Designing for the Service Manager Web
July 23, 2009
Service Manager (and versions of ServiceCenter 6+) has a fairly decent web client. If you are using the web service, you can log on and access them via the web as well as via the desktop client. Any functionality (calculations and validations, etc… ) that you have on the Desktop should port to the web client.
Your success with the web client may vary based on the design of your application. The design suggestions below are excellent suggestions, no matter what platform you are on. Some though, are more critical to the web.
Make SURE to use field aliases
Any time you plan to have more than one field on your form with the same input, make sure to use field aliases. Putting the same field on the form twice may result in unpredictable results.
Avoid the usage of complex dynamic fields on your form
- Some advanced methods of swapping contents of global variables during form display may not function as desired in the web.
- SOLUTION – Use conditional display to display one of two fields (with different global lists) based on the needed field
- Dynamic drop-down dynamic fields based on other fields on the form may function unpredictably on the web.
- SOLUTION – Utilize links for overly complex dynamic field lookups. The link expressions can be calculated successfully. That will provide much better results
Use a form width of 176
Specify the “magic” width size on your form of 176. This will ensure that the ServiceCenter forms will expand to their full window size. Although this may be confusing, you are not limited to fields to 176 using this method. You can design elements beyond that position and the fields will display perfectly. If, however, you specify a different form width, the form may not display properly based on the width of your window.
Keep your QBE forms to a minimum number of fields.
Specifying large fields or many fields on your QBE forms will not display nicely to the client. On the desktop client, a QBE with a description field will take up one vertical line. On the web, it will expand to show the full contents of the field. Also, while on the desktop client, you can scroll left to right, that functionality is limited on the web.
Use Javascript for overly complex expressions
When you need to perform many actions (or have overly complex expressions) used to determine the display of a field or whether the user is an approver, choose to use Javascript over Service Manager expressions. You have far more flexibility and can simplify expressions using this method.
Make sure your home menu for the web clients contains visible and usable options
If you have no visible fields on your main (home) menu form, Service Manager will hang when entering tickets.
Use folders to organize your favorites
Adding all your favorites into the main folder is ok when you have a few items. If your system has dozens or hundreds of favorites, your users must scroll through many items before finding those few favorites that pertain to them.
Take time to organize your favorites into folders. Use separate folders for Incidents or Interactions. Also, take variations on the same favorite and combine them into their own folder.
Use top level folders so that the user always has access to his or her favorites on the first displayed screen.
Keep forms to a maximum height
Using excessive heights will cause your users to have to scroll to see all the fields on your form.
Whenever designing a Service Manager solution that will be used on the web as well as on the Desktop client, make sure to test equally on both clients. Just because your functionality works on the desktop client does not guarantee that it will work on the web.
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