January 6, 2009
NETTUTS has a series of videos that show you how to get started with jQuery. Good stuff.
November 18, 2008
One of the more underused features within Clarify/Dovetail is the ability to link cases to solutions. Its a great feature - I just don't see it used often enough. This allows organizations to track which solutions are used the most, and use that information to feed back to production groups (development, engineering, documentation, etc.) to help prioritize changes/fixes/enhancements. Making it easier for agents to link solutions and cases would certainly be beneficial. If its hard, they're less likely to do it. So, make it easy. Dovetail Agent (version 4.0) has simplified the ability to link a solution to one or more cases. Regardless of how you get to a Solution (via Search, Find by ID, or simply opening it from a queue or WIPbin), you can easily link the Solution to one (or more) of your…
Ever since we introduced Dovetail Seeker this summer, I was anxious to incorporate its capabilities with our applications. It is integrated within Dovetail Agent, Dovetail SelfService, and Dovetail Mobile Agent. Kevin also demonstrated how to incorporate it into your own applications (his particular example was integrating Seeker with an ASP.NET 2.0 web application). We've now integrated Seeker with the Clarify Classic Client, bringing the simple and ubiquitous search box into Clarify. Dovetail Search provides the User Interface (UI) for searching and displaying retrieved search results. Dovetail Search for Clarify makes a request to Seeker, and Seeker returns a set of search results. Dovetail Search displays these results in a simple, intuitive format. What can you search?You can search any data in your Clarify database. Out of the box, Dovetail Search is configured for searching cases, solutions, change requests (bugs), subcases, and part request details. Its easily configurable, so…
October 22, 2008
Recently I had the need to consume JSON in ClearBasic. For example, I make a request to a web service, and the service returns a result set in JSON format. I want to display those results within Clarify. JSON JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format. JSON is a pretty popular data transfer format, especially for the web. Here's an example of a simple JSON object: { FirstName: Joe, LastName: SixPack, Programming Languages: [ClearBasic, Perl, Ruby] } A real-world JSON example I can make an HTTP request to a Google API to perform a web search. The result will be in a JSON format. For example, a search for "fcsdk powershell" can be made by using this URL: http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/services/search/web?v=1.0&q=fcsdk%20powershell The result will be this: {"responseData": {"results":[{"GsearchResultClass":"GwebSearch", "unescapedUrl":"http://blogs.dovetailsoftware.com/blogs/gsherman/archive/2007/04/25/using-the-fcsdk-in-powershell.aspx", "url":"http://blogs.dovetailsoftware.com/blogs/gsherman/archive/2007/04/25/using-the-fcsdk-in-powershell.aspx", "visibleUrl":"blogs.dovetailsoftware.com", "cacheUrl":"http://www.google.com/search?qu003dcache:u9RLwKjiIPYJ:blogs.dovetailsoftware.com", "title":"Gary Sherman : Using the u003cbu003efcSDKu003c/bu003e in u003cbu003ePowerShellu003c/bu003e",…
October 7, 2008
In a past post, I discussed how to use GreaseMonkey to modify a web application, particularly, Dovetail Mobile Agent. In my last post, I linked to a GreaseMonkey script that added keyboard shortcuts to Basecamp. Now let's combine the two together. Access Keys for Mobile Clients Keep in mind that Dovetail Mobile Agent already has Access Keys (shortcuts) that are geared for mobile devices. The access keys are numbers. This works well on a mobile device, but it doesn't make as much sense for non-mobile devices. Notice in the image below that each link has a numeric access key. In a previous post, I showed you how to use Stylish to restyle the app. One of the styling changes I made was to hide the numeric access keys: .access-key-label{ display:none; } This hid the mobile-centric numeric access keys. Keyboard…
September 29, 2008
One of the things I've wanted to do for a long time is have the ability to add comments on objects within the Clarify/Dovetail system. As a specific example, I've wanted to be able to add comments to a solution. For those not versed in Clarify/Dovetail speak, a Solution is essentially a KnowledgeBase (KB) article. By allowing comments, I (and others) can (hopefully) enhance the information that is within the Solution. For example, consider a KB article that is available on the web, such as a Microsoft KB article, or a Dovetail KB article. Now, lets say that I use the information in that article, but I run into a bit of a snag, discover another tip or workaround, or perhaps I've even found something wrong in that article. What can I do? I'd like to be able to leave…
Totally rockin announcement today: Microsoft will be shipping jQuery with Visual Studio. If you follow the Dovetail Developers, you already know that we're big fans of jQuery at Dovetail. ScottGu has details on his blog about this announcement, as does John Resig. Scott Hanselman also has a good write-up. From ScottGu's post: We will distribute the jQuery JavaScript library as-is, and will not be forking or changing the source from the main jQuery branch. The files will continue to use and ship under the existing jQuery MIT license. We will also distribute intellisense-annotated versions that provide great Visual Studio intellisense and help-integration at design-time. The jQuery intellisense annotation support will be available as a free web-download in a few weeks. We will also extend Microsoft product support to jQuery beginning later this year, which will enable developers and enterprises to…
As I mentioned in a previous post, I've started using Dovetail Mobile Agent for my day-to-day case activities. Its still early in its project lifecycle, so it doesn't have all of the bells and whistles (yet), but that's OK with me. For example, you can Log an Email, but it doesn't have the capability to automatically populate a signature within the email. Since this is something that I wanted now, here's how to make that happen, without modifying the application itself. Ubiquity In a previous post, I detailed my first Ubiquity command for working with Dovetail Mobile Agent. Now, we'll add a new command for inserting my signature. The Ubiquity code: CmdUtils.CreateCommand({ name: "signature", icon: "
September 8, 2008
I was pretty excited to play with Ubiquity, a new Firefox extension that lets me think and act in a more natural language with my PC. From the Ubiquity Tutorial: Ubiquity is an experimental Firefox extension that gives you a powerful new way to interact with the Web. You're used to telling Firefox where you want to go by typing Web addresses into the URL bar. With Ubiquity installed, you'll be able to tell Firefox what you want it to do by typing commands into a new Ubiquity input box. The commands that come with Ubiquity are just the beginning: anyone can create new commands and share them. Some of the built-in commands include: add-to-calendar calculate define ebay-search email flickr google map search tinyurl weather zoom After playing with the build-in commands, I was ready to try and write my…
July 28, 2008
Dovetail Seeker is our search engine for Clarify/Dovetail. One of the things I really like about Seeker is that its easy to take advantage of its search results from different applications. Because Seeker is a web service, its relatively easy to have applications use this search service. For example, we've added Search capabilities to Dovetail Agent and to Dovetail SelfService. We've also added Search to our external website, and Search can also be added to the Clarify Classic Client. Many applications can use the same instance of Seeker for searching: Request/Response Each of these applications simply make an HTTP request to Dovetail Seeker, and the results are returned in a JSON format. JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format that is easy for humans to read and write, and also easy for machines to parse and…
