Managing templates

To help ensure accuracy and completeness, BMC recommends that you use a template to create records. Templates help you to configure commonly used workflows, 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:

Considerations for adding fields to templates

Before you start creating templates, consider the following important points about adding fields to a template:

• BMC Remedyforce supports adding fields of only specific data types.

   Supported data types.

  • Check box
  • Currency
  • Email
  • Lookup Relationship
  • Master-Detail Relationship
  • Number
  • Percent
  • Phone
  • Picklist
  • Text
  • Text Area
  • Text Area (Long)
  • URL
• Consider the following points about adding specific fields to templates:
  

  • To use a configuration item (CI) or service to create recurring records, 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, 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.

     Points to consider when selecting queues and staff members for templates.

    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 Enabling assignment of records to both queues and staff members.

    Enable Queue and User Assignment check box is selected	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.

  • In a Request Detail template, the Quantity service request field is populated by default in the Select Field list, with a default value of 1. You can update this field value to assign a default quantity of service requests that are requested.
    For example, say that 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.
•  Points to consider about adding lookup fields to templates.

  Consideration	Example
  In an Incident template, if you add 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 field. The access helps Self Service users to submit incidents and service requests by using such a template.	None
  Templates do not support custom lookup fields on an object that has the same name as that of BMC Remedyforce objects.	Consider an example in which you create a custom field ABC in the BMC Remedyforce Incident object and the field is a lookup on the custom Incident object that does not belong to BMC Remedyforce. In this case, templates do not support the ABC field.
  If you update a lookup record and then open the existing templates in which the corresponding lookup field values are saved, that lookup field in the template does not display the updated value.	Consider an example in which you add the Urgency field to a template, select HIGH as the value, and then save and close the template. If you later update the name of the urgency from HIGH to HIGHEST, the the Urgency field value that is already saved in existing templates continues to display HIGH instead of HIGHEST.

• If users access Self Service from a mobile device and create an incident by using an Incident top request, the incident record is populated with values of the Category and Incident Description fields from the Incident top request. However, if users access Self Service from a browser and create an incident by using an Incident top request, the incident record is 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 

  Users can view the values populated for these fields only when the incident record is opened in BMC Remedyforce. They cannot view these values in Self Service
  

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

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Creating templates

The following topics provide information about creating different types of templates:

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Adding tasks to templates

If you are creating an incident, change request, or release template, you can add tasks to the template. When the template is assigned to a record, task records are also created based on the linked task template. 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 the incident template is used. Other values from the incident template, such as category and status, are not populated in the task record. However, if you populate values in a task template that is linked to an incident template, these values are populated in the task record when the incident template is used.

If you add multiple task templates, you can assign the same execution order number to more than one task.
For example, say that 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 Record Details section of the record. After Task1 and Task2 are closed, Task3 is displayed, and after the closing of Task3, Task4 is displayed.

The linked tasks must be completed before closing a record to which this template is applied. 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.

To add tasks to a template

1. Create a change request, incident, or release template.
   For more information, see To create a template for different modules.
2. 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.
3. To link an existing task template, from the Actions menu, select Link Templates, and select the required task template.
4. Add the required fields in the template.
5. Click Save.
   The Template form of the task closes and the task template appears in the Linked Templates section of the Template form.
6. For each task that you want to add to a template, repeat step 2 to step 5.
7. To configure the order in which the tasks are completed, click .
8. In the Set Task Execution Order window, perform one of the following actions:
   
   • To configure the execution order for tasks, clear the Ignore Execution Order check box, and in the Order Number column, select the order number that you want to assign to the tasks.
     You can assign the same execution order number to more than one task.
   • To ignore the execution order and 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.
9. Click Save.

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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.

To configure a template to create recurring records

1. Create a change request, incident, or task template.
   For more information, see To create a template for different modules.
2. To configure a template to create recurring records, click .
3. Select the frequency (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly) at which you want the record creation 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.
   
4. In the Start Date field, select the date from when you want the recurrence interval to begin.
5. In the End Date field, select the date when you want the recurrence interval to stop.
6. (Optional) To automatically set the end date based on the frequency and the selected start date, click 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 BMC Remedyforce custom settings. For more information about updating custom settings, see Managing custom settings.

   • (For daily series) DailyRecurrenceLimit
   • (For weekly series) WeeklyRecurrenceLimit
   • (For monthly series) MonthlyRecurrenceLimit
   • (For yearly series) YearlyRecurrenceLimit
7. Click Save.
   The due dates for the recurring records are based on their recurrence date and time, and priority.

To add the Recurring column to the Template lookup window

To allow users to check whether the template creates a recurrent record or not, you can add the Recurring column in the Template lookup window.

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

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Deleting or inactivating templates

Based on your requirements, you can either inactivate or delete a template that is no longer required. To perform either action, you must navigate to Remedyforce Administration > Configure Application > Templates.

Goal	Action to be performed
Prevent users from applying a template to records but retain all existing references to that template in records. For example, say 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.	From the templates list, open a template, select the Inactive check box, and click  .
Permanently delete a template from BMC Remedyforce. In this case, all references to the template in linked records are also deleted. Note: Although a deleted template is no longer displayed in the Template lookup window, other field values that were populated by applying this template are retained.	From the templates list, select a template and click  .

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Applying templates

The following table describes the different options that your users can use to apply templates:

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.

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Related topics

Creating an Incident template to deploy an operational rule

Creating a Task template to deploy an operational rule

Creating a Request Detail template to deploy an operational rule