Updates feed overview

The Updates feed displays events that occur in BMC Helix ITSM for the tickets and resources that you follow. They are a record of updates made to tickets and resources, and events such as outages, broadcasts, and Service Level Agreements (SLAs). For example, you can view events such as status updates, comments, knowledge article updates, and relationship changes. You also get a feed when BMC Helix ITSM users mention you in a comment by using the @ key.

Related topics

Activity-feed-overview

You can follow tickets and resources given in this table:

Tickets

Incident, work order, change request, problem investigation, known error, task, and service request

Resources

Asset and Knowledge article

On the Updates feed, you can select the title or ID of the ticket or resource to open and view details of the update. You can open the asset to see the scheduled outage.

The Updates feed gives you a quick view of the events that have happened to the tickets that you work on or follow, especially when other BMC Helix ITSM users have done any updates. Similarly, the Updates feed shows updates done on articles, assets, and help you keep track of SLAs. The Updates feed also shows broadcasts and outages that might impact your work. 

Why do  get an updates feed?

You receive an updates feed of tickets and resources in the following scenarios:

  • You follow tickets, knowledge articles, or assets by clicking the FollowFollow icon.pngicon on the ticket profile.
  • You assign tickets and resources to self by using the Assign to me option, and thus follow them.
  • You are the assignee of tickets, knowledge articles, or assets. As an assignee, you automatically start following the assigned tickets and resources. 
  • You are the owner of assets.
  • You take action on tickets or resources. 

To stop getting updates feed of tickets and resources:

  • Click the Unfollow Unfollow icon.pngicon on the ticket profile. However, you still continue to be the assignee for the ticket.
  • You assign the ticket or resource to another user, and click the Unfollow Unfollow icon.pngicon.

In case of SLA breach alerts, broadcasts, and outages, you receive their updates in the following scenarios:

  • SLA breaches happen to the tickets that you follow.
  • There are outages related to the assets that you follow.
  • There are broadcasts about your location, site, company, organization, and support group.

Note

Service desk agents would be swamped with feeds about all the tickets that they create, and hence BMC Helix ITSM does not add any feed in the Updates feed when you create tickets. When you create a ticket, if you do not change the assignment, based on the auto-assignment rules set in BMC Helix ITSM, the system automatically sets the assignee for the ticket. In this case, a feed is not created in your (creator) Updates feed. But if you change the assignment when creating a ticket, a feed is added to your Updates feed. Because you did some activity on the ticket, you become a follower of that ticket. The person that you assigned the ticket also gets an feed in their Updates feed.

When you create a knowledge article, you automatically become its follower, and get an update feed about the article you created.

You can see the number of tickets you are following at the top of the updates feed as shown in the following image.

Updates_Following.png

This number gets automatically updated when you follow or unfollow a ticket and does not change based on the filters you apply in the Dashboard.

Types of updates in the feed

The system displays the following types of updates in the feeds for the tickets and resources you follow:

Types of feed

Events that trigger feeds

What is displayed in the feed?

Approval Status Updates

Change requests and knowledge articles are approved, rejected, or kept on hold.

Approval Updates.png

Asset Ownership Updates

Updates to the primary owner of asset.

Asset Ownership Updates.png

Assignment Updates

Assignment updates for all types of tickets.

Assignment Updates.png

BMC Client Management Actions

BMC Client Management actions performed on asset, such as auditing and restart.

 

Emails

Emails successfully sent by the system.

Note: If the Email message body is lengthy, only the first 1000 characters are displayed.

 

Broadcasts

Broadcasts that impact you. Feeds are added according to their start time.

Broadcasts.PNG

Knowledge Article Updates

Updates such as flagged and unflagged articles.

KB Updates.png

Location Changes

Location updates made for assets.

Location Updates.png

Outages

Outages created for assets.

Outage Updates.png

Priority Updates

Changes in the priority of tickets and resources.

Priority updates.PNG

Relationship Changes

People, asset, and ticket relationships created or changed on assets.

Relationship Changes.png

SLA Alerts

SLA breaches of the tickets.

SLA Alerts.png

Status Updates

Changes in the status of tickets and resources.

Status Updates.png

Task Updates

Tasks created by using a template for tickets, such as incidents, work orders, change requests, and activities.

Task Updates.png

Sequence of updates in the feed

The feeds are placed according to the time they occur; the most recent feed is placed at the top. They are listed in the following order:

  • Top—All open SLA breach alerts
  • Middle—All open broadcasts, outages, and flagged knowledge article notifications
  • Bottom—Other feeds such as comments, status changes, unflagged knowledge article notifications, restored outages, SLA breach alerts, and broadcasts

The top and the middle order of the feeds provide a quick view of the current status of the tickets that you follow, and help you to quickly respond to the comment or alert. You might have to quickly act upon and unflag a flagged knowledge article.

If there are no feeds about SLA breach alerts, broadcasts, outages, and flagged knowledge articles, other feeds are displayed at the top according to the time the event occurred.

On the Updates feed, you can search by the contents of the ticket and open the asset to see the scheduled outage.

Pinned updates

Feeds about SLA breach alerts, broadcasts, and outages that have not reached their end date, and flagged knowledge articles are by default marked with a pin Pin icon.jpgicon. The pinned feeds remain at the top and middle layer of the Updates feed until you unpin them, or specify their end date in BMC Helix ITSM, or unflag the article. After viewing the pinned feed, you can select the pin Pin icon.jpgicon to unpin them. If you do not unpin, the system automatically unpins them after they reach their end date, or after the article is unflagged. After they are unpinned, the feeds are moved to the bottom layer according to the time they were added to the Updates feed.

Additional information about the unpin feature:

  • The unpinning action is specific to each BMC Helix ITSM user. For example, when you unpin an SLA breach alert, other BMC Helix ITSM users still see that SLA as a pinned feed in their Updates feed.
  • You cannot pin an unpinned feed.

Scenarios when pinned feeds are dismissed without unpinning:

  • You close the ticket that has the SLA breach alert.
  • You restore the outage by specifying the current date as the end date of the outage.
  • You unflag the flagged knowledge article.

Filters in the Updates feed

When you receive multiple feeds, important feeds might remain below unread SLA breach alerts, outages, broadcasts and other comments. To see specific types of updates, you must specify filters in the Updates feed.

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You can search for feeds of a specific ticket or resource in the search box.

Filters.png

 

 

 

 

Tip: For faster searching, add an asterisk to the end of your partial query. Example: cert*