Creating selection menus for question responses

This topic describes how catalog administrators and internal service suppliers create selection menus for question responses, so that end users can answer a service question by selecting a value that is saved in an external system.

Options for building selection lists in question responses

When you build selection menus for question responses, you can set values manually, or you can pull existing data from the external systems. You can create selection lists only for the following types of questions:

• Checkbox
• Dropdown
• Multi-select dropdown
• Radio buttons
• Lookup—allow users to search for a value from a Remedy form.

The Question Designer provides the following options for building selection lists for question responses:

• Add Value—With this option, you can build a list of values manually.
• Map to Dataset—With this option, you can select a list of values provided by a compatible system, such as BMC Service Request Management, Flexera, or BMC Client Management. For example, you can select the list of question responses that were previously created for a survey in BMC Service Request Management.
• Map to Form—With this option, you can use a list of values from a query into a Remedy form.

Before you begin

Create either or both of the following items:

• A service that will use the questionnaire, as described in Adding and updating services
• A workflow that will use the questionnaire, as described in Workflows for service fulfillment

To create a data set manually

1. Drag a process question onto the canvas.
2. In the Question Settings panel, for the Form Element Type, select a type of question. 
3. For the Label, enter the text of the question prompt that is displayed to the user.
4. In the Question Values section, click Add Value.
5. Complete the Display Value (value shown to end user) and Stored Value (existing value stored in an external system) fields.
6. Repeat step 4 and 5 to add as many values as you need.
7. (Optional) When you are finished creating a selection list, you can select any value to make it default.
   
   To delete a default selection, click Clear Default. 
8. Customize the remaining settings, and then click Save to close Question Settings.

To map questions to values in a dataset

1. Drag a process question onto the canvas.
2. In the Question Settings panel, for the Form Element Type, select a type of question. 
3. For the Label, enter the text of the question prompt that is displayed to the user.
4. In the Question Values section, click Map to Dataset.

5. Search for the field that contains the appropriate dataset.
   In the following illustration, site is being searched to find questions for selecting a site. The Service ID and Service Name in this example are the ID and name of services imported from BMC Service Request Management. Name is the question prompt. Connector is the connector source of the dataset.
   

   Tip

   Service Request definition fields that share the same name might contain the same option values. Only the values are important to the questionnaire, not the data source.

6. Select the appropriate dataset field, and then click Save.
7. Customize the remaining settings, and then click Save to close Question Settings.

To look up question values from a Remedy form

1. Drag a process question onto the canvas.
2. In the Question Settings panel, for the Form Element Type, select a type of question. 
3. (Optional for Lookup selection type) Enter a threshold value.
   The threshold is the number of characters that the BMC Digital Workplace  user must enter before the system begins to autocomplete selection options based on the query.
4. For the Label, enter the text of the question prompt that is displayed to the user.
5. Click Map to Form.
6. For the Form Name, select the Remedy form that contains the values.
   
   
   
   
7. For the Display Label, select a field in the form that contains the list of values to show when the  BMC Digital Workplace  user makes the request. 
   Choose a field that contains information that helps a  BMC Digital Workplace  user make a choice. For example, from a form that lists department names and their cost centers, the field with the department name might be more helpful for the user.
8. For the Actual Value, you can either select a different field on the form, or choose to retain the default associated field.
   The Actual Value field contains the value that is passed into the process, based on the user's selection. For example, if the Display Label is set to show the user a list of department names, the Actual Value field might be set to the cost center; the user selects from a list of department names, and the process receives the associated cost center number.

9. (Optional) Build an expression in the Query Filter that is used to select a group of records from the selected form.

   Tip

   The query uses standard Action Request System syntax. For more information, see  Using fields in the advanced search bar  in the BMC Remedy AR System 18.08 documentation.

   You can build a query that selects records based on on the value of any fields on the form. The query expression can compare the value of a field with the value of other questions, free text, no value, and who the request is requested for or requested by. When comparing a field with the value of other questions, you can make the comparison only with questions of the following types:

   • Text field
   • Text area
   • Lookup
   • Dropdown
   • Radio button
   • Toggle.

   Note

   The query runs at the time of the user request. The search is restricted to the list of records that the user has permissions to view.

10. (Optional) Toggle Required to On.
11. Customize the remaining settings, and then click Save to close Question Settings.

Example: Look up data from a Remedy form

In this example, create a question for the site and map the selection values to the Remedy SIT:Site form. 

1. If the process already includes a question for site, in the Questions Designer, add that question onto the canvas, and then in the Question Settings, select a Form Element Type of Dropdown. Otherwise, in the Questions Designer, add the Dropdown selection type to the canvas.
2. For the Label field enter the question prompt. In this example, the label is Site.
3. For Question Values, click Map to Form.
4. In Map Data, enter the search: SIT.
   Searching for the form is quicker than scrolling. Search is case-sensitive.
   
   
   
   
5. Select SIT:Site, and click Save.
6. For the Display Label field, select Site. Users will select the site based on the name entered in the Site field.
7. For the Actual Value field, change the value from Site to Site ID.
   In this example, the Query Filter is left blank. However, a company with hundreds of sites might build a filter to show only sites in the country to which the service applies. The query expression can compare the value of a field with the value of other questions, free text, no value, and who the request is requested for or requested by.
8. Select Required.

   The settings should appear similar to the following illustration:

   

9. Click Save.