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Configuring External Authorisation for a Connection; where is the variable for Line Manager stored please?


Berto2002

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Hi, I'm struggling to tie-up two concepts of External Authorisation and Connections.

We have the Line Manager of a Customer added automatically to the Request when logged and a Human Task check it and add it if it's missing. We then currently use the "Email Connection" Automation to ask for approval; but this relies on us spotting and reacting to the emailed response manually. I want to use the External Authorisation function for this so the workflow moves-on when approval is given.

I have looked here: External Authorisation - Hornbill which tells me I can use a "Variable Picket" ([sic :-)]

I have looked here: Service Manager Business Process Workflow - Hornbill but this does not show me how to do a "Get Connections" operation

Question 1. I need to input the variable for the Line Manager Connection into the email address field; where do I get that from please?

Question 2. If the Line Manager auto connection is missing, I want to check that automatically; so I want to check for a Not Set on that variable... Guess I can do that?

Thank you.

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@Berto2002 have i read this correctly, that the Connection is the customer's manager?

If this is the case, and you want them to be the approver in the external authorisation option, then if you use a

Get Request Information > Customer Details node

One of the outputs is Customer ID

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You can use this variable in the following option:

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The bottom option here, will be the Email address of the customer's manager

Then using the External Authoriser option you can inject that variable.

To address your second point, before the External Authoriser node, you could add a Decision, and have two outcomes, each with a custom expression, in one of the custom expressions, you could do a contains on the email variable value from the Get User Managers Details options - and if it say had @YOURDOMAIN then branch to the External Authoriser and the other outcome could be a No Match from which you could decide what to do if no manager email address was present - You could of course choose a different custom expression like Is Set or something like that, if you prefer.

Finally, there is no option to get connections details which would help here, as it is possible to have multiple connections on a single request (of the same or different connection types), and when it comes to the external authorisers, this will only accept a single approvers email address, so we would not know which of the connections of say the same type to return, in order to get their email address.

Hopefully the above if useful and the approach can work for you

 

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Hi Steven.

I should be able to use the approach you suggest. The disadvantage is that the Agent using the ticket cannot actually see if there is a Line Manager and who they are unless they are listed as a Connection?

There is power in being able to use the Connections for External Authorisation because Connections are vested in the request, visible to the agent and can be set to action the request. I think what I would like to suggest is an Enhancement to improve the External Authorisation to be able to use them. Can you suggest this?

You know the product but can you please confirm Connections are multiple? My understanding (albeit from another user) is that only one type of each Connection is allowed; e.g. One Requester, One Line Manager. See this forum item:

 

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@Berto2002 there are a few things to address here:

1. You can still have the connection being added to the request during progressive capture, so the agent's can still see who the approver is for the request, it will just be in the business process, you are looking up the line manager via the customer's manager logic as detailed above, but if you need for the agent's to know who the approver is, you can continue to still use the connections.

Alternatively you can utilise other options to make it visible to the agent who the line manager is on the request

* Add a request notice and inject the customer's manager's name into the notice

* Post an update into the timeline of the request, including the customer's manager's name (albeit this will disappear down the timeline overtime).

* You can include the customer's manager name in the customer section of the request view

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So it shows as follows:

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Obviously some options are more visible than other's, but hopefully some to consider.

2. Request Connections - There are two sides to this, firstly the adding of request connections via progressive capture - this is correct, you can only add one connection at a time as a requestor (this is actually via the user data query).  However from the agents view of the request, they can add multiple users as request connections of each and any connection types you have defined, as below:

image.png

 

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As such, in the case of the external authorisation, where it's input paramater is either a declared email address, or a single variable value, attempting to look up the connection's of a request for this purpose it problematic. 

Finally, if it is a requirement to use the 'user' selected in a progressive capture answer (using the user picker) as an external authoriser, then you can of course use the business process to add them as a connection to the request (for agent visibility purposes), you can simple inject the 'raw' value answer to the progressive capture user selection question, into a 'get user' node, and then their email address will be returned as an output parameter from that node, which can be injected into the external authorisation node. 

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

@HGrigsby it's possible.

There is a comment earlier in this thread which will be applicable - i've added it here:

So you need to get the customerid using the Get Request Information > Customer Details node

One of the output params is their manager's ID

if you then use the Hornbill Collaboration > Application > Users > Get Users Manager Details  option, and use the above userid as the input via the variable picker, this option will return the manager first and last name as output parameters (as shown below)

You will i am afraid have to then add those two values to a custom field via the update request > custom field option, and then use a Get Request Details > Requests  before the node which is sending an email or using an external authorisation to ensure the email is looking at the custom field, after you have updated it with the managers first and last names.

image.png

Hope that helps

 

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