Creating templates

To help ensure accuracy and completeness, BMC recommends that you use a template to create records. Templates help you to configure commonly used workflow, ensure consistency in the way information is captured, increase productivity and efficiency, and reduce errors. Using templates, you can prepopulate fields on a form, which reduces the need to enter commonly used data, or create records to provide an automated workflow process. Depending on the requirements of your staff members, you can create templates for commonly occurring incidents, tasks, change requests, service requests, and releases.

The following topics are provided:

To create a template

Click the Remedyforce Administration tab.
On the Home page, click the Configure Application tile, and from the menu select Templates.
Alternatively, you can also navigate to Remedyforce Workspaces > Configuration > Templates.
In the templates list view, click New.
From the Template For list, select the type of template that you are creating.
If you are creating a template for incidents, the Chatter Listener Help section is displayed. Use this section when you are creating templates to be used in Chatter listeners.
In the Name field, type a name.
If you want staff members to apply the template to the records that are created using web services or workflow or by importing data, select the System Template check box.
For more information about system templates, see System templates.
In the Description field, type a description.
In the Keywords text box, add the required keywords.
Separate keywords with a semicolon (;). These keywords are matched with the value in the Description field of the incident. If the values match, templates are suggested to the user in the Suggested Templates window. For example, you enter network access as a keyword. When a staff member clicks Suggested Templates on the incident details form, if this keyword is present in the Description field of the record, the template that you are creating is displayed in the Suggested Templates window. Also, ensure that the Allow applying of templates on an existing record check box is selected. This check box is provided on the Remedyforce Administration > Application Settings > General Application Settings page.
If you are creating a template to apply to incidents that are created from Chatter posts, copy the required field from the Chatter Field column, and paste it in the Field Value field.
For example, you want to save the text posted by the Chatter user in the Chatter post as the description of the incident. Select Description in the Select Field list, copy {!chatter_body} from the Chatter Field column, and paste it in the Field Value field.
Note

You can paste values from the Chatter Field column in the fields of type Text or Text Area only.
From the Select Field list, select the field that must be added to the template.
If you are creating service request templates, see Service request templates.
BMC Remedyforce supports adding fields of the following data types only:
Lookup Relationship
Number
Text Area
Master-Detail Relationship
Percent
Text Area (Long)
Check box
Phone
URL
Currency
Picklist
Email
Text

When you select Change Request, Incident, Release, or Task in the Template For field, the corresponding change request, incident, release, or task fields appear in the Select Field list.
If you want to use a configuration item or service for creating recurring records, you can select the available Configuration Item and Service fields in the Change Request and Task templates.
To set up a template to assign queues and staff members to an incident, task, change request, or release record, see Selecting queues and staff members for templates.
Note

If you create a custom field in a BMC Remedyforce object and this field is a lookup field on an object that has same name as that of BMC Remedyforce objects (for example, you create a field ABC in BMC Remedyforce Incident object and the field is a lookup on the custom Incident object that does not belong to BMC Remedyforce), such fields are not supported in templates.
In the Field Value field, enter the required value of the selected field.
For more information about the values that you select in the Field Value field, see About values in the Field Value field.
To add the field name and its value to the template, click Add.
If the end users are accessing Self Service from a mobile device, see Working of templates when Self Service is accessed from mobile device.
Repeat step 10 through step 12 until you have added all the fields required for the template.
(Optional) To update the value of a field, from the table, select the field, in the Field Value field, edit the value of the field, and click Update.
(Optional) To remove a field from the template, select the field from the table, and click Remove.
Note

In the Salesforce page layout and console layout (Remedyforce Console, Incident Console, or Task Console tab), all templates for an object are displayed in the Template lookup. The displayed templates might not be assigned to the profile of the logged on user.
Click Save.
If you want to provide direct access to the Incident template, use the link in the Self Service Link field to embed it as per your requirements. This field is populated automatically only after you save the Incident template.
You can embed the link on your intranet or use this link to customize or send it by using an email message. When the user clicks the link, a new ticket form opens in Self Service with the Incident template values prepopulated.
For more information, see Providing direct links for Self Service components.
Note

This field is available only if you are using Self Service 2.0 and for the Incident Templates only.
(Optional) To designate the current record as inactive, select the Inactive check box.
For example, if you have an incident template with which to troubleshoot issues with an outdated operating system, this template is no longer valid because your account does not use the outdated operating system.
Note

Records marked as inactive are not included in any search performed on the database.

To set up a template to create recurring records, see Configuring templates to create recurring records.

To add tasks to a change request, incident, or release template, see Adding tasks to a template.

Selecting queues and staff members for templates

You can set up an incident, change request, task, or release template to assign a queue and staff member to a record. You must add the Owner ID and Staff fields to a template, and select the required queue and staff member in these fields. When you apply the template to a record, the selected queue and staff member are assigned to that record.

BMC recommends that you select a queue in the Owner ID field and a staff member in the Staff field. Ensure that the staff member you select belongs to the selected queue. Otherwise, you cannot save the template.

If the Enable Queue and User Assignment check box (Remedyforce Administration > Application Settings > Record Assignments) is selected, an integrated Select from Queue lookup pop-up window is displayed for the Owner ID field. From this integrated lookup pop-up window, you can select both the queue and staff member.

The following table lists the points that you must consider when selecting queues and staff members for templates. For more information, see Configuring Queue and User assignment.

Enable Queue and User Assignment check box

Owner ID field

Staff field

Yes

The integrated Staff from Queue lookup pop-up window is displayed. You cannot select a staff member in the Owner ID field. The Staff from Queue lookup pop-up window contains all queues for the selected object (for example, Change Request).

To view the queue members, select the Queue Name row.
To select a queue in the Owner ID field and a queue member in the Staff field, click the queue member name.
To select only a queue in the Owner ID field, click the queue name.

Note: If you have selected a staff member in the Staff field, and that staff member does not belong to the selected queue, an error message is displayed. The selected queue is saved in the Owner ID field only if you select to clear the Staff field

The Select From Staff lookup pop-up window is displayed.

If you have selected a queue in the Owner ID field, only staff members who belong to the selected queue are displayed.
If you have not yet selected a queue in the Owner ID field, all staff members are displayed.

No

The Select From Staff lookup pop-up window is displayed by default. In this window, if you set the view as Queue, the Select From Queue lookup pop-up window is displayed. You can select either a staff member or queue in the Owner ID field.

Note: If you have selected a staff member in the Staff field, you must select a queue that contains the selected staff member. Otherwise, an error message is displayed when you save the template.

The Select From Staff lookup pop-up window is displayed and contains all staff members (even if you have selected a queue in the Owner ID field).

If you have selected a staff member in the Owner ID field, you can select any staff member.
If you have selected a queue in the Owner ID field, you must select a staff member who belongs to the selected queue. Otherwise, an error message is displayed when you save the template.

Configuring templates to create recurring records

You can enable the recurring creation of tasks, incidents, and change requests by configuring the recurrence frequency, such as daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly, in the template. You can set the recurrence frequency only in the Tasks, Incidents, and Change Requests templates.
To create recurring records, you must apply a recurring template to at least one record. After you apply the template, all of the recurring records are created at the same time.
Consider the following examples:

You can create a recurring task to check all of the fire extinguishers in your office building on the first of every month.
You can create a recurring task to restart all the project servers on every Sunday.
You can create a recurring change request for replacing the ink cartridge of your printer on the fifteenth day of every month.

The corresponding recurring series for each record is not created in the following scenarios:

You are creating or updating many records (incidents, change requests, or tasks) by using an external utility, such as Data Loader, and by using templates for which recurrence is configured
From the Select Field list, you are selecting an unique field that has a constant value that you want to populate on the template.

To configure the templates to create recurring records

Create a change request, incident, or task template.
For more information, see To create a template.
To set up a template to create recurring records, click .
Select the frequency (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly) with which you want the record to recur, and select options for the frequency.
For example, if you select Daily and then select every day, and specify 9 A.M.,5 P.M., and 11 A.M., you can get one record per shift for a 3-shift operation.
In the Start Date field, select the date from which to begin the recurrence interval.
In the End Date field, select the date on which to stop the recurrence interval.
(Optional) You can automatically set the end date based on the frequency and the selected start date by clicking Calculate max end date.
The maximum number of recurrences depends on the type of frequency that you selected. The default maximum limits are as follows:
- Daily: 100
- Weekly: 53
- Monthly: 60
- Yearly: 10
  You can change these limits by updating the following custom settings that are available in the Remedyforce Settings according to Customizing custom setting value.
- DailyRecurrenceLimit for daily series
- WeeklyRecurrenceLimit for weekly series
- MonthlyRecurrenceLimit for monthly series
- YearlyRecurrenceLimit for yearly series
Click Save.
(Optional) To remove the recurrence frequency settings from a template to no longer create recurring records, click Remove Recurrence.
The due dates for the recurring records are based on their recurrence date and time, and priority.
To allow users to check whether the template creates a recurrent record or not, you can add the Recurring column in the template lookup.

To add the Recurring column in template lookup

In the Remedyforce Administration > Home page, click the Manage Objects tile, and from the menu, select Create and Edit Objects.
On the Create and Edit Objects page, from the Object list, select All Custom Objects.
On the custom objects page, click Template.
In the Search Layouts section, click Edit for the Lookup Dialogs Fields layout.
From the Available Fields list, select Recurring and click the right arrow to move the selected fields to the Selected Fields list.
Click Save.

To add tasks to a template

If you are creating an incident, change request, or release template, you can add tasks to the template that must be completed before closing a record. If you create a blank task template and link it to an incident template, only the client from the incident template is populated in the task record when you use the incident template. Other values from the incident template are not populated in the task record, such as category, status, and so on. If you have populated values in the task template, these values are populated in the task record.

Create a change request, incident, or release template.
For more information, see To create a template.
In the Linked Templates section, from the Actions menu, select Add.
A new Template form opens with the Template For field filled with Task as the type of template. This field is disabled and cannot be modified.
To link an existing task template, from the Actions menu, select Link Templates, and select the required task template.
Add the required fields in the template.
Click Save.
The Template form of the task closes and the task template appears in the Linked Templates section of the Template form.
Repeat step 2 through step 5 for each task that you want to add to a template.
To configure the order in which the tasks are completed, click .
To execute all linked tasks at the same time, select the Ignore Execution Order check box.
By default, this check box is selected and all tasks are executed at the same time. To configure the execution order for tasks, clear this check box and configure the order in which the tasks are completed.
In the Order Number column of the Set Task Execution Order window, select the order number that you want to assign to the tasks.
You can assign same execution order number to more than one task.
(Optional) To ignore the execution order, clear the Ignore Execution Order check box.
Click Save.
When an incident template with associated tasks is applied, for each task, the values of the Impact, Urgency, Client ID, Category, and Description fields of the incident record are saved in the fields in the task records if the Replace form field values with template field values check box is clear on the Application Settings page.
If this check box is selected, the values of the task template are saved in these fields of the task records. If a value is missing in the task template, that value is taken from the incident record, and saved in the task record.

Service request templates

To create a service request template, select Request Detail from the Template For list. When you select Request Detail, the Incident Template list appears. Click this list to open the Select From Templates window where you must select an Incident template that contains the Incident fields that you want to use to create the service request.

Note

BMC recommends that you select an Incident template that does not have any linked Task templates. If you select an Incident template with linked Task templates, the task records, from the linked Task templates, are created even when the submitted service request is not approved.

A service request template is a combination of a Request Detail template and an Incident template. If you select Request Detail, the Quantity service request field is populated in the Select Field list. By default, the Quantity field is added to the template with a default value of 1. By default, this field is added to the template with a default value of 1. You can assign a numeric value for this field and add the field to the service request template to assign a default quantity of service requests that are requested. For example, you assign 5 to the Quantity field. When you submit a service request from this service request template, by default, 5 is the quantity of service requests that are requested.

About values in the Field Value field

Depending on the field added to the template, the Field Value field dynamically displays the appropriate option to enter a value. For example, if you added the Priority field, the Field Value field displays a list that allows you to select a priority for the field. You can enter the required value if you do not want to make a selection, and the value is validated before it is added to the template. When you add the Description field, the Field Value field displays a text box that allows you to enter a description.

If you update a lookup record and then open the existing templates in which the corresponding lookup field values are saved, then lookup field in the template does not display the updated value of the lookup records. For example, you add the Urgency field to a template, selected HIGH as the value, and then you save and close the template. If you update the name of the urgency from HIGH to HIGHEST, the existing templates in which the Urgency field is already saved, the Urgency field in the template still displays HIGH instead of HIGHEST.

If you add a Picklist (Multi-Select) field to a template and use the template to create a record in the BMC Remedyforce Salesforce page layout, a single value set in Picklist (Multi-Select) field of the template is populated in the record.

System templates

System templates are used to apply templates on records that are created using web services or workflows or by importing data. The name of the template must be used as the value of the Template Name field in the workflows, web services, or while importing data.

The system templates are not shown in the Template lookup in the BMC Remedyforce Salesforce page layout.

If you select Request Detail in the Template For field, the System Template check box is disabled because you cannot create system templates for request details.

Task execution order

You can assign same execution order number to more than one task. For example, you have four tasks, Task1, Task2, Task3, and Task4. You can assign tasks Task1 and Task2 to be executed first, then Task3, and then Task4. When Task1 and Task2 are running, only these tasks are displayed in the Supporting Information of the record. After Task1 and Task2 are closed, Task3 is displayed, and after the closing of Task3, Task4 is displayed. If an incident or change request is closed before all the tasks are closed, the tasks are not created if they are not yet scheduled.

You can apply a template on an existing incident, change request, task, or release. If you apply a template on an existing record, the tasks associated with the existing record are saved and the tasks associated with the applied template are added to the record.

Incident template with a custom lookup field

If you have created an incident template with a custom lookup field and use this template in Self Service or in a Request Definition template, ensure that Self Service users have access to the object for which you have created the custom lookup. The access helps Self Service users to submit incidents and service requests by using such a template.

Working of templates when Self Service is accessed from mobile device

If you are accessing Self Service from a mobile device and you create an incident by using an incident top request, the incident record is created and populated with values of the following fields from the incident top request:

Category
Incident Description

If you are accessing Self Service from a browser and you create an incident by using an incident top request, the incident record is created and populated with values of the following fields from the incident top request:

Category
Incident Description
Incident Resolution
Impact
Urgency
Broadcast
Configuration Items
First Call Resolution

You can view the values populated for these fields only when you open the incident record in BMC Remedyforce. You cannot view these values in Self Service.

Applying templates

You can apply templates in the following ways:

By using the Template field on the object forms. You must select the required template and the field values that are defined in the template are applied on the record.
You can apply templates to existing records if your system administrator has configured it on the Template Settings page.
By using the Template Name field. When you enable creating or updating incident, change request, or task records by using workflows or web services, or by importing data, you can opt to apply template on these records by using the Template Name field. You must set the name of the template in the Template Name field in the workflow or web services or while importing data for applying that template to the record.

Use case scenario: Applying templates with the same linked tasks

The execution of tasks differs between Release templates and Incident and Change Request templates when you apply templates with the same linked tasks. Consider the following example:

You create one Incident, Change Request, or Release template, link three Task templates to this template, and call this Template One. In the Linked Templates section at the lower section of the Template form, click Set Task Execution Order and select the Ignore Execution Order check box. You can see that the templates are assigned an Order Number of 1, 2, and 3 depending on the order in which you have linked the Task templates.

You create a second Incident, Change Request, or Release template, link the same three Task templates, and call this Template Two. In the Linked Templates section at the lower section of the Template form, click Set Task Execution Order and clear the Ignore Execution Order check box. You can see that the templates are assigned an Order Number of 1, 2, and 3 depending on the order in which you have linked the Task templates. You must assign the same execution order to the Task templates in Template Two as you have assigned in Template One.

When you create an incident, change request, or release record by using Template One, all three tasks in the template are created and linked to the record. Now, if you apply Template Two to the same incident, change request, or release record, a second task with Order Number 1 in the template is created and linked to the record. Now, there are two tasks with Order Number 1.

In an incident or change request record, if you close the either of the tasks with Order Number 1 from Template One or Template Two, the task with Order Number 2 of Template Two is created.

In a release record, if you close the task with Order Number 1 created from Template Two, the task with Order Number 2 of Template Two is created. If you close the task with Order Number 1 created from Template One, no further action occurs.

Use case scenario: Applying templates with linked tasks and reopening the closed linked tasks

The execution of tasks differs between Release templates and Incident and Change Request templates when you reopen a closed linked task. Consider the following example:

You create an Incident, Change Request, or Release template, link three Task templates to this template. In the Linked Templates section at the lower section of the Template form, click Set Task Execution Order and clear the Ignore Execution Order check box. You can see that the templates are assigned an order number of 1, 2, and 3 depending on the order in which you have linked the Task templates.

When you create an incident, change request, or release record by using Template One, the task with Order Number 1 in the template is created and linked to the record. When you close this task, the task with Order Number 2 in the template is created and linked to the record.

Now, you reopen the closed task with Order Number 1 and close the task.

In an incident or change request record, the task with Order Number 2 in the template is created and linked to the record.

In a release record, the task with Order Number 2 in the template is not created.