Managing service actions
Service actions are light services associated with completed service requests or assets. End users access service actions from the Actions list of a service or an asset on their My Stuff page. For more details about how items are displayed on the My Stuff page, see Setting up the My Stuff page.
Catalog administrators and internal service suppliers create and manage service actions to associate them with services.
You can associate service actions with services, service categories, and asset classes from configured external systems.
You can manage service actions from the Service Actions page, which you can access by selecting Services > Service Actions in the Catalog console. Here, you can add, edit, and delete service actions.
By default, all newly created service actions are inactive and are displayed on the Inactive tab. You can activate service actions to make them available for end users, and deactivate them as needed.
If you have more than one environment with BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog, you can share service actions among them by exporting and importing service actions to and from local files.
Comparison of service actions and services
Service actions are similar to services because they have the following resembling components:
| Component property | Service | Service action |
|---|---|---|
| Catalog profile | Supported | Not supported |
| Versions and revisions | Supported | Not supported |
| Workflow | Supported | Supported |
| Questionnaire | Supported | Supported |
| Service level agreement | Supported | Supported |
| Costs and prices | Supported | Supported |
| CMDB details | Supported | Supported |
| Association with asset class | Not supported | Supported |
| Association with asset group | Supported | Supported |
Components of service actions
A service action uses the same UI template as a service. You complete the required details for a service action in the same way as you do when you create or edit a service.
| Service action component | Required or optional | Reference topic |
|---|---|---|
| Workflow | Required | Workflows for service fulfillment |
| Questionnaire | Required if a workflow includes process input variables | Creating service questionnaires |
| Dependency Mapping | Optional | Specifying dependent services |
| Service Level Agreement | Optional | Setting service level agreements |
| Costing | Optional | Adjusting service cost and quantity |
| Asset Mapping | Optional | Associating service actions with services and assets |
Process of adding service actions
Perform the following steps to add and enable a service action:
- Create a service action.
- Associate the service action with one or more of the following items available on the My Stuff page:
- Published services—To make the service action available from the Actions list of completed services requests (See To associate a service action with services below.)
- Service categories—To make it available for all completed services that belong to the selected category (See To associate a service action with services below.)
- Asset classes—To make it available for all asset classes or specific asset classes retrieved from a connected system and entitled to the end user (See To associate a service action with assets below.)
- Activate the service action so that the action becomes available for selection in the Actions list of service requests and assets to which it is mapped.
The following image shows a completed service request and a list of actions associated with it:
To create a service action
- Log in to the Catalog console.
- Select Services > Service Actions.
- Click Create Action.
- In the Action Name field, enter a descriptive action name, such as Replace hardware.
- Click Confirm.
The Actions Options pane is displayed.
In the appropriate section of the Action Options pane, complete the required details for the service action components.
(Optional) You can publish service actions and their translations for end users in different locales. For more information, see Localizing catalog items.
Save the changes.
To make a service action available to end users, you must associate it with services or assets, and then activate it.
To associate a service action with services
Open a service action that you want to map to services.
On the Action Options panel, click Edit next to Asset Mapping.
The following example shows the Service Requests section:
(Optional) Map categories of services to a selected service action:
- In the Service Requests section, click Add next to Categories.
- From the Service Catalog, select one or more service categories, and click Save.
(Optional) Map services to a selected service action:
- In the Service Requests section, click Add next to Services.
From the Service Catalog, select one or more services, and click Add.
Tip
You can also map a service to a service action on the Service Options panel of the selected service. Both active and inactive service actions are available in the Action Library list.
For details about how to associate a service with service actions, see Associating service actions with services.
To associate a service action with assets
You can associate service actions only with those asset classes that are retrieved from connections configured in the Application Settings > Asset Management. For details about how to configure asset connections, see Configuring services and assets to be available on the My Stuff page.
The following example shows the Asset connections sections of a service action:
Perform one or more of the following procedures to associate service actions with assets:
To map an asset class to a selected service action
- Open a service action that you want to map to assets.
On the Action Options panel, click Edit next to Asset Mapping.
- On the Asset Connections panel, click Add next to a selected connection.
- Select one or more asset classes, and click Add.
The added asset classes are displayed below the selected connection on the Asset Connections panel.
To delete the added class, click the x button.
To map a subset of assets in an asset class to a selected service action
To restrict the number of assets that will be associated with a service action, you can create a query that will search for assets that match the query condition.
- Open a service action that you want to map to assets.
On the Action Options panel, click Edit next to Asset Mapping.
- Map an asset class to a selected service action:
- On the Asset Connections panel, click Add.
- Select one or more asset classes, and click Add.
- Click Add next to the selected asset class, and create a condition for the selected asset class.
In the Condition name field, enter a descriptive condition name.
- In the Expression field, select a field, and build a condition as follows:
Tip
The list with expression variables is generated automatically from the available out-of-the-box attributes provided by BMC Helix CMDB.
- On the left side of the expression, select an expression variable.
- Select an operator (for example, IS, IS NOT, CONTAINS, DOES NOT CONTAIN, STARTS WITH, ENDS WITH are operators for strings)
- For strings, type a free text value.
- (Available in version 22.1.06 and later) For integers, type a number value.
- (Available in version 22.1.06 and later) For selections, select a variable from the list.
c. Click Save.
The added query is displayed below the asset class on the Asset Connections panel:
The following image shows a query with the string data type that enables you to add a service action only to keyboards located in America:
You can create a complex query with several conditions for a single class; for example, you can create a query that will display a designated service action only for printers that match the following condition:
Important
We recommend that you create simple queries for service actions associated with a large number of assets.
To map all asset classes from the configured connections to a selected service action
- Open a service action that you want to map to assets.
On the Action Options panel, click Edit next to Asset Mapping.
On the Asset connections panel, select All beside a connection from which you want to pull out all asset classes.
To activate and deactivate a service action
After you create a service action and map it to services and assets, activate it to make it available to end users. You can deactivate service actions to make them temporarily unavailable for selection by end users, such as when a service action is undergoing some changes.
To activate or deactivate a service action, perform one of the following steps:
- From the Action Options pane, change the Active toggle to activate or deactivate a service.
- Open the Service Actions page and select a service action on the Active or Inactive tab. Click Actions and select one of the following options:
- Activate—Makes an inactive service action available to end users. This option is available on the Inactive tab.
- Deactivate —Makes an active service action unavailable to end users. This option is available on the Active tab.
To edit a service action
You might need to edit the details of a service action or its name, or add translations.
From the Service Actions page, select a service action that you want to modify, and select Actions > Open.
The Actions Options pane is displayed.Make the necessary changes to the service action, and click Save.
To delete a service action
You can delete active and inactive service actions at any time.
From the service actions list, select one or more service actions, and click Actions > Delete.
If a service action is associated with a service, service category, or asset class, a message appears to notify you of potential risks.
To export and import a service action
To export a service action to a local zip file, select a service and click Actions > Export.
Important
All asset connections, services, and service categories must exist in the destination environment for your imported mappings to be preserved.
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