Here's an old Tips and Tricks article that explains the options in ARTask files.
Mark How User Tool Shortcuts Work Shortcuts are used in the Remedy User tool to provide a user with easy access to a certain form or entry. Shortcuts can be stored on the file system or sent as a link in the email so the recipient of the email can easily access the specific form and entry without having to search for it. For the shortcuts to work on your target machine, you must install the Remedy User tool. When the Remedy User tool is installed, it registers an application called artask.exe, which will read an .artask file and interpret what is in it. Shortcut files are nothing but simple text files with an .artask extension. Users can create shortcuts in two ways: (1) automatically (2) manually. To create shortcuts automatically, a user goes into the Remedy User tool and selects Create Shortcut from the right-click menu or Send to Mail Recipient/Desktop from either the File menu or the right-click menu. To create shortcuts manually, a user would author the artask files long-hand. This article will focus on the second option: creating a shortcut manually. It will describe the inner details of an .artask shortcut file and explore how to create a shortcut from scratch by hand. Basic structure of a shortcut file To learn how to create artask files manually, we need to start by looking at the individual elements that make up a shortcut file. An artask file is composed of a simple set of name/value pairs called tags. The following example shows a shortcut with name elements but with the value for each element left blank for now: [Shortcut] Label = Name = Type = Server = Join = Ticket = QBE Data = Search String= The Type tag determines whether the Search String and QBE Data tags are used or not. The tag Name, as it says, holds the name of the object. The Type tag specifies the type of the named object. It is an integer value tag. The following are the possible values for the Type tag. NEW = 0 QUERY = 1 APPLICATION = 2 GUIDE = 3 NEW_ENTRYPOINT = 10 SEARCH_ENTRYPOINT = 11 GUIDE_ENTRYPOINT = 12 The Label tag specifies the display name or alias name of the object. The Join tag specifies whether the form is a Join form or a Regular form. It is a boolean value represented as an integer. 0 means it is not a join form, and 1 means it is a join form. The Server tag specifies the server on which the named object resides. The Ticket tag specifies a specific entry ID on the form. The Ticket tag could also specify a composite entry id if its a join form. For example, a join form Ticket tag value will look something like this: Ticket = SW00208434|000000000189348 The Search String and QBE Data tags are valid for the query value of the Type tag. Both of these tags are string tags. The Search String tag holds the qualification string that we construct using the Advanced Search Bar. For example: Search String = 'Currency Code' = "USD" The QBE Data tag holds the field name and its value from the QBE search. QBE Data format is the format we use for QBE inside of macro files. The non-printable characters used as separators are defined by the escape character '\01'. Then there would be field value pairs with the field id on the left-hand side and the value on the right-hand side between the separators. For example: QBE Data = 8=Demo 300363400=Yes 1705000=50 The Name, Type and Server tags are the most important tags in a shortcut file. Without any of theseor without a valid value for any of these tags the shortcut file becomes invalid. The following are some example shortcut files. Shortcut for opening a form in NEW mode [Shortcut] Label = AR System Currency Codes Name = AR System Currency Codes Type = 0 Server = CORE Join = 0 Shortcut for opening a form in QUERY mode [Shortcut] Label = AR System Currency Codes Name = AR System Currency Codes Type = 1 Server = CORE Join = 0 QBE Data = Search String = 'Currency Code' = "USD" Shortcut for opening an application [Shortcut] Label = AR System Sample Application Name = Sample Type = 2 Server = CORE Join = 0 Shortcut for opening a guide [Shortcut] Label = ARReport-BuildFieldList Name = ARReport-BuildFieldList Type = 3 Server = CORE Join = 0 Shortcut for opening an entry point [Shortcut] Label = Add new city Name = Sample:Cities Type = 10 Server = CORE Join = 0 Shortcut for opening a join form entry [Shortcut] Name = AR System Currency Localized Labels Type = 0 Server = CORE Join = 1 Ticket = 000000000000082|000000000000001 Summary Using shortcuts provides a handy way to easily access the forms or searches that you use most frequently. Shortcuts also provide a convenient way to share search results or to help people find particular AR System forms or applications. Using the above guidelines, you can create your own shortcuts or edit existing saved shortcuts to better suit your needs. ~ Suresh Staff Developer, Remedy Product Development Joined Remedy in 1997 _______________________________________________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org ARSlist:"Where the Answers Are"
