Text: Patrick Mackaaij

Photography: Ted Erkkila

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PATRICK MACKAAIJ
... is a consultant and team leader at TOPdesk. He specializes in technical issues and optimizing processes.

CREATING YOUR OWN CARD REPORT

From TOPdesk 4.4, the Event Management module enables you to use data from linked cards. With the addition of lists, you can email or print a list of all objects linked to an employee, or a list of reserved services and facilities linked to a reservation.
4 Right-click on the field layout that has just been added (for example {Objects}{/}) and then add all desired data from the linked card for each field; 5 6 7 Right-click on the field layout; In the pop-up screen, select Insert field...; Search for the desired field (the fields are grouped per classification in the card) and click on the Insert icon. The result will appear as follows: {Objects}[Object_ID][Type][Make][Serial Number]{/} Please note: You can only choose fields that are used in all Object cards. These fields are summarized in the internal Objects table. You can not use optional fields.
Fig. 1 Generating a card report in the Action explorer

Layout with HTML/CSS Adding lists using the Action explorer

Using the Event Management module, you can insert a list. You can find Events and Actions in TOPdesk's Settings Management. You can add a list as follows: <img src=http://localhost/tas/tasimage/login/logo.gif> 1 2 3 Right-click on the Action explorer in the messages field; In the pop-up select: Insert list; Select the desired link. <h1>Objects from[Compound_Name]</h1> <table border=0> <tr> >> When setting up this action, you can use HTML and CSS. This way, linked card details will be neatly illustrated in a table, such as in the example below:

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<th>ObjectID</th> <th>Type</th> <th>Make</th> <th>Serial Number </th> </tr> {Objects} <tr> <td>[Object_ID]</td> <td>[Type]</td> <td>[Make]</td> <td>[Serial Number]</td> </tr> {/} </table> A good introduction to learning HTML and CSS is provided on the website http://www. w3schools.com. To see a preview of the end result during editing HTML and CSS, you can use the website http://htmledit. squarefree.com.

created in this way are not saved on the card itself, in contrast to documents created by the RTF Creator. As a result, this type of card report cannot be sent as an attachment in TOPdesk by just ticking a checkbox.

The card report in practice

In TOPdesk, the

Fig. 2 Retrieving a card report in the Action explorer

operator runs two Special events: one to create the report, and a second to open the report. The TOPdesk server creates the report file as a temporary text file with the Action settings in figure 1. The report file will be placed on the server in the temporary files folder. TOPdesk will then run the file

The GET field refers to the generated file with the following text: /tas/secure/TOPdesk-reports/\ U[Compound_Name] [-UNID-]\u.doc Please note: The text between \U and \u will be encoded by TOPdesk. This means that it is also possible to use a file name containing a space. If you want to be able to open the card report from any incident card, you must create the Action settings in a first line, second line and partial incident card. It is also possible to create an HTML file and open it in a web browser. The disadvantage of this is that when you print a web page, the header and footer text appears on the print-out by default. Deactivating this at each work station takes a lot of time and effort, but perhaps certain users will appreciate being able to do this.

Exporting the card report to Microsoft Word using HTML

It is of course useful to be able to send an overview of links by email. It is just as useful to be able to print this overview using Microsoft Word. In order to use the functionalities of the Event Management module in Microsoft Word, TOPdesk offers the RTF Creator addon. However, the TOPdesk RTF Creator addon cannot process the data from inserted lists. The add-on receives the data to be displayed from the Event Management module and places it in the corresponding fields in a previously created RTF template. All details of linked objects will then be placed in a single cell. With a certain level of technical skill, you can use the standard functionalities of TOPdesk to create a document which you can open in Microsoft Word and that contains all relevant details. Documents

MoveFile.cmd; a batch script with which the temporary file (variable %1) will be moved to a location from which the TOPdesk operator can access it through the TOPdesk server. This location is configured in the batch script. You can create the batch script in the TOPdesk installation master folder, using the following content: move %1 web\secure\TOPdesk-reports\%2. doc Before you do this, ensure that you have created the folder TOPdesk-reports on the TOPdesk server in the folder /web/secure. Tip: You can easily copy the report to a different location and build up an archive by using the copy command with appropriate switches on a separate line. The second Action setting makes it easy for operators to open the report that has been created via a context menu.

For previous tips on sending professional emails from TOPdesk, please refer to the TOPdesk Magazine from December 2010 (p24).