Queues

Introduction to queues in ConSol CM

Queues reflect the organizational structure of the company. They bundle thematically related cases which should be handled in the same way and follow the same business process. In addition, they link the cases to the stakeholders, i.e., the involved contacts and users.

Concepts, terms and definitions

Concept	Other terms	Definition
workflow		Technical representation of the business process
queue	process	Instance of the business process; links the used workflow to the stakeholders
customer group		Determines the data model and available actions for contacts
text class		Text classes are used to highlight and classify entries in the case history.
project		Projects are used to relate time bookings to certain business areas.

Purpose and usage

The queue determines:

• if the cases have contacts (see Customers)

• how the cases should look like (case data fields, see Data fields)

• whose cases are processed (customer groups, see Customer groups)

• how its cases are processed (workflow, see Workflows)

• who can work on the cases (permissions, see Roles)

Queues often reflect the organizational structure of the company. For example, there can be one queue for each department, as each department has its own way of working. A case can be passed from one queue to another. In this case it adapts to the new queue, i.e., it receives the data fields of the new queue and only users with permissions for the new queue can work on it.

You can change the terms used for cases and queues on the Labels page.

Available settings for queues

The settings for queues are distributed in six tabs:

• Basic data

• Scripts and templates

• Case fields

• Customers

• Text classes

• Projects

Basic data

Basic settings for the queue:

• Internal name:
  Mandatory. The internal name of the queue.

• Workflow:
  Mandatory. Select the workflow which should be used for the cases in this queue.

  The workflow cannot be modified once there are cases in the queue.

• Calendar:
  Optional. Select the business calendar for the queue. Business calendars define the working hours and holidays, see Calendars. They are used for time calculations, e.g. in time triggers, see Using a business calendar.

• Prefix:
  Optional. Enter the prefix which should be used for the case name. When the case is created, the prefix followed by a hyphen is added in front of the case number. It remains if the case is moved to another queue.

  Please do not use underscores within the prefix as they might cause layout problems. Up to five digits are supported for prefixes and suffixes in total. This also applies when modifying the case name in the workflow.

• FAQ:
  Optional. Select this checkbox if the cases from this queue should be available as a knowledge base for CM/Track users, see Using FAQs.

• Icon: The icon displayed when creating a case in the Web Client or CM/Track V3. You can click the Change icon button to select one of the predefined icons. Click the Upload icon button to upload your own icon in SVG or PNG format. The icon should be transparent because it is combined with the background color selected in the Color selection field.

• Color: Choose the background color for the icon.

• Localized name:
  Optional. Enter the localized name for the queue. This is the name of the queue in the Web Client and CM/Track.

• Localized description:
  Optional. Enter a description for the queue. The description is displayed in the Web Client when selecting the queue during case creation.

• Localized label for cases:
  Optional. Enter a localized label for the term “case” displayed in the Web Client when creating a new case in this queue. If nothing is set, the value defined in the label ticket.base.initcap is used, see Labels.

Scripts and templates

Scripts and templates which are used for this queue:

• Outgoing email script:
  Optional. Select a script of the type Email to modify the outgoing emails which are sent from cases in this queue. This script overwrites all former settings for the email, e.g. address fields as the Reply-to address, see Email scripts for outgoing emails.

• Default values script:
  Optional. Select a script of the type Default values to preset values of data fields when creating a case in this queue in the Web Client and CM/Track, see Scripts of the type Default values.

• Clone script:
  Optional. Select a script of the type Clone to set default values when creating a case in this queue in the Web Client by using the Clone option in the header of an existing case, see Scripts of the type Clone.

• Email template for case assignment:
  Optional. Select the template which is used for the notification emails which are sent to the user when he is assigned to a case.

• Email template for case unassignment:
  Optional. Select the template which is used for the notification emails which are sent to the user when he is unassigned from a case.

Case fields

Assign case field groups to the queue. Case field groups are used to determine the data fields the cases in the queue have, see Data fields. The data fields which belong to the case field groups assigned to the queue are available for all cases in the queue.

Case field groups which are used in activity forms in the workflow of the queue are highlighted in orange and have an asterisk. The assignment of these field groups is optional. If you assign them, the respective fields are displayed in the cases of the queue. If you do not assign them, the respective fields are displayed in the activity form, but not in the cases. This can be helpful for processes which use activity forms to enter data needed for passing the case to another queue or for creating child cases.

You can click the Edit group icon next to the assigned field groups to open the Case fields page in order to modify the group or its fields. Click the New field group button to create a new field group on the Case fields page.

Customers

Settings related to the contacts of the cases in the queue:

• Customer assignment:
  Determines if the cases in the queue have contacts or not. There are two options:

  • Mandatory: Cases in the queue always have a contact. This is the default behavior where cases are created by or for a certain stakeholder.

  • None: Cases in the queue never have a contact. This is useful for scenarios where there is no stakeholder interested in the progress of the case, for example, FAQ or news queues. The cases from such queues to not have a Contacts section in the Web Client.

    In CM/Track, you cannot create cases in queues without contacts. Cases without contacts are only supported for the FAQ and news functionalities in CM/Track.

  The customer assignment cannot be modified once there are cases in the queue.

If you select Mandatory, you must assign at least one customer group. This determines which kinds of contacts can be used in cases in this queue.

The users who work with cases in the queue need access permissions to the assigned customer groups, see Permissions for contacts.

Text classes

Assign text classes to the queue. Text classes are used in the case history to highlight and classify history entries, see Text classes. The text classes which are assigned to the queue can be selected for entries in the cases of the queue.

You can select a default text class for the queue in the selector at the top. The selection overwrites the global default text class and the default text classes for comments, incoming and outgoing emails which are set on the Text classes page, see Defining default text classes. The default text class for content from CM/Track is not overwritten.

Projects

Assign projects to the queue. Projects are only needed if the time booking feature is used, see Projects. Users who work on a case in the queue can book times on the projects which have been assigned to the queue.

Basic tasks

Queues are managed on the Queues page of the Web Admin Suite. The following sections describe the basic tasks for queues.

Finding a queue

The list of queues is displayed directly after accessing the Queues page of the Web Admin Suite. You can filter the list to locate queues more easily:

• Text search: Enter a text in the search field to filter by name or workflow.

• Filter by customer group: Select a customer group to show all queues to which the customer group is assigned.

• Filter by status: Select the status to show only active or only deactivated queues.

• Filter by queue type: Select the type of queue to show only normal queues or FAQ queues.

Managing queues

You can perform the following actions on queues:

• Create a new queue
  Click the New queue button. Fill out the data in the different tabs. Tabs which contain fields which must be filled out are indicated by an asterisk after the tab name.

  Alternatively, you can create a new queue using the queue wizard. Click the Create queue wizard icon in the upper right corner of the application. The wizard consists of several steps where you can create or select all related items which are required to have a working queue, i.e. workflow, case field group, customer group, role, view and a first user who has access to the queue.

• Edit queue data
  Open the details of the queue and edit the data in the desired tab, see Available settings for queues.

  Some settings cannot be modified once there are cases in the queue.

• Enable / disable a queue
  Click the Activate / Deactivate icon to enable or disable the queue.

  Disabling a queue prevents cases to be created in this queue or moved to this queue. It is still possible to work on the existing cases in the queue though, i.e. they can still be edited and moved through the business process.

• Delete a queue
  Click the Delete icon to delete the queue.

  You can only delete queues which does not have any cases. If you want to delete a queue with cases, the cases must be moved to another queue first.

Advanced tasks

Working with templates in queues without contacts

You can also use text templates for cases without contacts. If a text template contains variables referring to contact fields, these variables are ignored. If the text templates contain scripts which access contact fields, you need to adapt the scripts with conditions and / or null safe operations to avoid exceptions in the log files.

Transferring cases to a queue with another contact setting

It is not possible to transfer cases to a queue with another contact setting in the Web Client. For such transfers in scripts, the following applies:

• If you transfer a case from a queue with contacts to a queue without contacts, the contact is removed automatically.

• If you transfer a case from a queue without contacts to a queue with contacts, you need to provide the contact using the method workflowApi.addNewPrimaryContact(unit.id, "supporter").

Using a business calendar

By default, all time calculations, e.g. to determine when a time trigger fires, are based on absolute times. You can use a business calendar to adapt the calculation to your working hours. This avoids that time triggers fire during the weekend or outside your business hours.

Please perform the following steps to use a business calendar for time triggers:

1. Define a business calendar, see Calendars.

2. Assign the business calendar to the queue, see Basic data.

3. Select the checkbox Use calendar for all time triggers to which the business calendar should apply, see Available settings for time triggers.

You can use the methods of the class BusinessCalendarUtil to calculate time periods which are based on a business calendar.