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Features / Usability

Features / Usability


[SOLVED] Tiki conditional (drill down) dropdowns with Dynamic Items List

posts: 29 Romania

Hello, I need help solving some issue. First of all please don't cite obvious sources like the docs (insuficient at least for this problem) or the first 2-3 google pages. Read all of them.

Now, using Tiki 12 and I have some tracker headackes:

-working on a ticketing system;
-can't use categories as I have too many subcategories and it is a very long list;
-is it possible with trackers to have some nested dropdowns, but in the end with automatic asignments? for example Hardware, Software, depending on what you choose to be able to select PC, Notes in the first case (Hardware), OS, Office in the second (Software); but also in the same form AFTER the selection, after the second selection in fact to automatically complete a text field (time in hours to complete) and a user field (to whom the job is automatically assigned)?
-I get weird results with dynamic lists trying to follow this example https://doc.tiki.org/Dynamic+items+list everything is fine but just for the first level

Better explained: I have categories, subcategories, and to each subcategory I should get some priority (automatically assigned) and a user also (automatically assigned) does this make any sense? How can I achieve that, how many trackers what kind of fields?

Thank you!

posts: 1563 Germany

Hi, I follow up on our IRC chat:

"let's go through again .. and concentrate on the most important workflow basics first"

  • you want to create a ticket system

  • based on a "category" or topic, there should be conditionally specific subcategories available.

  • depending on the chosen subcategory, a specific consultant should be notified


right?

basically two goups: customers and consultants

a customer logs in and transmits a ticket

Hardware - Notebook or
Hardware - Notes or
Software - OS-Linux or
Software - OS-Windows or
Software - Office etc.

conditional means, that if the customers chooses "Hardware", he sees further options "Notebook, Notes, Drives, Workstations, ..." but not "OS-Linux, OS-Windows, Office, Groupware, ..."

When Notebook is chosen, Peter gets a message, but when OS-Linux is chosen, Sarah gets a message, right?

So you want to allocate the ticket to a user or a usergroup that is specialzed to a specific topic and you need a message about the allocation.

... if all the above is right, I see the next step to review which of the existing functionalities / fieldtypes we need to build this workflow, respectively which of the existing ones are useful and if me might need a new field ... in other words: do we need configuration or coding ...

T.


posts: 29 Romania

Thank you for taking an interest in this. I trust there should be no coding involved; I would prefer to achieve everything through tiki tracker options/fields/configuration.

Your asumptions are right and the work flow should work as described, with one adition, each subcategory has it's user assigned, but also some time for allocated for the problem (a number, in hours). So it is more like:

Hardware - Notebook - Peter - 2
Hardware - PC - Jan - 3

Software - OS-Linux - Sarah - 3
Software - OS-Windows - Sarah - 2
Software - Office - Priscilla - 1

The rest of the fields seem to pose no problem: automatic no, a subject, description, attachment...

Will start again today with a clear mind and post my findings. Yesterday after 6 hours struggling with trackers, I doubt I was still knowing what I was doing :-)


posts: 11 France

Hi,

Maybe I have a partial solution to your problem.

With pretty tracker and several wiki pages affected to each expert (you should create a group for each expert), you could show items conditionnaly by using filtering in a template. For example, a pretty tracker and filters on "Hardware" + "Notebook" for Peter's page or "Software" only for Sarah's page, etc.

But to send a notification to the right expert, I don't know how it could be possible without coding.

PS: Instead of several wiki pages, maybe one wiki page with user/group condition in the template is possible.


posts: 29 Romania

Ok thanks let's simplify the problem. No users involved just 3 fields:
-category (dropdown list);
-subcategory (dependant of the first, text field);
-the number of hours to intervene (for each category, text field probably);

(-thought that here i also could add a user selection field, and after populating with items the internal tracker it would be fine just linking for each of them from the main, visibile tracker; we will just ignore the user part)

So I have 2 trackers following this http://twessentials.tikiforsmarties.com/Building+the+Internal+Tracker&structure=Tiki+Essentials and the Tiki official documentation.

Why am I keep getting this, no matter what I do, in the dropdown? I entered a few items in the internal tracker, but I don't get a nice dropdown I am getting all of them, doubled with numbers, ex Hardware and Hardware (11) See attach...


posts: 1817 Catalan Countries

Hi fakemoth:

Please, reproduce on a show.t.o instance linked to a new wish created by you at:
http://dev.tiki.org/Make+a+wish

This way you will increase your chances that you get some other people to look for the configuration issue that you might have (and yes, setting complex things like those might be tricky, I know)

In the meantime, you could consider applying the demo configuration profile (like a "macro") called "Dynamic items list", in a test tiki site of yours (in you local computer, or so). You can do so through the Profiles Wizard:
http://doc.tiki.org/Profiles+Wizard

Good luck, and report back when you have your show instance online with your issue reproduced, so that we can try to help more.

Cheers

Xavi


posts: 11 France

Your problem looks like you have an items list tracker field for subcategories and an item link tracker field for categories.
If it is true then you have an option "One item per value" for the item link tracker field.Set it to "Only one random item for each value".

Sorry if I misunderstood your case.


posts: 29 Romania

@SebD OMG now that's a simple fix! This should be written somewhere (here?) with golden letters. Please bold/underline/something If it is true then you have an option "One item per value" for the item link tracker field.Set it to "Only one random item for each value".

There are rumors about people gone crazy with this one. True story, and they were never heard of again :-) On the forums. But I am not done yet...

Thank you, that fixed it. I should mention that the tutorial explicitly says not to modify a thing, just use the defaults. Bad advice. And after playing with trackers and the dropdown, I thought I should follow it to the letter.

Now how do I deal with the third option the Priority assigned to each subcategory? I noticed that if in the visible tracker I try the following, it does not work:
-category (item link);
-subcategory (dynamic items list);
-priority (dynamic items list);

Does it exist such a thing the dynamic item list of a dynamic item list? Or it's my own (good for nothing) invention? What should I try?

Later edit: in the second tracker, the "internal" one Priority is a text field
@Xavier de Pedro - will do my own wish but maybe if I can solve it directly. Tried the profile, it's good of course, but it didn't help, failed to see the difference as I failed in the other wish instance mentioned, on the other thread.



posts: 29 Romania
Any ideas people for this problem, at least if it can be done or not?
posts: 1817 Catalan Countries

Hi fakemoth:

Sorry I couldn't look at your replies last week. We have been rather busy with the TikiFestT13Alpha, which was held last week.

Today I finally got a chance to have a look:

  • Dynamic items list allows to link two fields, but not three.
    • It's not coded to link three, and yes, it would be lovely that it was possible, but it isn't with current code.
    • FYI: I first requested this feature 4 years ago to a developer, but it was complicated for the little budget I had left to pay that consultant to do some improvements for me. And it seems that nobody else was interested enough in this feature to have it coded during these last years.
    • Maybe you are able to have a coder implement this for you/all? Here you have a list of consultants where you could request more detailed help:
      http://info.tiki.org/Consultants



I hope this helps.

posts: 29 Romania

Oh thank you very much Xavi, now I get it. It is what I needed but couldn't know this from the tutorials/wiki pages about the dynamic items list. And it seemed to me the I should use those. I also tried "items list" but obviously I didn't get right the field relations; so those must be filled as items in a third tracker (3) the "Time to solve/Priority", and called from tracker 1.

Sorry for the double post; shall I remove it from here?

This thread is SOLVED, marked as such! It was such a simple thing, but it really made a difference for me.

Thanks again.

Important PS: can it be that simple also for the user problem, to be automatically assigned, in relation to the same second field that sets the "Time to solve"...?


posts: 29 Romania

OK, I am really wondering if sometimes the Tiki Team ask themselves: "how can we get a bigger market share", "how to increase our user base", "let's make Tiki a usefull and wonderfull thing" and so on...

Because here is your answer: it's not like I didn't read stuff, but it's nowhere to be found such info, it's not like I didn't try things, but this is like going blindfolded and armed with a stick against Dog in Game of Thrones, it's not like I didn't ask in chat and on forums or didn't respect the rules/provided the info/set up a test zone/explained everything, but it's more like you choose to ignore... your own forums?

How do you expect to grow/mantain a community, if you just don't, and to make people more involved when you are not involving? How do you expect to promote a "groupware" application without paying attention to your own users?

This is pure unconcern for anything user related. I have two (very legitimate and of general interest) questions, one regarding LDAP and this one, for 2 weeks and no one steps in to say: "dude, you can't do that/it doesn't work" or "you can, read this or make that". Two damn sentences would be enough.

What do you expect on the forums? The users to answer users? No, they can't do that, because you don't help them in the first place!

Ever wonder why MediaWiki/Joomla/Drupal/Wordpress/other web apps are where they are, and why Tiki is not, even if it fully deserves this?


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