Hornbill Staff DR

Hi Everyone, The release that will allow us to configure the size of the portal logo should be applied to you instances tonight. This change will be delivered by our Server team so this will not need any action from yourselves, the changes will be applied automatically as part of our continuous deployment philosophy. For reference, the server build number of interest is 2495. Version information can be found by clicking on your profile logo (up in the top right of the screen) and clicking "About". The Logo height can be defined for the Service Portal in the following setting: guest.anonymous.servicePortal.core.style.image.logo.height and for the Customer Portal it is specified in the setting: guest.anonymous.Portal.core.style.image.logo.height The value provided should be the number of pixels and the width will be calculated automatically based on the image proportions. The exact value to specify will be dependent on the logo used but I would suggest to start experiemnting with a value of around 60 pixels, and adjust as necessary. Thanks, Dan

Hi Ainul, thanks for your post. It is possible to include the original description of the request using the "Description" variable in the email template. Perhaps including a line saying "The original description of your request was as follows: {{.H_description}}". There is also a variable available that can be used to display the request summary. In terms of including the entire timeline history, this facility has not been included in the product because it is not good practice and would very quickly result in exceptionally long emails. Hornbill is shipped with two portals that provide a place for customers to view the entire history of the request. Hope that helps, Dan

Hi Dan, thanks for your post. I can see your inquiry relates to whether Service Manager can perform a particular function rather than indicating something is actually broken or not working as designed. This will be why you were directed here on this particular occasion. At present, there is no specific functionality dedicated to copying a request. However, there is the capability to raise a linked request using the "Link" action located on the request action bar which will copy the Summary and description into the Progressive capture at which point you can edit the content. Thanks, Dan

Hi Kelvin, yes, you'd be correct in assuming the logo size is unfortunately hard coded at present. This is something that Dev are aware of and will be looking to improve the maximum possible size of the logo. I know there have been some challenges in making this enhancement as it has a knock on effect on the entire layout of the Portal framework. I have re-initiated this discussion internally to see if I can find out more information. Thanks, Dan

Hi Paul, thanks for you post. Since this was last raised there has been some progress in terms of planning the change however there is still no firm delivery date. I suspect that we will see this functionality introduced in line with Admin 2.0 (a project that is currently under way to provide improvements and enhancements across the whole Hornbill Administration user interface). Admin 2.0 is likely to be available to us in around 6-8 weeks and then this functionality should follow shortly after. Overall, I would speculate that you will see the capability to add managers to basic user accounts in 10-12 weeks (circa 90 days). Of course this time-scale is only an estimate and may be subject to change if any unexpected development challenges are encountered. Dan

Hi Stephanie, thanks for your post. In the absence of specific functionality that enables us to set an Out of Office Notification, there are a few solutions that could be implemented to try and achieve the underlying objective which appears to be a way to communicate the Service Desks operational hours to your end users. A popular approach is to include the Service Desks hours of support in the signature/footer of the email template that is sent as part of the automated "Your request has been logged" email notification. Another potential channel for this information is to include it in your Organisations IT Customer Service/Support Charter that may be available on a local intranet or similar. If this is the case, then it can be helpful to include a link to your Support Charter in all email templates. There are also email templates that can be sent as a result of an auto-routing rule however, none of these approaches send notifications intelligently based on the current time or an Service Level Calendar that a Support Team is working with. Thanks, Dan

The link to most recent forum topic on this issue can be found at https://forums.hornbill.com/index.php?showtopic=8160 This particular topic will now be closed to avoid duplicate discussions.

Hi Marion, apologies for the delayed reply to this post, there were some topic visibility settings that caused this post to disappear off our radar. However, I know that you have since been speaking with support about this issue and it has now been successfully resolved in Hornbill Administration build 1.0.0.283 which was released to customers on 9th Feb. It would appear that the problem occurred when you specified a simple list as the dynamic data provider in a custom form dynamic field, and the simple list name contained spaces or commas (and anything else that isn't deemed "javascript safe"). Since Hornbill Administration build 1.0.0.282 this is now fixed and you should have no further problems editing this particular Progressive Capture flow. Thanks, Dan

Hi Kelvin, thanks for the clarification. This does indeed sound like a bug. If you encounter this again, please drop us a line at hornbill.support@hornbill.com prior to making any further changes to the workflow. In order to investigate we will need to extract a copy of the workflow definition directly from the database. We can then attempt to replicate in our own environment. Thanks, Dan

Hi Kelvin, just to bring this topic to a close, I can confirm that the fix (PM00139247) was delivered in Service Manager 2.20.3 but will not appear in the release notes as it was delivered as a hot fix which was fast-tracked to our beta stream to ensure it was included in the 2.20.3 release to Customers. Many Thanks, Dan

Hi Kelvin, the behaviour you are experiencing with the "Abort" node where you are unable to add an exit track from it is by design. The Abort node is intended as an alternative to an End node with the difference being in that we have the ability to specify and error message. In my opinion, it's debatable whether there are any scenarios where we would want to use this over and above a standard "End" node, as currently if we abort a process we cannot restart it and it seems counter-intuitive to intentionally design a process to Abort. This node is either now obsolete, or it is intended for use with functionality that is yet to be introduced i.e. as the BPM engine grows and evolves, we may see this node become more significant. I have ask development for some clarification on the Use Case for this node. Dan

Hi Kelvin, Trev is absolutely right in the fact that the "Template Name" must be specified in the corresponding Email Template node option. Watch out for typos as the application is doing an exact match when looking for the template name. Presently, as a general rule of thumb when configuring an automated task node, the only two options that should ever be allowed to "Automatically Pick Up the value" are: Request Id - (common to the majority of automated task nodes) Access Token - (only common to all Email-related Automated Operations) Any remaining options must have a value set. Hopefully we will see some better validation and application behaviour to ensure that this aspect (configuring Automated Operations) is a bit more intuitive in future. Hope that helps, Dan

Hi Greg, thanks for your post and apologies for the delay in responding, there was an issue with this forums topic visibility settings which caused it to be hidden. In terms of organising your Documents, there is a feature called "Document Manager Collections" that you may find helpful with the situation you outline above. There is a video detailing the functionality that can be found at the following link: It would be good to know if you find it useful. Thanks, Dan

Hi Kelvin, I've also managed to replicate this, it seems as though the selection is not being passed into the log request operation, so it's simply places the default "No Answer" text. I have raised this with Dev, just waiting for confirmation of acceptance and the resulting defect Ref. Thanks, Dan

Hi Martyn, the value set for the parameter is simply the value specified in the static list you have configured in the previous form. At present, any available custom expression values are not picked up automatically in the custom expression builder. At the moment, we have to simply copy the value that you wish to match in order to branch in this direction from your custom form, and paste it into the value field. Thanks, Dan

Hi Martyn, thanks for your post. yes, if the Service Details form is presented after the Customer Search form in a Progressive Capture, then it will only show the services that the selected customer has been subscribed to, or those services that have no contact/Contact Org/etc. subscribed to them as these services will be available to all. I hope that helps. Dan

Thanks for confirming Kelvin, as Bob has indicated, this will be addressed in Service Manager 2.20.x which we expect to be available to you by the 12th Feb. (Defect Ref is PM00138894)

Unfortunately, it's not possible to copy individual nodes between progressive capture flows. It is only currently possible to copy an entire progressive capture flow.

Hi Kelvin, thanks for your Post. You are correct in saying that we can reference simple lists in Progressive Capture Custom forms. These are made available when you create a custom field of one of the following types: Dynamic Checkbox Group Dynamic Drop Down Select Box The lists available for selection against these dynamic field types are located in the context of Service Manager > Data > Simple Lists It is possible to create many new simple lists but please be aware that any of the existing simple lists should NOT be deleted as these are utilised in various places within Service Manager. If you delete any of the default simple lists this will cause issues in the application. Thanks, Dan

Hi Kelvin, thanks for your post. It's possible to identify the ID's by looking at the database. All the Request/Closure categories are held in a table called h_sys_profiles. Hornbill Administration has a feature called Database Direct which can be used to query the various Hornbill tables. Database Direct is found in the context of Instance Configuration > Data > Database Direct but will only be visible when two conditions are met: 1) You must be logged in with the "Admin" user account. 2) The system setting "security.database.allowSqlQueryOperation" must be set to "On" If the new menu item is not immediately available after switching On the allow query setting, it may be necessary to log out of Hornbill Administration, close and open your browser, and log in again. I hope that helps, Dan

Hi Kelvin, Martyn is correct in the fact that you can control timeline updates that are made by any BPM Automated Operation (the blue nodes). When configuring these noses there is an option "Update Timeline" which can be set to Yes/No. With regards to other timeline updates as a result of manual analyst actions, there is no capability to suppress these. The timeline is essentially acting as your audit trail, so you can see everything that happened during the life of the request. I think Martyn maybe referencing the default timeline Visibility Application settings which only control the visibility of the different types of post (Assign, Email, Update, etc) from the perspective of "Customer" or "Team", rather than completely suppressing the timeline post. These visibility settings look like: guest.ui.app.com.hornbill.servicemanager.operation.defaultVisibility.xxxxxx Hope that helps, Dan

Hi Martyn, As James points out there will be some much improved functionality which will increase the ease of User Account Management. This will be contained in the latest Hornbill Administration Project which we refer to as "Admin 2.0". In the mean-time, there is a Search function in the current Admin Tool which is found in the context of Instance Configuration > Users Roles and Organisation > Search. In order for this to Search capability to function, once all your Users have been imported it will be necessary to index the "Entity" Index Storage. To do this, navigate to Instance Configuration > Data > Index Storage and check the box next to the "Entity" index storage. Click the drop-down up on the top right and click "Re-Index Selected". Choose "All" and click "Process". We advise that any re-indexing should be performed out-of-hours to avoid any impact on system performance. I hope that helps. Dan

Hi Martyn, further to the above, I can now confirm that PM00138821 has been addressed and will be available in the next release of Service Manager. This will give us the ability to configure (in the BPM node) a time period for which the request will remain on hold therefore eliminating the errors you posted above. In addition to this, we will also be seeing a new "Suspend Wait for OffHold" BPM Operation which, after placing the request on hold using the existing operation, we can use to suspend the workflow until the request is next taken off hold. This will gives us much greater capability when building on Hold/off hold scenarios within our workflows. Thanks, Dan

Hi Lee, thanks for your post. As well as the standard Progressive Capture forms, there is also the ability to create a "Customised Form" to use within your progressive Capture flow. The following wiki page (specifically the "Customised Form" section) should contain the information you need to start configuring one in your flow: https://wiki.hornbil...apture_Workflow In terms of reporting on the information captured using this type of form, it resides in the table called h_itsm_questions. If you are looking to present this alongside information contained in the main request table (h_itsm_requests), I would recommend using the Advanced Reporting feature and report using the SQL Schema Designer to perform a join as shown in the image. Hope that helps, Dan

Hi Lee, thanks for your post. Hornbill Service Manager does support the facility to place Requests "ON HOLD". When to put a ticket on hold can be up for debate depending on how you want your desk to operate, but a typical scenario may be that the Service desk has performed all the actions they can with the information available to them, and now they need more information from the customer. So the analyst will send a communication to the customer asking for whatever additional information is needed, and then they would place the request on hold until they receive a response back. At which point they would then take the request off hold and continue working on it. When a request is ON HOLD, any associated response or fix timers (that you have configured in your workflow) will be paused. When viewing a request there is a pause button located as shown in the attached image. Click this to change the status of a Request to ON HOLD. You will have the opportunity to enter a reason why the request is being placed on hold. To change the status back to OPEN, click the play icon that becomes visible when a request has a status of ON HOLD. In terms of other statuses, such as "With Third Party", there is a development story in existence to provide these (CH00125458 - User definable statuses). However, at present I couldn't indicate when we may see this feature. I hope that helps. Dan