StructureMap, and Dovetail SDK), which improves the application startup time, as well as improves the time to process every request. We’ve also made improvements to the SQL generation module, which improves the performance of many database queries. In addition, queries are no longer executed on items without any relevant filters, which means fewer queries and better overall performance. On the front-end, Dovetail Agent is now a true SPA (Single Page Application), which means navigating through the application is much faster. There are less requests from the client to the server, and less data (scripts, templates, css,…

Business Rule Usage Report

August 4, 2011 The other night I got curious and inspired and started working on a Business Rule Usage Report. This tells us what business rules are firing along with how often. Perhaps even more importantly, it allows you to see the rules that are not being fired. Perhaps those rules could be removed, or made inactive, therefore simplifying business rule administration. Or maybe they should be firing, and need further investigation. I ran it against our production system, and it was pretty enlightening. Here’s an example (run against my development database, so the rule firing numbers are pretty small): As part of normal operations, we collect huge amounts of data and usage statistics in our CRM systems. I’m looking forward to exploring more reports like the above that give us insights into system usage. This will be officially released as part of…

Include a URL to the case in outgoing emails

July 14, 2011 I’ve blogged in the past about how to customize your outgoing emails in Clarify/Dovetail, including using rule properties. Using this same technique, we can include a URL back to the case automatically. For example, if you’re using a SelfService type application, such as Dovetail SelfService, or Clarify eSupport or WebSupport, we can include a URL back to the case so customers can easily get back to the case, where they can review it, add notes, view the status, etc. 1. Export the existing Template form the database You’ll need a directive file for the template. Here’s one: http://www.clarifytoolbox.com/code/directive-file-sendemailaboutobj-comtmplte Export it using ArchiveManager (DIET) or dataex: diet -user_name USERNAME -password PASSWORD -db_server SERVER -db_name DATABASE -archive -export sendemailaboutobj.dat -dir email_com_template.dir 2. Edit the Template All we need to do is modify the template, include the URL that we want, and use…

Everyone play nice: BOLT, OLEDB, Oracle, 64-bit Windows

May 27, 2011 With 64-bit machines becoming more and more prevalent, we’ve seen some confusion popup around installing and using applications. Is the app 32-bit? 64-bit? which database provider do I use? Is my web app 32 or 64 bit? etc. It’s confusing. No doubt. tl; dr Short answer: If you’re on a 64-bit machine, and using Oracle, use the 64-bit Oracle provider for OLE DB for BOLT. 64-bit Windows explained There’s a great post from last year that “explains 64 bit”: Programs are still in the same place, in %ProgramFiles%, unless you need the 32 bit version, which is in %ProgramFiles(x86)%, except on a 32 bit machine, where it’s still %ProgramFiles%. All those dll’s are still in %SystemRoot%System32, just now they’re 64 bit. The 32 bit ones, they’re in %SystemRoot%SysWOW64. You’re with me so far, right? Oh, and the 16 bit ones…