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Thanks to host Herrick Douglass for sponsoring this meeting. This was the Agenda. Northwest Remedy User
Group Meeting December
18, 2001 v
This meeting was held at Herrick Douglass in Bellevue. v Presentation Remedy 5.0. Rick Cook demonstrated the product, after returning intact from the initial 5.0 development Delta class last week. Ψ There are many new features in the 5.0 release. Time permitted only focusing on the new tools and some of the more important and cool options in the User and Administrator. A more complete list of the new features, as well as a PowerPoint show of how some of them are used, will be available on the NWRUG web site soon. Ψ
Main Themes §
Much more configuration data stored as fields in Remedy forms.
Why? Because then workflow
can be used against it, and to process it. §
Many new APIs and functions available to
the developer. See Appendix E of
the Workflow Admin Guide for the full list. Ψ
New Remedy User features §
Form Aliases show up the FIRST time in
the Forms list, not the second time. §
Leading zeros can be set to not show in
the Entry ID field (ID 1). CAVEAT:
This will cause the records to sort as text fields, instead of as numeric
values, i.e. record 11 will appear before record 2. §
Tip when creating user macros, if you
use QBE, with the data values of the query in the fields, the indexes on the
fields will be overridden by the QBE data matching value (Equal, Leading, or
Anywhere), probably causing a table scan to be guaranteed.
To use indexes on fields in your search, put the query in the Advanced
Query bar. That will bypass the QBE
settings on the field(s). §
Tip Be sparing in your use of table
fields in 5.0 web pages if you nest them or use more than a few, there is a
significant performance hit. Ψ
New Remedy Administrator features §
Object Names may now be 80 characters long! (Were 30)
Yay! §
File ΰ
Server Information ·
Configuration tab ¨
Disable Escalations useful for
migration to avoid having them fire when the Escalations are imported into
another server. ¨
Disable Alerts same type of function,
for the same reason. ¨
Verify Alert Users allows the system
to keep track of who is logged on to Remedy Alert, and therefore is available
for receiving Alerts. ¨
Enable Multiple Assign Groups
havent we wished for a way to do this for a long time? ·
Log Files tab ¨
Alert logging track when alerts are
being generated and delivered. ¨
Plug-in Server logging ·
Server Ports and Queues tab ¨
Alert Outbound Port allows alerts to
be sent through a firewall by naming a secure port. ·
Advanced tab ¨
Localized Error Messages allows Error
messages to be maintained for multiple language sets and languages, and to be
referenced by a client setting. ¨
Server Statistics a Remedy form
containing information on license and API usage.
Again, since this is now in a form, workflow and reports can be applied
to the data. ·
Server Events tab ¨
Fully configurable event logging; you
choose the type of events to be logged in the Remedy Server Events form. ·
Connection Settings tab ¨
More configurable tracking of access
data, from passwords to ports. §
Tools Menu ·
Import/Export a View. This enables you to export a view into either a text, csv, or
xml file, convert the text to a foreign language, and then re-import it without
affecting the data in the form. ·
Convert Macro Actions to Active Link
Actions. This opens up a little
tool that will convert pre-5.0 Active Links containing macros to 5.0 compliant
Active Links with the same actions that used to require macros. The original Active Link is renamed, and kept intact. §
New Server Objects ·
View Form.
This is sort of like a Display-only form, but is used for displaying data
that is outside the Remedy database, but is directly accessible on the Remedy
server. The Northwind DB, or a
local Excel or Access DB would be an example of this. ·
Vendor Form.
This is used for displaying data accessed through the ARDBC or an
External function; i.e. data accessed that does not directly reside on the
Remedy Server. ·
Filter Guide just like an Active Link
guide. The only practical use I can
see for it would be for data validation, because in a Filter Guide, you can
specify the error messages the users receive (no more ARERR 1200!). ·
Join Forms.
Yeah, we had those before, but now you can submit data into them (kind
of). §
New Forms features ·
Form tab ¨
Set Web Alias allowws the
specification of an alias for Web forms relating to that form. ¨
Views Create View and Select View are
more scalable ways of doing much of what we do already with views.
¨
The extra stuff is in Manage Views.
In that dialog, we can specify the type (Windows or Web), the locale, and
assign a new concept to Remedy: ¨
Chunking the ability to display data
in table fields (either Windows or Web client) in chunks of n records, and to
then move forward or backward 1 chunk at a time. §
New Field Types ·
Alert List ¨
A list of the alerts assigned to you,
right inside Remedy user. This
would be a nice feature on a Control Panel at a NOC or Help Desk. ·
Results List ¨
This is the same results list you see on
the Windows client, only now you can specify one for the Web client, too.
Its not bad looking, and functions pretty nicely. ·
Attachment Pool ¨
An enhanced means of tracking
attachments. You can name each of
the attachment buckets, allowing you to guide the user into saving the right
type of attachment into a particular bucket.
You can configure the attachment field(s) so that each stores its
attachments in a particular location, allowing you to maintain control over
virus scanning and file permissions and backups. ·
View Field ¨
Ever wanted to actually SEE the
attachment to a Remedy record? Now
you can, by creating a View Field, and specifying by workflow that an attachment
is to be opened there. §
Enhanced Fields ·
Table Fields ¨
Advanced Display - You can specify
whether a row is automatically selected when a table field is refreshed, and
whether you would like workflow to fire on that initial selection. ¨
Table Labels - You can select the web
features you would like associated with the table field. ¨
Editable columns.
This would enable an approver to use a control panel with a table field
to change the status of requests, or a dispatcher to assign tickets.
All from within the table field, without access to the full data record
being required. Drill down is, as
always, optional. ¨
Chunking you can specify how many
records from a returned list to display at a time in the table field.
NOTE: The COL functions
operate on the number of rows IN the table field, not the number of returned
values in the search. I have Doug
Muellers full explanation of how that works for anyone interested. ·
Character and other Data Fields ¨
You can now specify whether to hide both
the data rectangle and the Expand Box on a data field.
This is useful in web views as a tool in helping the user decipher data
that is editable from data that is not. §
New Active Link Actions ·
Close Window replaces former Macro
function. ·
Open Window now YOU choose the form
(Display, Dialog, Modify, etc.) your open window will take. ·
Call Guide there is now an option at
the bottom for Table Looping. This
enables another cool function with the Editable columns in the Table Fields.
Now, workflow within a Guide can be created to update or reject multiple
changes to the rows in the table field. §
New Keywords ·
Too many to list they are listed and
explained in the 5.0 Remedy Workflow Administrator Guide, in table C-3. §
New Reserved Field Id list
v
Hot Topics Ψ Meeting Schedule: all are tentatively 6:00 8:00 meetings, subject to change. § January 15, 2002 @ ATTWS in Bothell · Topic will be: ARS 5.0 web tier § February 12, 2002 @ Starbucks HQ in SODO § March 12, 2002 @ Safeco in Redmond |
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