External Ref No. Field

[Lauren]

Hi,

I am currently looking into our incident process in Service Manager. Sometimes, faults need to be referred to third parties. We need to record the reference our third parties give us - I see that there is a "External Ref No." field within the "Details" section, which is editable throughout the incident lifetime.

Is there any way that this can be populated automatically? I.e. if an analyst enters the third party ref in the call diary update or via an activity, it automatically enters that same reference within the "External Ref No." field.

I have tried adding in a suspend node, where it waits for the external ref, but it doesn't seem to prompt the analyst for the information (i.e. with a suspend and wait for owner, it'll prompt the analyst to assign to someone by changing the tab). I am trying to make it difficult for analysts to bypass this stage, as this is important information.

Any ideas are welcome!

Lauren

[Steven Boardman]

Hi @Lauren

This should be possible for you now using an activity outcome and activity custom fields and then injecting the value into the external reference field.

Step one - Ensure this system setting is enabled.

 

Step two -  On an activity outcome, add a field to prompt for the external reference number (make it mandatory if required)

This will ensure when 'in my example' they choose the activity outcome - Pass to Supplier, they will be prompted to provide an external reference number

Step three - Follow the activity with a decision node, and off one of the branches (pass to supplier outcome) use the Request > Update Request > External Reference option, and in the external reference field, use the variable picker - choose Task and scroll down and find the custom question you had defined and inject that into the field

 

Hopefully this should give you what you are after

Steve

 

[Lauren]

27 minutes ago, Steven Boardman said:

Hi @Lauren

This should be possible for you now using an activity outcome and activity custom fields and then injecting the value into the external reference field.

Step one - Ensure this system setting is enabled.

 

Step two -  On an activity outcome, add a field to prompt for the external reference number (make it mandatory if required)

This will ensure when 'in my example' they choose the activity outcome - Pass to Supplier, they will be prompted to provide an external reference number

Step three - Follow the activity with a decision node, and off one of the branches (pass to supplier outcome) use the Request > Update Request > External Reference option, and in the external reference field, use the variable picker - choose Task and scroll down and find the custom question you had defined and inject that into the field

 

Hopefully this should give you what you are after

Steve

 

Great, thanks Steve! Works perfectly :-)

[Lauren]

Hi @Steven Boardman

Can you do this with workaround/root cause details on Known Error records too?

(see image)

I've looked but cannot see any settings under "Update Request" for this information.

[Steven Boardman]

@Lauren no unfortunately and nothing planned currently - i'll raise it internally and post any progress back here

[Paul Trenter]

Hi, is there any way to add the External Reference field in manually as part of the progressive capture.  Rather than adding into the Ticket Details section after it's been raised?

[Steven Boardman]

@Paul Trenter absolutely. 

If you have a custom form and custom question on that form in progressive capture to capture the external reference number, when your business process starts, if you add the following nodes this is what you will need.

1.  Use an automated task > Requests > Get Request Information > Progressive Capture Answers

2. Use another automated task > Requests > Update Request > External Reference  

Set the External Reference attribute to manual and then use the Variable Picker in this field to pick the answer to the progressive capture question in which you captured the external reference number.

 

Hope that helps

Steve

 

 

 

[Paul Trenter]

Thanks @Steven Boardman, that's what I was looking for.  One more question on the variable to be chosen.  Our Business Processes are linked with different Progressive Capture catalog items.  Therefore I can't set that variable to one of the Prog Cap answers as it wouldn't work if other Prog Caps are used.   Is it possible to set that Business Process to pick the Field ID, and then I could set the same Field ID in the different Prog Caps?  If that makes sense.

[Steven Boardman]

@Paul Trenter hmmm if that is the case, then it might be a little more involved. External Reference number is currently not a field you can directly map to from the custom progressive capture forms. 

What you can do (a little long winded), is map the answer to your various progressive capture external reference flows to one of your custom fields on the request 

https://wiki.hornbill.com/index.php/Mapping_Fields_from_Customised_Forms

Bear in mind using the form designer you can mark this custom field as not being visible in the request details so you won't see it.

Once you have this mapped, in your business process you can do the following:

1.  Use an automated task > Requests > Get Request Information > Request Details

2. Use another automated task > Requests > Update Request > External Reference - use the variable picker to inject the value from the chosen custom field into the external reference field. 

This should work albeit a little more long winded but will allow you to map your external reference number question in various progressive capture flows to the same custom field and then copy this across.

Ideally we'll add mapping to the external reference field, but in the absence of this now, hopefully the above will work for you

 

 

[Paul Trenter]

Thanks @Steven Boardman

So what I've done is set the field ID for the question to h_custom_a_custom_o

Then, on the 2nd automated task to Update Request ID I've picked the variable Custom field A, so &[global["flowcode"]["customFieldA"]]

Once I Validate, I see the warning That nodes have invalid variable references.

Oh, I did test too but it didn't populate the External Ref field

[Steven Boardman]

@Paul Trenter is the PCF reference a typo?  h_custom_a_custom_o i assume this is h_custom_a?

In the process designer have you used the get info > request details before the update node?

Is it possible to download and share your process definition in this thread to see what is going on?

 

[Paul Trenter]

@Steven Boardman yes h_custom_a make much more sense!   Changed that now.  Still getting the warning about invalid variable ref though and test fails.  Let me throw you the screenshots.  The Prog Cap then the 2 automated tasks to confirm I'm not missing something silly.

[Steven Boardman]

@Paul Trenter looks ok to me, could you direct message me the business proces definition file so i can run it up on my instance?

You can export it from the process designer using download option in the tool bar

I'll see if i can spot anything obvious elsewhere in the process 

 

[Steven Boardman]

@Paul Trenter i've responded to your DM, i've made a couple of suggestions for you to take a look at

[James Ainsworth]

On 9/17/2018 at 7:22 AM, Lauren said:

Can you do this with workaround/root cause details on Known Error records too?

Hi Lauren,

As of Service Manager build 2164, there are now Hornbill Automations that are available to update the workaround and root cause on Known Error records. More information can be found here.

Regards,

James