Hi All,

I'm trying to understand why are there so many behavioral differences between fat and thin clients, working with attachments.

I'm doing some enhancements on Requester Console.

End users find RqC very poor... and with just a summary it's very difficult to explain the problem they are facing (Incident) or what they want (Request).

Actual Situation

Talking about Requests... some time ago we added some workflow that allows end users to fill in some additional information based on the selected Summary. The Summary is connected with an Operational Categorization. For each Operational Categorization, the system allows you to define as far as 20 attributes / fields. The relationship between those attributes and operational categorizations is mantained on a form. For each attribute, you can also define if it's mandatory or not, if it's enabled or not, etc.

In this situation, when an end user selects a Summary that has "additional information" related, this additional information will be presented on a form with the respective field to be filled in by the end user.

But this approach has many limitations, maybe the most important one is that the attributes are presented as normal edit fields. So, if an end user asks for a cellular phone, for example, he has to enter the brand instead of selecting the desired brand from a menu. And so on.

Present-Future Situation

Discarding SRM, I'm trying to improve the RqC this way:

Summary Definition form

1. Added an Attachment Pool with an Attachment Field to Summary Definition form

2. Added also an Active/Inactive radio button to the same form

This way, if needed, a Summary can be connected to an attachment.

In my case, the attachment will be a Template created with InfoPath. InfoPath permits to define a nice Template with questions, menus attached to those questions, etc.

Requester Console form

3. Added a new Attachment Pool with an Attachment Field (AF_aux) to RQC:ServiceRequestWizard form

4. Added also OpenAttachment and SaveAttachment buttons to the aforementioned form

5. When an end user selects a Summary (normally, end users will use the web (thin client) to enter in RqC)

a) the template will be "loaded" into AF_Aux

If this summary has an associated template (checking Summary Definition form).

b) the template will be presented to end user

For opening the attachment I use an AL with a Run Process: PERFORM-ACTION-SAVE-ATTACHMENT AF_Aux

I could also use PERFORM-ACTION-OPEN-ATTACHMENT AF_Aux (but this works only on fat client; using thin client, this action is not capable to open a new browser window with the template loaded).

So, supposing PERFORM-ACTION-SAVE-ATTACHMENT AF_Aux, the enduser will do a "save to disk" and fill the template

c) when saving the Request

I do PERFORM-ACTION-ADD-ATTACHMENT z2AF_Act_Attachment_1

The end user will search the fullfiled attachment and add it to the attachment field.

After request has been created on Incident form, the attachment will be presented as a Work Info entry of "Additional Information" type.

Also a Work Info of the same type will be created related to the Service Request form.

Incident form

6. Added a new Attachment Pool with an Attachment Field (AF_aux) to HPD:HelpDesk form

7. Added also OpenAttachment and SaveAttachment buttons to the aforementioned form

Support Technicians have also the ability to create Incidents with "Additional Information"

Support Technicians usually use fat client

In this case, when creating or modifying an Incident, the Operational Categorization is validated against Summary definition's one.

If there's any match, the same aforementioned workflow will execute again:

a) Support Technician will have to fill the associated template, filling directly the template

In this case I use PERFORM-ACTION-OPEN-ATTACHMENT AF_Aux, because it works on fat client (and it's quicker because it opens directly InfoPath)

b) when saving the incident:

I use PERFORM-ACTION-ADD-ATTACHMENT z2AF_Act_Attachment_1

Support Technician searches for the template, and the selected template is added to the incident

After incident has been created on Incident form, the attachment will be presented as a Work Info entry of "Additional Information" type.

Also a Work Info of the same type will be created related to the Service Request form.

Here, I'm stuck on because I'm getting error ARERR 342.

See related post: http://communities.bmc.com/communities/message/76832#76832

Any help would be appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Björn.