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Custom form for submitting a new request

The system form for submitting a new request to the ALVAO WebApp can be replaced by a custom form with specific content and behavior. The custom form can also accommodate multiple requests at the same time and thus can be used to support complex business processes such as onboarding a new employee. Custom forms are not available for ALVAO SaaS.

Templates for creating your own forms can be found in the \Custom\Templates\ in the ALVAO WebApp installation folder.

List of standard templates:

Name	Description
NewTicket	Example of a form for creating multiple requests in conjunction with each other. It also shows how to use some of the controls and how to work with the element to report the time to the request being created.
EmptyPage	Blank template. Used for pages that are not intended for making requests. This type of page is only used for special purposes, such as the content of custom tabs on a request.

The .cshtml file defines the appearance of the form, the .cs file, located in the \Code folder, describes the logic of sending data from the filled form.

Preparing a new form

In the \Custom folder, first create a folder for the functionality that the new custom form will cover, e.g. HrProcessAutomation (for HR process automation). Multiple forms can be placed in a single functionality folder.

Then, in the \Custom\Templates folder, choose a form template that is as close to your intent as possible. Copy the contents of the template folder to the Custom<name of functionality> folder. Rename the .cshtml and .cs files appropriately. Give both files (.cshtml and .cs) the same name. We recommend starting the form name with the name of the functionality, then the name of the service it is for, and finally the operation, e.g. HrProcessAutomation_Onboarding_NewTicket, where HrProcessAutomation is the name of the functionality, Onboarding is the service name, and NewTicket is the operation name.

Now you also need to modify the inside of the form according to the new name:

• In the .cs file, at the beginning of the file after the word namespace, include the namespace name Alvao.ServiceDesk.ServiceDeskWebApp.Custom.<function_name>. For the name of the functionality, specify the name of the folder on disk where the form resides, e.g. Alvao.ServiceDesk.ServiceDeskWebApp.Custom.HrProcessAutomation.
• In the .cs file, at the beginning of the file for the class keyword, change the name of the class. The class name must be <the name of the cshtml page>Controller, e.g. in the form HrProcessAutomation_Onboarding_NewTicket.cshtml the class would be named HrProcessAutomation_Onboarding_NewTicketController.

Form layout definition

The .cshtml file contains a description of the form layout and specifies the elements to be displayed. When the user submits data, the data entered into the displayed elements is then converted to text, and this text can then be used further in the behavior definition.

In the .cshtml file, edit only the part delimited between the line <div id="CustomFormContent" > and </div>, form elements are converted to text only in this part. Elements outside the CustomFormContent will not be converted to the request text, but will be displayed in the form.

The following form elements are converted to request text:

Element name	Conversion method	Rowing
<label>	The displayed text is inserted into the request text and followed by a colon.	No
Editor "StringField"	The text that the user types into the input line is inserted into the request text. If you add the value "UniquedId = Model.TicketBodyGuid" to the element parameter, it will be possible to enter formatted text (HTML). Note: There can be no more than one HTML formatted element per form.	Yes
Editor "BoolField"	The displayed text is inserted into the request text and followed by Yes or No, as selected by the user.	Yes
Editor "DateTimeField"	The date specified by the user is inserted into the request text.	Yes
Editor "DropDownListField"	The selected item is inserted into the request text.	Yes
Editor "RadioButtonList"	The selected item is inserted into the request text.	Yes
Editor "CheckBoxList"	All selected items are inserted sequentially into the request text.	Yes
Editor "DoubleField"	An integer or decimal number entered by the user is inserted into the request text.	Yes
Editor "ColumnsControl"	All displayed items are inserted sequentially into the request text. It also inserts the values directly into the properties of the based request.	Yes
Editor "AttachmentField"	Attachments will be inserted to the request's creation message.	No

Elements not listed in the table are not inserted in the text. Examples of using all elements can be found in the NewTicket template.

In the .cshtml file, adding the "btn-command" class to the button ensures that the button is copied as a command to the command bar.

Form Behavior Definitions

The description of the behavior is in the .cs file. In the first part of the code, a comment marks the area that is intended for editing. Do not interfere with other parts of the code!

The most important thing here is creating requests. There is already an example of creating a request in the file, which you can use to make your own modifications.

The basic structure of the request creation command is as follows:

CreateTicket("Service name", "Request name", "Custom request text" + TicketBody);

Where TicketBody is already prepared request text, which was created by converting form content to text. If necessary, text addition can be used in all items as shown. To insert line breaks into the actual text, use the \n tag.

The service name must be filled in exactly as the service name appears in Administration. Sub-services are separated by the / character, for example "Internal/Personality/Employee Entry". You must enter the full path from the root service.

A version of the request creation command is also available that is extended to create links:

CreateTicket("Service name", "Request name", "Custom request text" + TicketBody, MainTicketId, TicketRelationType. SystemTicketRelationType.IsChildOf);

Where MainTicketId is the number of the linked request. An example of getting the ID from the main request is also included in the template. The value TicketRelationType.SystemTicketRelationType.IsChildOf defines the link type:

Value	Link Type
RelatesTo	Relates to
IsParentOf	IsParentOf
IsChildOf	Is a child of
PrecedesBefore	Precedes before
FollowsAfter	Follows After
Blocks	Blocks
IsBlockedBy	Is blocked
IsDuplicatedBy	Is duplicated
Duplicates	Duplicates

For example, in the case of TicketRelationType.SystemTicketRelationType.IsChildOf, the currently created request will be the child and the request with the number passed in the MainTicketId will be the parent.

To access the values of custom fields, use the following structure (example for the items "NoveName" and "NoveNumber"):

string NoveName = ((ColumnsControl)Model.ColumnsControl["ColumnsControl0"]).Values.Find(Col => Col.Column.sColumn == "NoveJmeno").Value as string;
int NoveCislo = (int)((ColumnsControl)Model.ColumnsControl["ColumnsControl0"]).Values.Find(Col => Col.Column.sColumn == "NoveCislo").Value;

Connecting the form to the application

If you specify a form path in the service settings, this form will be displayed on the ALVAO WebApp instead of the normal form for submitting a new request. See also Service Desk service settings.

1. In WebApp - Administration - Service Desk - Services, select the service in which you want to display the custom form.
2. In the New Request Form section of the command panel, switch the mode from System Form Design to Custom Form (URL).
3. Enter the path to the custom form in the form ~/Custom/<name of the functionality>/<name of the form without the .cshtml> extension.

Dynamic form language switching

When editing .cs and .cshtml files, you can use .resx files that contain localized strings for each language. Each user is then shown these strings read from the file according to their preferred language. If a .resx file is not created for a language, the .resx file for English is used.

Creating a .resx file for a language

First, create a .resx file for English. From the Custom\Templates\Resources, copy the SampleController.resx file to the Custom<functionality>\Resources folder and rename it to <cshtml page name>Controller.resx.

Open this file in a text editor. After the line "<!-- Insert --!>" insert the lines:

<data name="name" xml:space="preserve">
<value>name</value>
</data>

The result should be as follows:

. <!-- Insert --!>
<data name="name" xml:space="preserve">
<value>name</value>
</data>
<!-- Do not change --!>
</root>

Lines:

. <data name="name" xml:space="preserve">
<value>name</value>
</data>

can be copied and modified again to create multiple localized strings. Each "<data name="name" value must be unique within the file.

<data name="name" specifies the name used as a parameter in the GetResources() function described in Using a .resx file in .cs and .cshtml files. The <value>Name</value> specifies the value this function returns.

Let's now create a .resx file for the Czech language. Copy the modified <cshtml page name>Controller.resx. to the same folder and name it <cshtml page name>Controller.cs.resx. Edit the <value>Name</value> so that the following text is in this file:

<!-- Insert --!>
<data name="name" xml:space="preserve">
<value>name</value>
</data>
<!-- Do not change --!>
</root>

In the same way that the <cshtml page name>Controller.cs.resx file is copied and edited, the files for other languages that can be set as the user's preferred languages can be copied and edited. These files are always named <cshtml page name>Controller.<language abbreviation>.resx (for example <cshtml page name>Controller.de.resx). The language abbreviations that can be used are defined at:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb896001

Using a .resx file in .cs and .cshtml files

Some items created in .resx files can be used in both .cs and .cshtml files.

In the .cshtml file, use the string label = "Name" instead of the string label = Model.GetResource("name"). A user who has set English as the preferred language will see the label of the Name field. Other users will see Name.

When used in a .cs file, the same functionality would be achieved by using the GetResource("name"), instead of a string.

 

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