Calendar functional areas
Navigating the Calendar interface
The following table contains the information about various navigational icons in the calendar:
Icon | Description |
|---|---|
| Select the time range in Display by to get an overview of the change and release tickets, business events, and outages on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis. |
| Click Today to view the tickets for the current date. |
| Click the date, week or month to open the calendar view. You can view the tickets or events for any date, week, or month. |
| Click the navigational arrows to move back or forward by a day, week or month. |
| Click the Collapse toolbar icon to show or hide the Export and Refresh icons. |
| Click the Export icon to export all the events being displayed on the calendar to a CSV or an ICS file. |
| Click the Refresh icon to refresh the calendar data. |
| Click the show sidebar button to display the sidebar. Click the hide sidebar button to hide the sidebar. |
Filters menu
The calendar has a rich filter set available out of the box. You can apply one or more filters to view only the tickets that you want to view in the calendar.
Business events and outages are displayed to all users. You must have the necessary user permissions to view other ticket types and related details in your calendar. For more information about roles and permissions, see Roles and permissions.
You can customize the calendar view to not show any business events by disabling Fetch BE. If you have enabled Fetch BE, all the business events for a selected time range are shown, irrespective of the filters applied. This gives you a better visibility for planning any changes, as you can also see any important business event that is not related to the selected filter. For more information about how to enable Fetch BE, see To update the properties for the Calendar component.
You can also configure the maximum number of records that are displayed in the calendar by setting the page size in the Calendar component. If the number of records exceeds the limit that you set, the calendar does not display all the records. For example, if the limit is set to display 100 records, only the first 100 records are displayed. More records are displayed as you scroll down the calendar. By default, the records that are displayed are sorted by the start date and the start time of the activity.
The calendar displays only the records for which you specified the start and end dates while creating a ticket. The table below displays the default out-of-the-box start and end dates set for each filter type.
Filter | Default start date | Default end date |
|---|---|---|
Change | Scheduled Start date | Scheduled End date |
Release | Scheduled Start date | Scheduled End date |
Task | Scheduled Start date | Scheduled End date |
Outage | Scheduled Start date or Actual Start date | Scheduled End date or Actual End date |
Problem Investigation | First Reported on | Target Resolution date |
Incident | Reported date | Estimated Resolution date |
Business Event | Start date | End date |
Filters are independent of each other, and you can add multiple values to a single filter type. For example, consider a company Petramco that operates in the Americas region. When you add the Change impacted company filter as Petramco, you are able to add Change impacted region as Americas and Asia Pacific, even though Petramco does not operate in Asia Pacific region. The filter results show the tickets that have Company as Petramco and Region as Americas in the Impacted areas section of the ticket.
To sort filters alphabetically, while customizing the view, select Sort filters alphabetically. Even when you sort the filters alphabetically, the most commonly used Ticket Type filter is always displayed on top of the list of filters. For more information, see Enabling-and-configuring-the-calendar. Named filters are also available out of the box, like Assignee, and Status. For information about editing the named filters, see Creating a tabular view of record instances by using a record grid.
When you start typing in the search box available for some filters, you get relevant suggestions that you have access to, along with some additional information below each suggestion. This additional information helps you to distinguish between same filter values. For example, when you search for LAN in Product category tier 3, you can see two suggestions with same value LAN. The information below each suggestion helps you to select the correct filter value of your choice.
You can also create preset filters. For more information about creating preset filters, see To create preset filters.
Export Calendar events
You can export all the events that are displayed in the calendar for the selected time span, so that you can view them offline. Search for the events by using presets and filters and export the displayed events to a CSV or an ICS file. The ICS file that is downloaded to your computer can be manually imported to your personal calendar like Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, or an Apple Calendar. The CSV file helps you to analyze the events offline and can be shared with the users who do not have necessary permissions to view the tickets in the calendar.
User preferences for the calendar
The calendar saves your last used filters of the session and applies them by default when you log in for the next session. When you create a preset filter, it is applied and saved for your next session. However, if you change the filters later, the last used filters of the session are saved and are applied when you log in for the next session.
Instructions for classic interfaces
View instructions for classic Smart IT
The calendar in classic Smart IT provides an overview of the change and release tickets, business events, and outages. You can access the calendar from the menu bar. The change and release tickets that have Scheduled Start Date and Scheduled End Date, are displayed in the calendar.
View instructions for Mid Tier
In Mid Tier, the Calendar displays the data for a selected time span in the selected view. From within the various views, you can perform multiple operations on an event in the Calendar. An event can be an incident, problem, change, release, business event, or CI outage.
View the Calendar by selecting Calendar from the Quick Links menu.
Additionally, from the Change Management and Release Management applications, you can access the Calendar by using the following options:
- From the Applications menu, select Change Management > Calendar.
- On the Change Management console or Release Management console, select Functions > View Calendar.
- On the Change form or Release form, select Quick Action > View Calendar.
The following figure shows the options described for the Calendar.
The Filters & Queries pane provides options for selecting the primary data source and applying additional filters to the data.
Filters menu
You can choose to view details of incidents, problems, changes, and releases for the selected time span by selecting the appropriate option under Filters. The calendar displays the events relevant to each filter type, if you specified the start and end dates while creating a ticket. The table below displays the default out-of-the-box start and end date set by the system for each filter type.
Filter | Default start date | Default end date |
|---|---|---|
Releases | Scheduled Start Date | Scheduled End Date |
Changes | Scheduled Start Date | Scheduled End Date |
Problems | Problem Reported On | Target Date |
Incidents | Reported Date | Target Date |
A user with administrator permissions can change the default start and end date for each filter type by using the backend form NGC:DataSource. The following example shows how to change the default start and end date for a problem:
- On the NGC:DataSource form, set the Primary Source list value to Yes and click Search to view the filter types.
- From the search results, select Problems to view the data source details.
- From the Start Date Type list, select Actual Start Date.
The Start Date Type field displays the ID of the selected field.
- From the End Date Type list, select Actual End Date.
The End Date Type field displays the ID of the selected field. - Select the Default check box to set the selected start and end date values as the default value.
- (Optional) Click Add to add the selected values to the panel below.
- Click Save.
- Repeat steps 1 and 2 to refresh the page and view the newly set default values.
Queries menu
You can apply additional queries to filter the displayed data by selecting an option from the Queries > Predefined Queries menu. If you have any user-defined queries, you can select them from the Queries > My Queries menu.
To clear all the additional queries that have been applied, select Predefined Queries > By Status and then select All Open (for incidents), All Open Problems, All Open Changes, or All Open Releases based on the type of request that you have selected.
The following predefined queries are available for incidents out of the box:
Query name | Description |
|---|---|
All Open | View all the requests in the Open status from the list. The following options are available:
|
All Open Submitted By Me | View all the requests submitted by you in the Open status. The following options are available:
|
All Open Unacknowledged | View all the requests in the Open status that are unacknowledged. The following options are available:
|
All Open Unassigned | View all the unassigned requests. The following options are available:
|
The following predefined query is available for problems out of the box:
Query name | Description |
|---|---|
By Status | View the records by the status selected from the list. For problems, the following options are available:
|
The following predefined queries are available for changes out of the box:
Query name | Description |
|---|---|
By Status | View the requests by the status selected from the list. For changes, the following options are available:
|
By Service | View requests by service CIs. You can define, save, and delete your own search criteria, based on service CIs. Service CIs are in a hierarchical structure as defined by the user company. In searching for changes by service CI, you can specify the depth level at which to search. For example, depth level 2 means that you are searching the specified CI, its children, and its grandchildren (in the hierarchy tree) for all the related changes. You can view results based on your search criteria in the Calendar by performing the following actions:
You can define a new service CI search by selecting the search criteria and clicking Save Search. For more information about service CIs, see Creating-a-CI. |
By Location | Include an impact location in your search (for example, by company, region, site group, or site). You can define, save, and delete your own search criteria based on categories such as change status, approval status, and so on. You can further filter requests by choosing options such as product categorization (for example, Software) and assignment (by manager's name, group, or assignee). You can view results based on your search criteria in the Calendar by performing the following actions:
You can define a new location search by selecting the search criteria and clicking Save Search. |
By Related CI | Define, save, and delete your own search criteria based on categories such as status and impact. You can further filter requests by selecting options such as operational categorization (for example, Add) and assignment (by manager's name, group, or assignee). Finally, you can include CI criteria in your search (for example, a CI class such as software). You can view results based on your search criteria in the Calendar by performing the following actions:
You can define a new search by selecting search criteria and clicking Save Search. |
Quick Search | Run and create quick searches for change or release based on basic fields. In the Quick Search dialog box, you can perform the following actions:
|
Time durations
The date or date range of the data is displayed in the Calendar. Click the arrow next to this date to view the date picker and select a specific date. Click the arrows next to the timeline bar to change the duration by a day, week, or month, depending on the duration that you selected. To move back to the current date, click Today on the timeline bar.
Legend
The Legend in the Calendar displays details about the field values and the color codes used for each value. It includes the color codes for business events, CI outages, and colliding changes. By default, the Legend is displayed, but you can click the arrow to hide the details.
On the Calendar, incidents, problems, changes, releases, and their related tasks and manifest are shown in transparent color-coded blocks. Although related tasks and activities are shown in the predefined default color, the color code for incidents, problems, changes, and releases can be configured. For more information about configuring the field and colors, see Managing Change Calendar preferences.
Business events, planned outages, and unplanned outages that can be displayed in the Calendar view are shown in solid bars. When you are viewing collisions, colliding changes are displayed in solid shaded blocks. These colors are predefined and cannot be configured.
Event InfoTips
When you hover your mouse pointer over an event, a summary of the requests is displayed in a small window called an InfoTip. You can configure the fields displayed in the InfoTip. For more information about adding or removing fields from the InfoTip, see Managing Change Calendar preferences. The InfoTip is a subset of the information displayed on the Details pane, which provides additional details about a request or an outage in the Calendar view.
Details pane
To view additional details of an incident, problem, change, release, or outage, select the record and click the Details pane on the right of the Calendar. In the Timeline view, you can drill down to the related records like change tasks, problem tasks, incident tasks, or a release manifest and view their details in the Details pane.
The Details pane displays the following sections:
- Activity Info displays details of the selected request, like summary, ID, status, and coordinators.
- Collision Detection (applies to changes and releases) displays all the colliding changes for the selected duration. You must have run collision detection for the selected record from the change or release application to view this information here. When you select a request and select the Collision Detection option in the Details pane, all colliding changes are displayed in gray-shaded blocks on the calendar. For more information about collision detection, see Detecting-collisions-between-change-requests.
- Impact Analysis (applies to changes and releases) displays all the relationships of the selected impact type from the relationship list created for that record within the application. You must have run the impact analysis for the selected record from the change or release application to view this information. For more information about impact analysis, see Viewing the impact of CIs on change requests.
- Relationships displays all the requests related to the selected record. For example, when you select a problem record and select the Relationships option in the Details pane, all the requests related to that problem record are displayed.
Right-click menu commands
When you right-click an incident, problem, change, or release in a view, or their related tasks or manifest in the Eventlist view, all available commands for the selected record are displayed:
Menu command | Description | Applicable data source |
|---|---|---|
Open record | If you have appropriate permissions, opens the record in the application console. | Incidents and problems |
Open request | If you have appropriate permissions, opens the request in the application console. | Changes and releases |
Edit Event | Displays a dialog box in which you can update the summary or the start and end date of the request. Ensure that the edited scheduled dates do not conflict with existing events. Important: You cannot edit incidents and problems. You can edit only changes and releases. | Changes and releases |
Show Approval | Displays a light version of Approval Central if you are a valid approver. This light version does not display the pane. As a valid approver, you can approve or reject the request, reassign the request, and save your changes. | Changes and releases |
Service Context | Displays the Service Context Summary window of the service CI associated with the selected request, if any. The summary window displays the basic details of the service CI. For more information about the Service Context Summary window, see Configuring attributes by using the Service Context Administration window. | Incidents, problems, changes, and releases |
Broadcast record | Displays the New/Modify Broadcasts window. You can broadcast the record that you selected. The Broadcast option is available in the Calendar view only. Important: You cannot broadcast business events. You can broadcast only incidents, problems, changes, releases, and outages. | Incidents, problems, changes, and releases |
Export to ICS file | Exports all the events seen on the Calendar to an iCalendar (ICS) file. This functionality is available only in the Calendar view. For more information about how to export events to the ICS file, see Export Calendar events to an ICS file. | Incidents, problems, changes, and releases |
Drag-and-drop events
For changes and releases, an additional option is provided in the Calendar and Timeline views. You can drag changes and releases to another date and time. In the Timeline view, the date and time of the event is displayed as a tooltip as you drag the request. In case of a collision, you can use this option to move the request to a date and time that does not collide with existing requests. When you move the request, the details of the event are automatically updated to the new date and time. A confirmation message is displayed based on the success or failure of the operation. If you do not have permissions to modify the request, an error message is displayed. In the Timeline view, you can also drag related tasks and activities; however, you cannot move them across changes or releases.
Menu icons
The following icons are available on the Calendar:
Icon | Description |
|---|---|
| In the timeline bar, click the arrows to change the duration by a day, week, or month, depending on the duration that you had selected. Click Today to see the data for the current date. |
| Click this link to open the broadcast dialog box, from where you can view, create, modify, and delete broadcasts. When there are unread broadcasts, this area displays the icon followed by the number of new broadcasts. For more information about broadcasting messages, see Broadcasting messages. Important: You can create or modify broadcasts only if you have the functional role of a Broadcast submitter. |
| Click the Export all Events to ICS file icon to export all the events being displayed on the Calendar to an ICS file. |
| Click the Refresh icon to refresh the Calendar data. |
| If you move multiple events within the Calendar, click the Save icon to save changes made to all the records. This option is enabled only if Bulk Modification is enabled. Important: You can move events within the calendar only in the Calendar and Timeline views. |
| Click the Print icon to print the displayed data. When you click this icon, the Print dialog box appears. Select the appropriate printer and click OK to print the data. In the Eventlist view and Timeline view, a preview of the printed data is also displayed. In the Calendar view, the Filters & Queries pane is also printed. |
| Click the Report Console icon to launch the Reporting console to create or view reports. You must have the required permissions to view the Reporting console. For more information about creating reports, see Using reports and flashboards . |
| Click the Settings icon to perform the following actions:
|
Date picker in the Change Calendar
The Calendar header provides information about the data filters applied and duration of the calendar data. For example, if the data filter applied is for all open changes and the duration selected is Month, the header is All Open Changes for August 2012.
The arrow next to the header displays the date picker for the calendar, as shown in the following figure:
You can perform the following functions on the date picker:
- Click < and > to move the calendar to the previous or next month.
- Press Ctrl+Up Arrow or Ctrl+Down Arrow to move the calendar to the same month in the previous or next year.
Export Calendar events to an ICS file
In Mid Tier, the Calendar provides the option to export one or all events that you see on the Calendar in the selected time span. The data is exported to an iCalendar (ICS) file that is downloaded to your computer, which you can manually import to your personal calendar like Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, or an Apple Calendar.
- You can export the events that are displayed only in the Calendar view. This functionality is not available in the Eventlist view or Timeline view.
- You cannot import the ICS file to the Calendar in BMC Helix ITSM.
- If incorrect time zones are displayed for your events after importing the ICS file to your personal calendar, ensure that your time zone is present on the NGC:TimeZoneMapping form. For more information about adding your time zone to this form, see Adding your time zone.
To export the calendar events:
- Open the calendar.
- Perform one of the following steps:
- To export a calendar event, in the Calendar view, right-click the event, and then click Export to ICS file.
- To export all the calendar events, in the Calendar view, click the Export all Events to ICS file icon.
- To export a calendar event, in the Calendar view, right-click the event, and then click Export to ICS file.