Working with Requests

The notifications area on the menu bar contains two buttons that point out to you the messages and requests you should take care of.

Requests prompt you to take action on tasks. The Requests button on the Navigation bar indicates the number of active requests that are waiting for your response:

Click it to open the Requests dialog:

The caption indicates the number of active requests in brackets. The left panel provides the list of tasks that triggered the requests. The right panel contains information on the triggering task and on the request and provides the necessary functions to react to them. The appearance of the panel depends on the type of request; it varies from short descriptions to complex forms created by :READ statements or PromptSets.

Automatic List Refresh

The tasks that triggered the requests are sorted in chronological order with the most recent item at the top. This list is always up-to-date; if you submit a request, the associated task is removed from the list and the number in the dialog caption decreases accordingly. If a new request arrives while this dialog is opened, it is inserted at the top of the list and the number increases.

However, the focus does not change. Let's suppose that you select the first task in the list to display the information on this request and that you then start investigating the reason and its solution. While you are looking into it, a new request arrives and is inserted at the top of the list. The task you are investigating is now second in the list but it remains selected and you can continue your work with it.

Notification of Requests

In some cases, quickly reacting to requests can be critical. It is for this reason that PromptSets and Reads that are generated upon object execution are displayed immediately.

In the case of PromptSets and Reads that are generated later (upon task generation) for which immediate data input is not required, a message is a blue background is displayed at the top of your screen. For example:

Click to Expand

You can choose to open it to attend to the request and fill in the required fields or to continue working with what you were doing and take care of the request later on.

Detaching the Requests Pane

By default the Requests dialog is displayed in the middle of your screen blocking the main page. You can detach it by clicking the button on the top right corner of the dialog; this opens a dedicated browser window with the list of requests. This way you can arrange this and any other windows side by side, which can be especially helpful when comparing values, investigating the reason for a problem, etc.

ClosedTo Submit a Request

  1. From the left panel select the task you want to process the request for.

    In the case of requests created via PromptSets, if a task contains several such requests they are listed one beneath the other and separated by horizontal lines.

  2. Select Yes if you want to take ownership of this request; this means that you will take care of the actions that are necessary to resolve it. Click No to reject it.

  3. Depending on the nature of the request and on your configuration, the contents of the request displayed on the right pane may vary from mere information to complex forms that you must fill in. Define the settings/options as required.
  4. Click Comments to enter any sort of information that can be helpful later on.
  5. Click Recipients to open the list of users, user groups, etc. that will receive.

  6. Click the Submit button when you are done with your work on the request, which will then disappear from the list.

    As long as the transmission is active, a loading symbol is displayed instead of the task symbol.

    If an error occurs when submitting a request, a yellow warning symbol is displayed in the left section (next to the task) and in the right section (next to the relevant input elements).

    If the request has been successfully submitted, a confirmation is displayed in the top bar of the dialog, and the corresponding entry disappears from the left section.

    The dialog closes automatically once the last request has been submitted.

  7. The Cancel Task button is available in the right section if the requests you are processing are PromptSet or READ input dialogs. Click this button to completely cancel the associated task.