Configuring portals to customize agent environment

This troubleshooting topic is about configuring portals after migrating from FootPrints version 11.0 to FootPrints version 12.0.

Description

The following table describes portals in FootPrints version 11.0 and FootPrints version 12.0:

Resolution

This section provides information about mapping specific agent preferences in FootPrints version 11.0 to FootPrints version 12.0. It explains how FootPrints version 11.0 options for customizing the agent environment are used to configure the consoles and portals in FootPrints version 12.0.

• Portals
• Consoles
• Roles
• Accessible Fields
• Mapping FootPrints version 11.0 agent preferences to version 12.0

Portals

• In FootPrints 12.0, the UI where users access the information and features to do their jobs is called portals.
• A portal is similar to the content section of a browser window. Different areas of the application are displayed as tabs at the top of the working area. These tabs are called consoles.
• Based on your requirements, you can create different portals for each type of users. Each portal has a unique URL and you can assign a specific portal to each user role. For example, you might have several agent roles, each with a different default portal. To configure a portal, navigate to Administration > Portal Management > Portals > (portal). The following image displays console in FootPrints version 12.0.
  
• While migrating, only the default system portal that includes the basic set of consoles (Home, Administration, and Calendar) is created. The additional consoles like Address Book and Knowledge Base are available from the More menu. The user's access to the consoles is controlled by the assigned portal to the user's role and the permission settings for that user role.
• The default system can be copied to as a new portal and customized. After customizing, you can also set the new portal as the default portal for a role.
• Each portal can be configured with a custom set of consoles, a theme, and logo for a particular role to allow you to create a unique environment for your users.

Consoles

• For the features that you want to provide access to the users, you can configure consoles. A console can be configured to best suit your working environment that supports your business process. To create a console, navigate to Administration > Main > Consoles. Alternatively, you can also create a console from the Portals details page. A console consists of three areas:
  • Actions
    
  • Widgets
    
  • Views
• You can configure following Actions on your console:
  
  • Actions for creating a record of some type such as a ticket, a contact, or a service.
  • Actions for navigation to a specific URL.
    The names of the buttons for these actions are under your control. For example, you may have a New Incident button or a Company Intranet link.
• The Widgets area might contain one or more of the of the following  elements types:
  
  • Charts based on data from your reports
  • RSS feeds
  • Custom HTML
  • Saved searches
    You can choose a location for the Widgets area such as top, right, bottom, or left.
• Views display as tabs within a console and can contain administration functions, the calendar, record lists such as tickets, saved searches, or category browsers.
  This is an ideal location to put the most commonly accessed data and functions for particular users.

Roles

• In FootPrints version 12.0, there are two levels of permissions: system level and container level. Each user is associated with one system level role and with a container level role for each container such as Workspace, Address Book, Service Portfolio, where the user is permitted to view information or perform actions. 
• You can define a portal for each system level role, which is presented at login, unless the user goes directly to the URL for a particular portal.
  The following steps explain about providing two completely different interfaces for two kinds of your agents you should create two portals and two system level Agent roles.

1. To create a consoles that provides useful information for your agents, navigate to Administration > Portal Management > Consoles.
2. To create two portals navigate to Administration > Portal Management > Portals.
3. To create a role, navigate to Administration > User Management > Roles > (role).
4. Create two system level agent roles. Configure an appropriate portal for each.
   The following image displays agent roles:
   
5. Create a user and select one of the system level roles that you just created, Administration > User Management > Users > (user).
   The following image displays system level roles:
   
   The selected portal is set as default for the user. This portal opens when a user logs in.
   However, since all portals are available for all users, the user can navigate to any other portal from the More menu. It is limited by their role and permissions settings. For example, a non-administrative agent would not be able to view anything in the Administration console of a portal.

Accessible Fields

• Use the FootPrints version 12.0 Item Field Properties, Saved Searches, and Field Permissions capabilities to define the set of columns to display in a list of records.
• Each console has a Views area which might contain lists of records displayed in tables. These lists might represent data for all records from containers of a particular type (All Items view) or records returned by a saved search (Saved Search view) that are accessible by the user.
  A column is displayed in an All Items table if the corresponding field has the View in List property selected. Navigate to Administration > Service Portfolios > (Service Portfolio) > Record Definitions > (service) > Fields. The following image shows View List in FootPrints version 12.0:
  
• Field maintenance in FootPrints version 12.0 is same across all items (tickets, solutions, services, contacts, or any other custom item) and containers (workspaces, knowledge bases, service portfolios, address books). It is an improvement from FootPrints version 11.0, that uses different administrative interfaces depending on the type of record and the container type.
• A column is displayed in a saved search's results if a corresponding field is chosen in the Display Fields section of the search (Home > Manage Searches > (search) > Display Fields)
  The following image shows Display Fields in FootPrints version 12.0:
  
• In addition, to let a user see a field’s content, you should set the field’s permission to View or Edit for a user’s container level role (Administration > User Management > Roles > (container level role) > Field Permissions).
  The following image displays field content:
  

Mapping FootPrints version 11.0 agent preferences to version 12.0

• Default Page and Dashboard Options
  • In the Agent Preference Template (Administration > Workspace > Agent Preference Templates) in FootPrints version 11.0, you can define the default page for the current workspace and select components to be displayed on the FootPrints Dashboard for selected Agents. The following image displays Default Page for Current Workspace:
    
  • In FootPrints version 12.0, the page configuration and appearance displayed to the user depends on the portal and the configuration of its consoles.
  • You can configure the views of a console to display lists of records, administration options, the calendar for portal users, actions the portal users might need to perform, and widgets that contain information relevant to the portal users.
• Record lists
  • In FootPrints version 11.0, you can define various settings for record lists to be shown to the Agent Roles to use the template. An Agent Preference Template (Administration > Workspace > Agent Preference Templates) in version 11.0 allows defining various settings for record lists to be shown to the Agent roles selected to use the template. The following image shows record list in FootPrints version 11.0:
    
  • In FootPrints version 12.0, you can display record lists as views on a console. The views display as tabs within the console. You can configure a portal and associated consoles, and views to display the required lists of records instead of using a template to define a common set of Agent preferences to display lists.
  • You can customize record lists for certain Agent roles.The following image shows the Home console with its current active view, My Workspaces.
    
  • The search used by the My Workspaces view, which is an 'All Items' view, is a default search provided in FootPrints version 12.0. It displays all tickets in all workspaces to which the user has access. In addition, you can configure custom views to display results from custom and saved searches. You can configure as many custom searches as you need and make them available within users' consoles.
  • In addition, a user has access to shared and private saved searches from the Manage Searches page. This is accessible from the search tool that is available on all container-based consoles, such as the default Home console (Home > (search) > Select item(s) > Manage Searches). The following image displays Manage Searches in Home console:
    
    
    
  • The field properties, saved searches, and field permissions capabilities should be used in FootPrints version 12.0 to define the set of columns to display in a list of records.
  • Default sorting for All Items lists is by container (as a grouping field) and by record type. There is no ability to define a default initial sorting to apply to the results of a saved search. FootPrints version 12.0 does not yet support sorting and grouping by multiple columns.However, you may use the grid capabilities to filter data in the table, and sort and group them by column. The settings for sorting and grouping (not for filtering) persist, which are applied the next time the table is displayed after a search is performed. 
  • In FootPrints version 12.0, there is a default value of 25 for the maximum number of records shown per page for a record list.
    You can change this number on any grid. The system applies it to all record lists, which are opened in the current and subsequent sessions. The page information is shown at the bottom of the table (Home > My Workspaces view).
    The following image displays Number of records per page:
    
  • The FootPrints version 12.0 does not support capabilities provided by the FootPrints version 11.0 Title Column Options.
  • The Auto-refresh interval setting is obsolete for FootPrints version 12.0, since the system always shows actual data in the displayed lists.
    Data is refreshed each time a container is published or a record is created or updated.
• Run-time Form Behavior
  • In FootPrints version 11.0, you can customize the run-time behavior of the ticket form in the Issues section of an Agent Preference Template (Administration > Workspace > Agent Preference Templates).
    The following image displays run-time behavior in Incidents.
    
  • In FootPrints version 12.0, there is no ability to fine tune the form interface for an individual user role. The fields and controls are grouped in sections and displayed one below the other on the displayed ticket page. The administrator can configure the name, layout, and fields for each section. They are displayed the same for all users, according to their permissions. 
  • The system always displays the complete description from the most recent entry to the oldest one. Agents can update the latest Description or journal entry only if they made the latest update or they are an administrator.
    
  • FootPrints version 12.0, does not provide a preference option for enabling the rich text editor or for enabling spell checking.
    However, the Rich Editor Textbox form control is available. If the user's native browser has spell checking enabled, then spell checking will be available in the editor of the rich text form control.
  • In FootPrints version 12.0, you cannot choose a window to open attachments. You also cannot choose a window to display a ticket that is created or edited.
    It is anticipated that this will not have a negative impact, as the user interface in its use of portals and consoles results in less need for such options.
  • FootPrints version 12.0, does not require an additional password when saving changes to a ticket.
  • In FootPrints version 12.0, Ticket/Contact linking is used to facilitate the relationship between a ticket and a contact.
    The following steps guide you to automatically link new tickets with a user’s contact record.
  1. Navigate to Administration > Workspaces > (workspace) > Relationships.
  2. Configure the required Ticket/Contact relationship.
  3. Navigate to Administration > Workspaces > (workspace) > Record Definitions > (ticket) > Business Rules.
  4. Create the following rule:
     • Type: After Save Rule
     • Trigger: After Save (On Create)
     • Criteria: (none)
     • Action: Link Existing Record 
     • Link type: Ticket/Contact: Contact
     • Target Record Type: address book - contact
     • Field in linked record: field (e.g. Email Address)
     • Field in this record: User attribute
     • Primary email
       • Condition: equal to
       • What to do if more than 1 found: Link 1st found record
• Calendar Sync and Instant Talk
  • In FootPrints version 11.0, the Agent Preference Template has settings for Calendar Sync and Instant Talk, in which the administrator can configure these settings for all Agent Roles assigned to use the template (Administration > Workspace > Agent Preference Templates).
    The following image displays Calendar Sync in FootPrints version 12.0:
    
  • In FootPrints version 12.0, the Calendar Sync feature is enabled at the system level. Navigate to Administration > System Management > Integration > FootPrints Sync. 
  • The agents can then individually configure their Sync settings by clicking the Welcome, "user" link at the top of their FootPrints portal page and selecting FootPrints Sync. In FootPrints version 12.0, you cannot configure the settings for a specific group of users. For more information, see Configuring users.
  • In FootPrints version 12.0, the ability for a user to chat with an agent depends on the permission Can chat with Agents specified in the user’s system level role.
    If users have permission to chat with agents, you cannot disallow chatting with a particular agent. Navigate to Administration > Roles > (system level role) > System Permissions.
    The following image displays chat permissions: