Re: Remedy Inconsistency

2011-08-25 Thread Pierson, Shawn
This doesn't make sense since Full Name is on the User form.  Sure, it's not 
split up by each part of the name like it is on CTM:People, but it would be 
pretty easy to do searches with LIKE that would return the names that you are 
looking for.  I've customized some of the forms for the Approval Engine in the 
past, but I try to avoid it after BMC patches wiped out all customizations time 
and time again.  I don't know how the overlay principle may apply to non-ITSM 
forms released by BMC, because I know that 7.0 ITSM patches wouldn't delete my 
fields, but ARS patches including the Approval Engine would wipe out any custom 
stuff that I added in.  I just assume that the ARS patches will continue to 
delete display only forms and recreate them from scratch rather than doing a 
more gentle update like the ITSM patches do.

Thanks,

Shawn Pierson
Remedy Developer | Southern Union

From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) 
[mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Lyle Taylor
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 10:34 AM
To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
Subject: Re: Remedy Inconsistancy

**
I griped about this a few years back, too.  The answer I got, besides 
functions as designed is that the approval engine is essentially an 
independent subsystem.  While the ITSM suite uses it, it is not, per se, part 
of the ITSM suite.  As such, it doesn't know about how ITSM stores and works 
with people but uses the User form instead.  That leaves it with only being 
able to really use the least common denominator for people, which is username.

Not sayin' I agree...


From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) 
[mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Tommy Morris
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 9:25 AM
To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
Subject: Remedy Inconsistancy

**
I just had to explain to my corporate comptroller and CIO that just because you 
can add an Approver using that approver's First and Last Name from within a 
Change ticket, that doesn't mean that you can reassign an approval the same 
way. I also went ahead and informed the two of them that they cannot create and 
Alternate Approver record using the alternate's First and Last Name.

Why is it that one Approval Central will only recognize login ID? I understand 
that the Add Approver function on Infrastructure Change uses workflow to find 
the login ID and pass that to the Approval Engine to correctly build out the 
new approval. Did the developers of Approval Central not realize that they 
could have used the same workflow so end-users are not confused by when to use 
ID vs Name? The least that they could have done is on the reassignment dialog 
form is have the field label of Approver ID instead of Approver. The same 
goes for the Alternate Approver form, the label there is Alternate*. There is 
no workflow to validate that the data being put in these fields is what the 
system actually needs. Funny thing about reporting this to support is that the 
answer is Working as Designed. Really?!?! Well I knew that it was working as 
designed, it's not a bug, it's just poor design! Its fine to have Remedy 
developers/ admins have to figure out how the system works but to push that 
headache to a UI where true end-users are impacted.
_attend WWRUG11 www.wwrug.comhttp://www.wwrug.com ARSlist: Where the Answers 
Are_


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Re: Remedy Inconsistency

2011-08-25 Thread strauss
Which module is your doozy of a bug in? ...just curious.

Christopher Strauss, Ph.D.
Call Tracking Administration Manager
University of North Texas Computing  IT Center
http://itsm.unt.edu/
From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) 
[mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Rick Cook
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 10:47 AM
To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
Subject: Re: Remedy Inconsistancy

** Oh, it's worse than that.  I had to add some functionality to the approval a 
couple years and versions ago, and found that the functionality - the workflow 
that actually does the work, not just the interface triggers - is different for 
the Process Flow Bar, the Approval Console, and the Approvals tab on the CR.  
Three sets of workflow accomplishing basically the same thing, and after years 
of all of those systems playing together, there are still separate sets of 
workflow in the current version.

It seems of lesser importance than getting bug fixes (and we are currently 
encountering a doozy) addressed and adequate QA done to ensure that things work 
at all, but it would be nice to have some tightening up of the design and 
architecture of the application suite.

Rick
On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 8:33 AM, Lyle Taylor 
tayl...@ldschurch.orgmailto:tayl...@ldschurch.org wrote:
**
I griped about this a few years back, too.  The answer I got, besides 
functions as designed is that the approval engine is essentially an 
independent subsystem.  While the ITSM suite uses it, it is not, per se, part 
of the ITSM suite.  As such, it doesn't know about how ITSM stores and works 
with people but uses the User form instead.  That leaves it with only being 
able to really use the least common denominator for people, which is username.

Not sayin' I agree...


From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) 
[mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORGmailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Tommy 
Morris
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 9:25 AM
To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORGmailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
Subject: Remedy Inconsistancy

**
I just had to explain to my corporate comptroller and CIO that just because you 
can add an Approver using that approver's First and Last Name from within a 
Change ticket, that doesn't mean that you can reassign an approval the same 
way. I also went ahead and informed the two of them that they cannot create and 
Alternate Approver record using the alternate's First and Last Name.

Why is it that one Approval Central will only recognize login ID? I understand 
that the Add Approver function on Infrastructure Change uses workflow to find 
the login ID and pass that to the Approval Engine to correctly build out the 
new approval. Did the developers of Approval Central not realize that they 
could have used the same workflow so end-users are not confused by when to use 
ID vs Name? The least that they could have done is on the reassignment dialog 
form is have the field label of Approver ID instead of Approver. The same 
goes for the Alternate Approver form, the label there is Alternate*. There is 
no workflow to validate that the data being put in these fields is what the 
system actually needs. Funny thing about reporting this to support is that the 
answer is Working as Designed. Really?!?! Well I knew that it was working as 
designed, it's not a bug, it's just poor design! Its fine to have Remedy 
developers/ admins have to figure out how the system works but to push that 
headache to a UI where true end-users are impacted.
_attend WWRUG11 www.wwrug.comhttp://www.wwrug.com ARSlist: Where the Answers 
Are_


NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and 
may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, 
use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended 
recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of 
the original message.

_attend WWRUG11 www.wwrug.comhttp://www.wwrug.com ARSlist: Where the Answers 
Are_

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Re: Remedy Inconsistency

2011-08-25 Thread Rick Cook
CMDB 7.6.04 form corruption issues when in a server group, but only on a
Linux platform - Windows seems to do just fine.  The short-term workaround:
don't customize the CMDB in a server group on Linux.  Support is working
hard on a solution.

Rick

On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 9:24 AM, strauss stra...@unt.edu wrote:

 **

 Which module is your doozy of a bug in? …just curious.

 ** **

 Christopher Strauss, Ph.D.
 Call Tracking Administration Manager
 University of North Texas Computing  IT Center
 http://itsm.unt.edu/ 

 *From:* Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:
 arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] *On Behalf Of *Rick Cook
 *Sent:* Thursday, August 25, 2011 10:47 AM

 *To:* arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
 *Subject:* Re: Remedy Inconsistancy

 ** **

 ** Oh, it's worse than that.  I had to add some functionality to the
 approval a couple years and versions ago, and found that the functionality -
 the workflow that actually does the work, not just the interface triggers -
 is different for the Process Flow Bar, the Approval Console, and the
 Approvals tab on the CR.  Three sets of workflow accomplishing basically the
 same thing, and after years of all of those systems playing together, there
 are still separate sets of workflow in the current version.

 It seems of lesser importance than getting bug fixes (and we are currently
 encountering a doozy) addressed and adequate QA done to ensure that things
 work at all, but it would be nice to have some tightening up of the design
 and architecture of the application suite.

 Rick

 On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 8:33 AM, Lyle Taylor tayl...@ldschurch.org
 wrote:

 ** 

 I griped about this a few years back, too.  The answer I got, besides
 “functions as designed” is that the approval engine is essentially an
 independent subsystem.  While the ITSM suite uses it, it is not, per se,
 part of the ITSM suite.  As such, it doesn’t know about how ITSM stores and
 works with people but uses the User form instead.  That leaves it with only
 being able to really use the least common denominator for people, which is
 username.

  

 Not sayin’ I agree…

  

  

 *From:* Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:
 arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] *On Behalf Of *Tommy Morris
 *Sent:* Thursday, August 25, 2011 9:25 AM
 *To:* arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
 *Subject:* Remedy Inconsistancy

  

 ** 

 I just had to explain to my corporate comptroller and CIO that just because
 you can add an Approver using that approver’s First and Last Name from
 within a Change ticket, that doesn’t mean that you can reassign an approval
 the same way. I also went ahead and informed the two of them that they
 cannot create and Alternate Approver record using the alternate’s First and
 Last Name.

  

 Why is it that one Approval Central will only recognize login ID? I
 understand that the Add Approver function on Infrastructure Change uses
 workflow to find the login ID and pass that to the Approval Engine to
 correctly build out the new approval. Did the developers of Approval Central
 not realize that they could have used the same workflow so end-users are not
 confused by when to use ID vs Name? The least that they could have done is
 on the reassignment dialog form is have the field label of “Approver ID”
 instead of “Approver”. The same goes for the Alternate Approver form, the
 label there is “Alternate*”. There is no workflow to validate that the data
 being put in these fields is what the system actually needs. Funny thing
 about reporting this to support is that the answer is “Working as Designed”.
 Really?!?! Well I knew that it was working as designed, it’s not a bug, it’s
 just poor design! Its fine to have Remedy developers/ admins have to figure
 out how the system works but to push that headache to a UI where true
 end-users are impacted.

 _attend WWRUG11 www.wwrug.com ARSlist: Where the Answers Are_



 NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s)
 and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized
 review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the
 intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all
 copies of the original message.

 ** **

 _attend WWRUG11 www.wwrug.com ARSlist: Where the Answers Are_ 


 _attend WWRUG11 www.wwrug.com ARSlist: Where the Answers Are_ 
 _attend WWRUG11 www.wwrug.com ARSlist: Where the Answers Are_


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Re: Remedy Inconsistency

2011-08-25 Thread strauss
True; last time I checked, I had about 2,000 records out of 266,000 where Full 
Name (First Middle Last) was NOT unique.  The disconnect got worse once the 
ITSM suite stopped using login ID (version 7.0 through 7.6.04) and TRIED to use 
Full Name and a number of fields that are only partially populated (email, 
phone) to identify people, so the designs of ITSM and Approval actually 
diverged.

Christopher Strauss, Ph.D.
Call Tracking Administration Manager
University of North Texas Computing  IT Center
http://itsm.unt.edu/
From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) 
[mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Roger Justice
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 10:37 AM
To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
Subject: Re: Remedy Inconsistancy

** Also login ID is unique and First Name Name may not be unique.

-Original Message-
From: Lyle Taylor tayl...@ldschurch.org
To: arslist arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
Sent: Thu, Aug 25, 2011 11:33 am
Subject: Re: Remedy Inconsistancy
**
I griped about this a few years back, too.  The answer I got, besides 
“functions as designed” is that the approval engine is essentially an 
independent subsystem.  While the ITSM suite uses it, it is not, per se, part 
of the ITSM suite.  As such, it doesn’t know about how ITSM stores and works 
with people but uses the User form instead.  That leaves it with only being 
able to really use the least common denominator for people, which is username.

Not sayin’ I agree…


From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) 
[mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORGmailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG?] On Behalf Of Tommy 
Morris
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 9:25 AM
To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORGmailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
Subject: Remedy Inconsistancy

**
I just had to explain to my corporate comptroller and CIO that just because you 
can add an Approver using that approver’s First and Last Name from within a 
Change ticket, that doesn’t mean that you can reassign an approval the same 
way. I also went ahead and informed the two of them that they cannot create and 
Alternate Approver record using the alternate’s First and Last Name.

Why is it that one Approval Central will only recognize login ID? I understand 
that the Add Approver function on Infrastructure Change uses workflow to find 
the login ID and pass that to the Approval Engine to correctly build out the 
new approval. Did the developers of Approval Central not realize that they 
could have used the same workflow so end-users are not confused by when to use 
ID vs Name? The least that they could have done is on the reassignment dialog 
form is have the field label of “Approver ID” instead of “Approver”. The same 
goes for the Alternate Approver form, the label there is “Alternate*”. There is 
no workflow to validate that the data being put in these fields is what the 
system actually needs. Funny thing about reporting this to support is that the 
answer is “Working as Designed”. Really?!?! Well I knew that it was working as 
designed, it’s not a bug, it’s just poor design! Its fine to have Remedy 
developers/ admins have to figure out how the system works but to push that 
headache to a UI where true end-users are impacted.
_attend WWRUG11 www.wwrug.comhttp://www.wwrug.com/ ARSlist: Where the 
Answers Are_


NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and 
may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, 
use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended 
recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of 
the original message.

_attend WWRUG11 www.wwrug.comhttp://www.wwrug.com/ ARSlist: Where the 
Answers Are_
_attend WWRUG11 www.wwrug.com ARSlist: Where the Answers Are_

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Re: Remedy Inconsistency

2011-08-25 Thread strauss
Would you believe that somewhere in the ITSM 7.6.04.01 application code for 
Incident, there is STILL something retrieving location information from 
CTM:People on Name rather than PPL ID or Login ID?  We had fits with this 
when we worked on our ITSM 7.0.02 application in 2007-8 and reported it then, 
and modified the code to stop doing it.  THE BUG(S) IS/ARE STILL THERE in 
7.6.04.01!!

This turned up this morning when our business school kept getting an invalid 
location error on creating an incident for a faculty member using the process 
flow bar, and examination of the error in the midtier log (and a lot more 
digging) showed that it kept pulling in the Site ID from his son’s record – 
same First and Last different Middle Name.  Both of their People records were 
perfect – all locations were correct and valid – but the workflow was pulling 
the wrong one at least 50% of the time, which caused us problems with 
reproducing the error – sometimes it got it correct!  Without Middle Name, we 
have about 6,000 records that are not unique.  Any programmer trying to qualify 
something on Name is a certified idiot!

BMC Defects have 9 lives; they are the “gift” that keeps on giving.

Christopher Strauss, Ph.D.
Call Tracking Administration Manager
University of North Texas Computing  IT Center
http://itsm.unt.edu/
From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) 
[mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of strauss
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 11:17 AM
To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
Subject: Re: Remedy Inconsistency

**
True; last time I checked, I had about 2,000 records out of 266,000 where Full 
Name (First Middle Last) was NOT unique.  The disconnect got worse once the 
ITSM suite stopped using login ID (version 7.0 through 7.6.04) and TRIED to use 
Full Name and a number of fields that are only partially populated (email, 
phone) to identify people, so the designs of ITSM and Approval actually 
diverged.

Christopher Strauss, Ph.D.
Call Tracking Administration Manager
University of North Texas Computing  IT Center
http://itsm.unt.edu/
From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) 
[mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Roger Justice
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 10:37 AM
To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
Subject: Re: Remedy Inconsistancy

** Also login ID is unique and First Name Name may not be unique.

-Original Message-
From: Lyle Taylor tayl...@ldschurch.org
To: arslist arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
Sent: Thu, Aug 25, 2011 11:33 am
Subject: Re: Remedy Inconsistancy
**
I griped about this a few years back, too.  The answer I got, besides 
“functions as designed” is that the approval engine is essentially an 
independent subsystem.  While the ITSM suite uses it, it is not, per se, part 
of the ITSM suite.  As such, it doesn’t know about how ITSM stores and works 
with people but uses the User form instead.  That leaves it with only being 
able to really use the least common denominator for people, which is username.

Not sayin’ I agree…


From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) 
[mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORGmailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG?] On Behalf Of Tommy 
Morris
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 9:25 AM
To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORGmailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
Subject: Remedy Inconsistancy

**
I just had to explain to my corporate comptroller and CIO that just because you 
can add an Approver using that approver’s First and Last Name from within a 
Change ticket, that doesn’t mean that you can reassign an approval the same 
way. I also went ahead and informed the two of them that they cannot create and 
Alternate Approver record using the alternate’s First and Last Name.

Why is it that one Approval Central will only recognize login ID? I understand 
that the Add Approver function on Infrastructure Change uses workflow to find 
the login ID and pass that to the Approval Engine to correctly build out the 
new approval. Did the developers of Approval Central not realize that they 
could have used the same workflow so end-users are not confused by when to use 
ID vs Name? The least that they could have done is on the reassignment dialog 
form is have the field label of “Approver ID” instead of “Approver”. The same 
goes for the Alternate Approver form, the label there is “Alternate*”. There is 
no workflow to validate that the data being put in these fields is what the 
system actually needs. Funny thing about reporting this to support is that the 
answer is “Working as Designed”. Really?!?! Well I knew that it was working as 
designed, it’s not a bug, it’s just poor design! Its fine to have Remedy 
developers/ admins have to figure out how the system works but to push that 
headache to a UI where true end-users are impacted.
_attend WWRUG11 www.wwrug.comhttp://www.wwrug.com/ ARSlist: Where the 
Answers Are_


NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and 
may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, 
use, disclosure or distribution