Working with actions

To save time of staff members, you can add custom actions for the common actions performed by staff members. These actions are available to the staff members in the Action History section of a record. Staff members need to click New Action in the Action History section of a record, fill the required details, and the action is added to the record to the Action History section. For example, you want to keep a record of the calls received from clients of an incident. You need to add the Client Call custom action for the Incident object. Whenever a client calls, the staff members add the Client Call action and save the details of the conversation. These details are available in the Action History section of the record.

The following topics are provided:

Overview of actions

Action records are used to record details of the steps performed when working on an agreement, broadcast, change request, configuration item, incident, problem, release, service outage, or task. BMC Remedyforce provides the following types of action records:

• System actions - These action records are not available when a staff member clicks New Action. These actions are added to a record when the action occurs. For example, when a record (incident or service request) is created from Self Service, the Incident Opened From Self Service action is added to the record in the Action History section. Following out-of-the-box system actions are provided:
  
  

  Action	Purpose
  Approval Information	This action is created to update the Approval History section of incidents or service requests. This action is used in the VisualForce page layouts UI only. If you are using the Remedyforce Administration tab to access actions, this action is not valid for you.
  BMC FootPrints Asset Core Error	This action is created when there is an error generated during operational rule assignment or execution through BCM integration.
  BMC FootPrints Asset Core Log	This action is created for a direct action performed on a devices such as remote access or manage services, through BMC integration.
  Chat Transcript	This action is created in the Incident Action History section with the chat transcript when you link a Remedyforce chat to an existing incident.
  Client Note	This action is created when a client adds a note to incidents or service requests from Self Service.
  Email Received	This action is created to log emails received from clients by Remedyforce.
  Email Sent	This action is created to log emails sent from Remedyforce to clients.
  Incident Information	This action record is created to update Action History section of incidents or service requests.
  Incident Opened From Self Service	This action is added to an incident or service request when it is opened by a client in Self Service.
  Incident Updated
  Knowledge Article
  Notes	This action is used to add a new note.
  Process Execution Failure	This action is added to the Approval History section of an incident or service request if there is an error during the approval process in the VisualForce page layouts UI. If you are using the Remedyforce Administration tab to access actions, this action is not valid for you.
  Research Information
  Review
  Service Health Update	This action is added to a service outage and describes the actions that are taken to resolve that outage. This action is visible on the Remedyforce Service Health tab and also in Self Service on the View Service Health tile to clients who have subscribed to a particular service on which an outage is created.

  Note

  Staff members cannot edit or delete system action records.

• User-generated actions - These action records are added by a system administrator. You can modify and delete such actions based on your requirements. For example, you can create an action record of installing the latest operating system.

You can create a custom action for the the following modules:

• Agreements
• Broadcasts
• Change Requests
• Configuration Items
• Incidents
• Problems
• Service Outage
• Releases
• Tasks

When you add an action for an agreement, the action can be assigned to an agreement when you set up milestones for a service target.

To create an action

You can only add user actions that are added in the Action History or Supporting Information section of a record.

1. Click the Remedyforce Administration tab.
2. On the Home page, click the Configure Application tile, and from the menu select Actions.
3. In the actions list view, click .
4. In the Action field, type a name for the action.
5. In the Abbreviation field, type a short label that you want to assign to the action.
   When you create charts or reports, you can use this field to represent the current action record in the chart or report. The field uses minimal screen space, which enables you to display more data in a chart or report.
6. In the Applies To section, select the required options.
7. In the Details section, select the required values:

   • Enable Edit - Select this check box to open the action record for editing whenever a staff member adds the action to a record. 

     Note

     Even if you select this check box for the Client Note action, staff members cannot edit and save the Client Note action. The Client Note actions are for the exclusive use of Self Service clients. This restriction is added to prevent staff members from editing the notes added by Self Service clients.

   • Display in Self Service - Select this check box to enable clients to see the action details that staff members add to a record.
   • Hide Duration - Select this check box to hide the Duration field on the Action form. 
8. Click Save.

9. (Optional) To designate the current record as inactive, select the Inactive check box.
   For example, the action of replacing a CD drive is no longer applicable because all CD drives in the account have been replaced with DVD drives.
   

   Note

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

To copy an action

You can copy an existing action to save you time.

1. Click the Remedyforce Administration tab.
2. On the Home page, click the Configure Application tile, and from the menu select Actions.
3. In the actions list view, click the record that you want to copy.
4. On the record page, click .
5. On the new record page that opens, make the required changes and click Save.

To delete an action

If an action is not required by your staff members, you can delete it.

1. Click the Remedyforce Administration tab.
2. On the Home page, click the Configure Application tile, and from the menu select Actions.
3. In the actions list view, click the record that you want to delete.
4. On the record page, click .