ARS 7.0. In the next version (complete rewrite) of our custom help desk system I plan to somehow implement a better way to display messages from filters. In active links I have a small display only dialog that I use to display messages to the user. As far as I am aware there is no built-in way to capture the text from the messages and display it to the user in a better looking window like most applications. One of the requests I receive from users is to hide the Remedy error number in messages. It means nothing to them and I rarely need it to troubleshoot. To keep the error number from displaying I do what many developers do and add 4 or 5 returns after the text to push the error number down so users can't see it. This works fine except when there are multiple messages, for example when two people or groups were notified. In this case filters would run two Message commands, yet the user only sees the first message because the second message is about 5 or 6 lines below and not visible.
Here is what I am planning on implementing. If anyone knows of a better approach please let me know. Create a regular form to hold filter messages. One record per message. Replace all Message commands in filters to Push a record to the new messages form (with some unique ID to link it to the user session). When the user clicks the Save button (for example) the active link would Push the updates to the ticket form as usual. The very next command in the active link would query the messages form for any records. If found, then another active link would Open Window Dialog to display the message(s). For good housekeeping, the same active link that ran the Open Window would then delete the records (or set status to Archive if you, the Administrator, wanted to review messages at a later date). Regarding performance, since 99% of the time there are no filter messages generated when users add/update tickets, the only "cost" would be one extra query performed after each Push to the ticket table. In our environment this would equate to a fraction of a second. Stephen _______________________________________________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at http://www.wwrug.org
