ServiceDesk 4.7.98 Update 01/16/15

I'll tell you a story.

When I first created the SD-Mail system, it was before regular internet email had become the mainstream feature and practice it's now been for the last . . . well . . . almost 20 years.  I'd seen a movie in which a within-business electronic mail system featured prominently (1994's "Disclosure," with Michael Douglas and Demi Moore); I thought the feature looked cool and useful, so I immediately wrote a similar one into ServiceDesk.  Though the feature was indeed cool, it was a very short time later when regular internet email began to go very much mainstream, and its capabilities were far more robust.  Given this, I assumed that any usage for my system would quickly go by the wayside, as folks moved to usage of full internet email instead.

I was wrong. 

It turns out, to this very day, most Rossware clients use SD-Mail like crazy.  And, since SD-Mobile was introduced (with inclusion of its own tie-in to SD-Mail), they use it even more, for communication to and from techs.  I am gratified, for it's nice, when you've invested to build a tool, to see that not only is it heartily used, but its usage endures.

Regardless, over all these many years our simple SD-Mail system has never been upgraded.  Really, within ServiceDesk, it has persisted in a state that's all but identical to my original creation.  The only real advance was extending it into SD-Mobile, and there's an interesting twist on that.   When I built SD-Mobile's own SD-Mail interface, I made it far more modern and capable.  Since then, ServiceDesk itself has lagged far behind SD-Mobile in regard to SD-Mail, and it was ServiceDesk that needed to catch up.

This release accomplishes that.

In fact, we've taken essentially the same SD-Mail interface as has prior existed in SD-Mobile, and have now built the same into ServiceDesk.  It looks like this.

Likely, you will immediately see this interface looks much more modern and capable.  And it is.  No longer are you limited to seriatim (PgUp and PgDn) rotations among your 'In' items (instead you can direct click to look at any item of interest, and in any order).  No longer must you choose between leaving an item in your 'In' box, versus tossing it entirely (since there is now a 'Saved Items' folder into which you can move it).  No longer must you complete and send an outgoing email before leaving your current session, else lose it and have to begin again (since you can also save these, as drafts, to your 'Saved Items' folder).  No longer must you manually type in your Send-To targets (since you may now click from selections in a dropdown).  Regardless, you still have the option to type-in a target if that's your preference (many of us keyboard-centric people prefer the speed that is maintained when keeping our fingers on the keyboard); you can even tab right back into the recipients box if making a list of multiple recipients (i.e., type G→R→Tab→D→S→Tab→A→M if sending a mail to Glade Ross, Dave Somer and Art Manoogian).

Besides these user-interface improvements, there are a plethora of others behind the scenes.  For example, the entire and underlying folder structure has been improved.  Instead of each user's mails sharing the same \sd\Email folder space, for example, each user now gets his/her own folders, along with 'In' and 'Saved' subfolders too.  It's much better organization, and will produce improved operating efficiency.  Additionally, the email copies that are placed in the \sd\OldMail folder will now on-their-face indicate sending and receiving parties.

Overall, we think you are going to like this improved SD-Mail system much better.

There is one caveat.  It applies only if you're using SD-Mobile.  Because this system puts outgoing emails in a new subfolder (and in a newly modernized format), it's important that you also assure your SD-MobileLink program is updated to at least Ver. 2.0.25 (which right now is the current release).  This version is equipped to pull outgoing mail items (as directed to your techs) from the new structure.  If you were to send SD-Mails from the new structure to your techs (and if still using an older copy of SD-MobileLink), that older copy of MobileLink would not be equipped to forward those SD-Mails onward to your techs. 

In the InventoryControl form there is a "View Raw Data" option (F10→I→V).  When this option was made, it was not believed it would have much operational use (the biggest reason we made it was so you can simply see what the direct underlying data looks like).  However, it turns out some people are using it with some frequency, particularly when wanting to manually edit spec tags.  Given that, we have added a search function there.  To invoke it, use the conventional Windows command for the purpose (Ctrl-F, the "F" is for Find). 

When we first made spec tags, we thought they would be sort of a light-weight, minimal-consequences feature.  Honestly, it's how we intended them.  Turns out folks have wanted to make very robust and extended use of them, and it's pushed us to continue to upgrade and increase associated capabilities.  This is another instance.   Actually, it's two others. 

First, if you are looking to see what quantity you possess of a particular stocking part (and in what locations, F10→I→F), it may be important to know that one or more of the indicated items are presently tagged for other jobs.  The system will now let you know. 

Second, when you are wanting to order restock, it could be important to know that one or more of the items that presently satisfy your minimums are tagged, and so you may need to order restock where otherwise you would not.  Again, the system will now let you know. 

For a very long time, our MasterPartsPlan (Ctrl-F11) has featured a SupplementalInfo window.  Click in the vertical green band just to the right of any line-item, and its SupplementalInfo window will display.  Among other things, in this window, you can list up to five alternate part numbers, for the primary listed item (these are in addition to the two alternates that can be placed directly within the line-item itself).  The sad thing, all this time, has been these five alternates have simply been present there for you to see and review, but have not otherwise entered operationally into actual use. 

This is now changed (and, actually, this change was shortly after the last  prior entry in this blog, the one just below). 

Now, any alternates that you list are included in all the applicable as-you-type drop-downs.  So, say your main listing for an item is ABCD, but you have a SupplementalInfo alternate for it listed as EFGH.  You can type either of the targets, see it in the dropdown, and select either for identification of the part of interest.  BTW, this same enhancement extended into SD-Mobile as well.