August Major Relase

  • 6 minute(s) read
  • Nivil Thomas
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At the beginning of this year, we embarked on a major undertaking to simplify the admin interface. Over the first half of the year, we have been building up to this major release.  This release brings major changes to TeamTracks. 

Tracktypes Be Gone

Primarily, we took a look at the relationship between Tracks and Tracktypes. Tracktypes were envisioned as a way to group tracks of similar nature and function under what was called a Track. As more and more admins configured their teams and tracks, it became apparent that this extra level in the hierarchy was slowing things down instead of speeding things up. It was also apparent that tracks only had a ceremonial role, akin to a tag in the larger scheme of things. So we had some difficult conversations internally, some tears were shed, and we bid farewell to tracktypes in TeamTracks. All previous tracktypes are now designated as tracks.

What is the impact of this change for Customers?

For customers (who use the customer portal), there will be no change in user experience.

What is the impact of this change for Agents?

If no further action is taken by the admin, the list of tracks in the left nav pane will remain the same. However, the admin can group tracks using tags to change the grouping of the tracks. See more about customizing the left nav pane here.

Agent interface with some tracks grouped

What is the impact of this change for Admins?

All existing configuration will work as previously configured. When making changes to the configuration, admins will notice the option for Tracktypes are not available. When a track drop-down is available, it will list all tracks in the current team.

Standardization of Terminologies

We have, in the past, used terms like agent and team member interchangeably across the UI. The same goes for roles and profiles. NO MORE...!!

We are standardizing some terminology to match with our licensing and product offering.

We have three user levels, namely,

  1. Admin - configures the teams and tracks and the workflow
  2. Agent - participates in the process.
  3. Client - participates in the process.

These are granted by the type of user role. TeamTracks has two kinds of roles.

  1. Agent Role (for Agents and Admin)
  2. Client Role (for Clients)

Each user level has a dedicated user interface in line with their expected role in the process. These are as below.

  1. Admin Interface. 
    Admin Interface with a track configuration open
  2. Agent Interface. 
    Agent Interface home
  3. Client Portal. 
    Client Portal

Redesigned rule builder

Applicable to 
Filters | Buttons I Triggers

Rules are fundamental to the myriad automatons that can be build in TeamTracks. Rules are used in building filters, validating data integrity in the process using button rules and configuring trigger rules. Keeping in line with the importance of rules, we are introducing a new way to construct rules and expressions in TeamTracks.


The new rules expression builder interface

The new expression builder brings unlimited flexibility in the way you can combine rules. With the ability to group multiple rules and rule groups using parenthesis, very complex rules can easily be crafted. The different elements of the new expression builder are 

Sl.#
Element
Description
1
Add new clause above
Adds a new rule clause above the current line
2
Remove clause
Removes the current rule clause
3
Add a new clause
Adds a new rule clause after the last line
4
Multi-select checkbox
The multi-select check box is used to select one or more adjacent rule clauses to be enclosed in a parenthesis
5
Add parenthesis
When one or more adjacent clauses are selected using the multi-select checkbox, the parenthesis button becomes active and can be used to add a parenthesis around the selected rule clauses.
6
Open parenthesis
When the parenthesis button is clicked, open and close parentheses are automatically added at the beginning of the first clause and after the last selected clause. Clicking on an open parenthesis will remove it and its matching close parenthesis.
7
Close parenthesis
These denote the end of the group of clauses and are automatically added and removed by the system based on the open parenthesis.
8
Operator
The operator used to join two adjacent clauses or clause groups
9
Combined expression
Combined expression is generated by the system as a way to comprehend the complete expression.

Default values for fields

Applicable to 
Text Fields | Int Fields | Float Fields | Date Fields | Bool Fields

Admins can now define a default value for a field in configuration. In addition to choice fields, text, int, float, date and bool fields now support default values.


Default Value for Text fields Default Value for date fields

 Load choice options from a track

Applicable to 
Choice Fields

You can now define a choice field where the choice options are dynamically loaded from another track. This functionality will further the ability of an enterprise to achieve more granular data control and lessen the administrative effort to keep choice fields in sync with the intended data.

Configuring a choice field with a track as source

Use Cases

There are many scenarios where this functionality can be leveraged, a couple scenarios are described below.

Use Case 1
Define a "Country" field where the countries are defined as part of the master data in a separate track. This will enable the master data manager to make updates to the list of countries and its associated attributes without the admin having to update the choice field every time a new country is added.  Additionally, the admin can now define the "Country" field in multiple tracks all pointing to the same set of values from the country track.


Use Case 2
In setting up a purchase requisition process, part master data can be maintained as a separate track from the purchase requisition track. The list of parts can then be loaded as a choice field on the purchase requisition which will always have the latest parts in the part master track,

Taking after 'Dolly'

Applicable to 
Admin objects

The human species have always been fascinated by cloning. The possibilities it offers, the ease of creating something new from something that already exists. Extending our previous releases, cloning is available in (almost) all admin objects in TeamTracks. Keep in mind that when you clone a view or a track, the permissions (user group assignments) are not cloned.

Field Selector Improvements [cont.]

In the last release, we introduced a new selector for fields that lets you type ahead and search and an overall better visual. We loved it so much that it is now the default field selector across the admin UI. 

Enhancements to comments 

Comments are a much loved feature in the TeamTracks agent interface. The comments section gave organizations the ability to add unstructured information to the object, both with in teams and with eternal stakeholders. The only issue; you couldn't take back what you said (or written). 

This release brings the ability to edit comments. Comments can only be edited or deleted by the user who created it. When a comment is edited, the comment timestamp is changed to indicate the comment was edited.


Other Enhancements

1. The Agent and Client role edit pages have been redesigned for enhanced usability.

2. Similar to views and field groups, you can now define an "Alternate Name" or display name for a button.

3. ChangeField Action can now be used to perform a mathematical operation when the action field is of int or float types.

4. AddToRelationship action now supports multiple key lookups.

5. List views can be default sorted using formula fields.

6. Field values can now be used as prefixes and suffixes for auto-increment fields.

7. Escalation triggers are now canceled if the trigger is disabled at the moment of escalation.

Notable Bug Fixes

1. Fixed a bug with rules while checking if a file or image field is empty.

2. Adding/removing objects in a relationship now triggers an edit event on the parent object.

3. Fixed an issue which prevented changing the view type when cloning.

4. Fixed an issue which prevented renaming states.

5. Streamlined display attributes on multiselect in lists.

6. Fixed an issue with rendering html tags in reports on export as pdf.

7. Fixed an issue with comments not displaying in client portal.


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