Missing attachments section in requests on employee portal for connections

[Alberto M]

Hi all.

We've migrated last week from the service portal to the employee portal. 

While working with the service portal, users added as connections to a request could see, open and view the attachments of a request in the Service Portal. Now, with the employee portal, there's no attachments section if I open a request where I'm a connected user.

I've just rolled back the Employee Portal for a short time to check this, as I wasn't sure but, yes, in the Service Portal I had the attachments section available and now in the Employee Portal, I don't have it - AND WE NEED IT.

The screen shots are from the same request where, for the test, I've changed the request owner and customer so I was only set as connection.

Is there any setting I'm missing?

Thanks and regards,

Alberto

[Steven Boardman]

@Alberto M  Connections to a request have not been able to view requests on the Service Portal (or the Customer Portal) to which they are connected, this capability was not introduced for these interfaces.

* Connections are only able to view requests on either the Employee Portal or the My Services portal.

* A manager of a customer could view the customer's request on the Service Portal.

* Connections are not able to view or add attachments 

* If the user is the Customer's Manager then they are able to view attachments on requests via any of the portals.  

The connections feature is covered here on the wiki

https://wiki.hornbill.com/index.php?title=Connections

Hope this helps

[Alberto M]

This is happening to basic users that are added as connection.

[Alberto M]

Hi @Steven Boardman

Responding to your post:

( When I refer Service Portal, I refer pages accessed using this URL https://service.hornbill.com/instance/ )

If the request Service Portal page URL is sent to a user that is set as connection to that request, that user can open and view the request. We have been working with this for a long time, sending emails from within the request to the connected users so they can check the request.

And basic users that aren't set as managers of anyone can access the request Service Portal page though the page URL and can see the attachments there as well if they are set as connection to a request.

The Service Portal screen shot I've shared above was made last evening, when I've temporarily rolled back the Employee Portal and I browsed that request using its Service Portal page URL and with a login made by a test basic user I created some time ago that is not set as manager of anyone.

So, we had the possibility to have basic users opening a request page and see the attachments and now we don't have it.

Regards,

Alberto

[Steven Boardman]

@Alberto M can i suggest you raise this via support

https://www.hornbill.com/support

As mentioned above the Connections feature was never introduced to the Service Portal (service.hornbill.com/instance URL), so support can look into what is happening for you.  

Basic users could and continue to be able to view requests and attachments to the requests which they are the customer's of, and or if they are the manager of customer's request. 

But as i say, it's probably best at this point for you to raise this via support.

 

[Victor]

2 hours ago, Alberto M said:

If the request Service Portal page URL is sent to a user that is set as connection to that request, that user can open and view the request.

To confirm the "Service Portal page URL" in this context: the basic user can only access the request where the basic user is a connection if the user navigates directly to the request via the request URL: https://service.hornbill.com/instance_id/servicemanager/request/view/request_reference/ which I assume is a link you have in email templates.

To also confirm, the connections cannot normally see, in a list, a request they are added as a connection to, since there is no option for a user to see such a list of requests they are connected to, on this portal.

Based on the two points above I assume this is a defect: "if a basic user is added as connection to a request the user can access the request on service.hornbill.com by navigating directly to the request via the request URL".

[Alberto M]

@Victor

Yes, the URL that is sent to the user by email from within the request is that.

If it's a defect, it allowed us to use a feature that we find very useful and that we need available.

(I'll update the request I've raised in support)

 

[Victor]

3 minutes ago, Alberto M said:

it allowed us to use a feature that we find very useful and that we need available

Sadly, it should never been made available  ... As of having this feature on the Employee Portal, this is something that maybe @James Ainsworth or @Steven Boardman can consider? (sorry if this is not for you)

[Alberto M]

@James Ainsworth, @Steven Boardman, this is something we need, as we have made our processes based on the assumption that connected users have read only access to the attachments in requests in the portal.

Please check the request I've raised.

[Victor]

@Alberto M even if a connection is intended to and has access to a request, they don't have access to attachments. The only areas from a request, available for a connection, are documented on the wiki:

The connections will have the following levels of access on these requests:

• View the request summary, description, status and date logged
• View the Business Process Tracker (Head's Up Display)
• View the questions section of the request
• View who else is a connection to the request

The connected users will not be able to interact with the request, add updates or comments, add / view attachments, resolve, cancel or provide feedback on closure of the request

https://wiki.hornbill.com/index.php?title=Connections

Again, the fact that basic users could do all the above by accessing the request directly using a direct URL was unintended. To clarify, I am not saying that this will not be introduced in the Employee portal, this is something that is discussed with teh product managers, I only wanted to highlight how the functionality works and in designed to work when a connection access a request.

[Alberto M]

@Victor, I already knew the wiki chapter related to this and you know what I've thought, as I think a lot of times I go to the wiki?... Ok, the wiki says this but it's because it's not up to date. Yep... it's frustrating a lot of times.

The relevance of having the attachments available for the connected users makes all the sense to us and we assumed that as an available feature for months. As you know, we have thousands of users and we rely on the requests information and data to carry on providing our service to our users and, when we involve connected users in a request, we don't want to have to send emails with attachments to those users; we want the connected users to query the existing information and attachments that are stored in the request (I agree about the attachments as read only for connected users), as the only source of information and data to all the users involved in the request resolution, and I mean attachments because they are part of the process we carry on within the request (authorizations, data reviews and validation, documentation...).

Anyway... this is something we need and we have been using for months and now, with the new portal, we lost it.

 

BTW: when the wiki says "The connected users will not be able to interact with the request", impacted connections can interact.

 

[Victor]

@Alberto M

I didn't question or argue the requirement, I was merely presenting how the functionality was built and designed to work. The wiki is up to date and it described the intended functionality which is/was: connected users are not able to interact with the request, regardless in what way they are connected (impacted or interested). The fact that there is a way for a connected user to interact with the request was not intended and, as advised, it is considered a defect.

This being said, I believe based on conversations that took place, there is a way forward which will satisfy the requirement you described.

[James Ainsworth]

Hi Alberto,

I just wanted to let you know that we have added a setting that will enable the access to the attachments section for users that are connected to a request.  This is now available for you to use.

guest.servicemanager.portal.request.canConnectionsViewAttachments

I hope this helps.

Regards,

James