Blog

Getting Things Done – with Dovetail ArchiveManager (DIET)

October 24, 2008 I am currently working on a project where I need to take a database from empty to usable with a script file. I am at the point where I need to import data files, and the data files I need to import don't exist. The customer has the data, and luckily they have a tool to create nice, tidy data files for me - Dovetail Software's Data Import Export Tool (DIET). The challenge for me is to make it easy for them to use DIET, so I can get the data files that I need. DIET is the perfect tool for the job, because it is designed to do exactly what I need. I need data from three related tables in the database for this file, so I created a directives file to specifically control what information to…

GDPR and the Right to be Forgotten

July 24, 2018 Recently I've been having more and more conversations around GDPR, and specifically the Right to be Forgotten portion of the regulation. So if we have a customer that asks to be forgotten, how do we deal with that? And what does that mean within our Clarify/Dovetail systems? Often, the conversations dive into what data do we need to get rid of. Customer Information In our CRM / case management systems, the customer record is pretty contained. We have the contact table for the person itself, which has the person's name, phone number, email address, etc. And we have the e_addr table, for their additional phone numbers, email addresses, and web sites. There's some slight differences if we're dealing with B2C or B2B organizations. With B2C, where we might be dealing with Individual Contacts, we may also need to deal with the related…

DIET: DELETE + INSERT instead of UPDATE

June 30, 2015 When we have to insert, update, or delete data, DIET (Dovetail ArchiveManager) is often the tool of choice. Updating an object Typically, when we want to update some data, we just need to define its uniqueness properly. For example, if I wanted to update a business rule property name, I could define its uniqueness as a combination of its object type + name. For example: OBJECT TYPE="prop_name", NAME="commitment case id" UNIQUE_FIELD=obj_type, prop_name FIELDS obj_type=30; /* object type 30 = commit_log */ prop_name="Case ID"; path_name="case_commit2case:id_number"; subtype=0; val_type=0; max_len=255; END_FIELDS END_OBJECT NAME="commitment case id" If I used DIET to import this file, and this prop_name record didn’t exist in the database, then it would do an INSERT, which would create this prop_name record. If I used DIET to import this file, and this prop_name record did exist in the database, then it…

Commitment Templates

January 28, 2015 In our last episode, we looked at Commitments in Dovetail Agent. When a commitment expires, or is about to expire, the system will notify the user. Rulemanager is what sends out the notification, and the content of the notification message is defined by the commitment templates. Lets take a look at these templates, and see how we can make them better. Templates There are two templates in the system that are used for commitments: Commitment and Warning. These are stored in table_com_tmplte. With the commitment enhancements that we’ve made to Dovetail Agent, we can also enhance the commitment templates to provide more information and context. Commitment Template Here’s the commitment template we provide with Dovetail Agent. They’re simply DAT files that you import using dataex or DIET. The interesting part of the template is really the action field: RE: Commitment…

Automated Deployment for Clarify Example

January 11, 2012 Last year I posted about automated deployments for Clarify. From that post: Doing automatic deployments of Clarify changes is pretty straightforward. If I was starting off, I would use a contemporary build script tool such as nant or rake, and simply have it call out to your schema editing tool (Dovetail SchemaEditor, or ddcomp) to perform schema changes, use an import tool (such as Dovetail ArchiveManager, or dataex) for importing forms, and then compile your Clearbasic code using CBEX, or just import it as a DAT file using Dovetail ArchiveManager. File copying, registering components, configuring web servers, and setting permissions are all common tasks that are available in these build tools as well. Should you also need to do additional stuff in your database, some code that uses the Dovetail SDK can be useful. You could tie this…

Include a URL to the case in outgoing emails

July 14, 2011 I’ve blogged in the past about how to customize your outgoing emails in Clarify/Dovetail, including using rule properties. Using this same technique, we can include a URL back to the case automatically. For example, if you’re using a SelfService type application, such as Dovetail SelfService, or Clarify eSupport or WebSupport, we can include a URL back to the case so customers can easily get back to the case, where they can review it, add notes, view the status, etc. 1. Export the existing Template form the database You’ll need a directive file for the template. Here’s one: http://www.clarifytoolbox.com/code/directive-file-sendemailaboutobj-comtmplte Export it using ArchiveManager (DIET) or dataex: diet -user_name USERNAME -password PASSWORD -db_server SERVER -db_name DATABASE -archive -export sendemailaboutobj.dat -dir email_com_template.dir 2. Edit the Template All we need to do is modify the template, include the URL that we want, and use…

Support for Oracle 11

May 4, 2011 We have recently validated our product suite against Oracle 11. Due to our approaches to developing software, coupled with our use of .NET, all of our products worked as is. We didn’t have to change our apps to add support for Oracle 11. It was really just a testing exercise for us. Oracle 11 is now part of our continuous integration environment, so we know things work now, and will continue to work moving forward. Pretty sweet. This includes support for: Dovetail SDK Dovetail Mobile Dovetail Carrier Dovetail Seeker Dovetail SchemaEditor Dovetail Rulemanager Dovetail Agent Dovetail Admin Platform Guide Our online Platform Guide is the best place for the latest details on supported platforms. http://support.dovetailsoftware.com/selfservice/resources/platform-guide * One exception There is one exception for support of Oracle 11: ArchiveManager (DIET). We have some additional work to do there. If this is…

Automated Deployments for Clarify

March 7, 2011 I had an inquiry this week asking about our experience with automatic deployments for Clarify – specifically around deploying ClearBasic code and schema changes. So I jotted down a few rambling thoughts that might be useful to others. Most of this stuff is pretty standard for software development shops, but not as common in enterprise internal IT organizations. (But it should be!) At Dovetail, we have lots of experience in automated deployment. Let me lay out some of our experience and tools and scenarios. Obviously, one of the big benefits of automation is that repeatable work can be moved from a manual to an automated strategy, and by reducing the manual components, we can eliminate the human error factors, while also improving productivity and increasing employee happiness. Customization Replicator Years ago, we created a product called Customization Replicator (CR). …

Closing (and reopening) a solution

August 18, 2010 A not-so-uncommon request I’ve heard over the years is the need to be able to close a solution. You can close a case, close an action item, close an opportunity – but you can’t close a solution in the out-of-the-box product. But this is a pretty easy customization – so lets walk through it. Why close a solution? Knowledge can become outdated. But we may want to retain that knowledge, especially when we’ve linked these solutions to cases or change requests. By closing it, we can mark it as no longer relevant, and closing will also remove it from a user’s wipbin and all queues. Status and Condition Most workflow objects have a status and a condition. We can use a similar mechanism here. We’ll use the Open and Closed Conditions (same as for a case). I create a…