CA Service Management

 View Only
  • 1.  Service Desk: Request UI Customizations

    Posted May 06, 2016 02:43 PM

    I'm new to Service Desk Manager development, but have been a full-stack web developer for more than a decade.  I see a lot of opportunity to customize Service Desk Requests to fit our company, but I need a little more control over some UX stuff. I can see that there are some opportunities to get my hooks in, but I want to make sure that I stay within supported patterns and best practices.  Any guidance from you folks who have experience will be much appreciated!

     

    1.a. Can I make edits to the css files found in the \CA\ServiceDeskManager\sdk\css directory?

    1.b. If so, how does that impact our upgrade path?

    1.c. How does that impact support?

     

    2.a I have been asked to apply specific styling or client behavior to the "properties" that are configurable per "Request Area".  For example, a date-time picker, or input format validation (i.e. ip address format).  I an accomplish this via Javascript/jQuery.  Can I make edits to the js files found in the \CA\ServiceDeskManager\sdk\sdk directory?

    2.b. If so, how does that impact our upgrade path?

    2.c. How does that impact support?

     

    3. Is it common to change the "home" page for the "employee" user type?  Ours is fairly busy and we wanted to hide some things and reorganize others.  During an upgrade, how many of those pages get changed?  Would my changes get lost or is it mostly the platform that gets updated whereas the htmpl pages stay the same?

     

    Thanks again!!!



  • 2.  Re: Service Desk: Request UI Customizations

    Posted May 06, 2016 04:11 PM

    Hi MIchael,  We do not use the SDK folder for customizations.  We do have a method of customizing the application in a supported way, which is by using what we call WSP - Web Screen Painter.  I would recommend taking a look at the information about using it on our documentation wiki site located here:

     

    Using the Web Screen Painter (WSP) - CA Service Management - 14.1 - CA Technologies Documentation

     

    Keep in mind that when customizing the product, you as the customer are responsible to maintain those customizations through patches, fixes, and upgrades.

     

    Now as for the question of the properties on the request tickets - this is done dynamically and not through the forms.  Properties are attached to Request Areas, which you can configure through the GUI of Service Desk in the administration tab.

    Here is a general link to the main documentation site to help you out:  CA Service Management Home - CA Service Management - 14.1 - CA Technologies Documentation

     

    If you have more specific questions, you can certainly reach out to us at any time

     

    Thanks,

    Jon I.



  • 3.  Re: Service Desk: Request UI Customizations

    Posted May 09, 2016 08:49 AM

    Thanks for the response Jon.  I'm not sure you addressed question 3 from above.  Those changes would be done within WSP.  Are those the types of changes that would not be overwritten in an upgrade scenario?

     

    Thanks again,

    Mike



  • 4.  Re: Service Desk: Request UI Customizations

    Posted May 09, 2016 09:04 AM

    UI adaptations are done all the time. If you do them the right way, i.e. use WSP or copy the files to NX_ROOT\site\mod...path you should be OK. Generally the upgrade only touches the base install files and none of the adaptations you did. If the old forms are not compatible with the the new version, you simply redo the adaptations if you plan on using them



  • 5.  Re: Service Desk: Request UI Customizations

    Posted May 09, 2016 10:41 AM

    Hello,

     

    I'm not sure how common it is to alter the home.htmpl page for the employee interface.  We have done it because we found it to be busy as well.  I've upgraded SDM a few times, one included the swingbox method where we upgraded from 12.7C2 to 14.1.01.  In all we have around 50 modified forms and it took me less than a day to merge and validate our files.  The process I followed was to compare my modified files with the new files in the upgraded version.  If I found any javascript/field additions I would merge them with the modified files.  Not all files are touched in an upgrade, you can see what is being replaced by viewing the Deliverable List file that is supplied in the patch and then focus on the files mentioned.

    Modifications are stored in the nx_root/site/mods directory, patches and upgrades don't touch that directory.  It's up to you to review the files during the upgrade and make sure your modifications are still compatible post upgrade.