Introduction

Dovetail Agent brings the power of your Clarify system to the web, replacing the legacy Clarify Classic Client.

Features & Functionality

Installation

Developer Resources

Features

Dovetail Agent's UI has been updated with a clean new style that incorporates many of the usability features that have become standard in today's popular web applications, allowing new users of the system to reach proficiency more quickly than ever. The application enables a wide range of efficient customer support operations with the following core features:

What's New - Version 18

Enhancements

Bug Fixes

Changes of Interest to Developers

Upgrading to Version 18.0.0

  1. Apply Schema Changes.

    The schema changes to be applied are defined in $dovetailAgent\config\schema\agent.schemascript.xml The easiest way is to simply apply these changes using Dovetail SchemaEditor and the agent.schemascript.xml file - it will add the new schema and skip over any changes that already exist.

  2. Import the following data files:

    • agent_admin_data.dat (New admin privileges)
    • themes-list.dat (New Themes user-defined list)

  3. Grant the following Admin privileges to the desired privilege class(es). This can be done within Dovetail Agent, using the Admin - Privilege Classes functionality.

    • Number Schemes
    • Transitions - Logistics
    • Transitions - Quality
    • Countries
    • Timezones
    • Workgroups

  4. Merge in your customizations with the baseline 18.0.0 source code

  5. Port any existing Model Map customizations to the new Model Map scheme, which uses Model Map XML config files and Model Map XML Override files.

  6. Update the web.config file. If you re-use your existing web.config file, be sure to merge in the latest changes.

    • The assembly binding definitions have changed
    • Content-Security-Policy has changed for supporting remote images
    • staticContent has changed to support for woff files

  7. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

What's New in Previous Versions

Previous Versions

Version 17.0.0

Enhancements

Bug Fixes

Changes of Interest to Developers

Upgrading to Version 17.0.0

  1. Drop the fc_mod_level_view

    If your database has the fc_mod_level_view, this view needs to get dropped. This view will likely be present if you upgraded from Dovetail Agent version 4.x. Note: It will get re-created in the next step.

    To drop the view:

    1. Export the schema to a data dictionary file using schemaeditor -export

    2. Edit the data dictionary file, removing the fc_mod_level_view definition (4630) from the file.

    3. Apply this data dictionary file (using schemaeditor -apply), which will drop the view from the database

  2. Apply Schema Changes.

    The schema changes to be applied are defined in $dovetailAgent\config\schema\agent.schemascript.xml The easiest way is to simply apply these changes using Dovetail SchemaEditor and the agent.schemascript.xml file - it will add the new schema and skip over any changes that already exist.

  3. Import the following data files:

    • agent_work_items_data.dat
    • agent_admin_data.dat
    • auto_dest_operations.dat

  4. Grant the Work Items privileges (Case, Subcase, Part Request, Change Request, Solution, Action Item) to the desired privilege class(es). This can be done within Dovetail Agent, using the Admin - Privilege Classes functionality.

  5. Grant the Admin privileges (Parts, Part Domains, Part Classes, Part Catalogs, Config Items, Auto-Destination) to the desired privilege class(es). This can be done within Dovetail Agent, using the Admin - Privilege Classes functionality.

  6. Setup "all parts" searching, which is used by the Manage Parts page

    Edit Dovetail Seeker's documentSpecifications.xml file to allow for searching of all parts. Within Seeker's documentSpecifications.xml file, include the "all parts" specification needed by Dovetail Agent, which are provided in the $dovetailAgent\source\config\seeker.config\seeker-all-parts-domain-specification.xml file

  7. Merge in your customizations with the baseline 17.0.0 source code

  8. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

Version 16.0.0

Enhancements

Bug Fixes

Changes of Interest to Developers

Upgrading to Version 16.0.0

  1. Install additional license keys:

    • Dovetail Agent license key, which enables access to the general app functionality
    • FCSFA Toolkit license key, which enables Action Items and Feedback functionality

    License keys can be obtained from the My License Keys page on the Dovetail Selfservice portal. If you do not have these keys, contact Dovetail Software, and we will provide them.

    License keys an be installed using the Dovetail Software License Installer, which is included with the Dovetail SDK.

  2. Disable/enable the Action Items feature by setting the Action Items.FeatureEnabled key within the appSettings file.

  3. Apply Schema Changes.

    The schema changes to be applied are defined in $dovetailAgent\config\schema\agent.schemascript.xml The easiest way is to simply apply these changes using Dovetail SchemaEditor and the agent.schemascript.xml file - it will add the new schema and skip over any changes that already exist.

  4. If using Action Items:

    A. Setup action item searching

    Edit Dovetail Seeker's documentSpecifications.xml file to allow for searching of action items. Within Seeker's documentSpecifications.xml file, include the change request specifications needed by Dovetail Agent, which are provided in the $dovetailAgent\source\config\seeker.config\seeker-action-item-domain-specification.xml file

    B. Import data files.

    • agent_sales_data.dat
    • action_item_email_template.dat
    • TaskManager.dat
    • canned-responses.dat (this will enable canned responses on Action Items, and expand the sharing options)
    • feedback.dat
    • action-item-rule-properties.dat
    • business-rule-events.dat

    C. Install SQL functions. This will update the NumberOfTags and toc-queues functions.

    D. Grant the Action Items privileges to the desired privilege class(es). This can be done within Dovetail Agent, using the Admin - Privilege Classes functionality.

  5. If using the Feedback (Action Item) functionality:

    A. Create a new Queue named Feedback, which is where Action items with a type of Feedback will be auto-dispatched to.

    OR

    B. Edit the Auto-destination rule for feedback action items using the Auto-Destination UI within Dovetail Admin, or by editing and re-importing the feedback.dat file.

  6. Merge in your customizations with the baseline 16.0.0 source code

  7. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

Version 15.0.0

Enhancements

Bug Fixes

Changes of Interest to Developers

Upgrading to Version 15.0.0

  1. Import data files.
    • agent_admin.dat
    • new_user_account.dat

  1. Grant the Application User Permissions at the database level to allow for creating users.

  2. Setup all-employee searching.

    Edit Dovetail Seeker's documentSpecifications.xml file to allow for searching of all employees (active and inactive). Within Seeker's documentSpecifications.xml file, include the "all employees" specifications needed by Dovetail Agent, which are provided in the $dovetailAgent\source\config\seeker.config\seeker-all-employees-domain-specification.xml file

  3. Merge in your customizations with the baseline 15.0.0 source code

  4. Update web.config file. The assembly binding definitions have changed in the web.config file. If you re-use your existing web.config file, be sure to merge in the latest changes.

  5. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

  6. Grant Admin privileges to the desired privilege class(es).

    • Login as the "sa" user
    • Click the Admin link
    • Click on Privilege Classes
    • Enable the privileges (Admin and otherwise) for the privilege classes used by your organization

Version 14.0.0

Enhancements

Bug Fixes

Changes of Interest to Developers

Webpack Upgrade

In this release, we have updated webpack to use the latest version. To ensure that everything installs and builds smoothly, make sure the proper versions of certain tools are installed on your machine.

Web.config changes

The assembly binding definitions have changed in the web.config file. If you re-use your existing web.config file, be sure to merge in the latest changes.

Function-based Rule Properties

Agent 14 adds support for custom function-based rule properties

A new Convert Query Objects script

The ConvertQueryObjects script will convert Agent 4.x style queries to the newer filter configuration files. This is useful for customers upgrading from Dovetail Agent 4.x. Refer to the Implementation Tasks section of the Install Guide for more details.

User Preferences

A new Preferences page has been added to the app. It's purpose is to house user-specfic preferences that can be set. There is a convention to adding/editing/removing preferences for this view

EmployeePreferencesView

This is the parent view for the page. In order to render a preference on this page, it must be registered with the preferenceRegistry.

preferenceRegistry

An OrderedMap of all the preferences that should be rendered on the User Preference page. The convention to extend this object is to override it in a custom file, import the registry and then manipulate it as needed.

import MyCustomPreferenceView from '...';
import preferenceRegistry from 'override/support/employee/common/preferenceRegistry';

preferenceRegistry.add(MyCustomPreferenceView.id, MyCustomPreferenceView);

export preferenceRegistry;

CustomPreferenceView

There are two attributes should exist on the View object itself (not the prototype): id and column.

The id attribute is used as the unique identifier in the OrderedMap. It is also used to construct the region that the view will be rendered in.

The column attribute is optional (default is full-width) and should be a value available in ColumnStyle.js. This will determine the layout this preference will have on the preference page (currently either a half-width or full-width view).

import ColumnStyle from 'app/support/employee/common/ColumnStyle';

const CustomPreferenceView = Marionette.ItemView.extend({
  // ...
});

CustomPreferenceView.columnStyle = ColumnStyle.HALF;
CustomPreferenceView.id = 'my-custom-view';

export default CustomPreferenceView;

Upgrading to Version 14.0.0

  1. Apply Schema Changes

    The schema changes to be applied are defined in $dovetailAgent\config\schema\agent.schemascript.xml The easiest way is to simply apply these changes using Dovetail SchemaEditor and the agent.schemascript.xml file - it will add the new schema and skip over any changes that already exist.

  1. Import data files.

    • agent_admin.dat
    • us-holidays.dat

  2. Grant the Admin privileges (Calendars, Rule Properties) to the desired privilege class(es) using Dovetail Admin.

  3. Update Rule Properties

    As of version 14, only rule properties marked as "For Canned Response" will be presented to the user as valid variables when creating/editing a canned response. Use the new Rule Properties UI within Dovetail Agent to mark these on an individual basis. You can also use SQL to do this. For example, this SQL will mark relevant rule properties as available for Canned Responses:

    update table_prop_name set x_for_canned_response = 1
where
path_name not like 'focus_obj2act_entry%'
and prop_name not like '@%'
and path_name <> 'objid'

    You can then use the UI to disable any you wish to hide from Canned Responses.

    You may also wish to update the Descriptions of rule properties, which would give users more context about the property, and the description can be presented in your company's ubitiquous language. Use the new Rule Properties UI within Dovetail Agent to update these descriptions.

  4. [OPTIONAL] Add holidays to business calendars

  5. Use the Admin - Holidays UI to add/remove/edit holidays for your organization

  6. Edit the Site Calendars (Site page - calendars tab) to set the holiday group for your main support site and any other site(s) as needed

  7. Merge in your customizations with the baseline 14.0.0 source code

  8. Update web.config file. The assembly binding definitions have changed in the web.config file. If you re-use your existing web.config file, be sure to merge in the latest changes.

  9. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

Version 13.0.0

Enhancements

Bug Fixes

Changes of Interest to Developers

Upgrading to Version 13.0.0

  1. Import data files.

    • agent_basic_data.dat (This contains Query Privileges)
    • commitment-rule-properties.dat
    • commitment-templates.dat

  2. Grant/Revoke the Query Account/Site/Contact/Contract/Employee/Site Parts privileges to the desired privilege class(es) using Dovetail Admin.

  3. If using Log Time and Expenses:

    A. Import data files.

    • agent_logistics_data.dat

    B. Grant the Log Time and Expenses privilege to the desired privilege class(es) using Dovetail Admin.

  4. Migrate your filter maps to the new filter config API

    A. Migrate your custom filter maps to the new filter config XML format

    B. Any customizations to baseline filters are now be isolated to override files. Create an override file for each of your baseline filter customizations.

    C. For custom filters, you may need to adjust the values that are saved in field column of the table_filter_facet table. You can either update this with a SQL command or you can modify the SavedFacetSettings.Keys application setting. This application setting accepts a comma delimited list of values to map. The following is an example of mapping TAG_NAME to the new form tagName: TAG_NAME=>tagName. The new form of the filter key tagName comes from the key attribute used in the filter map xml file. The value of the field column must be mapped to the key attribute of the addFacet element.

  5. Merge in your customizations with the baseline 13.0.0 source code

  6. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

Version 12.0.0

Enhancements

Bug Fixes

Changes of Interest to Developers

EntityActions

To accomodate the ability for CR transitions to be added without requiring code to be changed, EntityAction events have been enhanced. Before, a listener of the specific action:type pair was required to handle the event. Since new transitions would create new actions, this required a code change every time a transition was added to listen for that action.

Now, when EntityActions attempts to find a listener for an event, if first checks for the action:type pair. If it does not find a listener for that, rather than throw an error it attempts to find a listener for just the type. If no listener is still found, an error is thrown.

This is helpful for when the listener simply turns around and executes the payload data, such as with Accept, Yank, Reopen (in some cases), Quick Close, and now the new Change Status actions on Change Requests. See GenericAction.js for an example of listening to just the type of an event and how it is handled.

Customization

In order to add generic listeners to this class, simply extend the class and add the listeners to the constructor:

import GenericAction from 'override/core/actions/components/GenericAction';

class CustomGenericAction extends GenericAction {
  constructor() {
    super();

    const boundListener = this.listener.bind(this);

    this.entityActions.addActionListener('customEntity', boundListener);
  }
}

export default CustomGenericAction;

Upgrading to Version 12.0.0

  1. Disable/enable the Change Request feature by setting the ChangeRequest.FeatureEnabled key within the appSettings file.

  2. If using Change Requests:

    A. Apply Schema Changes.

    The schema changes to be applied are defined in $dovetailAgent\config\schema\agent.schemascript.xml The easiest way is to simply apply these changes using Dovetail SchemaEditor and the agent.schemascript.xml file - it will add the new schema and skip over any changes that already exist.

    B. Setup change request searching

    Edit Dovetail Seeker's documentSpecifications.xml file to allow for searching of part request headers and details. Within Seeker's documentSpecifications.xml file, include the change request specifications needed by Dovetail Agent, which are provided in the $dovetailAgent\source\config\seeker.config\change-request-domain-specification.xml file

    C. Import data files.

    • agent_quality_data.dat
    • import canned_responses.dat (this will enable creating canned responses on Change Requests)

    D. Install SQL functions. This will update the NumberOfTags and toc-queues functions.

    E. Grant the Quality privileges to the desired privilege class(es) using Dovetail Admin.

  3. Merge in your customizations with the baseline 12.0.0 source code

  4. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

Version 11.1.0

Enhancements

Bug Fixes

Changes of Interest to Developers

Major Front-end Refactor

See http://slides.com/craigjennings11/coming-up-in-agent/fullscreen for an overview of the changes, along with the new customization strategy

Upgrading to Version 11.1.0

  1. Merge in your customizations with the baseline 11.1.0 source code

  2. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

Version 11.0.0

Enhancements

Old New Purpose
m l+e Log Email
n l+n Log Note
k l+c Log Commitment
r l+r Log Research
m+r Reply to latest Email
m+a Reply All to latest Email
m+f Forward latest Email

Bug Fixes

Changes of Interest to Developers

Upgrading to Version 11.0.0

  1. Apply Schema Changes

    The schema changes to be applied are defined in $dovetailAgent\config\schema\agent.schemascript.xml The easiest way is to simply apply these changes using Dovetail SchemaEditor and the agent.schemascript.xml file - it will add the new schema and skip over any changes that already exist.

  2. Import Data Files

    Import these data files found in the $dovetailAgent\source\config\dat directory:

    • canned-responses.dat
    • agent_support_data.dat

  3. Review the new LogEmailReplySettings.IgnoredAddresses application config setting, and set its value properly for your environment. This is to help prevent email loops.

  4. [OPTIONAL] Grant the Quick Close Case and Quick Close Subcase privileges to the desired privilege class(es) using Dovetail Admin.

  5. Merge in your customizations with the baseline 11.0.0 source code

  6. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

Version 10.0.0

Enhancements

Bug Fixes

Changes of Interest to Developers

Upgrading to Version 10.0.0

  1. Install Dovetail SDK version 3.4 or higher.

    IMPORTANT CHANGE: Subcase ID Number generation within the Dovetail SDK is now handled by a new stored procedure (fc_next_subcase_seq). This stored procedure needs to be compiled to your database. Refer to the Dovetail SDK documentation for more details.

  2. Apply Schema Changes.

    The schema changes to be applied are defined in $dovetailAgent\config\schema\agent.schemascript.xml The easiest way is to simply apply these changes using Dovetail SchemaEditor and the agent.schemascript.xml file - it will add the new schema and skip over any changes that already exist.

  3. [Optional] Setup Dovetail Task Manager

  4. Merge in your customizations with the baseline source code.

  5. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

Version 9.0.2

Bug Fixes

Upgrading to Version 9.0.2

  1. Merge in your customizations with the baseline source code.

  2. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

Version 9.0.1

Enhancements

Bug Fixes

Upgrading to Version 9.0.1

  1. Merge in your customizations with the baseline source code.

  2. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

Version 9.0.0

Enhancements

Bug Fixes

Changes of Interest to Developers

Upgrading to Version 9.0.0

  1. Apply Schema Changes.

    The schema changes to be applied are defined in $dovetailAgent\config\schema\agent.schemascript.xml The easiest way is to simply apply these changes using Dovetail SchemaEditor and the agent.schemascript.xml file - it will add the new schema and skip over any changes that already exist.

  2. Update the resource_key column in the dt_resource table using SQL

    update table_dt_resource set resource_key = SUBSTRING(store_uri,LEN(store_uri) - CHARINDEX('/',REVERSE(store_uri ))+ 2,LEN(store_uri)) where resource_key is null

  1. Install NumberOfTags SQL function

    There is a new SQL function required: NumberOfTags, which returns the number of tags that a user has on a given object. This function is dependent on your specific schema. In order to facilitate different schemas amongst different customers, we have provided a utility for compiling this function.

    First, edit {dovetailAgent}utilities\sql\InstallSqlTemplates.exe.config file

    1. Set fchoice.dbtype to either MSSQL or Oracle, depending on your database type.
    2. Set fchoice.connectionstring to a valid connection string for your database.

    Second, from a DOS prompt:

    1. DOS> cd {dovetailAgent}utilities\sql\
    2. DOS> InstallSqlTemplates.exe ..\config\sql\{database}\

This should complete without any errors.

  1. Merge in your customizations with the baseline source code.

  2. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

  3. If using Dovetail Seeker as a Resource Store for images, upgrade Dovetail Seeker (to version 2.4 or higher) and Dovetail Rulemanager (to version 1.6 or higher).

Version 8.0.0

Enhancements

Bug Fixes

Changes of Interest to Developers

Change to webpack for script compilation

Agent has moved from requirejs to webpack for script compilation. While this move was nontrivial, it brought many long-term benefits.

Running in dev mode will compile the project into 1 script

It will no longer rely on requiring all of the scripts on page load (>600 requests) which made for a slow developer loading experience. Instead, webpack compiles all of the scripts into one script and loads that, even in dev mode. Debugging is not hindered, though, as webpack creates a source map so that files can be easily accessed and debugged.

Webpack allows for different dependency styles

RequireJS was great as a dependency manager, but since then better and more straight-forward solutions have come up, such as Commonjs. Webpack allows for code that use either style to co-exist with each other. This means you can choose between either style based on preference and webpack will just work to compile the scripts correctly.

Webpack allows for new technologies

Moving to webpack opens the doors to using the latest and greatest javascript features, namely ES6. It does this by allowing us to pass es6-specific code through a "loader" that translates it down to es5 and then compiles it. Instead of longingly drooling over the new es6 features, you can actually use them!

Webpack allows for removing Bower

We now solely rely on npm to handle javascript dependencies. Adapting your code for this change will be discussed below

Cache Buster

We no longer need to leverage cache busting due to the way resources are loaded now, i.e. directly via the browser instead of asynchronously via Requirejs. Because of this, you won't see any _={cacheBuster} suffixes on the requests in dev mode. There are still suffixes on ajax requests, but that is managed through jquery and only happens on XHRs.

Some important notes about moving to webpack
Change in handling localization

In your templates, you should no longer use the syntax {{$ LOCALIZED_STRING }}, but instead {{i18n "LOCALIZED_STRING"}}. This is because our previous localization strategy ({{$) was provided by a requirejs plugin that we no longer use. It was also not possible to override $ as a handlebars helper. Here's a regex you can use to find all occurrences in your code that need to be updated: {{\$\s+([\w_]+)\s*}}

agentLang, underscore, jquery should no longer be dependencies

Another benefit of webpack is it allows for declaring "global" variables that can be accessed from different modules without explicitly declaring a dependency. agentLang, _, and $ are now "globals" and no longer need to be called out as dependencies. Using these variables in your scripts will just work

Remove all occurrences of hbs! in template includes

Webpack will automatically handle compiling templates correctly (via a handlebars-loader), meaning that template dependencies no longer need the hbs! prefix.

Handlebar helpers should only return a function

If you have created any custom handlebar helpers, be sure to update them so that they just return a function instead of registering the helper with handlebars. See the helper editFor as an example

Localization handling has changed

Webpack will now create a script per localization that has the locale prefix in the name, e.g. en.bundle.js. To enable a localization, make sure a json file with the correct localizations exists and add a line to the languages hash in the webpack.config.js file.

No more Bower

Moving to webpack made removing bower possible, and using 1 package manager instead of 2 seems smart. With that, if any dependencies have been added to bower.json, be sure to move them over to the package.json file under the dependencies hash instead. You will also need to add aliases to those dependencies in the webpack.config.js file if you had added aliases in the requirejs config file for these new dependencies.

New npm scripts

To make the developer setup and experience easier, we have moved the most common dev tasks to npm scripts for the frontend. This means you no longer are required to have gulp installed globally and can run npm scripts instead of gulp tasks to setup the environment. Below is a list of possible npm scripts and a summary of what they do:

If you use LiveReload in your dev flow, this is still supported. To enable watching for webpack, run npm run webpack -- --watch. This is a continually running task that does a first compilation (~20s), and then very quick iterative builds as javascript files change.

Tab Badge Enhancements

The tab component has been updated to allow for richer badges. To make use of these enhancements, adjustments need to be made to both the initial count passed to the tab, and how the badges are updated (usually via a collection reset event).

The count variable can now be one of a number of types.

In addition to these types, the initial count passed in the tab configuration object can be a function that returns any of the above types

When updating complex badges, you will need to use either the reset collection event or manually trigger update:count on the tab's object. Triggering update:count will not do any post-processing of the value as that should already have been done (e.g. collection.trigger('update:count', [1, 'new', { total: 3, type: 'important' }]))). However, the reset event is a little different, so the tab component has added functionality to handle the different possibilities. These include a simple reset that should update the badge based on the collection's length (collection.reset(newItems)), and resets with more complex badges (collection.reset(newItems, [1, 'new', { total: totalResults })).

Supported Node Versions

The Node.js project has experienced a major shift in its management and development speed over the past couple of months. One major change is that they now have an LTS release, code-named "Argon". To better serve our customers, "Argon" will be the version of Node that we will officially support. While other versions both lower and higher may work, these will not be officially supported until we explicitly announce their support. To get the latest LTS release, visit https://nodejs.org/en/ and select the LTS release download link.

Upgrading to Version 8.0.0

  1. Configure rich logs using markdown (email, notes, research) for cases and subcases using the MarkdownSettings.IsRichLoggingEnabled application setting. Requires Dovetail Rulemanager 1.5 or higher for rich HTML outgoing emails.

  2. Merge in your customizations with the baseline source code.

  3. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

Version 7.0.0

Enhancements

Bug Fixes

Changes of Interest to Developers

Upgrading to Version 7.0.0

  1. Apply Schema Changes.

    The schema changes to be applied are defined in $dovetailAgent\config\schema\agent.schemascript.xml The easiest way is to simply apply these changes using Dovetail SchemaEditor and the agent.schemascript.xml file - it will add the new schema and skip over any changes that already exist.

  2. Setup part request searching.

    If using part requests, edit Dovetail Seeker's documentSpecifications.xml file to allow for searching of part request headers and details. Within Seeker's documentSpecifications.xml file, include the part request specifications needed by Dovetail Agent, which are provided in the $dovetailAgent\source\config\seeker.config\part-request-domain-specification.xml file

  3. Import data files.

    • logistics_user_defined_lists.dat
    • agent_logistics_data.dat
    • activity_codes.dat

  4. If using Part Requests (Logistics), grant the Logistics privileges to the desired privilege class(es) using Dovetail Admin.

  5. Merge in your customizations with the baseline source code.

  6. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

Version 6.0.0

Enhancements

Bug Fixes

Changes of Interest to Developers

Upgrading to Version 6.0.0

  1. Install the .NET Framework 4.5

  2. Merge in your customizations with the baseline 6.0 source code.

  3. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

Version 5.11.0

Enhancements

Changes of Interest to Developers

Upgrading to Version 5.11.0

  1. Apply Schema Changes.

    The schema changes to be applied are defined in $dovetailAgent\config\schema\agent.schemascript.xml The easiest way is to simply apply these changes using Dovetail SchemaEditor and the agent.schemascript.xml file - it will add the new schema and skip over any changes that already exist.

  2. Update last modified timestamps for parts and part revisions

Update table_mod_level.x_modify_stmp and table_part_num.x_modify_stmp using the Update Timestamps SQL

  1. Setup part searching.

    If using parts, edit Dovetail Seeker's documentSpecifications.xml file to allow for searching of parts. Within Seeker's documentSpecifications.xml file, include the parts specifications needed by Dovetail Agent, which are provided in the $dovetailAgent\source\config\seeker.config\seeker-part-domain-specification.xml file

  2. Update contact searching.

    Edit Dovetail Seeker's documentSpecifications.xml file to allow for searching of contact email addresses. Refer to the $dovetailAgent\source\config\seeker.config\seeker-contact-domain-specification.xml file for reference Within Seeker's documentSpecifications.xml file:

    • include the email addresses into the contents:

      <contents>
 ...existing paths ...
 <path>e_mail</path>
 <path>contact2e_addr:e_num</path>
</contents>

    • include the email custom field:

       <customField title="email" description="Email Addresses">
   <path>e_mail</path>
   <path>contact2e_addr:e_num</path>
 </customField>

  1. Merge in your customizations with the baseline 5.11 source code.

  2. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

Version 5.10.0

Enhancements

Upgrading to Version 5.10.0

  1. Apply Schema Changes.

    The schema changes to be applied are defined in $dovetailAgent\config\schema\agent.schemascript.xml The easiest way is to simply apply these changes using Dovetail SchemaEditor and the agent.schemascript.xml file - it will add the new schema and skip over any changes that already exist.

  2. Install SQL functions

    Dovetail Agent uses user-defined SQL functions for certain operations. The functions are defined in the $dovetailAgent\source\config\sql{database}\toc-queues.sql file. Install these functions to your database.

    MSSQL: sqlcmd -UmyLoginName -PmyPassword -SmyServer -dmyDatabase -i toc-queues.sql

    Oracle: sqlplus myLoginName/myPassword@ora11 @toc-queues.sql

    These should complete without any errors.

  3. Merge in your customizations with the baseline 5.9 source code.

  4. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

Version 5.9.0

Enhancements

Bug Fixes

Changes of Interest to Developers

Upgrading to Version 5.9

  1. Apply General Schema Changes.

    The schema changes to be applied are defined in $dovetailAgent\config\schema\agent.schemascript.xml The easiest way is to simply apply these changes using Dovetail SchemaEditor and the agent.schemascript.xml file - it will add the new schema and skip over any changes that already exist.

  2. Apply Database-specific Schema Changes.

    The database-specific (mssql/oracle) schema changes to be applied are defined in $dovetailAgent\config\schema\{database}\agent.{database}.schemascript.xml The easiest way is to simply apply these changes using Dovetail SchemaEditor and the agent.{database}.schemascript.xml file - it will add the new schema and skip over any changes that already exist.

  3. Setup contract searching.

    If using contracts, edit Dovetail Seeker's documentSpecifications.xml file to allow for searching of contracts. Within Seeker's documentSpecifications.xml file, include the contract specifications needed by Dovetail Agent, which are provided in the $dovetailAgent\source\config\seeker.config\seeker-contract-domain-specification.xml file

  4. Merge in your customizations with the baseline 5.9 source code.

  5. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

Version 5.8.0

Enhancements

Bug Fixes

Changes of Interest to Developers

Upgrading to Version 5.8

  1. Apply Schema Changes.

    The schema changes to be applied are defined in $dovetailAgent\config\schema\agent.schemascript.xml The easiest way is to simply apply these changes using Dovetail SchemaEditor and the agent.schemascript.xml file - it will add the new schema and skip over any changes that already exist.

  2. Import data files.

    • web_types.dat

  3. Edit Dovetail Seeker's documentSpecifications.xml file.

    Specifically, edit the account specification, changing the idColumnName property from org_id to objid.

    The $agent\config\seeker.config\seeker-account-domain-specification.xml file shows the correct specification.

  4. [Optional] Setup Agent Reporting

  5. Merge in your customizations with the baseline 5.8 source code.

  6. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

Version 5.7

Enhancements

Bug Fixes

Changes of Interest to Developers

Upgrading to Version 5.7

  1. To take advantage of the web.config setting which removes the Server header which identifies that this is an IIS server, install the IIS URL Rewrite on your web server (if its not already installed).

    • Open IIS Manager
    • Click on the Dovetail Agent web application
    • In the middle pane, under IIS, look for URL Rewrite icon
    • If that icon is there, then URL Rewrite is already installed.

  2. Merge in your customizations with the baseline 5.7 source code.

  3. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

Version 5.6

Enhancements

Bug Fixes

Upgrading to Version 5.6

  1. Apply Schema Changes.

    The schema changes to be applied are defined in $dovetailAgent\config\schema\agent.schemascript.xml The easiest way is to simply apply these changes using Dovetail SchemaEditor and the agent.schemascript.xml file - it will add the new schema and skip over any changes that already exist.

  2. Run upgrade script

    • The upgrade script is located in $dovetailAgent\config\scripts\upgrade\5.6
    • Be sure that the Dovetail SDK is installed on the machine running the upgrade script
    • Edit the fc.env file, defining your database connection information
    • From a DOS prompt: cscript upgrade.js

  3. Import data files.

    • user_impersonation_activity_codes.dat
    • agent_basic_data.dat (for the Impersonate Employee privilege)
    • WorkgroupQuery.dat

  4. Add the canImpersonate custom field to the employee document specification in Dovetail Seeker's documentSpecification file. The custom field specification can be found within the $dovetailAgent\source\config\seeker\seeker-employee-domain-specification.xml file.

  5. Grant the Impersonate Employee privilege to the desired privilege class(es) using Dovetail Admin.

  6. Merge in your customizations with the baseline 5.6 source code.

  7. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

Version 5.5

Enhancements

Bug Fixes

Upgrading to Version 5.5

  1. Merge in your customizations with the baseline 5.5 source code

  2. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

Version 5.4

Enhancements

Upgrading to Version 5.4

  1. Apply Schema Changes

    The schema changes to be applied are defined in $dovetailAgent\config\schema\agent.schemascript.xml The easiest way is to simply apply these changes using Dovetail SchemaEditor and the agent.schemascript.xml file - it will add the new schema and skip over any changes that already exist.

  2. Import Data Files

    Import these data files found in the $dovetailAgent\source\config\dat directory:

    • agent_support_data.dat
    • commitment-rule-properties.dat
    • commitment-templates.dat

  3. [Optional] Setup Task Manager

  4. Merge in your customizations with the baseline 5.4 source code

  5. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

Version 5.3

Enhancements

Developer Concerns

Upgrading to Version 5.3

  1. Apply Schema Changes

    The schema changes to be applied are defined in $dovetailAgent\config\schema\agent.schemascript.xml The easiest way is to simply apply these changes using Dovetail SchemaEditor and the agent.schemascript.xml file - it will add the new schema and skip over any changes that already exist.

  2. Merge in your customizations with the baseline 5.3 source code

  3. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

Version 5.2

Enhancements

Upgrading to Version 5.2

  1. Apply Schema Changes

    The schema changes to be applied are defined in $dovetailAgent\config\schema\agent.schemascript.xml The easiest way is to simply apply these changes using Dovetail SchemaEditor and the agent.schemascript.xml file - it will add the new schema and skip over any changes that already exist.

  2. Merge in your customizations with the baseline 5.2 source code

  3. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

Version 5.1

Enhancements

Bug Fixes

Upgrading to Version 5.1

  1. Apply Schema Changes

    The schema changes to be applied are defined in $dovetailAgent\config\schema\agent.schemascript.xml The easiest way is to simply apply these changes using Dovetail SchemaEditor and the agent.schemascript.xml file - it will add the new schema and skip over any changes that already exist.

  2. Import Data Files

    Import these data files found in the $dovetailAgent\source\config\dat directory:

    • localizations.dat
    • user_defined_lists.dat

  3. Merge in your customizations with the baseline 5.1 source code

  4. Build / Test / Release / Deploy

Version 5.0

Dovetail Agent 5.0 is a completely redesigned user interface and architecture.

On the back end, it uses the FUBU MVC Framework, which is a popular .NET framework for building web applications. It's built on top of the core ASP.NET libraries. The back end is all written in C#. On the front end, is HTML 5, CSS3, and JavaScript. It uses the Backbone JavaScript framework, along with a boatload of other common JavaScript libraries, including Require.js, jQuery, Marionette, Underscore.js, and Moment.js. In short, all leading-edge technologies.

Features

For specific features, view the High-level functional comparison between Clarify and Dovetail applications

Functionality

Functional items of Dovetail Agent worth noting.

Tags

Rather than a workflow item (such as a case or subcase) being in one (and only one) wipbin, Dovetail Agent has the concept of tags. You can tag any workflow item you want with as many tags as you want. These items are easily available from the console and from queries. This allows for more flexibility in how user's organize their work, and allows one to easily get back to any tagged item - such as those items you want to keep an eye on.

Users can manage their tags (rename, delete) from the My Tags page.

Dovetail Agent ships with a script that converts wipbins to tags. Refer to the Convert wipbins to tags section for more details.

Dates

As discussed in Time Zone handling Most dates are displayed in a timeago format, such as 2 days ago or in 11 hours. To view the exact date-time, simply put your mouse over the timeago format, and the exact date-time will be shown.

Time Ago

Avatars

An "avatar" is an image that represents you online—a little picture that appears next to your name when you interact with websites. Throughout the Dovetail Agent application (such as in case history), avatars are used to help identify a user. Dovetail Agent pulls these images from Gravatar based on the email address of the user. A Gravatar is a Globally Recognized Avatar. You upload it and create your profile just once, and then when you participate in any Gravatar-enabled site, your Gravatar image will automatically follow you there.

Avatar

Phone Logs

Since there was very little difference between a Notes Log and a Phone Log, the Phone Log input form has been removed from Dovetail Agent. This simplifies the process for users. Phone logs created from other applications will still be shown as part of the case/subcase history.

Auto-Destination

Auto-destination rules are supported for DISPATCH and ASSIGN operations for cases, subcases, and solutions.

When a user selects the Dispatch workflow operation, auto-destination rules are evaluated.

When a user selects the Assign workflow operation, auto-destination rules are evaluated.

For more information, refer to the Auto-Destination Rules knowledgebase article.

Task Manager

Dovetail Agent supports both Clarify Task Manager and Dovetail Task Manager, although only one can be in use at a given time.

Refer to the Task Manager guide for complete details.

Commitments

Users can create and update commitments for a case or subcase.

There are two ways to create a commitment for a case or subcase:

  1. Choose Commitment from the Log menu, which allows for a Quick Commitment
  2. Click the + icon on the Commitments tab header, which allows for a Full Commitment

Quick Commitment: Select a commitment title from a drop-down list, and a due date.

Full Commitment: Type in a commitment title, due date, reminder, and notes.

Commitment Templates

When a commitment reaches its reminder time, Rulemanager notifies the user using the Warning template. When a commitment expires, Rulemanager notifies the user using the Commitment template. These templates are part of your existing Clarify implementation. Dovetail provides more robust templates in the $dovetailAgent\source\config\dat\commitment-templates.dat file.

My Calendar

Users can access their calendar, which shows commitments (based on the commitment due date) and subcases (based on the due date).

Users can also share their calendar. The Share button on the My Calendar page exposes a public URL for the calendar, which can be given to people they wish to share their calendar data with. Exposes calendar data from 30 days ago to 30 days in the future (Can be configured within application settings). This URL can be imported into a Calendar application such as Microsoft Outlook as an Internet Calendar Subscription.

Impersonation

Dovetail Agent allows a user to impersonate another user. Dovetail calls this Impersonation. Clarify traditionally calls this Switch User.

Impersonation allows a user to essentially login as another user without knowing the other user's password. This is useful for managers to impersonate their employees in order to view their work and commitments, and to re-assign their work when necessary.

Once a user impersonates another user, they can revert the impersonation or log out. Nested impersonations are not allowed - a user cannot impersonate a (third) user while impersonating a user.

Activity Logs are added for both Impersonate and Revert actions, allowing for auditing of these actions.

In order to impersonate another user:

Canned Responses

Canned responses are re-usable text snippets that you can use when logging emails or notes on cases, subcases, and change requests. Canned responses can save you time if you’re often typing similar responses.

Users can create personal canned resonses, and can also share canned responses to other employees, to workgroups, or to everyone. Canned Responses that have been shared can be ignored/unignored.

Canned responses can include dynamic properties, such as the Case Title or Status. The list of available properties is the same as the list of business rule properties (excluding properties with a subtype of Alias).

Quick Close

The Quick Close functionality allows a case or subcase to be closed without fronting the Close form (where users select a status, resolution, and enter notes). With Quick Close, the case/subcase is closed without any additional user inputs.

This functionality is controlled by the Quick Close Case and Quick Close Subcase privileges.

Individual Contacts

Individual Contacts are typically used in a B2C (Business to Consumer) organization. Individual Contacts appear in the application without a site. Technically, they do have a contact role and a site at the database level. The site has a type of INDV. The address for the individual contact is actually the primary address for the site.

The Individual Contact feature is enabled using the IndividualContacts.FeatureEnabled application setting.

When enabled:

Reporting

Dovetail Agent Reporting is an optional reporting module that can be purchased from Dovetail Software. It allows non-technical end users to create and edit reports and dashboards without IT support. For more information, or to obtain this module, contact Dovetail Software.

Broadcasts

A broadcast is used to communicate a message to all users. It will appear in their notification drawer. If a user has the Admin privilege, they can create/edit/delete broadcasts from the Admin page.

Markdown

Markdown is a lightweight and easy-to-use syntax for styling text on the web. You control the display of the document; formatting words as bold or italic, adding images, and creating lists are just a few of the things we can do with Markdown. Mostly, Markdown is just regular text with a few non-alphabetic characters thrown in, like # or *.

If a text area is markdown enabled, it will show a Markdown Supported icon next to it. Clicking on the Markdown Supported icon will open a markdown help page.

Markdown support is currently enabled for:

Enabled with the MarkdownSettings.IsRichLoggingEnabled application setting.

Feedback

Within the application, users can submit feedback, such as a Suggestion, Compliment, Bug, or Question. This allows system administrators to collect feedback from end users. Behind the scenes, this will create a new Action Item, which will be automatically dispatched to a queue using auto-destination rules.

This functionality can be enabled/disabled using the FeedbackActionItem.FeatureEnabled application setting. The Action Item type will be determined by the ActionItemSettings.FeedbackType application setting.

By default, Action items with a type of Feedback will be auto-dispatched to a queue named Feedback. This can be controlled using the Auto-Destination UI within Dovetail Admin, or by editing and re-importing the feedback.dat file.

Workgroup Attributes

Dovetail Workgroups allows for a Workgroup to be established with Employee attributes such as Privilege Class, Resource Configuration, Site, Supervisor, Notification Preferences, and Queues, among others.

As new Employees are added to the system, an Administrator can simply assign the new Employee to a Workgroup and have all this information populated in one step, thus greatly simplifying the creation of new employees.

When an employee changes work assignments, the attributes of the new workgroup can override the current settings for the employee automatically just by changing the workgroup.

For more information, refer to the How to use Workgroups and Workgroup Attributes in Dovetail Agent knowledgebase article.

Still have questions?

For more information, or to discuss any of this in more detail, please contact Dovetail Support.

Task Manager

Task Manager is an optional module that allows actions to occur automatically when a task set is selected from a case. The most common actions are creating a subcase or creating an action item.

For example, when the New Employee Task Set is run:

  1. Create a General subcase for setting up the employee's network account and dispatch to the Network queue.
  2. Create an Administrative subcase for ordering business cards and assign to a specific employee.
  3. Create an action item for creating the user's account in the CRM system, and dispatch to a queue based on auto-destination rules.

Dovetail Agent can work with either Clarify Task Manager or Dovetail Task Manager.

Dovetail vs. Clarify

Task evaluation

Clarify: Tasks are evaluated within the Clarify Classic Client itself, or via the Task Manager executable (tskmgr.exe).

Dovetail: Tasks are evaluated within Dovetail Carrier.

Actions

Clarify: Create Subcases, Create Action Items

Dovetail: Create Subcases, Create Action Items, Customizable to perform other actions

Applications involved in Task Manager

Clarify: Clarify Classic Client, Rulemanager, Task Manager executable (tskmgr.exe)

Dovetail: Dovetail Agent, Dovetail Carrier, Dovetail Rulemanager

Schema

Clarify and Dovetail use completely different schema for managing tasks, task sets, and task properties.

Clarify: cls_group, cls_factory, stage_task, task_set, cls_factory, cls_opn, cls_ref

Dovetail: dt_task, dt_task_set, dt_property_template, dt_configured_property, prop_name

Clarify Task Manager

Clarify Task Manager is an optional module that allows subcases and action items to be automatically created when a task set is selected from a case.

Clarify Task Manager and the Clarify Classic Client

Within the Clarify Classic Client, this process is started by clicking the Jobs button on a case, and then selecting a Task Set to be executed. The Clarify Client then evaluates the task set and creates the subcases and action items as needed.

Clarify Task Manager and Dovetail Agent

Within Dovetail Agent, this process is started by choosing the Workflow - Run Task Set menu item on a case, and then selecting a Task Set to be executed. User's must have the Task Manager privilege in order to see this menu item. Dovetail Agent itself does not evaluate the task set and create subcases. Instead, Dovetail Agent creates a time bomb, which fires the a business rule. Rulemanager processes this business rule which calls out to Clarify's tskmgr.exe. The Run Clarify Task Set business rule is what makes this happen. Have a look at the business rule to see how it functions.

Administration of Task Sets for Clarify Task Manager

Task Definitions and Task Set Definitions are setup using the Policies and Customers module within the Clarify Classic Client.

Dovetail Task Manager

Dovetail Task Manager is an optional module that allows subcases to be automatically created when a task set is selected from a case. Dovetail Task Manager is also extensible using customization, allowing it to perform other actions, within the Clarify/Dovetail system itself, or even as a mechanism for integrating with other systems.

Process

Migrating from Clarify Task Manager to Dovetail Task Manager

Dovetail Agent ships with a script for converting Clarify Tasks/Task Sets/Properties to Dovetail Tasks/Task Sets/Properties. Details of this script are listed below.

Applications

The following applications are involved in the Task Manager process

Managing Tasks and Task Sets

Tasks and Task Sets are managed within Dovetail Agent. The Tasks privilege is required.

Managing Task Property Templates

Task Property Templates are managed within Dovetail Agent. The Task Property Templates privilege is required.

Important note! It is recommended that managing Task Property Templates should be performed by a System Administrator / Technical Resource on your project. Managing templates requires intimate knowledge of the Clarify schema and the underlying APIs used when Carrier performs actions.

Dovetail Agent Privileges

Schema

The following tables are used by Dovetail Task Manager:

Requirements

Install / Setup

  1. Apply schema changes using Dovetail SchemaEditor and task-manager.schemascript.xml schema file
  2. Apply database-type-specific schema indexes for task manager using Dovetail SchemaEditor and task-manager.index.{databaseType}.schemascript.xml schema file
  3. Import TaskManager.dat file

  4. Assign Privileges

    Assign the privileges to the appropriate privilege classes using Dovetail Agent

    Important note! It is recommended that the privilege for managing Task Property Templates should be only be granted to a System Administrator / Technical Resource on your project. Managing templates requires intimate knowledge of the Clarify schema and the underlying APIs used when Carrier performs actions.

  5. Review Business Rule (included in TaskManager.dat)

    The important components of the business rule are:

    • Object Type: Cases
    • Start On Event = Run Task Set
    • Action Message Type: Carrier Message
    • Message:
      type=RunTaskSet
caseId=[Object ID]
taskSetName=[Task Set Name]

  6. Dovetail Carrier setup

    Use Dovetail License Installer (provided with the Dovetail SDK) to install the Dovetail Task Manager license key into your database

  7. Dovetail Rulemanager setup

    If Dovetail Carrier is installed on a different machine than Dovetail Rulemanager, then edit the FChoice.RuleManager.WindowsService.exe.config file, setting the value of the Carrier.QueueAddress key with the correct server name/address.

  8. Review auto-destination rules

    If your tasks will use the Auto-Assign or Auto-Dispatch workflows, review your existing auto-destination rules and adjust if necessary. Task Manager uses the ASSIGN and DISPATCH operations of auto-destination rules. If an auto-destination rule does not resolve to any queue (for auto-dispatch) or to any user (for auto-assign), then a warning will be logged and the item will not be assigned nor dispatched. If an auto-destination rule resolve to multiple queues (for auto-dispatch) or to multiple users (for auto-assign), then a warning will be logged and the item will be routed to the first item in the list.

Migrating from Clarify Task Manager to Dovetail Task Manager

Business Rules

Inactivate any existing business rules that have an action that calls the Task Manager executable (tskmgr.exe)

Conversion script

Dovetail Agent ships with a script for converting Clarify Tasks/Task Sets/Properties to Dovetail Tasks/Task Sets/Properties.

Conversion Script Requirements/Setup:

The script is executed from a command line:

cscript main.wsf

Note: If cscript throws an error such as: There is no script engine for file extension ".js". Then use the //E option of cscript to specify the script engine to be jscript. Example: cscript //E:jscript main.wsf

Validate, preview, then convert

  1. Validate data in database

    cscript main.wsf  /validate

    If any errors are listed, they must be resolved before preceeding.

  2. Preview converting Clarify Tasks & Properties to Dovetail Tasks & Properties

    cscript main.wsf  /tasks /verbose /preview

  3. Convert Clarify Tasks & Properties to Dovetail Tasks & Properties

    cscript main.wsf  /tasks /verbose

  4. Preview converting Clarify Task Sets to Dovetail Tasks Sets

    cscript main.wsf  /tasksets /verbose /preview

  5. Convert Clarify Task Sets to Dovetail Tasks Sets

    cscript main.wsf  /tasksets /verbose

Customizing Dovetail Task Manager

Dovetail Task Manager is extensible using customization, allowing it to perform other actions, within the Clarify/Dovetail system itself, or even as a mechanism for integrating with other systems.

Dovetail provides example code for customizing Task Manager.

  1. Custom action

    Out of the box, Task Manager supports two actions - Create Subcase and Create Action Item. The first example walks through how to add a custom action for a task. Specifically, it will show how to add an action named Get Stock Quote, that will call an external web service to get a stock quote. The quote will be logged as a note to the case.

  2. Custom Message Type

    Out of the box, Task Manager fires a business rule with an action of Carrier Message. The business rule action message content specifies type=RunTaskSet Rulemanager turns this into an actual message, and sends it to Carrier. Out of the box, Carrier only knows how to process these messages with a type of RunTaskSet. The second example walks through how to add a custom type, allowing Carrier to perform a custom action, completely independent of Task Manager. Specifically, it will show how to add a type of GetStockQuote, that will call an external web service to get a stock quote.

These examples, including code and documentation, are located on Github.com.

Administrative Concerns

Items that Dovetail/Clarify administrators should be aware of.

Admin functionality

The following admininstrative functions are available within Dovetail Agent:

Each of these items are controlled by privileges, controlled using the privilege class page. The "sa" user has access to all functionality, regardless of their privilege class. This allows the "sa" user to bootstrap privilege classes for other users.

Administrative Privileges

The following summarizes the privileges a user needs to have an administrative link/icon be visible:

Link / Icon Required Privilege(s)
Activity Codes Activity Codes
Application Lists Application Lists
Auto-Destination Rules Auto-Destination
Broadcasts Admin
Business Rules Business Rules
Cache Admin
Calendars Calendars
Config Items Config Items
Countries and States Countries
Employees Create Employee or Edit Employee
Holidays Calendars
Numbering Schemes Number Schemes
Parts and Revisions Part Numbers
Part Domains Part Domains
Part Classes Part Classes
Part Catalogs Part Catalogs
Privileges Privileges
Privilege Classes Priv Classes
Queues Queues
Rule Properties Rule Properties
Task Manager Tasks or Task Property Templates
Time Zones Timezones
User Sessions Admin
User Defined Lists User Defined Lists
Workgroup Attributes Workgroups

If at least one of these privileges in granted, then the Admin link will be shown in the App header.

Create Employee

When creating new employees, there is an option to set the user's password for them, or send then an email telling them that their account has been created. This email will also contain a link to where they can set their own password. The content of the email that is sent out is controlled by the "New User Account Email" com_tmplte, which is defined in the new_user_account.dat file. This template can be modified to be specific to your organization.

Status Codes

Application Status Codes are the lists of valid values within a condition. For example, for Cases, there is a list of Open status values, and a list of Closed status values.

Within Dovetail Admin, and within the Clarify Classic Client, there is a separate administrative UI for managing Application Status Codes.

Within Dovetail Agent, these are managed like any other Application list (since that's what they really are).

The following may be helpful for determing the status list names.

Application Object Types Status Lists in use
Support Cases, Subcases Open, Closed
Quality Change Requests CR Open, CR Fixed, CR Closed, CR Duplicate/Closed
Logistics Part Requests RQST Open, RQST Closed, RQST Reopened, Picked, Unpicked, Fulfilled, Shipped, Received, Backordered, Part Used, Update Inv, In Repair
Sales Action Items Open Action Item, Closed Action Item

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.

Requirements

For the most up-to-date platform information, refer to the Dovetail Platform Guide.

Client

The only client requirement is a web browser. Dovetail Agent has been verified to work with the following web browsers:

Note: Internet Explorer should not be run in compatibility mode for Dovetail Agent. Additional Information

Server

Operating System

Dovetail Products

Web Server

Clarify Version

Tools

Dovetail Task Manager Requirements

Dovetail Task Manager is dependent on the following additional Dovetail applications:

Other Tools

Development

Refer to the Developer Setup page for details on setting up a developer environment.

Install Guide

Review the Requirements

Install Required license keys

Install Optional license keys

License keys can be obtained from the My License Keys page on the Dovetail Selfservice portal. If you do not have these keys, contact Dovetail Software, and we will provide them.

License keys an be installed using the Dovetail Software License Installer, which is included with the Dovetail SDK.

Unzip the agent.zip file

Enable support for SQL Views

Dovetail Agent uses SQL views as part of its custom schema. This requires that yur database is enabled for them. If your Clarify version is 11.5 or higher, you likely already have SQL view support enabled.

Check

To check if your database is SQL View enabled, look for a column named sql on the adp_tbl_name_map table.

MSSQL:

sp_columns adp_tbl_name_map

Oracle:

desc adp_tbl_name_map

If the sql column is not present, then it needs to be added.

Add column to enable SQL Views

MSSQL:

ALTER TABLE ADP_TBL_NAME_MAP ADD sql TEXT NULL;

Oracle:

ALTER TABLE SA.ADP_TBL_NAME_MAP ADD("SQL" CLOB DEFAULT empty_clob());

Drop the fc_mod_level_view

If your database has the fc_mod_level_view, this view needs to get dropped. This view will likely be present if you upgraded from Dovetail Agent version 4.x. Note: It will get re-created in the next step.

To drop the view:

  1. Export the schema to a data dictionary file using schemaeditor -export

  2. Edit the data dictionary file, removing the fc_mod_level_view definition (4630) from the file.

  3. Apply this data dictionary file (using schemaeditor -apply), which will drop the view from the database

Apply General Schema Changes

The schema changes to be applied are defined in the $dovetailAgent\config\schema directory

Prior to making schema changes, backup the current database.

Use Dovetail SchemaEditor to apply these schema changes.

Apply Database-specific Schema Changes.

The database-specific (mssql/oracle) schema changes to be applied are defined in $dovetailAgent\config\schema\{database}\agent.{database}.schemascript.xml

Use Dovetail SchemaEditor to apply these schema changes.

Install SQL functions

Dovetail Agent uses user-defined SQL functions for certain operations. The NumberOfTags function is dependent on your specific schema. In order to facilitate different schemas amongst different customers, we have provided a utility for compiling this function into your database, along with all the required SQL functions.

First, edit {dovetailAgent}\\utilities\sql\InstallSqlTemplates.exe.config file

  1. Set fchoice.dbtype to either MSSQL or Oracle, depending on your database type.
  2. Set fchoice.connectionstring to a valid connection string for your database.

Second, from a DOS prompt:

  DOS> cd {dovetailAgent}\\utilities\sql\
  DOS>
  DOS> InstallSqlTemplates.exe ..\..\config\sql\{database}\

This should complete without any errors, as shown here:

  InstallSqlTemplates.exe ..\..\config\sql\mssql
  Found template: ..\..\config\sql\mssql\NumberOfTags.template
  Rendered ..\..\config\sql\mssql\NumberOfTags.template as NumberOfTags.expanded.sql
  Executing SQL: ..\..\config\sql\mssql\NumberOfTags.expanded.sql
  Executing SQL: ..\..\config\sql\mssql\toc-queues.sql

Import Data Files

Import these data files found in the $dovetailAgent\source\config\dat directory:

To import the data files using Dovetail ArchiveManager (DIET)

Execute the following command:

diet.exe -user_name <user> -password <pass> -db_server <serv> -db_name <db> -imp <file>

where:
<user> is the system administrator user
<pass> is the system administrator password
<serv> is the database server name
<db> is the database name
<file> is the name of the file to import. If the <file> is not in the current directory, specify the path to the directory it is in.

Update Timestamps

Dovetail Seeker relies on an item's last modified timestamp in order to know when it should be re-indexed. As part of the Dovetail Agent schema, modify timestamp fields have been added to certain entities. These timestamps need to be updated so that Seeker will pick them up to be indexed.

Issue the following SQL using your SQL tool of choice:

Microsoft SQL Server:

update table_employee set x_modify_stmp = getdate()
update table_mod_level set x_modify_stmp = getdate() where x_modify_stmp is null
update table_part_num set x_modify_stmp = getdate()

Oracle:

update table_employee set x_modify_stmp = (select sysdate from dual);
update table_mod_level set x_modify_stmp = (select sysdate from dual) where x_modify_stmp is null;
update table_part_num set x_modify_stmp = (select sysdate from dual);

Dovetail Seeker Configuration

Dovetail Seeker is the search engine that powers the search capabilities of Dovetail Agent. It is a required dependency of Dovetail Agent. Follow the installation instructions provided with Dovetail Seeker.

Within Seeker's documentSpecifications.xml file, be sure to include the specifications needed by Dovetail Agent, which are provided in the $dovetailAgent\source\config\seeker.config\ directory:

From Seeker's baseline documentSpecifications.xml file, the following specifications should be used:

Setup Dovetail Task Manager

[Optional] If using Dovetail Task Manager, follow the Install/Setup Steps

Setup Clarify Task Manager

[Optional] If using Clarify Task Manager:

Setup Agent Reporting

[Optional] If using Dovetail Agent Reporting module

  1. Import data files:

    • agent_basic_data.dat (for the Report privileges)

  2. Grant the Report User and Report Creator privileges to the desired privilege class(es) using the Admin portion of the app (once the app is up and going).

  3. Be sure to set the reporting application configuration settings, which are covered in the next section.

Application Configuration

Edit the $dovetailAgent\app\appSettings.config file, setting the following configuration keys for your environment:

General

Key Default Comments
DovetailDatabaseSettings.Type mssql Your database type. Either mssql or oracle
DovetailDatabaseSettings.
ConnectionString		 Data Source=host.domain.local;Initial Catalog=mobilecl125;
User Id=dovetailapp;Password=password		 Database connection string
DovetailDatabaseSettings.
SessionTimeoutInMinutes		 60 Number of minutes until an inactive session is terminated.
DovetailDatabaseSettings.
ApplicationUsername		 sa A valid Clarify username used by the application
EmployeeSettings.
UseDatabaseLogins		 true When creating employees, this setting controls whether a user/login is created at the database level or not. Normally, this is true. If using Windows Authentication, or some other authentication method, set to false.
HistorySettings.
MergeCaseHistoryChildSubcases		 false When displaying case history, should subcase entries be included as well
HistoryPolicySettings.
SmallImageHeight		 72 Image attachments under this height (in pixels) are considered small, and will be classified as verbose items within History. This only applies to image attachments added by Dovetail Carrier.
HistoryPolicySettings.
SmallImageWidth		 72 Images attachments under this width (in pixels) are considered small, and will be classified as verbose items within History. This only applies to image attachments added by Dovetail Carrier.
CommitmentSettings.
DefaultDueDateInHours		 24.0 When commitments are created, the default due date will be this many hours in the future
WebsiteSettings.PublicRootUrl http://localhost/agent5/ If you are running your web site in a farm (behind a reverse proxy) Agent5 will need to know the full public URL of your website for when it needs to create public facing URLs (password reset emails)
QuerySettings.
DownloadMaxRowCount		 1000 When downloading query results, the maximum number of rows to be returned.
fchoice.sqlcommandtimeout 30 The timeout (in seconds) for SQL queries executed by the application against the database.
vs:EnableBrowserLink false Disables the Visual Studio Browser Link functionality
SolutionSettings.PublicUrl https://support.dovetailsoftware.com/
selfservice/solutions/show/{{0}}		 The root url for public solutions. This should be your eSupport/WebSupport/SelfService style application where customers can access the public knowledgebase.
WebSecuritySettings.
DisableAntiForgery		 false Disables CSRF protection. Can be useful to disable in certain development/test situations.
LicensingSettings.
TimeoutMinutes		 60 Number of minutes a user must be inactive before their license is released. Remove this value to never release a license.
FilterSettings.
EnableCache		 false Enable caching for parsing the filter configs. For development purposes, setting this to false will make things easier. For production, this should be set to true.

Enable Features

Key Default Comments
Case.FeatureEnabled true Enable/disable cases in the application
Subcase.FeatureEnabled true Enable/disable subcases in the application
Solution.FeatureEnabled true Enable/disable solutions in the application
PartRequest.FeatureEnabled true Enable/disable part requests in the application
ChangeRequest.FeatureEnabled true Enable/disable change requests in the application
ActionItem.FeatureEnabled true Enable/disable action items in the application
ParentChildCases.FeatureEnabled true Enable/disable parent-child cases in the application
MarkdownSettings.IsRichLoggingEnabled true Enable/disable rich logs using markdown (email, notes, research) for cases and subcases.
DovetailDatabaseSettings.
IsImpersonationEnabled		 false Determines whether impersonation is enabled.
FrontEndSettings.IsGravatarEnabled true Enable/disable use of Gravatar for avatars in the application
FeedbackActionItem.FeatureEnabled true Enable/disable the feedback feature.

Sites

Key Default Comments
SiteSitePartsTab.FeatureEnabled true Enable/disable the site parts tab on the site page
SiteFlashesTab.FeatureEnabled true Enable/disable the flashes tab on the site page
SiteCCTab.FeatureEnabled true Enable/disable the CC tab on the site page
SiteRecentCasesTab.FeatureEnabled true Enable/disable the recent cases tab on the site page
SiteRecentPartRequestsTab.FeatureEnabled true Enable/disable the recent part requests tab on the site page
SiteSupportTab.FeatureEnabled true Enable/disable the support tab on the site page
SiteChildSitesTab.FeatureEnabled true Enable/disable the child sites tab on the site page
SiteCalendarsTab.FeatureEnabled true Enable/disable the calendars tab on the site page
SiteContractsTab.FeatureEnabled true Enable/disable the contracts tab on the site page
SiteConnectionsTab.FeatureEnabled true Enable/disable the connections tab on the site page

Contacts

Key Default Comments
IndividualContacts.FeatureEnabled true Enable/disable individual contacts

Attachment

Key Default Comments
AttachmentSettings.FilePath c:\DovetailCRM\attach Root directory for storage of file attachments
AttachmentSettings.AttachmentMode ModeB Defines how file attachments are saved. Additional Information
AttachmentSettings.ExcludeExtensions List of values A comma separated list of file extensions. Files with one of these file extensions are blocked from being uploaded as a file attachment.
AttachmentSettings.MaxAttachmentSize 0 Maximum Attachment File Size for uploads. Specified in bytes. 0 indicates no limit.

Resource Uploads

Agent has support for automatic uploading of image files to an image store. Currently this feature is used when creating and editing solutions, and when logging emails on cases/subcases.

Key Default Comments
ResourceUploadSettings.IsUploadEnabled false Enables support for image uploads. (true or false)
ResourceUploadSettings.ResourceStore Seeker Where images are stored. Seeker or S3.
Amazon S3 Settings

These settings apply when the resource store is set to S3.

Key Default Comments
S3Settings.AWSId Your Amazon Access Key ID
S3Settings.AWSSecret Your Amazon Secret Access Key
S3Settings.Bucket S3 bucket where files will be uploaded
S3Settings.Region us-east-1 When creating a bucket if you select any region beside "US Standard" you will need to configure this setting with the correct region string.

Refer to the Amazon S3 Setup for more details.

Search Settings

Key Default Comments
SearchSettings.SearchServiceUrl http://localhost/seeker URL for Dovetail Seeker
SearchSettings.ProxyUrl http://localhost/seekerproxy URL for Dovetail SeekerProxy
SearchSettings.
ExcludedSearchDomains		 account Comma separated list of search domains that should be excluded from the general search page. Use the domain's Display Name. (Note: case-sensitive)
SearchSettings.MinimumWildcardTermLength 3 The minimum length at which a search term is allowed to be wildcarded.
Wildcarding short terms can result in search errors when too many terms match the wildcarded query.

Case

Key Default Comments
CaseTimeLogsTab.FeatureEnabled true Enable/disable the Time Log tab for cases
CaseExpenseLogsTab.FeatureEnabled true Enable/disable the Expense Log tab for cases
ParentChildCases.FeatureEnabled true Enable/disable parent-child cases in the application

Subcase

Key Default Comments
SubcaseSettings.
DueDateNumberOfDaysAfterCreation		 7 When subcases are created the due date will be set by adding this value of days to the creation time
SubcaseSettings.PriorWarningInHours 8 When subcases are created, the prior warning will be this many hours
SubcaseSettings.
LogEmailIncludesCaseCCList		 false When logging email to a subcase should the parent case's cclist be used?
SubcaseIdFromCaseHistory
AdditionalInfoExpression		 Number\s+=\s+(?<id>\w+-\w+)" Regular Expression used to parse subcase IDs from act_entry.addnl_info
SubcaseTimeLogsTab.FeatureEnabled true Enable/disable the Time Log tab for subcases
SubcaseExpenseLogsTab.FeatureEnabled true Enable/disable the Expense Log tab for subcases

Contracts

Key Default Comments
ContractSettings.EntitlementType site The entitlement Type for case contracts (site, contact, or site_part)

Part Requests

Key Default Comments
PartRequestSettings.
PartRequestIdFromAdditionalInfoExpression		 (?<id>\d+-\d+) Allows part request replication history to be linked by id, using regex to find the id

Action Items

Key Default Comments
ActionItemSettings.
DueDateNumberOfDaysAfterCreation		 7 The default value for the due date of an action item, expressed as a number of days after the create date.
ActionItemSettings.EmailTemplate send_email_about_action_item This is the template used when sending outgoing emails (Log Email) from an action item.
ActionItemSettings.FeedbackType Feedback The Value to be set for the Action Item type when creating a Feedback action item.

Sorting

Key Default Comments
SortSettings.CaseIdIsNumeric true Are your case id numbers all numeric? Allows for numeric vs string sorting of cases. Either true or false
SortSettings.SubcaseIdIsNumeric true Are your subcase id numbers all numeric? Allows for numeric vs string sorting of subcases. Either true or false
SortSettings.SolutionIdIsNumeric true Are your solution id numbers all numeric? Allows for numeric vs string sorting of solutions. Either true or false
SortSettings.PartRequestIdIsNumeric true Are your part request id numbers all numeric? Allows for numeric vs string sorting of part requests. Either true or false

Password

Key Default Comments
PasswordSettings.
MinimumPasswordLengthOn		 false Is there a minimum password length?
PasswordSettings.MinimumPasswordLength 6 Minimum password length
PasswordSettings.
UsernameCantBePasswordOn		 false Disallow the password from containing the username
PasswordSettings.
RequireSpecialCharsOn		 false Require a special character (!@#$%^&*(){}[].-\/) in the password
PasswordSettings.RequireMixedCaseOn false Require upper and lowercase letters in the passsword
PasswordSettings.RequireNumbersOn false Require a number in the password
PasswordSettings.RequireLettersOn false Require a letter in the password

Calendar

Key Default Comments
CalendarSettings.EventLength 15 minutes The timespan a subcase or commitment event takes up on a shared calendar. Can be expressed as "1 hour", "2 hours", "1 minute", 5 minutes", "90 seconds", etc
CalendarSettings.RefreshDuration PT1H Recommended update interval for subscription to the calendar. Defaults to 1 hour. Uses the ISO 8601 Duration format
CalendarSettings.DateRange 30 Number of days before and after today that are listed in shared calendar data

Log Email

Key Default Comments
LogEmailReplySettings.IgnoredAddresses support@company.com Comma-delimited emails that should NOT be auto-injected into the address fields when logging an email (when performing a reply or reply-all)

Form Validation

Key Default Comments
DropDownSettings.InvalidValues Please Specify,
Please Specify:		 Comma-delimited list of invalid values for required drop-down lists

Task Manager

[Optional] If using Task Manager

Key Default Comments
TaskManagerSettings.TaskManager Dovetail The TaskManager Type for running task sets. When using the Workflow-Run Task Set action on a case, determines which tables are used to retrieve the task sets from. Either Clarify or Dovetail

Reporting

[Optional] If using Dovetail Agent Reporting

Key Default Comments
ExagoSettings.WebApplicationUrl http://localhost/Exago Url to the root of your exago web reports application
ExagoSettings.WebServiceUrl http://localhost/ExagoWebAPI/Api.asmx Url of your exago web service API
ExagoSettings.ConfigXml dovetail.XML What configuration file should the integration use?
ExagoSettings.HomePage DovetailReports Which home page should users be taken to. (Do not add .aspx to the end)
ExagoSettings.ReportUserRole Report User Privilege to determine if a user can run reports
ExagoSettings.ReportCreatorRole Report Creator Privilege to determine if a user can create reports

History Privilege Policy Configuration

The History Policy config allows for limiting history items to users with certain privileges. For example, you may wish to hide the Business Rule Action items from normal users, and only show those to Administrators.

Edit the $dovetailAgent\app\history.config file, setting the configuration values for your environment:

[Optional] Hide a history item for any user that does not have a specified privilege.

To hide a history item based on the current user's privileges, use this configuration to specify the activity code, object type and privilege.

  <addPrivilegePolicy actCode="8500" objectType="Case" privilege="Business Rules"/>

To hide a history item for all users, set the privilege to a non-existent one, such as "none":

  <!-- Hide the Modify history item on Cases for all users -->
  <addPrivilegePolicy actCode="1500" objectType="Case" privilege="none"/>

The application will need to be restarted after making changes to the history.config file.

Web Configuration

Edit the $dovetailAgent\app\web.config file, setting the configuration values for your environment:

HistoryOriginalMessageExpressions section

The HistoryOriginalMessageExpressions section is a collection of strings used to determine when an original message begins within an email log. When building up a case/subcase history, Dovetail Agent will collapse the original message portion of an email log. These strings are used to indicate when an original message begins. There can be many different original message expressions - almost every email client does something different, and different languages obviously use different strings. Dovetail Agent ships with a baseline collection of expressions that are a good place to start. When users observe that an email log isn't collapsing where it should be, investigate the email log body, and add the appropriate expression to this collection.

Note: these are regular expressions (regex) strings, so wildcards and other regex characters can be used.

Example:

  <HistoryOriginalMessageExpressions>
    <add key="1" value="(?i)-+\s*Original Message\s*-+"/>
    <add key="2" value="(?i)On .*,.*wrote:"/>
  </HistoryOriginalMessageExpressions>

Setting the maximum file upload size

By default, the maximum size of a file to be uploaded to the server using the FileUpload control is around 4MB. This value can be increased by modifying the maxRequestLength attribute. In addition, the default maximum length of content in a request supported by IIS is around 28.6 MB. This value can be increased by modifying the maxAllowedContentLength attribute. Additional information regarding these settings.

Rewrite rules

The rewrite section contains rules that rewrite the response before it is sent to the client. The Remove RESPONSE_Server rule will remove the Server header which identifies this is an IIS server. This is for security purposes. This rewrite section and rule is dependent on the IIS URL Rewrite Module

HTTPS Settings

It is highly recommended to run the Dovetail Agent web application as a secure web site, meaning under HTTPS. Especially if the application is publicly exposed to the internet.

If the app is running under HTTPS, uncomment the following settings within web.config

Amazon S3 Setup

When using S3 as a resource store you will need to have an Amazon Web Services (AWS) account which you will use to create AWS credentials having access to the S3 (Simple Storage Service) bucket where your files will be uploaded.

AWS Credentials

Create an AWS account. Use your corporate Amazon login if you have one.

Create new AWS user credentials using the AWS user console

Bucket Creation

Using the S3 web console create the bucket to use as your image store.

For more help use the AWS guide on Creating A Bucket.

DNS propagation

Be aware that the creation of a bucket and the setup of CORS will not work until the new bucket name has propagated through the global DNS. The time DNS propagation takes varies, but there is a way to test to make sure the bucket is primed.

For example if you setup a bucket named bucket.mycompany.tld the AWS bucket URL would look like https://bucket.mycompany.tld.s3.amazonaws.com/.

However if you try and access your bucket URL before the propagation is completed you would be redirected to a different URL, specific to the zone the bucket is in such as https://bucket.mycompany.tld.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/.

This redirection invalidates the CORS handshake and returns an error: XMLHttpRequest cannot load https://bucket.mycompany.tld.s3.amazonaws.com/. The request was redirected to 'https://bucket.mycompany.tld.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/', which is disallowed for cross-origin requests that require preflight.

To test if your bucket is ready navigate to your bucket URL in a web browser. If you are redirected to another domain then bucket isn't ready yet.

Bucket Setup

Ensure that your AWS user has the proper access to the Bucket that was just created, and ensure that Cross Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) is property configured.

Allow user access to the bucket

Add permissions for Authenticated Users to have full access to this bucket.

Adding CORS permissions

Agent needs CORS configured properly to allow background uploads to the image store.

Cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) defines a way for client web applications that are loaded in one domain to interact with resources in a different domain. With CORS support in Amazon S3, you can build rich client-side web applications with Amazon S3 and selectively allow cross-origin access to Amazon S3 resources.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<CORSConfiguration xmlns="http://s3.amazonaws.com/doc/2006-03-01/">
    <CORSRule>
        <AllowedOrigin>*</AllowedOrigin>
        <AllowedMethod>GET</AllowedMethod>
        <AllowedMethod>POST</AllowedMethod>
        <AllowedHeader>*</AllowedHeader>
    </CORSRule>
</CORSConfiguration>

This is an open <CORSRule/> allowing GET and POST operations from any Origin. If you wish to lock this down to the the exact origin which will be uploading images, refer to the S3 guide on Enabling Cross-Origin Resource Sharing.

Add User Bucket Policy

Grant the required access to your store's bucket.

{
   "Statement":[
      {
         "Effect":"Allow",
         "Action":[
            "s3:ListAllMyBuckets"
         ],
         "Resource":"arn:aws:s3:::*"
      },
      {
         "Effect":"Allow",
         "Action":[
            "s3:ListBucket",
            "s3:GetBucketLocation"
         ],
         "Resource":"arn:aws:s3:::my-bucket"
      },
      {
         "Effect":"Allow",
         "Action":[
            "s3:PutObject",
            "s3:GetObject",
            "s3:DeleteObject"
         ],
         "Resource":"arn:aws:s3:::my-bucket/*"
      }
   ]
}

Your user should now have upload and download access to your bucket.

Logging Configuration

Dovetail Agent uses the Log4net logging library. Logging is configured within the $dovetailAgent\app\agent.log4net file. The default logging settings are probably fine to start. The log4net website has more details on specific log4net configuration.

Web Server Configuration

Configure the IIS web server to support Dovetail Agent:

Note: The following assumes IIS version 7.5 on Microsoft Windows 7. Your system may vary slightly.

Open the Internet Information Services Manager

Create a new application pool

Create a web application

Browse to the Dovetail Agent application

Windows Authentication

By default, Dovetail Agent uses the same authentication method as the Clarify Client (loginName/password validated against the database). In addition, Dovetail Agent supports Windows Authentication (Active Directory integration). Windows Authentication is entirely optional - but may be useful in your environment.

How it works

With Windows Authentication, a user is not authenticated using the Clarify login and password against the database. Instead, Windows authenticates the user, and passes the login name to the Agent application. The login name passed to the application includes the domain name, i.e. mydomain\fred.smith

Dovetail Agent needs a way to map the Windows domain and login name to the Clarify login name. It does this using the x_windows_login_name field on table_user, which is how the windows login name is mapped to the Clarify login name.

The SQL is basically this:

SELECT login_name FROM table_empl_user
WHERE  windows_login = 'myDomain\myUserName' AND status = 1

The first login name returned from that query is the Clarify login name, and the user is automatically logged into the application as that login name.

If that query does not return a login name, then the application returns a 404.1 Unauthorized HTTP error.

Windows Authentication Setup

  1. Add Windows Authentication feature

    • Goto Add or Remove Programs
    • Click Turn Windows features on or off
    • Click on the plus icon next Internet Information Services.
    • Click on the plus icon next to World Wide Web Services
    • Click on the plus icon next to Security
    • Select Windows Authorization
    • Click OK

  2. Enable Windows Authentication

    • Open the Internet Information Services Manager
    • In the left pane, click on the Dovetail Agent web application
    • Double-click on the Authentication feature icon (within the IIS category)
    • Click on Windows Authentication from the list
    • Click Enable in the right sidebar

  3. Change the authentication mode from Forms to Windows

    • Edit the $dovetailAgent\app\web.config file

    • Change the authentication mode from Forms:

      <authentication mode="Forms">

      to Windows:

      <authentication mode="Windows">

  4. Populate the table_user.x_windows_login_name column in your database.

  5. You'll likely want to also set the EmployeeSettings.UseDatabaseLogins application setting to false, which controls whether a user/login is created at the database level when creating employees.

Add Database Indexes

The following performance indexes are recommended. Work with your DBA to add these indexes to your database.

Table Column(s) Unique? Comments
fc_login_monitor fcsessionid Yes
dt_search search_terms No
dt_search dt_search2user No
dt_resource store_uri Yes If ResourceUploadSettings.IsUploadEnabled is set to true, then this index will enhance the performance of retrieving details for images.

Application User Permissions

The application user (as configured in the connection string) needs to have permission to create users and change the password for other users. This is needed for the Create Employee and Password Reset functionality.

Note: This does not apply if using Windows Authentication.

Microsoft SQL Server

Using SQL, run the following 3 sets of SQL statements in order to grant the correct permissions to the application user.

Replace "username" with the application user's login name. Replace "myDatabase" with your database name.

1: allow the user to "create login" and to change another user's password

EXEC master..sp_addsrvrolemember @loginame = N'username', @rolename = N'securityadmin'

2: allow the user to "create user"

use myDatabase
go
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_accessadmin', N'username'

3: allow the user to call "sp_addrolemember", for putting users into the "cl_user" role

EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_securityadmin', N'username'

Oracle

GRANT CREATE USER TO username;
GRANT CONNECT TO username WITH ADMIN OPTION;
GRANT ALTER USER TO username;
GRANT clarify_user TO username WITH ADMIN OPTION;

Replace "username" with the application user's login name.

Additional Information

For additional information, refer to the following Dovetail Knowledgebase articles:

Implementation Tasks

[Optional] Convert wipbins to tags

The wipbin2tag script creates and adds a tag to every open case, subcase, and solution for either one user or for all users. The tag name will be the name of the wipbin that the case/subcase/solution currently resides in. Refer to the readme.md file found in the $dovetailAgent\config\scripts\wipbin2tag directory for details.

[Optional] Remove Unused Permissions

The RemoveUnusedPermissions script will remove unused permissions (web commands) that may exist in your database. This is only applicable to customers who were using an older version of Dovetail Agent or fcClient (versions 3.x or 4.x), who also use Change Requests. Refer to the readme.md file found in the $dovetailAgent\config\scripts\RemoveUnusedPermissions directory for details.

[Optional] Convert Query Objects

The ConvertQueryObjects script will convert Agent 4.x style query objects to the newer filter configuration files files. This is useful for customers upgrading from Dovetail Agent 4.x. Refer to the readme.md file found in the $dovetailAgent\config\scripts\ConvertQueryObjects directory for details.

Update Rule Properties

Only rule properties marked as "For Canned Response" will be presented to the user as valid variables when creating/editing a canned response. This allows for hiding complex rule properties from end users when creating canned responses. Use the Rule Properties UI within Dovetail Agent to mark these on an individual basis. You can also use SQL to do this. For example, this SQL will mark relevant rule properties as available for Canned Responses:

update table_prop_name set x_for_canned_response = 1
where
path_name not like 'focus_obj2act_entry%'
and prop_name not like '@%'
and path_name <> 'objid'

You can then use the UI to disable any you wish to hide from Canned Responses.

You may also wish to update the Descriptions of rule properties, which would give users more context about the property, and the description can be presented in your company's ubitiquous language. Use the Rule Properties UI within Dovetail Agent to update these descriptions.

Grant privileges to the desired privilege class(es)

The "sa" user has access to all functionality, regardless of their privilege class. This allows the "sa" user to bootstrap privileges for other users.

Once the app is up and going:

If using the Feedback (Action Item) functionality:

A. Create a new Queue named Feedback, which is where Action items with a type of Feedback will be auto-dispatched to.

OR

B. Edit the Auto-destination rule for feedback action items using the Auto-Destination UI within Dovetail Admin, or by editing and re-importing the feedback.dat file.

Developer Setup Guide

Install Development Tools

Chocolately is a package manager for windows applications. It is a handy tool for getting common applications installed and keeping them current on your developer machine. We will be using it to install most Agent requirements.

Install Chocolately

From an administrative cmd.exe command prompt execute the following.

@powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy unrestricted -Command "iex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))" && SET PATH=%PATH%;%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\chocolatey\bin

From the same shell now you should be able to run Chocolately install commands.

Add packages required by Agent

These packages are required for doing Agent development.

choco install ruby
choco install git

Handy package to have for zip file handling.

choco install 7zip

It is also handy to add browsers you'll be developing with. You should at least update IE to 10 or 11 as Visual Studio 2013 is happier with those versions installed.

choco install ie11
choco install GoogleChrome
choco install Firefox

Install Node.js

choco install nodejs-lts

OR

Go to https://nodejs.org/ and download the latest LTS (different from "Stable") installer. Run it to install Node.js.

[Optional] Install Yarn Package Manager

Yarn is a drop-in replacement for npm as a javascript package manager. It supports a determinent installation of dependencies and caches packages so that consecutive installations are much faster. Any common npm command can be run by simply substituting "yarn" for "npm" in the command. For example, npm install would become yarn install. This is optional as npm will also allow for installing javascript dependencies and comes pre-packaged with Node.js.

choco install yarn

OR

Go to https://yarnpkg.com/en/docs/install and download the Windows Installer for yarn, and then run the installer.

Install Required IIS Features

Windows Authentication

If you plan on using Windows Authentication (Active Directory integration) you'll need to configure IIS for this.

Under World Wide Web Services open Security and select Windows Authorization

Install Dovetail SDK

Download and run the installer for your platform from Dovetail Support.

Install Dovetail Admin

Install Dovetail Seeker

Agent will not work properly without Dovetail's search product Dovetail Seeker as many object pickers are really using search under the hood.

Add MSMQ Support

Install Seeker

It may take a little while for your search index to get created after starting the indexing service.

Install Schema Editor

Install Visual Studio

I installed Visual Studio 2013 With Update 2 from MSDN. I unselected all options but web development. Sit back. This install takes a long time.

Maybe you can get some other install tasks done in the meanwhile.

Using Chocolately to install Visual Studio

Another way to get Visual Studio installed is to use Chocolately. You only need to edit this command line with your Product Key

choco install VisualStudio2013Professional -InstallArguments "/Features:'WebTools SQL' /ProductKey:{ProductKey}"

If you need to find the package name for a different SKU of Visual Studio 2013 try the Chocolately Gallery.

Building Agent from source code

You are done installing a lot of software and now we are ready to work with Agent 5.

Get the source

Setup your development database

You can manually apply schema changes and import data files. If you like.

Because during development these things can change a lot we have provided automation which will apply schema changes and data to your development database. You will need to do this before your application will build or run properly.

This automation uses our products Dovetail SchemaEditor and Archive Manager (Diet) to apply schema changes and import data files. Both applications are licensed products, and require a license file or key to function.

Edit Developer Configuration settings

Default database and typical application settings are sourced from configuration files in the /config directory.

Database settings

Open ./config/app{db}Settings.rb for your desired database platform in your favorite editor.

Notice how the database variables get used to build a connection string. These variables are used in other scripts so be sure to setup all the DATABASE variables do not just edit the DATABASE_CONNECTION.

Database platform and other settings

Open ./config/appSettings.rb and ensure the correct database platform is selected. Also make sure the other settings are as you like.

How are these settings used?

Database and common development centric application settings are controlled with these .rb files. rake setup:* and rake package:* tasks will use these settings to update the application configuration settings.

Diet license

Edit the DIET_LICENSE variable to have the correct ArchiveManager (Diet) license.

If you do not wish to put this license in your source code repository you can alternatively set an environment variable DIET_LICENSE with the correct key.

Other configuration

Please ensure the SEEKER_URL is set to where your Dovetail Seeker web service is installed.

Also ensure that your ATTACHMENT_PATH is correct if you are sharing a development database across users this maybe a UNC windows share.

Seeker Agent specifications

There are a few Seeker document specification XML fragments in the directory config/seeker.config which need to be applied to your Seeker document specification.

We have automation which will do this for you when Seeker is installed locally.

rake setup:switch_seeker

Finally

We are done making sure all the configuration is set. It is time to setup your development database.

rake setup:db

Building Agent from the command line

There are steps to build Agent that need occur outside of Visual Studio. This is handled using Rake.

Build Dependencies

Our source code has a few different package manager dependencies integrated with the build.

These dependencies are are retrieved at build time and are all automated.

Dovetail Nugets

Agent source projects take dependencies on non-public Nugets. These non-public Nugets are released to a private feed to which your organization will receive a unique private URL. You need to update the file ripple.config to use this feed.

Private Feed URL

To obtain your private Nuget feed URL login into our support website. The support home page should have a Nuget Feed entry under Your URLs. If you do not see this entry please create a support case and we will setup a private feed for your organization.

Edit ripple.config

Once you have obtained your private Nuget feed URL you need to edit ripple.config at the root of your source directory. This file contains XML. The first <Feed> element is a placeholder for your private Nuget feed.

Build and test

Invoking Rake by itself will build, and run tests for Agent 5. During your first run it will download all build dependencies mentioned above.

rake

Take it for a spin

Two ways to get the web application running.

Launch!

rake start_web

This will build a production version of the application and configure an IIS web site at http://localhost:8989.

Visual Studio

Double click on the 2012 Visual Studio solution /source/agent.sln. Make sure that the source/Web project is your "StartUp Project". If it is. The Web project will be bold in your Solution Explorer.

Hit Ctrl+F5 to build and launch the site.

To launch from Visual Studio you will need to run rake at least once first.

Frontend Development

When developing in frontend code (javascript, less, handlebars, etc.), you'll need to have npm installed in order to run a watch task that processes the files. npm is automatically installed with node.js. To run the watch task that compiles javascript:

npm run webpack -- --watch

This task must be running while doing javascript development in order to process the files correctly.

For styling, there are custom-styles.less and custom-print-styles.less files that can be used to customize the look of Agent. These are automatically compiled into the stylesheets via gulp less.

Custom Styles

Release

When you want to release Agent you'll need to do a release build. There are two batch files that can be used for this.

The first, and probably more commonly used, is package.bat. This will build the app in release mode and publish the results to the results/release/app directory. You can then point IIS to this directory to run your app or copy the contents elsewhere and host it there.

The second is release.bat. This will also build the app in release mode, but also runs unit tests, copies both the source and docs to results/release, and creates a zip file containing everything in results/release. This can be very helpful for creating snapshots of certain builds that can be backed up.

Logging

Logging is configured in the agent.log4net file. The defaults should be fine. The logging library Log4net is very flexible and has many configuration options

Customization

The Dovetail Agent Developer Training Wiki is a collection of developer training pages we've created to help out Dovetail customers wishing to customize this product. The wiki is a great resource for customizing Dovetail Agent.

Developer Resource - Filters

Queries within the app are driven by filter config files. This includes:

Filter Config Files

Filter Config Files are XML files that define:

They are located in the $agent\source\Web\Filters\ directory and sub-directories. The filename format follows a convention of *.filter.config

Existing filter config files can be modified, and new ones added.

Baseline filter configurations can be over-ridden using filter override files. This allows customization without modifying the baseline files.

Filter Config File Format

<filter name="" entity="" allowAdhocQueries="">
  <categories>
    <addCategory value="" rank="" />
  </categories>

  <privileges>
    <addPrivilege value="" />
  </privileges>

  <query from="">
    <addFacet key="" field="" dataType="" fieldType="" required="" requiresFeature="" 
      select="" distinct="" requiresPrivilege="">
      <addSort isAscending="" index="" />
      <values>
        <addValue key="" value="" />
        <addList name="" />
      </values>
    </addFacet>

    <addField key="" field="" dataType="" fieldType="" distinct=""  >
      <where>
        <greaterThanOrEqual value="" />
      </where>
    </addField>

    <addJoin relationship="" type="">
      <addFacet key="" field="" dataType="" />
    </addJoin>
  </query>

  <values>
    <addTransform key="">
      <mapValues>
        <addMap from="" to="" />
      </mapValues>
    </addTransform>

    <addValue key="" value="" />
    <addValue key="">
      <convertStatusToString facetKey="" />
    </addValue>
    <addValue key="">
      <isOpen facetKey="" />
    </addValue>
    <addValue key="">
      <isOwner facetKey="" />
    </addValue>
    <addValue key="">
      <isEqual facetKey="" value="" />
    </addValue>
    <addValue key="">
      <isNotEqual facetKey="" value="" />
    </addValue>
    <addValue key="">
      <isNowBetween startFacetKey="" endFacetKey="" />
    </addValue>
  </values>

  <columns>
    <addColumn key="" template="" label="" entity="" idField="" width="" 
      requiresFeature="" />
    <addColumn key="" template="" label="" entity="" idField="" width="" 
      requiresFeature="">
      <addSort key="" />
    </addColumn>
  </columns>
</filter>

Example Filter Config File

The following is an example of a filter config file for performing adhoc queries on employees. 

<filter name="Employees" entity="Employee"  allowAdhocQueries="true">
  <categories>
    <addCategory value="custom" />
  </categories>

  <privileges>
    <addPrivilege value="Query Employee" />
  </privileges>

  <query from="employee">
    <addFacet key="employeeId" field="objid" dataType="int" fieldType="identifier" />
    <addFacet key="firstName" field="first_name" dataType="string" />
    <addFacet key="lastName" field="last_name" dataType="string" >
      <addSort isAscending="true" index="0" />
    </addFacet>
    <addFacet key="phone" field="phone" dataType="string" />
    <addFacet key="email" field="e_mail" dataType="string" />
    <addFacet key="workGroup" field="work_group" dataType="string" >
      <values>
        <addValue key="{{MyWorkgroup}}" value="{{MyWorkgroup}}" />
        <addList name="WORKGROUP" />
      </values>
    </addFacet>

    <addJoin relationship="supp_person_off2site">
      <addFacet key="siteName" field="name" dataType="string" />
      <addFacet key="siteId" field="site_id" dataType="string" />
      <addField key="siteDatabaseIdentifier" field="objid" dataType="int" />
    </addJoin>
  </query>

  <values>
    <addValue key="employeeName" value="{lastName}, {firstName}" />
  </values>

  <columns>
    <addColumn key="employeeName" template="entityLink" idField="login_name" width="200" />
    <addColumn key="siteId" template="entityLink" entity="Site" idField="siteDatabaseIdentifier" width="100" />
    <addColumn key="siteName" template="string" />
    <addColumn key="phone" template="string" />
    <addColumn key="email" template="string" />
    <addColumn key="workGroup" template="string" />
  </columns>
</filter>

XML Reference

<filter>

The <filter> element is the top level element that defines the XML as a filter. This element is required.

Attribute Name Description
name A unique name. Useful for debugging and error reporting. Must be unique across all filters.
entity This attribute is used to indicate the base object type of the rows that are being returned. Case sensitivity matters here! Available entities include: Account, Case, ChangeRequest, Contact, Contract, Employee, PartRequestDetail, PartRequestHeader, Site, SitePart, Solution, Subcase
allowAdhocQueries When set to true, this query will be available in the Query menu in the application, which allows a user to perform adhoc queries on this entity.
Child Nodes
<categories>
<privileges>
<query>
<values>
<columns>

<categories>

The <categories> element is a child of the <filter> element. Categories are optional for adhoc queries, but are otherwise used in combination with the filter entity to find the correct filter configuration for a query request.

Child Nodes Parent Nodes
<addCategory> <filter>
<addCategory>

Used to add a category to a filter.

Attribute Name Description
value Specifies on which entity the query will be made (sites, contacts)
console is a special category. Filters with this category will be included within queries for Work Items.
rank Used for console category filters to determine the order of the filter query results, which determines the order of the tabs on the console.
Parent Nodes
<categories>
<filter>

<privileges>

The <privileges> element is a child of the <filter> element. This is applicable to adhoc queries (filter.allowAdhocQueries = true). If the user has this privilege, then this filter will be available in the top-level Query menu.

Child Nodes Parent Nodes
<addPrivilege> <filter>
<addPrivilege>
Attribute Name Description
value Privilege Name.
Parent Nodes
<privileges>
<filter>

<query>

The <query> element is a child of the <filter> element. The <query> element contains all of the information required to build the SQL statement. All of the facets/fields can be included as SELECT columns, and the joins are used to specify the JOIN rules for joining tables. The facets provide information for what can be used to construct WHERE clauses. This element is required.

Attribute Name Description
from The root table or view to be used for the query.
Child Nodes Parent Nodes
<addFacet> <filter>
<addField>  
<addJoin>  
<addFacet>

The <addFacet> element is a child of the <query> element or of the <addJoin> element. The <addFacet> element defines the available filters that a user can pick when creating a query. At least one <addFacet> element is required to return any output data since queries are not executed without at least one facet being specified.

Attribute Name Description
key Unique Identifier
field The database column that will be part of the select clause and/or the where clause.
dataType int, string, bool, dateTime, float, decimal
fieldType Optional. Valid values are identifier, adhoc
select Optional. Whether the field will be included in the select clause or not. Defaults to true. Valid values are true, false.
required Optional. If this is set to true, then this facet must be supplied with a filter value
requiresFeature Optional. When specified, i.e. ParentChildCase, the facet will only be included if the feature is enabled.
distinct Optional. A true setting ensures only one result per value is returned and false allows for multiple results for the same value
requiresPrivilege Optional. If the user has this privilege, then this facet will be available to the user.
Child Nodes Parent Nodes
<where> <addJoin>
<addSort> <query>
<values> <filter>
<addField>

The <addField> element is a child of the <query> element or of the <addJoin> element. The <addField> element includes this field in the select clause, but it's not filterable like a facet is.

Attribute Name Description
key Unique Identifier
field The database column that will be part of the select clause and/or the where clause.
dataType int, string, bool, dateTime
fieldType Optional. Valid values are identifier, adhoc
distinct Optional. A true setting ensures only one result per value is returned and false allows for multiple results for the same value
Child Nodes Parent Nodes
<where> <addJoin>
<addSort> <query>
<values> <filter>
<where>

The <where> element is a child of the <addField> element. The <where> element is used to add where clauses for its parent <addField> element.

Parent Nodes
<addFacet>
<addField>
<query>
<filter>

The where clauses are children of the <where> element.

Type Description
operator Used as the operator in the where clause for the field, i.e. greaterThanOrEqual
value Used for comparison, some use a comma separated string for multiple values 
<filter>
  <query>
    <addFacet key="lastUpdated" field="modify_stmp" dataType="dateTime">
      <where>
        <betweenOperator value="2016-09-01,2016-10-18" />
      </where>
    </addFacet>
    <addFacet key="quantity" field="demand_qty" dataType="int">
      <where>
        <greaterThan value="5" />
      </where>
    </addFacet>
  </query>
</filter>

Available operators:

<filter>
  <query>
    <addField key="someNumber">
      <where>
        <greaterThanOrEqual value="0" />
      </where>
    </addField>
  </query>
</filter>
<addSort>

The sort element is a child of the <addFacet> element.

Attribute Name Description
isAscending Set true to sort by ascending order or false for descending.
index The zero-based order in which sorts are applied to the query.
Parent Nodes
<addFacet>
<addField>
<query>
<filter> 
<filter>
  <query>
    <addField key="someNumber">
      <addSort isAscending="true" index="0" />
    </addField>
  </query>
</filter>

<values>

The <values> element is a child of the <addFacet> element.

Child Nodes Parent Nodes
<addList> <addFacet>
<addValue> <addField>
  <query>
  <filter>
<addList>

Include the elements of an application or user-defined list in the set of available values that a user can pick from. Multiple lists are allowed, and the resulting list will be a superset of all list values.

Attribute Name Description
name The name of an application or user-defined list.
Parent Nodes
<values>
<addFacet>
<addField>
<query>
<filter> 
<filter>
  <query>
    <addField key="type" field="type" dataType="string">
      <values>
        <addList name="Company Type" />
      </values>
    </addField>
  </query>
</filter>
<addValue>

Add a specific option to the list of available values.

Attribute Name Description
key The key. Supported keys are {{MyLoginName}}, {{MyWorkgroup}}, {{OpenOrRejectedFromQueue}}, or integers (often used for status facets).
value The value shown to the user for this key. Typically the same as the key, or an example of use, i.e. "0 (Active)" for a "0" key.
Parent Nodes
<values>
<addFacet>
<addField>
<query>
<filter> 
<filter>
  <query>
    <addFacet key="status" field="status" dataType="string">
      <values>
        <addValue key="0" value="0 (Active)" />
        <addValue key="1" value="1 (Inactive)" />
        <addValue key="2" value="2 (Obsolete)" />
      </values>
    </addFacet>
  </query>
</filter>

<addJoin>

The <addJoin> element is a child of the <query> element. Multiple joins are allowed. Nested joins are allowed.

Attribute Name Description
relationship The schema relation name for traversing from the parent table to the joined table.
type Optional. Inner or Outer join. Valid values are "inner", "outer". Defaults to "inner".
Child Nodes Parent Nodes
<addFacet> <addFacet>
<addField> <addField>
<addJoin> <addJoin>
  <query>
  <filter>

Adhoc <addJoin> elements are also used to connect views and tables

Attribute Name Description
from The field on the parent table/view
to The field on the joined table
table The table being joined
adhoc true indicates that this is an adhoc join 
<filter>
  <query>
    <addJoin relationship="site2contact_role">
      <addFacet key="roleName" field="role_name" dataType="string" />

      <addJoin relationship="contact_role2contact">
        <addFacet key="firstName" field="first_name" dataType="string" />
      </addJoin>
    </addJoin>
  </query>
</filter>

<values>

The <values> element is a child of the <filter> element. Values are used when combining multiple facets/fields together into one column.

Child Nodes Parent Nodes
<addTransform> <filter>
<addValue>  
<addTransform>
Attribute Name Description
key unique identifier
<mapValues>
Child Nodes Parent Nodes
<addMap> <addTransform>
  <values>
  <filter>
<addMap>
Attribute Name Description
from value
to new value
Parent Nodes
<mapValues>
<addTransform>
<values>
<filter> 
<filter>
  <values>
    <addTransform key="isPrimarySite">
      <mapValues>
        <addMap from="1" to="True" />
        <addMap from="2" to="False" />
      </mapValues>
    </addTransform>
  </values>
</filter>
<addValue>

There are also methods that can be specified to provide the value data. <convertStatusToString facetKey="status" /> will translate a status facet into a string value, i.e. 0 gets returned as Active.

Attribute Name Description
key unique identifier
value The data returned for this value, consisting of query facets/fields, i.e. value="{firstName} {lastName}"
Child Nodes Parent Nodes
<isEqual> <values>
<isInQueue> <filter>
<isNotEqual>  
<isNowBetween>  
<isOpen>  
<isOwner>   
<filter>
  <values>
    <addValue key="fullName" value="{firstName} {lastName}" />
  </values>
</filter>
<isEqual>

This value property will check the facet value is equal to the specified value, and return true or false.

Attribute Name Description
facetKey The facet/field from the query containing the value for comparison
value The value to be compared against
Parent Nodes
<addValue>
<values>
<filter> 
<filter>
  <values>
    <addValue key="isSerialized">
      <isEqual facetKey="sNTrack" value="1" />
    </addValue>
  </values>
</filter>
<isInQueue>

This value property will check the specified facet value as an Queued condition, and return true or false.

Attribute Name Description
facetKey The facet/field from the query containing the object condition
Parent Nodes
<addValue>
<values>
<filter>
<isNotEqual>

This value property will check the facet value is not equal to the specified value, and return true or false.

Attribute Name Description
facetKey The facet/field from the query containing the value for comparison
value The value to be compared against
Parent Nodes
<addValue>
<values>
<filter> 
<filter>
  <values>
    <addValue key="isInstalled">
      <isNotEqual facetKey="levelToBin" value="999" />
    </addValue>
  </values>
</filter>
<isNowBetween>

This value property will compare the current date to see if it is between a start and end date, and return true or false.

Attribute Name Description
startFacetKey The starting date value to be compared against
endFacetKey The ending date value to be compared against
Parent Nodes
<addValue>
<values>
<filter> 
<filter>
  <values>
    <addValue key="isActive">
      <isNowBetween startFacetKey="startDate" endFacetKey="endDate" />
    </addValue>
  </values>
</filter>
<isOpen>

This value property will check the specified facet value as an Open condition, and return true or false.

Attribute Name Description
facetKey The facet/field from the query containing the object condition
Parent Nodes
<addValue>
<values>
<filter>
<isOwner>

This value property will compare the specified facet value against the current user's login name, and return true or false.

Attribute Name Description
facetKey The facet/field from the query to compare
Parent Nodes
<addValue>
<values>
<filter>

<columns>

The list of columns is the data that gets returned to the front-end of the application. For queries whose result is displayed in a grid, these are the columns that are displayed in the grid.

Child Nodes Parent Nodes
<addColumn> <filter>
<addColumn>

These are placed on the grid from left to right in the order in which they are added.

Attribute Name Description
key The key of the facet/field from the query definition
template int, string, date, dateTime, timeAgo, entityLink, currency, number. See Column Template Examples for more details.
precision Optional. If template="number", then the precision defines how many decimal places will be displayed. Ignored for other templates.
label Optional. The localization key for the column heading. If the localization key is not found, this label will be used as the actual column heading. If not specified, the column key is used to check for localization or as the actual header.
width Optional. The default column width, in pixels.
idField Optional. When a column is specified as an entityLink, this attribute can be used to override the facet/field used to build the link.
entity Optional. Identify which entity this column is related to. Currently in use for the entityLink template to determine the URL. The entity must match a key found in EntityUrlConstants.js. This only needs to be specified if linking to an entity that is different from the filter entity.
requiresFeature Optional. When specified, i.e. ParentChildCase, the column will only be included if the feature is enabled.
Child Nodes Parent Nodes
<addSort> <columns>
  <filter> 
<filter>
  <columns>
    <addColumn key="id" template="entityLink" idField="databaseIdentifier" width="120"/>
    <addColumn key="name" template="string" />
  </columns>
</filter>
<addSort>
Attribute Name Description
key The key of the facet/field from the query definitions
Parent Nodes
<addColumn>
<columns>
<filter> 
<filter>
  <values>
    <addValue key="owner" value="{ownerFirstName} {ownerLastName}" />
  </values>
  <columns>
    <addColumn key="owner" template="string">
      <addSort key="ownerLastName" />
      <addSort key="ownerFirstName" />
    </addColumn>
  </columns>
</filter>

Column Template Examples

Decimals

Given a decimal value of 12345.6789, this value will be displayed differently based on the template.

template precision output
string N/A 12345.6789
currency N/A $12,345.68
number N/A 12,345.6789
number 0 12,346
number 2 12,345.68
number 4 12,345.6789
number 6 12,345.678900

Floats

Given a float value of 12345.6789, this value will be displayed differently based on the template.

template precision output
string N/A 12345.6787
currency N/A $12,345.68
number N/A 12,345.6787
number 0 12,346
number 2 12,345.68
number 4 12,345.6787
number 6 12,345.678700

Date Time

template output
timeAgo a few seconds ago, a few days ago, in 22 days, etc.
date 12/08/2016
dateTime 09/04/2008 12:00 AM

Developer Resource - Filter Overrides

Customizing a filter specification doesn't mean you have to write rewrite the existing ones when you take advantage of filter overrides. You can write a config file just describing the customizations you need for each filter specification. These XML config override files live in source\Web\Filters\custom\.

An example overrides file is provided that demonstrates the capabilities of filter overrides. It is located at source\Web\Filters\custom\cases.overrides.example.filter.config

Filter Override File Format

<filter overrides="">
  <removeJoin relationship="" />
  <removeJoin from="" to="" table="" />
  <removeFacet key="" />
  <removeField key="" />
  <removeCategory value="" />
  <removeColumn key="" />

  <!-- all inherited attributes are available, here are the additions -->
  <query>
    <addFacet label="" />
    <addField label="" />
  </query>
  <columns>
    <addColumn index="" />
  </columns>
</filter>

Example Filter Config File

<filter overrides="Cases">
  <removeFacet key="priority" />
  <removeColumn key="priority" />
  <removeColumn key="contact" />

  <removeJoin relationship="case_reporter2site"/>
  <removeColumn key="siteName"/>

  <query>
    <addJoin relationship="case_reporter2contact">
      <addField key="case_reporter2contact" field="objid" dataType="int"/>
    </addJoin>
  </query>

  <columns>
    <addColumn key="contact" template="entityLink" entity="Contact" idField="case_reporter2contact" index="-3" width="200">
      <sorts>
        <addSort key="contactLastName" />
        <addSort key="contactFirstName" />
      </sorts>
    </addColumn>
  </columns>
</filter>

One important thing to note is that when re-adding in columns, facets or fields you must pay attention to whether or not you want to re-implement the child elements of what you've removed. In this example we removed the column key contact and had to re-add the sorts children to maintain our desired functionality.

XML Reference

<filter>

Attribute Name Description
overrides This value matches the filter element's name attribute of which you wish to override

<removeColumn><removeFacet><removeField>

Attribute Name Description
key This value matches the column, facet or field element you wish to remove from the inherited filter spec

<removeJoin>

Removing a standard <addJoin> element:

Attribute Name Description
relationship This value matches the join element you wish to remove from the inherited filter spec

Removing an adhoc <addJoin> element:

Attribute Name Description
from The field on the parent table/view
to The field on the joined table
table The table being joined

When removing a join, you should also remove any columns, fields, facets, or dependent joins that have downstream references to the join being removed.

<removeCategory>

Attribute Name Description
value This value matches the category you wish to remove form the inherited filter spec

<addFacet><addField>

Attribute Name Description
label This attribute is used to change or add a label to your new facet or field. For example the facet label appears in the dropdown listing of available facets.

<addColumn>

Attribute Name Description
index Instead of duplicating the existing column elements you can specify the position of your added column. The columns are 0 indexed. A setting of 7 would place this element in the 9th visible column since it comes after the inherited column's index. You can also use negative numbers here to force a column towards the left most position.

Developer Resource - Model Map

HTTP Requests for models are powered through Dovetail's Model Map engine.

Model Map Files

Model Map Files are XML files that define:

They are located in the $agent\source\Web\Models\ directory and sub-directories. The filename format follows a convention of *.map.config

Existing model map files can be modified, and new ones added.

Baseline partial maps can be over-ridden using model map override files. This allows customization without modifying the baseline files.

Model Map File Format

<model name="" entity="">
  <query from="" type="">
    <addProperty key="" field="" dataType="" propertyType="" />
    <addProperty key="" field="" dataType="" />
    <addProperty key="">
      <addTransform name="">
        <addArgument name="" value="" />
        <addArgument name="" property="" />
      </addTransform>
    </addProperty>

    <traverseRelation type="" field="" table="" targetField="">
      <addProperty key="" field="" dataType="" />
    </traverseRelation>

    <traverseRelation name="">
      <addProperty key="" field="" dataType="" />
    </traverseRelation>

    <addMappedProperty key="">
      <traverseRelation name="">
        <addProperty key="" field="" dataType="" />
      </traverseRelation>
    </addMappedProperty>

    <addMappedCollection key="">
      <traverseRelation name="">
        <addProperty key="" field="" dataType="" />
      </traverseRelation>
    </addMappedCollection>

    <addPartial name="" />
  </query>
</model>

Example Model Map File

The following is an example of a model map file for retrieving basic information about a Case: 

<model name="case" entity="Case">
  <query from="qry_case_view" type="view">
    <addProperty key="databaseIdentifier" field="elm_objid" dataType="int" />
    <addProperty key="id" field="id_number" dataType="string" propertyType="identifier" />
    <addProperty key="title" field="title" dataType="string" />

    <addProperty key="caseType" field="type" dataType="string">
      <addTransform name="localizedListItem">
        <addArgument name="listName" value="Case Type" />
        <addArgument name="listValue" property="caseType" />
      </addTransform>
    </addProperty>

    <traverseRelation type="adhoc" field="elm_objid" table="case" targetField="objid">
      <addProperty key="created" field="creation_time" dataType="dateTime" />
      <addProperty key="lastModified" field="modify_stmp" dataType="dateTime" />
      <addProperty key="altFirstName" field="alt_first_name" dataType="string" />
      <addProperty key="altLastName" field="alt_last_name" dataType="string" />
      <addProperty key="altPhoneNum" field="alt_phone_num" dataType="string" />
      <addProperty key="altEmail" field="alt_e_mail" dataType="string" />
      <addProperty key="ccList1" field="cclist1" dataType="string" />
      <addProperty key="cclist2" field="cclist2" dataType="string" />
    </traverseRelation>
  </query>
</model>

XML Reference

<model>

The <model> element is the top level element that defines the XML as a model map. This element is required.

Attribute Name Description
name A unique name used to retrieve the map from the IModelBuilder interface. Must be unique across all maps.
entity This optional attribute is used to indicate the base object type that the show model is related to. This is used in Agent's entity link conventions. Available entities include: Account, Case, ChangeRequest, Contact, Contract, Employee, PartRequestDetail, PartRequestHeader, Site, SitePart, Solution, Subcase
Child Nodes
<query>

<query>

The <query> element is a child of the <model> element. The <query> element contains all of the information required to build the clarify generic. This element is required.

Attribute Name Description
from The root table or view to be used for the query.
type "view" or "table" to indicate the type of clarify object being queried.
Child Nodes
<addProperty>
<traverseRelation>
<addMappedProperty>
<addMappedCollection>
<addPartial>
<addProperty>

The <addProperty> element is a child of the <query>, <addMappedProperty>, <addMappedCollection>, or <traverseRelation> elements. The <addProperty> element defines a property on the model that is being constructed.

Attribute Name Description
key Unique Identifier
field Optional. The database column that will be retrieved from the Clarify generic row
dataType Optional. int, string, bool, dateTime, float, decimal
propertyType Optional. Valid values are identifier.
Child Nodes
<addTransform>
<addTransform>

The <addTransform> element is a child of the <addProperty> element. The <addTransform> element specifies the transform to use to resolve the value of the property.

Attribute Name Description
name Name of the transform to use. See Transforms for a list of out-of-the-box transforms and information on creating your own.
Child Nodes
<addArgument>
<addArgument>

The <addArgument> element is a child of the <addTransform> element. The <addArgument> element is used to add an argument that is made available to the transform. See Transforms for a list of out-of-the-box transforms and information on creating your own.

Attribute Name Description
name The name of the argument. This is case-sensitive as specified by the individual transform being used.
value Optional. This attribute specifies the value to be supplied to the argument.
property Optional. This attribute specifies that the value of the argument should be retrieved from the specified property within the current scope.

The value and property attributes are mutually exclusive. One of these attributes must be specified but not both.

<traverseRelation>

The <traverseRelation> element is a child of the <query>, <addMappedProperty>, <addMappedCollection>, or <traverseRelation> elements. The <traverseRelation> element defines a traversal through Clarify generics.

Attribute Name Description
name The name of the relation to traverse.
type This attribute must be set to adhoc if the join is being created dynamically (e.g., from a view to the base table).
field The field being used to initiate the adhoc join. This is required if type is set to adhoc.
table The target table of the adhoc join. This is required if type is set to adhoc.
targetField The target field of the adhoc join. This is required if type is set to adhoc.
Child Nodes
<where>
<addProperty>
<traverseRelation>
<addMappedProperty>
<addMappedCollection>
<addPartial>
<where>

The <where> element is a child of the <traverseRelation> element. The <where> element is used to add Clarify generic filters for its parent <traverseRelation> element.

The where clauses are children of the <where> element.

Type Description
filter Used as the operator in the where clause for the field, i.e. greaterThanOrEqual
values Attributes specified in the dynamic filter element are aggregated and passed into the corresponding IFilterPolicy implementation. 
<model>
  <query>
    <traverseRelation>
      <where>
        <notEqual field="objid" value="-2" dataType="int" />
      </where>
    </traverseRelation>
  </query>
</model>

Available filters:

<equals>

Attribute Name Description
field The field to filter by.
value The value of the filter.
dataType The data type of the filter value. int, string, bool, dateTime, float, decimal

<notEqual>

Attribute Name Description
field The field to filter by.
value The value of the filter.
dataType The data type of the filter value. int, string, bool, dateTime, float, decimal

<addMappedProperty>

The <addMappedProperty> element is a child of the <query>, <addMappedProperty>, <addMappedCollection>, or <traverseRelation> elements.

The <addMappedProperty> element defines a nested object on the model that is being constructed.

Attribute Name Description
key Unique Identifier.

Note: If you traversing a relation to retrieve the mapped property, the <traverseRelation> element must be a child of the <addMappedProperty> element.

Child Nodes
<addProperty>
<traverseRelation>
<addMappedProperty>
<addMappedCollection>
<addPartial>

<addMappedCollection>

The <addMappedCollection> element is a child of the <query>, <addMappedProperty>, <addMappedCollection>, or <traverseRelation> elements.

The <addMappedCollection> element defines a nested array on the model that is being constructed.

Attribute Name Description
key Unique Identifier.

Note: If you traversing a relation to retrieve the mapped collection, the <traverseRelation> element must be a child of the <addMappedCollection> element.

Child Nodes
<addProperty>
<traverseRelation>
<addMappedProperty>
<addMappedCollection>
<addPartial>

<addPartial>

The <addPartial> element is a child of the <query>, <addMappedProperty>, <addMappedCollection>, or <traverseRelation> elements.

The <addPartial> element imports a subset of instructions defined in a separate file. See Partials for additional information.

Attribute Name Description
name Unique Identifier.

Any additional attributes specified in the <addPartial> element are made available to the partial as Variables.

Partials

Partial map files are model maps that provide a subset of instructions that are reusable across maps.

They are located in the $agent\source\Web\Models\partials directory and sub-directories. The filename format follows a convention of *.partial.config

Existing partial map files can be modified, and new ones added.

Baseline partial maps can be over-ridden using model map override files. This allows customization without modifying the baseline files.

Transforms

Transforms are C# functions used to transform data (or provide external data)

Available transforms

1. stringConcat

Aggregates all arguments prefixed with arg (e.g., "arg0", "arg1") and concatenates the values.

<addTransform name="stringConcat">
  <addArgument name="arg0" value="Hello" />
  <addArgument name="arg1" value="," />
  <addArgument name="arg2" value=" " />
  <addArgument name="arg3" value="World" />
  <addArgument name="arg4" value="!" />
</addTransform>

2. isEqual

Returns a boolean value of the comparison.

Argument Name Description
field The name of the property to compare
value The value to compare against 
<addTransform name="isEqual">
  <addArgument name="field" value="myPropertyName" />
  <addArgument name="value" value="-1" dataType="int" />
</addTransform>

3. sqlCount

Returns the scalar value of a SQL count statement.

Argument Name Description
table The name of the table to query against
relation The name of the column to filter on
objid The value to compare against 
<addTransform name="sqlCount">
  <addArgument name="table" value="subcase" />
  <addArgument name="relation" value="subcase2case" />
  <addArgument name="objid" property="databaseIdentifier" />
</addTransform>

This would execute something like the following query: SELECT COUNT(1) FROM table_subcase where subcase2case = 268436288

4. executeScalar

Returns the scalar value of a SQL statement.

Argument Name Description
sql The sql query to execute
dataType The returned dataType of the sql statement

SQL parameters can be added by prefixing arguments with param..

<addTransform name="executeScalar">
  <addArgument name="sql" value="SELECT Count(*) FROM table_demand_hdr where caseinfo2case = {0} AND request_status = 'Open'" />
  <addArgument name="dataType" value="int" />
  <addArgument name="param.caseinfo2case" property="databaseIdentifier" />
</addTransform>

5. localizedListItem

Localizes the list value from the list by value.

Argument Name Description
listName The name of the list
listValue Value of the list item 
<addTransform name="localizedListItem">
  <addArgument name="listName" value="Case Type" />
  <addArgument name="listValue" property="caseType" />
</addTransform>

6. localizedListItemByRank

Localizes the list value from the list by rank.

Argument Name Description
listName The name of the list
rank Rank of the list item 
<addTransform name="localizedListItemByRank">
  <addArgument name="listName" value="User Status" />
  <addArgument name="rank" property="statusCode" />
</addTransform>

7. localizedListItemByObjId

Localizes the list value from the list by objid.

Argument Name Description
listName The name of the list
objId Objid of the list item 
<addTransform name="localizedListItemByObjId">
  <addArgument name="listName" value="My List" />
  <addArgument name="objId" property="databaseIdentifier" />
</addTransform>

Custom Transforms

To create your own custom transform, simply implement the IMappingTransform interface. The TransformContext argument of the execute method provides access to the currently scoped model data instance, as well as the TransformArguments. Below is an example of a simple transform that performs a ToUpper() on the provided string value:

public class ToUpperTransform : IMappingTransform
{
  public object Execute(TransformContext context)
  {
    var input = context.Arguments.Get<string>("input"); // This retrieves the argument with the name "input"
    return input.ToUpper();
  }
}

This transform automatically becomes available as toUpper (case insensitive). If you want more control over the name of the transform, you can decorate your custom transform class with the TransformAliasAttribute.

Variables

Variables are placeholders that get dynamically resolved through C# functions.

Default Variables

  1. sessionUserId This value gets resolved as the objid of the current SDK user.

  2. sessionUserName This value gets resolved as the login name of the current SDK user.

Scoped data

You can also pass data from the currently scoped model data instance using the syntax: {this.propertyName}. This would pass the current value of propertyName as the variable value.

See Scoping for additional information.

Custom Variables

To create your own variable, simply implement the IMappingVariable interface. The following as an example of a variable that provides a random GUID value:

public class RandomVariable : IMappingVariable
{
  public bool Matches(VariableExpansionContext context)
  {
    return context.Key.EqualsIgnoreCase("random");
  }

  public object Expand(VariableExpansionContext context)
  {
    return Guid.NewGuid().ToString();
  }
}

Variables are made available via the IMappingVariableSource interface. To make your variable available, you can implement this interface and provide your variable (or use dependency injection to return all variables). Variables are only created once (singleton). If you need access to services, you can retrieve them from the VariableExpansionContext.

Scoping

During the populating of data in an instance of ModelData, the ModelBuilder constructs data and transforms from the bottom-up. Let's examine our example model map:

<model name="case" entity="Case">
  <query from="qry_case_view" type="view">
    <addProperty key="databaseIdentifier" field="elm_objid" dataType="int" />
    <addProperty key="id" field="id_number" dataType="string" propertyType="identifier" />
    <addProperty key="title" field="title" dataType="string" />

    <addProperty key="caseType" field="type" dataType="string">
      <addTransform name="localizedListItem">
        <addArgument name="listName" value="Case Type" />
        <addArgument name="listValue" property="caseType" />
      </addTransform>
    </addProperty>

    <traverseRelation type="adhoc" field="elm_objid" table="case" targetField="objid">
      <addProperty key="created" field="creation_time" dataType="dateTime" />
      <addProperty key="lastModified" field="modify_stmp" dataType="dateTime" />
      <addProperty key="altFirstName" field="alt_first_name" dataType="string" />
      <addProperty key="altLastName" field="alt_last_name" dataType="string" />
      <addProperty key="altPhoneNum" field="alt_phone_num" dataType="string" />
      <addProperty key="altEmail" field="alt_e_mail" dataType="string" />
      <addProperty key="ccList1" field="cclist1" dataType="string" />
      <addProperty key="cclist2" field="cclist2" dataType="string" />
    </traverseRelation>
  </query>
</model>

The construction of the ModelData instance would go as follows:

  1. databaseIdentifier gets populated
  2. id gets populated
  3. title gets populated
  4. The caseType property would be populated with the value from the type column
  5. The properties defined in the <traverseRelation> element would be populated
  6. The localizedListItem transform fires

In this case, the properties defined in the traverseRelation element are being added to the root ModelData instance.

When a mapped property or collection is used, a new ModelData is created and is available in the TransformContext for transforms. It's important to note that because the values are built from the bottom up, the parent values are not available.

Developer Resource - Model Map Overrides

Customizing a model map doesn't mean you have to write rewrite the existing ones when you take advantage of overrides. You can write a model map file just describing the customizations you need for each model map. These XML override files live in source\Web\Models\custom\.

An example overrides file is provided that demonstrates the capabilities of model map overrides. It is located at source\Web\Models\custom\case.map.config

Model Map Override File Format

<model overrides="">
  <!-- all inherited attributes are available, here are the additions -->
  <query>
    <removeProperty key="" />
    <removeMappedProperty key="" />
    <removeMappedCollection key="" />

    <traverseRelation name="">
      <removeProperty key="" />
      <removeMappedProperty key="" />
      <removeMappedCollection key="" />
    </traverseRelation>

    <addMappedProperty key="">
      <removeProperty key="" />
    </addMappedProperty>
  </query>
</model>

Example Model Map Override File

<model overrides="case">
  <query from="qry_case_view" type="view">
    <removeProperty key="id" />
    <traverseRelation type="adhoc" field="elm_objid" table="case" targetField="objid">
      <addMappedProperty key="additionalFields">
        <addProperty key="altSiteName" field="alt_site_name" dataType="string" />
      </addMappedProperty>
    </traverseRelation>
  </query>
</model>

XML Reference

<model>

Attribute Name Description
overrides This value matches the model element's name attribute of which you wish to override

<removeProperty><removeMappedProperty><removeMappedCollection>

Attribute Name Description
key This value matches the property, mapped property or mapped colection element you wish to remove from the inherited model map.

To remove properties, mapped properties, or mapped collections from relations, you must add the same traverse relation elements (as noted in the example above).

If all properties are removed from a traversal, that traversal will also be removed.

Additional Fields Convention

As of Agent 18, the additional fields conventions is made available to minimize the need to customize the create/edit endpoints for entities. By moving custom fields into the additionalFields mapped property (see above example), those fields are automatically persisted to the database during create/edit operations using the AdditionalFields convention in Dovetail SDK.

Customization Example

A complete example has been provided in the Dovetail knowledgebase at: https://support.dovetailsoftware.com/selfservice/solutions/show/975

The example includes a model map override, along with UI customizations.

For this example, we will make use of the alt_site_name field on the Case table. We'll store the site_id and simply join from alt_site_name to site_id to find the alternate site. While we’re at it, we’ll customize the UI to use a Site Picker to select the alternate Site. We’ll accomplish all of this without touching any backend C# code.

Developer Resource - Business Rule Customizations

Custom Events

Create Business Rule page showing an example of a custom event:

Custom Event

Custom business rule events can be defined in the following ways:

  1. Adding to the SEL_EVENT control on form 472 using UI Editor
  2. Creating a Configuration Item (config_itm)

Dovetail Agent will load custom events using both methods. The preferred method is to use a configuration item.

The configuration item should be created and imported by using a DAT file that is imported using DIET (ArchiveManager).

Configuraton Item Fields

Field Name Description
name Name of the event
value_type 1001. This tells Dovetail Agent that it's a custom event.
i_value Numeric identifier of the custom event. If your event is "USER1003", the i_value would be 1003
str_value Object type the event applies to, in uppercase, e.g. "CASE"
description Descriptiojn of the event

Example DAT file:

OBJECT TYPE="config_itm", NAME="Run Task Set Custom Event"
UNIQUE_FIELD = name
    FIELDS
        name ="Run Task Set";
        description="Dovetail - Run Task Set";
        value_type = 1001;
        i_value = 1005;
        str_value="CASE";
    END_FIELDS
END_OBJECT NAME="Run Task Set Custom Event"

Custom Event Creation Times

Create Business Rule page showing an example of a custom event creation time:

Custom Event Creation Times

Custom business rule event creation times can be defined by creating a custom rule property (prop_name). The prop name should be created and imported by using a DAT file that is imported using DIET (ArchiveManager).

Prop Name Fields

Field Name Description
obj_type Numeric identifier of the object type the event creation time applies to, e.g 0 for 'case'
prop_name Unique custom time ID. Must be in this format: @USERTIMEnnn where nnn is equal to or greater than 150
path_name Path from base object to the column name from which the value will be fetched for evaluation
val_type Numeric value of 609 meaning a date-time type
max_len 30
extra_info Text to be shown in the event list

Example DAT file:

OBJECT TYPE="prop_name", NAME=Next_Action_Due_Date
    UNIQUE_FIELD=obj_type, prop_name
    FIELDS
        obj_type=0;
        prop_name ="@USERTIME150";
        path_name="x_next_action_due_date";
        val_type=609;
        max_len=30;
        extra_info = "Next Action Due Date";
    END_FIELDS
END_OBJECT NAME=Next_Action_Due_Date

Additional Information

Additional information regarding Rulemanager, Business Rules, and Customizations can be found in the Rulemanager Companion Wiki

Developer Resource - Function-based Rule Properties

Rule Properties

Rule properties are used in a number of places throughout the Dovetail suite, including:

Traditionally, a rule property would traverse a path through the schema, starting from the base object, and ending at a column. For example, the Contact First Name property for a case would use the path case_reporter2contact:first_name. However, there are instances where a path cannot be traversed, or where a calculation needs to be made.

For example, you may wish to fire a business rule only if all of the subcases on a case have been closed. So your two business rule conditions would be:

Or, you may wish to fire a business rule if the Number of cases for product X within the last 7 days is greater than 10.

Or you may wish to use a variable (rule property) as part of a canned response that retrieves data from another system using a web service call.

With these examples, there is not a schema path that can be traversed to provide these values.

You can now write your own custom code for these rule properties. This opens up a whole new avenue for customization.

Dovetail provides an example code project that demonstrates custom function-based rule properties. This project is freely available at https://dovetailsoftware.github.io/property-extensions/

That link provides more details, working code examples, and steps on how to build and deploy.

Once your code has been written, and the assembly copied into the application directory, then the property can be defined using the Rule Property UI within Dovetail Agent (Agent version 14 or higher).

Rule Property

Developer Resource - Theming

Themes

Customizing or creating themes for Agent is a quick way to apply your own color palette to the application. The application has been broken down into a basic set of standard elements each having LESS variables that can be redefined to create a custom look without having to worry about structural layout concerns.

Themes also allow for a users personal preference of styles. Agent currently ships with three themes including Default, Dark and Quiet Light. The Dark and Quiet Light themes extend the Default theme by only changing colors where necessary while still creating a very different user experience.

About the Default Theme

The Default theme file (a5-theme.less) contains over 700 color, background, box-shadow and text-shadow variables that are used and reused to allow in a way that allows extending the Default theme much more manageable.

The Default theme variables are dash-named and prefixed with @theme. For example: @theme-background-color

There are just over 130 total theme variables of which over 40 are set by the remaining 90 uniquely assigned variables.

The Agent application utilizes third party libraries and styles, including Twitter Bootstrap and Kendo UI, which have each been forked into baseline. Each of these incorporated libraries have been modified just enough to allow for our Default theme be the basis for all of their colors as well. Using this Default theme as a foundation we've been able to make our Dark theme with just 94 assignments and the Quiet Light them with only 53!

Creating a New Theme

A new theme is created by extending the default theme.

The Dark and Quiet Light themes are examples of new themes. Review the styleguide\styles\less\themes\Dark.less and styleguide\styles\less\themes\Quiet Light.less files for examples on creating a new theme.

To create a new theme:

  1. Add a new LESS file to the styleguide\styles\less\themes folder.

    The name of the file is important, and should match the name used in step two.

    The first line of your new theme must be: @import "../agent/a5-theme"; This will include all of the default theme settings.

    In this file you can override the default @theme variables. You can change the @camelCased Bootstrap variables (such as @btnTextColor) or change specific Agent elements and widgets through modification of the @a5- variables (such as @a5-alert-success-background-color).

    You can use the default theme file (a5-theme.less) for reference.

  2. Add the theme name to the User Defined List named Themes. Remember to Refresh the application cache after editing the list.

Customizing an Existing Theme

An existing theme can be customized by editing one of the custom theme override files.

These are located in the styleguide\styles\less\custom\themes folder, and follow the filename pattern of custom-${themeFileName} where {themeFileName} is the name of the theme you wish to extend from the styleguide\styles\less\themes folder.

Theming Best Practices

The idea behind the baseline theme variables was to breakdown the default theme into basic user interface elements which are then built upon for more granular and specific widgets. For example the @theme-border-color is the most reused variable and with nearly 60 subsequent usages any change can have a nice impact on a custom theme. Use the theme variables according to how they are named. For example a border color variable is applied to a border color property and not a background property. This way you won't have unexpected behavior in your theme down the road where what you read in the code doesn't match what you see on the screen.

Theme Development Workflow

To run a continuous watch task that will automatically reload the browser (if using LiveReload), execute the less-watch task via gulp. This can be done in a number of ways. If gulp has been installed globally, simply run gulp less-watch. If not, ./node_modules/.bin/gulp less-watch. If using yarn, yarn run gulp less-watch will do the trick regardless of where gulp has been installed.

Making Custom Widgets Themable by Adding Themable Variables

While the baseline theme file provides a seemingly comprehensive list of tweakable variables we aren't able to account for your imaginative creations of your own custom widgets. To allow for custom themable widgets there is a custom-theme.less file with a similar purpose to the a5-theme.less file. This file is where you would add new theme variables that you apply to your custom widgets in custom-styles.less. Adding your new variables into custom-theme.less makes them available to new and customized theme files. Think of the variable assignments in this file as your default theme for your custom widget just like a5-theme.less assignments make up the baseline theme.

Naming your new themable variables should follow the naming scheme of the baseline @theme. Choose any prefix you'd like and stick with one for these examples we're using dt. After the prefix portion you would identify the scope of your item or widget. In the example it is a date widget and more specifically the today part of that date widget. The next section closely resembles the CSS properties with the exception of foreground which applies to text and icons that is sometimes actually the widget's background-color.

                        Item scope Property
                       |----------|----------------|
a {
  background-color: @dt-date-today-background-color: red;
  background:       @dt-date-today-background:       border-box red;
  color:            @dt-date-today-foreground-color: green;
  border-color:     @dt-date-today-border-color:     @dt-border-color;
}

In this example we're looking at the addition of an element state specificity. The highlight keyword which is used in place of hover, active, focused wherever it makes sense. Another example element state is be disabled. 

                        Item scope Property   (State)
a:hover {              |----------|----------:---------:-----|
  background-color: @dt-date-today-background-highlight-color: blue;
}

You can chain these together to make variables that make sense when being used as well as when being extended.