Dovetail Agent Documentation

Administrative Concerns

Items that Dovetail/Clarify administrators should be aware of.

Internal Notes

As of Agent 5.0, internal notes are handled differently than previous versions, and differently than the Clarify Client. Traditionally, internal notes are stored in table_notes_log.internal, which is a 255 character field. In Agent 5, internal notes are stored in the same field as regular notes (table_notes_log.description), and the x_is_internal field is set to 1 to indicate that these are internal notes. This removes the 255 character limit of internal notes, and simplifies the application for end users.

However, this can affect SelfService/eSupport/WebSupport style applications, which assume anything in table_notes_log.description is a public note. Because of this change, applications which expose public notes to customers may need to be enhanced to compensate for this new style of internal notes. For more information, or to discuss this in more detail, please contact Dovetail Support.

Time Zone Handling

Any date/timestamps from the database are sent to the client browser in UTC. These timestamps are then converted to the browser's timezone using Javascript. That way all timestamps are presented in the local timezone of the user. When a user enters a date/timestamp, that timestamp is converted to UTC before it is sent to the server. The server then converts it from UTC to the database's timezone The database timezone is determined by the entry in table_time_zone where is_default = 1. All timestamps are stored in the database in that database timezone.

Time Zone of Application User

When logging in as the Application User, this user's timezone will always be UTC, regardless of browser or machine time zone. This is only for the application user.

Administrative Privileges

The following summarizes what privileges a user needs to have an administrative link be visible: