General Settings

How to prepare

When editing Processes, please take these best practices into account:

Define your Process outside of SSP 7, by using a whiteboard, Microsoft Visio, or any other means. We encourage this approach, as we have learnt that the most difficult task when setting up Processes, resides in actually defining them. Once a Process is defined, you can enter it easily in SSP 7.
Check if all data is available in the DataStore, like Actors or values to be entered in selection fields, ...
Make the linked form first, and familiarize yourself with the fields built into that form. You can re-use fields from the form in your Process, but this requires that the Form itself is already built into SSP 7.
It is possible to share a process across multiple forms. Carefully choose the field "Internal Label" in the Field settings and use these labels in the mapping of the Process.
When completed, link the Form to the Process. See Edit Form : Processes

alert_1818When a Process is edited, only new Requests will follow the new Process. Any existing ticket will follow the old Process. When a ticket is sent off to the Workflow, SSP 7 takes a snapshot of the Process and follows that.

General Settings

The General Settings tab contains the configuration setting for a Process.

The following options are available on this page:

Title : Enter the Title for the Process in the default language as set in SSP 7.
Short Description : Enter the Short Description for the Process in the default language as set in SSP 7.
Information on top of ticket detail : Enter any information here in the default language as set in SSP 7 if you want to display a text above the ticket. When this field is edited, it affects all running tickets as well. This field in HTML-enabled, and below you can refer values from within forms, tickets, etc into it. See 'Dynamic Field Mapping' for more information.
Sender name : Enter the Sender name which will appear in the automatic emails sent for this process.
Sender email : Enter the Sender email address from which the automatic emails will be sent for this process.
In test mode: When Yes is selected, all emails are redirected to the entered email address. Mulitple addresses can be entered, seperated by a ';'. When 'No' is selected, all emails are sent to the assigned Actors of each step.
Friendly display name : Enter the custom name which will appear as the process name in search tickets (for the end users).
Always disable messages: Hide the messages function completely.
Disable messages when closed : Define if messages are allowed to be sent if the process is closed.
Allow attachments in messages : Allows attachments to be added to the automatic emails sent for this process.
Log is public: When checked, the ticket log can be viewed by anyone who has access to the ticket. The log is displayed by default at the bottom of a running ticket in the end-users' process view.
Owner: A single user can be selected as the owner of the process. This person will have admin access to the process without any other needed role settings.
Read access when the same or Write access when the same as either the requestor or requested for: these options give automatic read or write access to the ticket if the condition specified is met. No role settings are required.
Folder name in complete report: when a full report is run on the process, including the process and all tickets, the result will be put in this folder.
Deadline reminder process: When this is specified, any step having reached the deadline, will follow this process, instead of resending emails.
Follow-up process : When a follow-up process is defined, the follow-up button will show with tickets. The idea behind the follow-up process is that a second ticket can be linked to another ticket. This functionality is useful when a customer ticket has been resolved, but needs more attention. The customer ticket can then be closed and the follow-up ticket can be worked on as follow-up action. Select a process from the dropdown list.
Information always readonly : This is for Ticketing only. The contents of the field 'Information' can be locked for editing by selecting yes.
Available for ticketing : Select Yes if this process can be used in Ticketing. When enabled, linking this process from a form will trigger the Ticketing fields to be specified.
Reason is required when changing the planned date : This is for Ticketing only. The planned date can be changed in Ticketing. When this field is set to 'Yes', a reason is asked when this is done.

Translations

The Translations section contains the configuration setting for Processes.

Title Deutsch & Short Description : Enter the German Title & Welcome text here. If left empty, the text of the default language will be shown. More or fewer input sets (Title & Description) can be shown, depending on the number of preset languages for SSP 7.
Information on top of ticketdetail : Enter any information here in German if you want to display the text above a ticket in German interface. If left empty, the text of the default language will be shown.

Variables

Variables play a role in setting numerous values from defining an actor, to sending or receiving information to or from an external application. Variables can also be used to increment numbers or to set default values.

To create a variable:

- Name : Set the name of the Variable, spaces and special characters are allowed - Contains calculations : mark this box if you want to run calculations in the Definition box - Definition : Use fixed text or Dynamic Mapping to fill this Variable.

Click on ADD to add the variable. Save the process first, then this Variable will get its own unique ID. It is 0 before saving the process.

Once saved, the Variables can be edited again: clip0311

You can also edit the contents of a Variable in the process, using the step type 'Set Variable value'

For example, if an actor can come from multiple fields in a form or forms, the user overview page can be messy showing 3 or more actors when only one is used. The variable eliminates this issue by setting the actor as a variable. In the variable settings, all fields from where the actor can come are defined, that way, whichever field in the form contains a value will define the value for the variable.

Granular Ticket Access

Granular Ticket Access allows the Administrator to distribute detailed access rights on tickets. Without granular access, it is only possible to distribute rights for all tickets of a process, in read/write, for open/closed tickets. With this option, it is possible to go a level deeper. If you want to allow a group of persons only access rights to tickets, where value x was filled in the form, you will need Granular Ticket Access. There are more options for detailed filtering, they are described below. Please note that rights are not distributed to individual people, but instead to Groups. When a User gets access to tickets using Granular Tickets Access, it is shown to him on the Views on the Dashboard, and also when he searches for tickets, using 'Search Tickets' from the top menu.

Groups can be managed under Persons & Accounts > Manage Groups. First you will need to create the Groups and then assign detailed rights using Granular Access.

To edit Granular Ticket Access, open the section under General Settings of a Process:

The overview will show all current Fieldsets, against which the tickets are filtered.

Actions

: Use this button to create a new Fieldset.

The table gives the following overview:

Name : Name of the Fieldset.
Nr of Groups : Amount of Groups that are assigned with access rights.
Nr of field definitions : How many fields are used to differentiate rights.
Form Name or Process Step : The name of the source.
Action : Use delete to delete this Fieldset, or edit to edit.

Fields in Granular Ticket Access

Next, select the fields against which filtering is required. Any field from any form can be added to the list, and also any field that was entered in the process, including decisions from approval steps and their comments.

Under 'Type', the following options are available:

2. Lookup : the selection list shows all current forms in SSP 7. When a form is selected, the second list will refresh and show all fields of that form. Select any field and click on .

Please note that you will see the internal label that was defined with the field in the mapping. If you are using multiple forms with 1 process, make sure that these forms have similar internal labels to make the mapping of the value into this text work.

3. Previously Entered Field : this lists all fields that are entered in other steps within the same process. When selected, click on to select this variable.

The following information is available:

For action steps, all form fields are available to use as variable.

For approval steps, all approval votes and comments are available.

The table gives the following overview:

Order : Set the order of the fields, this is used in the Excel export.
Label : Field Label.
Origin : Source of the field, is either 'Lookup (coming from a Form), or 'Previously entered Field (coming from the Process).
Form Name or Process Step : the name of the source.
Action : Use delete to delete this Field from the list.

Groups in Granular Ticket Access

Finally, the selected Fields are used to share access rights to Groups. This is configured in the final section, Groups.

The detailed settings are entered and edited using Excel sheets. Under Current list there is a complete overview of all currently assigned rights. The table has the following elements:

Name : The name of the Group.
Open tickets : Access rights assigned for this Group to Open Tickets. The rights can be Write or Read.
Closed tickets : Access rights assigned for this Group to Closed Tickets. The rights can be Write or Read.
Action : Use delete to delete this row.

Export fields to excel

This function allows you to export the current access rights into an Excel sheet. This allows for easy updating. The options are to include current Groups or not. Include the current Groups if changes to the current setup are needed, or not, to set up a completely new scheme. Click on to receive the Excel sheet.

The excel sheet will return the values in this format:

Row 1 is hidden, and contains key IDs for internal use. Please do not open or change anything in this row, otherwise the import can fail.

Row 2 contains the following column headers:

Group : List of Groups. Check the correct spelling of the Group Name, as specified in Groups Admin.
Name (color) & textfield1 : These are the 2 selected Fields against which the filtering will happen. The rows below need to contain the possible values.
Open tickets : Access rights to open tickets that meet the criteria. Rights can be Write or Read.
Closed tickets : Access rights to closed tickets that meet the criteria. Rights can be Write or Read.

Configuration

Each line represent a combination of values for the selected Fields and a selected Group. As shown in the example above, different values for the Field 'Name (color) are used to share access rights to the tickets. Group called 'Granular black' has write access to all open tickets, and write access to all closed tickets, where the value in the form for the field 'Name (color)' was 'black'.

If it is needed to assign another Group the same access rights, just add another line, copy the settings for Fields & Tickets, and simply change the Group Name.

It is possible to make as much combinations as you want. If Fields need to be added, close the excel sheet, and add in into the section above, called 'Fields', and export the excel sheet again. Wildcards : If any value for a certain Field is ok, simply add a * into the cell, as shown above for Field 'textfield1'.

Once ready, save the files as .xls (.xlsx is not supported for the moment) and import it using the interface below:

The options are:

Append to current list of Groups : Update the current access scheme with the excel sheet that is uploaded. Any existing combination that is not in the uploaded excel sheet, will remain in the scheme.
Delete current list of groups before adding groups : Only the combinations in the uploaded excel sheet are kept, all other are removed.
Use the browse button to browse for the file. This button will open the standard Browse-window to locate the file in a local directory or on the network via mapped drives. When the file is selected from the popup window, the full path will appear in the text box. Use the IMPORT button to upload and process. Only Browsing for the file will not succeed, it is required to click the IMPORT button to transfer the file to the server. The screen will refresh and the uploaded file will be added at the bottom of the list. When the import was successful, a message is displayed next to the IMPORT button:

Webservice Calls

Here you can define webservice calls that are used multiple times within your process or for example within your wait step. Every time you refer to this webservice, it gets executed.

PDF Reports

A PDF Report allows you to use values from the form, process or any other element linked to the ticket & provides flexibility in the formatting. Because an HTML editor is used, the options are endless.

To edit the PDF reports, open the section under General Settings of a Process:

The overview will show all current PDF reports.

Actions

: Use this button to create a new PDF report.

The table gives the following overview:

Name : Name of the PDF report
Action : Use to delete this PDF report, or to edit.

Editing a PDF report

Use as default report : when checked, this PDF will be presented when the default PDF report is called upon using Dynamic mapping. See 'Dynamic Field Mapping' for more information.
Margins : Set the margins if needed. these are expressed in in points, 1 point = 0,03528 centimeter.
Orientation : Define the orientation of the document (portrait or landscape)
Page size : Check the box if you want to use a custom page size. Width & Height can be set in points, 1 point = 0,03528 centimeter.

Name : Set the name of the PDF report
Content : define the contents of the PDF document
Translations : set the Name & Content in different languages.

You can do 2 things with a PDF Report.

1. It can be added as an dynamic email attachment in the process.

2. It can be a link towards the file. This will be placed in the step information section right above the form, or in an email, or any other SSP-component that allows Dynamic Field Mapping.

To avoid page breaks in a PDF

use the page-break-inside:avoid option to force no page breaks.

<table>

<tr><td>content</td></tr>

</table>

</div>

To do the opposite, to enforce page breaks use the page-break-after: always

<table>

<tr><td>content</td></tr>

</table>

<table>

<tr><td>content</td></tr>

</table>

Text Files

Text files can be generated by going to the "text files" section under process General Settings and clicking on the button.

See the above section on PDF Reports for more details.

Email Template

The option of using email templates has been extended. In the past, we only had general email templates all over the system, and step specific mail templates. The issue with the general email templates is that if you reference process or step information this only works for 1 process.

For this, the email template functionality has been extended to allow process email templates. You can use the template variables in there. If you export/import a process, those email templates will be automatically updated to use the new ID’s of the process and steps.

The definition of the template stays as is. These templates can be managed in the general settings of the process.

Complete these fields

Name : This element is only shown to the administrators
Layout : Select a mail layout (if available)
Subject Line: Set the subject line, Dynamic Field Mapping is available
Main Copy : Set the Mail body, Dynamic Field Mapping is available
Translations : set the Name & Content in different languages.
Attachments : Set fixed and/or dynamic attachments

Once the email template is created, it will show up under each email section of the step (Initial Email, Decline Email, Escalation 1 Email, Escalation 2 Email).

Reporting Templates

Reporting templates are used to export data from processes on configurable times. By default no Reporting Templates are available within a process. Per process Reporting Templates are defined in which the content of the report is defined, by selecting fields to include.

To add a new template, click on the button.

Please note that with the definition of a Reporting Template, only the structure of the report is defined and no reports will run. Please use the defined reports in process steps to have them run.

Reporting Template : Field Definition

On the general settings page of the Report, the name and description of the report can be defined. This is also the place to define the fields that should be available in the report. Fields can be used from several sources as explained below.

Use as default template: Mark this checkbox to set as default template. This will then be used when exporting tickets to Excel, from the End-user search.

Name: Name of the report. This name will be visible when the report template is used within a process step.

Short Description: Explanation text to provide more information on the report template.

Type: Select the type of item to add to the report.

Lookup: the selection list shows all current forms in SSP 7. When a form is selected, the second list will refresh and show all fields of that form. Select any field and click on .

Please note that for datastore parameters the fields indicated as "Value Fields to send to workflow" are displayed beneath the Field. If you want to use additional fields, please go to the form definition and select more fields to send to the workflow.

Previously Entered Field: this lists all fields that are entered in other steps within the same process. When selected, click on to enter this variable into report.

The following information is available:

For action steps, all form fields are available to use as variable

For adapter steps, all values related to the item created in that step are available. These fields are displayed in the third drop down list.

For approval steps, all approval votes and comments are available

Please ensure that you only use fields from previous steps. If you select a value from a following step, this will result in an empty value.

Process: this lists some general fields of the current process. When selected, click on to enter this variable into the report. The following information is available:

Process Start Date
Process End Date
Process Name
SSP Ticket Number
Last Status

Requestor: Shows a list of all the defined User fields for the requester or the requested for person of the process.

Search Results Columns

When searching for submitted processes, detailed process information can be displayed in the search results. In this section of the process definition it can be defined which fields should be displayed in the search results. To add fields to the search results, process items should be added.

There is no limitation in the number of fields to add, however the search results will become unclear for users when too many fields are added. In total, 4 types of sources can be used to provide data in the search results:

Lookup: the selection list shows all current forms in SSP 7. When a form is selected, the second list will refresh and show all fields of that form. Select any field and click on .

Previously Entered Field: this lists all fields that are entered in other steps within the same process. When selected, click on to enter this variable into report.

The following information is available:

For action steps, all form fields are available to use as variable

For adapter steps, all values related to the item created in that step are available. These fields are displayed in the third drop down list.

For approval steps, all approval votes and comments are available

Please ensure that you only use fields from previous steps. If you select a value from a following step, this will result in an empty value.

Process: this lists some general fields of the current process. When selected, click on to enter this variable into the report. The following information is available:

Process Start Date
Process End Date
Process Name
SSP Ticket Number
Last Status

Requestor: Shows a list of all the defined User fields for the requester or the requested for person of the process.

Overview Layouts

Overview layouts allow you to define the Request details. That normally lists all form fields, marked as 'shown on overview' in sequential order. If you want to show them in a way that you control, create a new overview layout.

The portlet 'Overview layouts' allow you to:

Add a new layout
Name : Name of the layout
Use as request fields : shows with a V if the list of fields from the request form is replaced by this layout
: Duplicate this layout
: Edit this layout
: Delete this layout

Overview Layouts: General Settings

This page allows you to build your Overview layout.

Use as request fields : If checked, the 'standard' way of showing the fields from the original request is replaced by this layout
Name : enter the name of the layout
Rows : build the layout in different rows.

When building a row, the following elements are needed:

• Type : select either:

Manual: show any value, conditionally if wanted, or create a section
General: enter the current date, details of the requestor/requested for, the TicketId or the Form name
Form field: show any form field
External app field: show any field from an external app (like Ticketing)

Overview Layouts: Manual

When selecting 'Manual' as a Row type, the following options are available:

Type : Default or Section. Default allows to show a value, based on conditions. A section only has the conditions, and serves as a container like we do in forms.
Parent : select a section if wanted
Label : set the label name
Value : select the value to show (not for sections)
Show when : build the condition, only 1 condition is possible. Calculations are possible, don't forget to check the box 'Value contains calculations'.

Overview Layouts: General

When selecting 'General' as a Row type, the following options are available:

Select the Section if needed & available.

Overview Layouts: Form Field

When selecting 'Form field' as a Row type, the following options are available:

Dropdown 2 : select the form
Dropdown 3 : select the field

Select the Section if needed & available.

Overview Layouts: External App Field

When selecting 'Form field' as a Row type, the following options are available:

Dropdown 2 : select the external app
Dropdown 3 : select the field from the external app field

Select the Section if needed & available.

The Related Documents group contains the following options:

The list of uploaded Documents is displayed by file type as designated by the icon and the filename.
Use the Delete button to remove the selected Document.
Adding a New Document: Use SELECT AND UPLOAD-button to browse for a new Document. This button will open the standard Browse-window to locate the file in a local directory or on the network via mapped drives. When the file is selected from the popup window, the fill name will appear with the message Uploading... Once the file upload is completed the screen will refresh and the uploaded file will be added at the bottom of the list.

The Related Links group contains the following options:

The list of Current Links is displayed, showing the Link and the Link Title.
Use the Delete button to remove the selected Link.
Adding a New Link: Enter the complete link in the first box, including 'http://'. Insert the Title for this link into the second box. Click on add to add this new Link to the list. The screen will refresh and the added link will be added at the bottom of the list.

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Last updated 2 years ago