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Tag: rulemanager

Notifying the Yankee

October 31, 2011 Last we left off, we turned a pseudo relation into an exclusive relation. Specifically, we created a participant2user relation, which allowed us to traverse from an activity to the user who participated in the activity with a path like: focus_obj2act_entry:fact2participant(role_code=1):participant2user:login_name Real World Usage As promised, lets give this some real world usage. Specifically, lets use this to notify someone when a case (or other workflow object) is yanked from them. A few years ago, I showed how to implement yank notifications by email. In that post, I gave some details about the challenges behind using a business rule to do this: The problem with implementing this as a business rule is that there is no data that holds onto the previous owner. Clarify's solution to this is to have the Classic Client always send an integrated Notifier message (insert into…

Case Aging, including “pauses”

October 7, 2011 Over the years of working with Clarify, I’ve seen a request come up a few times for calculating case aging, including “pauses”.   It’s easy to calculate a total case age. For open cases, it’s the difference between now and the time the case was opened. For closed cases, it’s the difference between case open time and case close time.   But what about the workflows where a case can be paused? For example, the customer may go on vacation, or any other myriad of reasons where we want to pause the clock on the case.   The common approach to this from an application standpoint is to have a new case Status value of Paused (or something similar), so that we simply change the status to Paused to pause the case, and then change it to something else to…

New in Rulemanager: Support for Multiple email addresses for a contact or employee

October 5, 2011 Earlier this summer I blogged some thoughts around multiple email addresses for a contact or employee. I wanted to throw out a little update about how we’re addressing this. We’re addressing this in two ways – via Rulemanager, and via DovetailAgent. I’ll cover the DovetailAgent changes in a future post. Rulemanager We’ve modified Dovetail Rulemanager so that it supports multiple email addresses in a single email field. This could be on the employee or on the contact’s email field. The email addresses can be separated by a comma, semicolon, or a space. Lets see it in action I’ve created a new employee with the ever-so-descriptive name of “Multiple Emails” This employee has two SMTP addresses in the one email address field: If I have a business rule that notifies this employee, I can see that the notification gets sent to…

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…

Multiple email addresses for a contact or employee

June 10, 2011 In today’s modern age, many people have multiple email addresses. They may have a work email, a home email, a personal email, etc. I think I may have at least 1/2 a dozen.   In Clarify (and Dovetail), there’s one field for specifying an email address. Back in 1990, it was uncommon that people had multiple email addresses, so a single field was sufficient.   But what do we do when a contact has multiple email addresses? Where do we store that info?   I’ve seen systems where multiple custom fields are created, such as: table_contact.x_home_email table_contact.x_work_email table_contact.x_alternate_email table_contact.x_alternate_email2   etc.   Yuck.   I’ve also seen systems where multiple email addresses are crammed into the one existing email field.   Yuck again. How about…   I think what would be useful is a table that allowed for many email…

More on Rule Properties (Data Paths, Expressions, and Contexts)

May 3, 2011 Yuval over at NextGen Consulting has a couple of good posts on Data Paths and Expressions and Path Contexts. Paths are classically used in RuleManager properties, aliases, and auto-destination rules. More contemporary uses include CBO queries, Smart Client forms, and routing rules. A bunch of good information there – go check it out. I’ve also added links back to those posts on the Rulemanager wiki.

Auto-closing a case workflow

January 6, 2011   A colleague asked me recently about an email he had received from the support department of one of our vendors. It looked something like:     Hello, Anne Teak, A few days ago, our support staff has replied your inquiry at: http://www.some.vendor.com/helpdesk/view-thread.aspx?thread=735746   Since then, we have not received any response back from you, and would like to know if you consider this issue to be closed. If you have any further questions, please use the link above to post them. This issue will be automatically closed out in a few days if you choose not to respond.   To access this discussion thread, navigate to the following link: http://www.some.vendor.com/helpdesk/view-thread.aspx?thread=735746     Sincerely yours, Some.Vendor Team       The gist of the process is that if a customer hasn’t responded after a certain period of time, then we…

Use rule properties in your outgoing emails

November 18, 2010 Did you know you can use rule properties in your outgoing emails (log emails)? I was recently asked this question, and I thought the answer was yes, but I wasn’t positive, so I decided to test it out (and of course document it here). Since you’ve read this far, you’ve probably figured out that the answer is Yes. In this particular scenario, I simply wanted to include the case title in the email subject. By default, the subject of the email is Regarding Case Number XXX (where XXX is the case id number). Lets create a better email subject. A little reminder before we get going – we’re talking about Log Emails that are actually sent out via RuleManager. No surprise, for my testing and usage, I’m using Dovetail RuleManager. The send_email_about_obj template When sending an email out, the send_email_about_obj…

Advanced Business Rules (Part 2) webinar follow-up

July 29, 2010 Big thanks to those that attended today’s webinar on Rulemanager and Advanced Business Rules We had a good turnout, and some really good participation from attendees. Slides The slides from today’s presentation are available on Slideshare.   Links Rulemanager Wiki: http://rulemanager.wikispaces.com/ Send SMS message from Rulemanager using Twilio: http://github.com/gsherman/Javascripts Ideas for Future Webinars? Have an idea for a future webinar? Something you’d like to see or learn more about? Leave a comment here or drop me an email: gary [at] dovetailsoftware [dot] com

Reminder: Advanced Business Rules (Part 2) Webinar this week

July 27, 2010 Just a little reminder that I will be hosting a training webinar this Thursday. Advanced Business Rules (Part 2) User-defined Business Rule Events Business rules based on custom object types New Event Creation Times and Calendars Custom Notification Methods Time Bombs Tips & Tricks Troubleshooting Tips etc. When: Thursday, July 29, 2010 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM CDT Register here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/138608689