ServiceDesk 4.5.24 Update 06/05/11

As you likely know, all of ServiceDesk's operative appointment info is stored in what we call the ScheduleList.  Two interfaces are used to directly view and manipulate this data.  One, the (F6) "ScheduleList form," is textual in orientation.  The other, the (F5) DispatchMap, is more graphical, and offers several kinds of manipulation not available within the first.  Regardless, either may be used to achieve a variety of appointment-editing results.  And, no matter which is used, it's the exact same underlying data (i.e., from within that ScheduleList file) that's being accessed and managed. 

A number of other forms have links to those two specific ones, as needed to conveniently invoke various of their management functions.  From a Callsheet, for example, you may right-click on an address to view its location within the DispatchMap, and may then setup a new appointment from there (this is called the "ItemLocate" feature).  You may do the same from a current JobRecord.  Also from a current JobRecord (F7), you may invoke it's "scheduling" option  This provides a link to an underlying appointment (if any) as loaded for you within the ScheduleList form.  There you may easily edit it, or create a new one. 

What's been lacking (until now) is a similar from-the-JobRecord link to an already pending appointment as-loaded-within the DispatchMap. 

In other words, suppose you're looking at a JobRecord in the F7 form; it has a pending appointment; and you decide you want to see (or do something to) that appointment -- not within the ScheduleList form, but within the DispatchMap.  (Perhaps you want to see it because you want to check-off that the customer confirmed, for example, which is not a function the ScheduleList form is setup for.)  Until now, there was no direct method for that.  Instead, you had to independently open the DispatchMap (i.e., hit F5), page to the day of the appointment, pan to the needed TechList area, then eyeball-search to find the appointment's reference. 

That is what this update answers. 

The control we are using to invoke this new link, within the JobRecords form, is its Appointment box. 

Prior to now, that box had just one operative function, and it was superfluous (exactly the same as when you click on the form's dedicated "Scheduling" button).   Why have we had two different objects on this form produce the same result?  If interested, please read here:

Historical Background(read if wanted for context; otherwise skip)

The appointment box in ServiceDesk's current JobRecords form has a "history." 

By design, it was intended as nothing more than a historical artifact, reflecting whatever text as had existed in the equivalent position of its originating Callsheet.  It had no operative function, and none was intended. 

This sometimes caused confusion for new users, who -- seeing text there -- expected it to always reflect whatever was the current appointment (as a historical artifact, text there never changed, even if the actual appointment did).  Worse still, the uninitiated sometimes thought -- erroneously -- they were changing the actual appointment by editing contents in this box. 

Our first step to ameliorate this (several years back) was to make the JobRecord's appointment box non-editable (users can't erroneously think they're changing the appointment via edits in that box if they can't edit that box). 

However, this led to a new problem.  Now we sometimes had new users who, still failing to realize the correct method for appointment manipulation, insisted on attempting to edit text in that box.  Finding such a course impossible, they'd call and complain the system would "not let them change the appointment."  We even put in dialog boxes to inform them (as they attempted) they were on the wrong path, and explained what the correct path is.  Sadly, some either did not read or failed to understand these dialogs. 

Enter our second step in solution.  We made it so a click in that appointment box (as when a user thinks he is going to edit there) has the same function as if he had instead clicked on the form's "Scheduling" button.  Just take them to the correct place to do what they're evidently wanting to do, in other words.  In general, it's worked much better.  The one down side is we end up with two objects on the same form that, when a user simply clicks, produce exactly the same result. 

At least, you now have explanation for the inelegance as involved in this redundancy.  Plus, we want to mention one more historical change in that box. 

Even when we pushed new users to the correct venue for changing or adding appointments, some continued to be dismayed when text in that box did not update to reflect their (now correctly made) changes.  We initially dismissed such concerns, and endeavored simply to teach that text in that box means nothing.  However, it was a losing battle.  Functional or not, people wanted to see currently-applicable text there.  So, we added coding so that, as pending appointments are changed or new ones added (from within the correct venues, of course), behind the scenes, ServiceDesk reaches back into that box, to update its text accordingly.   There was still no real functionality involved, but at least the updating keeps people happier. 

Regardless, the JobRecord's Appointment box now has a real (and not merely duplicative of another button) function: it's to serve as a link to the underlying appointment in the DispatchMap (it's something of a mirror, in other words, of the Link-to-appointment-within-the-ScheduleList-form function that's been there, now, for years). 

1.    For simple such linking, do a right-click in the box.  ServiceDesk will find the underlying appointment (on whatever day it happens to fall), and display it in the DispatchMap for you. 

2.    If the action you want in the DispatchMap is one of changing the appointment's check-off status (e.g., checking off that the customer confirmed, or anything similar), do a Shift-Click in the appointment box.  This is the same action you'd do, if already within the DispatchMap, for the same result there. 

3.    If you want to invoke the DispatchMap's "Dispatching Options" list (i.e., as specifically connected with the appointment, but without going to the Map first), do a Ctrl/Alt-Right/Click in the appointment box.  Again, this is the same action as is involved for the same result, if done within the DispatchMap itself and clicking directly on the appointment reference there. 

So, those are the new "Link" functions as now available on the F7 form's appointment box.  If you float your mousepointer over the box, there is a ToolTip to remind you.  Please enjoy.