SDM 17.2 integration to a 3rd party App

[Jeffery Mason]

​I'm looking for a simple solution to send initial ticket content to an external app. Does anyone have an example of a jar file that can be called from an activity notification to ship ticket data to an external application?

Thanks
Jeff

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Service Desk Contractor
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
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[Lindsay Estabrooks]

Have you considered using Process Automation to do that?

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Lindsay Estabrooks
Principal Consultant
IT-EDU Consultants
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[Jeffery Mason]

Hello. Thanks for the reply.  PAM is on our wish list so we do not have it installed yet. Until that can happen, I'm looking for another solution.

 

[stephanie connolly]

Lindsay,
I am curious. We have process automation and create tickets from catalog to service desk using process automation. We have 3rd party apps that we would probably like to integrate with process automation to do this. What are your suggestions?
Thanks

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Stephanie Connolly
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama
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[boho]

Hi Jeff,
you need an trigger  for your activity to call spel-code, in which one uses an exec-cmd. This exec calls your app and brings all your arguments from ticket.

I think you can use the statement (for example perl script) You can substitude the variables, I use the statement in several spels, therefore the parameters.

.. read your values from ticket and prepair the output (here ausg)

bin = "D:\\CA\\SERVIC~1\\bin"; bin = "D:\\CA\\SERVIC~1\\bin"; 
drive = "D:"; // drive for script
s_path = "CA/servic~1/site/mods/xx-SAPTEL"; // script path (perl) 
drive2 = "D:"; // drive for outfile 
out_path= "CA\\servic~1\\site\\mods\\xx-SAPTEL"; // output file path 
out_file= "AHD_"; // output file name 
par1 = ausg; // ausg
cmd = format("%s\\pdm_perl %s\\%s\\saptel.pl   %s \"%s\" \"%s\" \"%s\" \"%s\" ",   bin, drive, s_path,    drive2, out_path, out_file, par1, cr_id ); cmd = format("%s\\pdm_perl %s\\%s\\saptel.pl   %s \"%s\" \"%s\" \"%s\" \"%s\" ",   bin, drive, s_path,    drive2, out_path, out_file, par1, cr_id );
exec(cmd);

Quotes in cmd are very important, do not count!
The method works with all apps if you have command line information.
Regards

[Joe Gavan]

Hi Jeff,

How about an example based around a simple PowerShell script that can be extended.  Additional content can be output by amending the notification template and the PowerShell could be adapted to call external API / REST service instead of writing to a file.

Notification Method
Symbol = Custom-File
Notification method = cmd /c powershell CustomNotify.ps1

Notification Methods on contact
Last Name = JG
Low = Custom-File
Normal = Custom-File
High = Custom-File
Emergency = Custom-File

Message Template
Symbol = JG-Message
Object Type = Request/Incident/Problem
Auto Notification = Ticked
Notify Level = Normal
Message Title = New Incident
Message Body = @{call_req_id.ref_num}

Notification Rule
Symbol = JG-NotRule
Object Type = Request/Incident/Problem
Description = Notify new incident
Message Template = JG-Message
Contacts = JG

CustomNotify.ps1 (Copy to $NX_Root/bin)
##
## Custom CASD notification - write notification to a file
##
$notification = $env:NX_NTF_MESSAGE
$file = "c:\temp\notification_$notification.log"
$notification | Add-Content -Path $file


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Joe
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[Joe Gavan]

Sorry missed off the Activity Notification

Activity Notification
Symbol = Initial
Code = INIT
Activity Valid For = Request/Incidents/Problems
Object Type = Request/Incidents/Problems
Notification Rules = JG-NotRule

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Joe
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[Michael Mueller]

Hi.
As Lindsay already mentioned, one way to go is through Process Automation (PA).
In general, native outbound communication capabilities of SDM are somehow weak, in my opinion.
Sure, using Process Automation in those cases is at least a possibility to handle 3rd party integration in a secure and reliable manner, with the cost of an additional application (PA) and its related infrastructure and operation efforts.
If you already have PA in place, that's not an issue, but if you use SDM as a standalone application, the PA path might be a bit over-sized.
However, PA processes can be triggered(started) based on ticket activity log creation,in detail:

• Whenever a ticket(I/P/R , issue, change) gets changed SDM creates activity log entries.
• based on this alg creation you can attach a so called SDM event to the ticket.
• This event can execute a PA related macro.
• The execution of the macro will send a http request to PA which starts a process in PA
• this http request gets repeated it if it fails, for any reason.
• The process in PA gets the ticket persistent_id as a reference, and can now get all necessary data from the ticket
• PA itself has a broad range of capabilities to do the external, 3rd party communication regarding
  • repeating failed integration attempts
  • "known/expected error" handling.
• The PA process would also be able to "return" some kind of result into SDM, lets say create an activity log, saying "Data successfully transferred to 3rd party tool xyz"

 
In my opinion, one should take care of the following principals

• repeating failed communication
• appropriate error handling
• return a result

At least in my understanding , things like a simple exec in spel is not reliable enough, as it is similar to an UDP package, a send and forget.
But as always, it heavily depends on the requirements.
PA has a big footprint, but the broadest range of capabilities, and its the way to go if you already have that in place.
If you are not willing to install, operate and maintain an additional application like PA, I can imagine a different reliable approach, solely based on SDM.

If you are fine with that your integration fails from time to time, lets say in 1 or 2 percentage, maybe less, then the spel-exec path might be sufficient.
just my 50 cent
 
Regards
....Michael

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Principal Services Consultant
HCL Enterprise Studio
Germany
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