Workflows

Establish a System for Resolving Support Tickets

The basic Support Ticket application can only create and edit tickets. Now we can add a mechanism to see the progress of a ticket and identify who is working on it.

NOTE: This tutorial is built upon the foundation of the Support Ticket application.

1. Define Ticket Status codebook

• Type Ctrl + Shift + C; click Codebook
• Set Name to: Ticket Status
• Verify that Create Display Attribute is set to: Name
• Click Finish
  —
• On the Ticket Status codebook, click Edit Entries
• Copy and paste the entries from the table below (without table headers)

Code	Name
NEW	New
IN_PROGRESS	In Progress
CLOSED	Closed

• Click OK
• Save changes: Ctrl + S

2. Update your Ticket entity

• Go to Data > Entities and double-click Ticket
• In Data Definition > References, click Add New Reference
• Set Reference Type to: Codebook
• Set Target to: TicketStatus
• Set Please select default values to: NEW
• Click Create References
  —
• In Data Definition > Attributes, click Add New Attribute
• Set the following new attributes (i.e., Attribute name — Type):
  Date In Progress — Date and Time (mark Allow null)
  Date Closed — Date and Time (mark Allow null)
  Assigned To — User
  Description Of Resolution — Rich-text Markdown
• Click Create Attributes
• Save changes: Ctrl + S

3. Add Workflow

State machines represent workflow transitions and conditions.

• Go to Business > State Machines, click (+) OR Click Ctrl + Shift + C and, in the Business section, click State Machine
• Set Name to: Ticket Status
• Set Entity to: Ticket
• Set Codebook Representing States to: TicketStatus
• Click Finish

4. Add Transitions

In the Ticket Status state machine,

• Click Add New Transition
• Set Origin State to NEW.
• Set Destination State to IN_PROGRESS
• Mark Transition Handler. Click in the box. Copy and paste:

(ticket, db, ctx) =>
{
    ticket.DateInProgress = DateTime.Now;
}

• Click OK
  —
  Follow the same steps to establish each additional transition.
• Click Add New Transition
• Set Origin State to: IN_PROGRESS.
• Set Destination State to: CLOSED
• Mark Transition Handler. Copy and paste:

(ticket, db, ctx) =>
{
    ticket.DateInProgress = DateTime.Now;
}

• Click OK
  —
  Only a ticket with a Description of Resolution can be closed. Under the IN_PROGRESS->CLOSED transition, click Add New Transition Condition
• Set Title of Condition to Description of Resolution Provided
• Verify that Severity is set to: Error
• Click in the Condition box. Copy and paste:

(ticket, db, ctx) => !string.IsNullOrEmpty(ticket.DescriptionOfResolution)

• Click OK
• Click OK
• Save changes: Ctrl + S

5. Add State Machine to Ticket Entity

• Open the Ticket entity (Go to Data > Entities and double-click Ticket.)
• Click the Settings tab. In the User Interface section, set State Machine to: Ticket Status
• Set State Codebook Reference to: TicketStatus (TicketStatus)
• Save changes: Ctrl + S

6. Modify your Ticket Detail Page

• Go to UI > Entity Pages and double-click Ticket Detail
• In the top Layout section, click Edit Layout
• Add the following data fields: Ticket Status, Created Date, Date In Progress, Date Closed, Assigned To, Created By and Description of Resolution.
• Drag and drop the data fields around inside the two columns to the desired layout
  —
  Set all of the Date data fields to Read Only. Click on each of the following titles one at a time: Created Date, Date In Progress, Date Closed
• Mark Enabled Expression and type: false
• Click OK
  —
  Establish that Date In Progress and Date Closed must have values.
• Click Date In Progress
• Set Visible Expression to:

(ticket, db, ctx) => ticket.DateInProgress.HasValue

• Click OK
• Click Date Closed
• Set Visible Expression to:

 (ticket, db, ctx) => ticket.DateClosed.HasValue

• Click OK
  —
  Click DescriptionOfResolution
• In the Validations section, click the Magic Wand; select: Not empty string
• On the Can’t be empty entry, click the Edit icon
• Verify that Valid Condition shows the following: !String.IsNullOrEmpty(ticket.DescriptionOfResolution)
• Mark Is Applicable. Copy and paste:

ticket.TicketStatus == TicketStatus.IN_PROGRESS

• Click OK
• Click OK
• Save changes: Ctrl + S

7. Show State Machine Buttons

• Continue on the Ticket Detail page (UI > Entity Pages, double-click Ticket Detail.)
• Click the Settings tab. In the UI section, click Show State Change Toolbar
• Change the value to: True
• Save changes: Ctrl + S

8. Update List page

The main list page should include this new information.

• In UI > Entity Pages, double-click Ticket list
• Click the Columns tab (if necessary).
• Add TicketStatus (TicketStatus)
• Add other new columns and organize the columns for the desired layout
• Click Close
• Save changes: Ctrl + S

9. Deploy and Run the App