Choosing between new requests and new incidents in xFlow

Products

• CA Service Management - Service Desk Manager
• CA Service Desk Manager

Issue/Introduction

When creating tickets in xFlow, there is a method one may follow to have the end user choose which ticket type to create.  This document details the functionality to toggle between both ticket types.

Environment

Release 17.3 and higher
CA Service Desk Manager/xFlow

Resolution

Prerequisites:

• Configure the Command Bar so that it accepts the necessary commands to create an incident or request.  Login to SDM Classic UI as an Administrative User, access the Administration tab, under xFlow interface -> Command Bar -> Commands.  Make sure there is a command for "/Incident" and "/Request".
  
  
• Add the Category field for New Ticket.   xFlow interface -> Command Bar -> New Ticket.  Add the Ticket Attribute "Category" to the Object "Request/Incident/Problem"
  
  

 

• Configure the setting "TicketType".  Under xFlow interface -> General, access the setting "TicketType".  Change this setting based on your requirements:
  
  0: The ticket type is Incident.
  1: The ticket type is Request.
  2: The ticket types are Incident and Request. However, the default ticket type is Incident.
  3: The ticket types are Incident and Request. However, the default ticket type is Request.
  
  To allow end users to choose between Incidents and Requests, use either "2" or 3". 
  
  We will set this to '3' for purposes of this demonstration. 

For demonstration purposes, we have also created two new Categories.  One is called "INC-ONLY" which is an incident only category.  The other is "REQ-ONLY" which is a request only category.

Note:  There are additional categories present, which apply for Requests and Incidents.  

Activity:  Create Incident

1. Search for the given contact (testemp in this example) that will be used to create the ticket.  Choose "New Ticket"
   
   
   
   
   
2. In the command bar, enter the command "/IN" for incident.  Press enter once 
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Type in a description text of any kind, then press enter
   
   
4. The Status and Category drop downs will present.  Under Category, choose the appropriate category of interest.  In this case, "INC-ONLY" is selected.
   
   
   
   The screenshot shows that there is an "INC-ONLY" category.  This was the incident only category we defined in the pre-req.  There are also categories present that apply to both requests and incidents as well.
   
   
5. Click in the command bar and press enter to finish creating the incident. 
   
    
   
   
6. Ticket 54 has been created.  If we search for this ticket in SDM, we will find that the ticket is an incident
   
   

 

Activity:  Create Request

For the activity to create request, one does not need to enter "/RE" because the TicketType setting will default to create a new request.  If we try entering "/RE", nothing will happen (shortcut display does not present like it did with /IN)

Further, the Category drop down will only show request based categories, such as "REQ-ONLY", because xFlow is configured on TicketType to default create a request.  There are also categories present that apply to both requests and incidents as well.

Once the ticket description and the category is selected, REQ-ONLY, the new ticket 55 is created, and it will be of type Request

Additional Information

The key takeaway is that creating a New Ticket does not start the end user with an undefined or NULL ticket type.  The configuration setup of the TicketType parameter will always have new tickets default to one of the two possible ticket types, either Requests or Incidents.  If xFlow was configured to create a Request by default as depicted here, and the end user is tasked to create an Incident, the end user must enter the "/IN" command to override the default setting to create a Request. 

Additionally, without first entering the "/IN" command to have xFlow create an Incident, the Category drop down option will only show Request specific Categories as xFlow has been setup to create a Request by default per the TicketType parameter.  To display Incident specific Categories, one must first enter the "/IN" command in the command bar.

It is not possible to have xFlow display both Incident and Request specific Categories at the same time, in order to have the selection of the Category imply which ticket type to create.  This is because Categories can be setup to apply to both Incidents and Requests, causing an ambiguity to which ticket type to create.

xFlow does not provide a menu option or any other configuration option to allow the end user to select between Incidents and Requests when creating a ticket.  Adding the Ticket Attribute "Ticket Type" under object "Request/Incident/Problem", under xFlow interface -> Command Bar -> New Ticket, will also not allow for such functionality.