How to use customer specials
Customer Specials lets you automatize the process for spreading information from GEPARD. Their purpose is to send out information via E-Mails or API’s and to add information to Ticket Info or History. They can be setup for you (by SE’s or/and users with Project Admin credentials) in order to have action/-s automatically triggered while the ticket is proceeding in the life-cycle and data inside the system changes in course of events. They can be configured the following way.
- Click the Hamburger Menu in the Header.
- Click on ‘PROJECTS’.
- Click on ‘CUSTOMER SPECIALS’.
1. Select a project
You can browse through projects through a dropdown list, Customers Specials are always created based on a project, so the first step is to select a project, where you want to apply the Customer Special.
After you have selected the project you want to edit, a screen with all active an inactive Customer Specials is presented.
Customer Specials contain a ID, a short description, a Step Number, the Project Name and a sign to show if they’re activated or not.
From there on you can do the following three things, you can add a new Customer Special, edit an existing Customer Special or clone and import a Customer Special.
2. Add a new customer special
Customer specials are usually triggered, when the stepID changes or when the value of the monitored property changes. Both criteria are checked independently of each other and if all of them are fulfilled, the actions will be executed. They can be triggered based on:
- Monitored field changes
- Step changes (Conditions)
- Monitored field changes + Step changes (Conditions)
In order to add a new Customer Special you will have to do the following steps:
- Click on ‘Add customer specials’.
- Enter a short description, this description will be visible in the left Customer Special list.
- Enter a description, this description will be visible inside the specific Customer Special itself.
- Setup a Condition field (see 2.1).
- OR / AND Setup a Monitored field (see 2.2)
- Setup an action (see 2.3)
2.1 Condition field
First of all remember that most common trigger for Customer Specials is a step change, so there always has to be at least one stepID defined in the condition.
First it is important to start every mapping with $ at the beginning:
In order to setup conditions right, you need a bit of basic knowledge on the syntax that is used along the Customer Specials. It is important to know how to write the values right. Furthermore the right use of Logical Operators and Comparison Operators is essential, when setting up the Condition in the Customer Special. Everything you should know is described in the clickable dropdowns below.
How to write values right
- If you want to write a text value in conditions like name of company, country code, city name, then you have to put it between quotation marks.
For example: $ticket.clientGroupId == “null” - If you want to write a numeric value like step ID the quotation marks are not needed, simply write the value.
For example: $ticket.stepId == 68600
How to use comparison operators
- == – IS – this operator will check if the value after it is EXACTLY THE SAME as the one in ticket. Even minor differences in value will end up in not triggering the CS since it is case sensitive.
Example 1: value used in conditions was $ticket.affected.addressData.name.company == “Commerzbank AG”and in ticket it was “Commerzbank AG” – CS triggers.
Example 2: value used in conditions was $ticket.affected.addressData.name.company == “Commerzbank AG” but in ticket it was “Commerzbank” – CS doesn’t trigger.
Example 3: value used in conditions was $ticket.affected.addressData.name.company == “COMMERZBANK AG” but in ticket it was “Commerzbank” – CS doesn’t trigger.
- =~ – LIKE – this operator will check if the value after it is LIKE the one in ticket. It is more forgiving than IS, meaning it is not case sensitive, and it will allow triggering of CS, even if the values in conditions and ticket are slightly different.
Example 1: value used in conditions was $ticket.affected.addressData.name.company =~ “Commerzbank AG” and in ticket it was “Commerzbank AG” – CS triggers.
Example 2: value used in conditions was $ticket.affected.addressData.name.company =~ “Commerzbank AG” but in ticket it was “Commerzbank” – CS triggers.
Example 3: value used in conditions was $ticket.affected.addressData.name.company =~ “COMMERZBANK AG” but in ticket it was “Commerzbank” – CS triggers.
!= – IS NOT – This operator is opposite to IS, it will check if the value after it is DIFFERENT than the one in ticket. It is as accurate as IS, meaning it is case sensitive and value in the conditions need to be exactly the same as in the ticket.
Example 1: value used in conditions was $ticket.affected.addressData.name.company != “Commerzbank AG” and in ticket it was “Commerzbank AG” – CS doesn’t trigger.
Example 2: value used in conditions was $ticket.affected.addressData.name.company != “Commerzbank AG” but in ticket it was “Commerzbank” – CS triggers if other conditions are met.
Example 3: value used in conditions was $ticket.affected.addressData.name.company != “COMMERZBANK AG” but in ticket it was “Commerzbank” – CS triggers if other conditions are met.
- >= / <= – EQUAL OR GREATER THAN/EQUAL OR LESS THAN – This operator can be used only for numeric values and will check, if the value in tickets is same or greater/smaller than the one in conditions.
Example 1: Value used in conditions was $ticket.affected.addressData.address.zip >= 40547 AND $ticket.affected.addressData.address.zip <= 40549 – CS triggers if ZIP code is between 40547 and 40549.
How to use logical operators
Logical operators are used, when more than one condition has to be met in order to trigger the Customer Special.
- AND (&&) – This operator should be used when ticket has to meet more than one condition and ALL of the written conditions HAVE TO be met (all have to be true).
Example 1: $ticket.stepId == 123456 AND $ticket.affected.addressData.name.company =~ “Commerzbank AG” – This CS will be triggered for ticket for
selected project, when ticket will reach step 123456 and the name of end user’s company will be like Commerzbank AG.
Example 2: $ticket.stepId == 123456 AND $ticket.affected.addressData.name.company =~ “Commerzbank AG” AND $ticket.device.serial == “SN12345” – This CS will be triggered for ticket for selected project, when it will reach step 123456 and the name of end user’s company will be like Commerzbank AG and Serial number of connected device will be SN12345.
- OR (||) – This operator should be used when ticket has to meet more than one condition and EITHER of them HAS TO be met (at least one has to be true).
Example 1: $ticket.stepId == 123456 OR $ticket.stepId == 678900 – This CS will be triggered for ticket, for when it will reach ticket 123456 or Step 678900.
Example 2: $ticket.stepId == 123456 OR $ticket.stepId == 678900 OR $ticket.stepId ==256795 – This CS will be triggered for ticket, for when it will reach Step 123456 or Step 678900 or step 256795.
How to combine operators
You can combine conditions with both operators, but then you have to pay attention to OR Conditions as they should be put in brackets:
- ($ticket.stepId == 123456 OR $ticket.stepId == 678900) AND $ticket.affected.addressData.name.company =~ “Commerzbank AG” – This CS will be triggered for ticket in selected project when it will reach step 123456 OR 678900 and the name of end user’s company will be like Commerzbank AG.
If you forget about the brackets then it will end with CS being triggered for wrong tickets. Let’s use the example from above but without brackets around the OR condition:
- $ticket.stepId == 123456 OR $ticket.stepId == 678900 AND $ticket.affected.addressData.name.company =~ “Commerzbank AG” – this CS will be triggered in two cases:
- For every ticket for selected project which will get to step 123456.
For every ticket for selected project which will get to step 678900 AND the name of end user’s company will be like Commerzbank AG.
As you can see without brackets around OR values the AND condition will be connected only to the OR value near to it.
More examples
- $ticket.stepId==12345 AND $ticket.affected.addressData.name.company=~”Ericsson”
- Enter ‘$ticket’ to define that data is taken from the ticket table.
- Enter ‘.stepID==12345’ to define that data from exact this step is taken.
Note: == is an operator, it means only this number should be considered.
Note: The ‘.’ acts as a Referrer, so you basically tell, where the data is taken from, e.g. in this case the Ticket Table. - Enter ‘AND’ to add a second condition, which should be taken in consideration for the Special.
- Remember we want to meet the condition ‘is like’, so we use the =~ operator and also enter the name in brackets.
So you enter: $ticket.affected.addressData.name.company=~”Ericsson”
$ticket.stepId == 62965 AND $ticket.affected.addressData.location.note== “C (satellite)”
This Condition Setup will trigger an action for Pending wait onsite status for site Type C.)
2.2 Monitored field
Monitored field allows to evoke CS when a value of a certain field changes. A good example would be the Sending of an E-Mail whenever a device serial is changed. For this case we can simply insert Serial in Monitored Field and are done. Now for every ticket for selected project when there will be a change in serial field, an E-Mail will be sent.
The following fields are available for Monitoring:
2.3 Action setup
Once the setup of the Conditions AND/OR Monitored Fields is completed, Actions need to be set. To setup actions, click the ‘Add action’ button.
Send email
This allows you to set up an e-mail for a recipient with a text and subject defined by Admin.
In the next screen you can setup the E-Mail that is sent out, when the Customer Special is triggered.
Click ‘Save’ and the action setup of the E-Mail is completed.
You can also use conditions in the E-Mail body if you follow the Freemarker Syntax. This can be for example useful, when you want to compare two values. Using this Syntax is also especially useful, if you try to personalize your E-Mails. For example if you want to write different E-mails to different genders.
<#if "[@AffectedCompany]"?contains("Commer")>
1st conditions is ok
<#else>
no conditions are met
</#if>
Explanation:
- If the affected company will contain text “Commer” then the text “1st conditions is ok” will be sent.
- If not, then text “no conditions are met” will be sent.
To learn more about how to use the Freemarker Syntax, especially about the if-else Syntax, click the link.
To learn more about how to use the Freemarker Syntax, especially about the starts_with Syntax, click the link.
To learn more about how to use the Freemarker Syntax, especially about the ends_with Syntax, click the link.
Show message
Displays a message inside the Info Tab in FSA. It will also be visible in the Overview Tab of GEPARD under Customer Specials.
It is mainly used for the FSA engineers to update them about something customer-specific, e.g. a code for a door.
Call external API
Sends API calls/data to other systems (Creation is available for all users, but it is strongly recommended to be setup by BPE’s though.)
This functionality allows you to exchange Inbound and Outbound information with the Interface Team via an API. This is for example the case if a project uses a different dedicated denomination for a particular number that we would call for example CNI and the Project denominates it in a different style. Interface Team makes sure this data is delivered and exchanged successfully between the projects.
Displays Information that can be found in the Ticket Info Tab in CONNECT and lets you select, if the ticket info created by this customer special will be automatically displayed as acknowledged / resolved by the setup person.
How to edit an existing customer special
- In this field you can edit the short description, which is visible on the left hand side.
- In this field you can edit the description, which is visible inside the selected Customer Special itself.
- In this field you can edit the Monitored fields. Monitored fields are described later under Monitored field 2.2
- In this field you can edit the Conditions. Condition fields are described in Condition field 2.1
- In this field you can edit, delete or add new Actions by clicking the + Button beneath the Actions (described in 2.3 Action Setup)
- In this field you can decide whether you want the selected Customer Special to be active or not by switching the radio button.
- In this field you can decide whether this Customer Special can be edited by Admins only or not.
- This field saves your current edits.
- This field cancels your current edits.
Clone and import customer special
If you want to save time when creating Customer Specials you can use the ‘Clone’ and ‘Import cloned customer specials’ functionality. You are able to clone every Customer Special of your selected Project from the left list. The ‘Clone’ button can be used to clone your Customer Special, while the ‘Import cloned customer specials’ button let’s you insert the cloned Customer Special from the clipboard, so you can use the same Conditions and Actions for another project.
When cloning and importing CS you have to keep two important facts in mind:
You should only import Customer Specials based on the same project, the button will be greyed out if you try it with other projects.
However, you can import Customer Specials from other projects, but they need to be based on the same workflow. Otherwise importing will be greyed out.
- Click on the Customer Special you want to clone.
- Click on the ‘Clone’ button.
- Create a new customer special by clicking ‘Add customer specials’.
- Click ‘Import cloned customer specials’.
- Click ‘Save’ to apply your cloned Special.
You have more specific questions about Customer Specials? Our business process engineers are happy to help you.