Current Assignee on Details page of Change Notice/Activity/Request

[DonSenchuk]

Is there a way to get the current assignee of a Change task onto the details page of that task. It could be a Change Notice, Change Activity, Change Request, Problem Report, etc. Basically anything that uses a workflow.

Before someone goes there, we have a report that shows the current assignee for Change Notice/Activity task in the system. However, getting to and running this is a lot more clicks (and more clunky) than just doing a search for ECO 12345 and hitting the details page.

I have to assume there would be a way to show this considering I can see who the assignee is simply by going to the Process tab and looking in the 'Tasks for Change Process' table. Again, extra clicks I would eliminate if it's an easy implementation. I realize I would most likely have to make the change to each sub-type individually and then manipulate the layout of each sub-type, but that's just tedious work, not hard work, so I can live with that.

[kpritchard]

Maybe customization to move the Tasks for Change Process table to the Details Page?  My recommendation would be to rearrange the order of what appears on the Process Tab (which I have done, putting Process Status/History at the top for easy access to votes and comments) and do some reinforcement training with Users... The Process Tab is not a big deal, but it's with the scrolling past information that you don't want to get to what you do where things seem to break down for most users.

Have a look at the Customizer's Guide section on custom action models.

The thing with attributes and layouts is that you will also need to have the workflow update the pbo with next active user... and what if you have multiple participants? 

[DonSenchuk]

I know I could rearrange the process tab. The issue is why make something take users extra clicks if I could streamline it and make it both quicker and easier. You know how users can be: half of them get lost if it takes more than three picks to find something.

It seems unusual to need a special update to the details page just to show something like this. The modified date changes, the lifecycle state changes, the attachments and resulting objects tables change without needing to do anything (other than refresh the web page). Then again, crap like this isn't really a surprise with PTC's software. I'm reminded of the limited columns available on the search results table.

[BhushanNehe]

Hi Don,

If you are open for customization you can create an attribute on these objects and a custom DataUtility to populate the value. Customization guide talks about this.

You can also refer to solution https://support.ptc.com/appserver/cs/view/solution.jsp?n=CS200767 for more details.

Regards,

Bhushan

[DonSenchuk]

I did see that CS you linked to. I was really hoping customization wouldn't be necessary as the information I seek to put on the Details tab is right there in the Process tab.

I'll look into this as a possible solution, though I doubt I'll go through with that. I was really looking for something that would quickly and easily show users what department was the current owner of a Change Notice. I know I can do that with additional life cycle states.

[LoriSood]

What kind of report are you generating to get this information? If you are using Query Builder would you mind sharing it?

[DonSenchuk]

I have two reports, one for Change Notices and one for Change Tasks. I worked with tech support and the conclusion was that it had to be done in two reports. I forgot the details of why, but it was extensively tested and we couldn't get all the info of both into a single report.

Reports show:

• Name
• Description
• Current Assignee
• Total Days Open (for the entire CN)
• Days for Current Task
• Need/Due Date

Change Notice Report.qml

Change Task Report.qml

[Marco_Tosin]

Don,

could you please add a comment to this document Resource for reporting (it's open for contribution) with a link to your two documents?

Thanks

[DonSenchuk]

All set.

[LoriSood]

I was hoping that maybe an alias attribute could be created to display the assignee on the details page of the Change Notice, but I'm running into problems because the WfProcess table stores the reference to the ChangeOrder in the BusinessObjReference column as "VR:wt.change2.ChangeOrder:<ida2a2>" instead of just the ID. I can't get the mapping to work. It would have been an easier solution that implementing a customization.

[Marco_Tosin]

Lori,

I have asked TS to link this discussion at this article https://support.ptc.com/appserver/cs/view/solution.jsp?source=subscription&n=CS219023

[LoriSood]

To clarify, are you asking to have this thread referenced in that article?

[Marco_Tosin]

Yes.

Thanks

[MikeLockwood]

Have been watching this thread with interest...

Likely not an elegant and simple way to do as you state here thru reporting or customization.  But - If you name each Task with the object Number, this becomes very easy.  We have done this for years at Alcon.  It requires just a bit of code on each Workflow Activity (resulting in Tasks) such that the Task Name is prefixed by the object Number (e.g. CN, CT).  Then, one can just search for the task directly, using the change number as the criteria.