I don't understand this one - you can already dump a report to a .csv - that's been available for a long time, and that's apart from DDE and OLE functionality that exists to interact with MS applications. And you can attach an Excel sheet (or any other doc) in an attachment field. Am I not understanding what you mean?

Rick




From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) on behalf of Pierce, Catherine A.
Sent: Wed 2/1/2006 8:05 AM
To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
Subject: Re: What Bugs you about Remedy?




**
I would like them to make it possible to display a report in Excel. There was a workaround in 5.x, and our users really appreciate us implementing it. Unfortunately, the workaround isn't functional in 6.3, and I am sure we will hear complaints as soon as we upgrade.



From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Scott Ames
Sent: Monday, January 30, 2006 11:31 AM
To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
Subject: [ARSLIST] What Bugs you about Remedy?


**
What bugs you about Remedy and what would you like to see them fix or change? Sometimes Remedy has the functionality, but it's implemented in such a way as to be quite a pain. Sometimes the functionality is totally missing. What bugs you and what would make your job easier?

For example:

I would love to see a simple single sign on implementation that doesn't require a lot of development.

I would like to see a robust ODBC driver for Remedy that has all the functionality.

I would like an option to generated the record ID in advance when a record is created rather than when it's saved. ...etc...


20060125This posting was submitted with HTML in it

20060125This posting was submitted with HTML in it


UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at http://www.ARSLIST.org

**
The way I accomplish this in the Windows User Tool with ARS 6.3:

1. Build a string that contains the report.

1a. Create any header lines, with each line ending in a Return.

1b. Create detail lines that have the columns tab-delimited, with each line ending in a Return. For example, FirstName tab LastName Tab PhoneNumber Return.

1c. Create any footer lines, with each line ending in a Return.

2. Save the string to a text file in a folder on the local hard drive (ie. c:\temp). I use a GUID + ".txt" for the filename to ensure that it is always unique.

3. Run Excel with the name of the text file. Excel will load the file with the detail lines in the proper columns.

Note that the report is not formatted (bold, colors, italics, borders, etc.) but it works. Onve the data is in Excel you can create charts/graphs and make it look nice.

Comments:
With reports that will always be less than 8000 characters I prefer to call a UDF from the DBMS (SQL Server 2000) in the Active Link or Filter.

With reports that could be more than 8000 characters I call a stored procedure which populates a temp table - one row per line in the report. So that the lines on the report are in the proper order I have a Section column and a SortOrder column. For headers I set Section=1, Detail Lines - Section=2, Footers - Section=3. These columns allow you to generate the rows in any order. For example, in some reports I have the Totals listed in the header. Yet the totals are not known until after processing the detail lines. I simply set Section=1 to ensure the totals appear at the top. The SortOrder column determines how each row within each section is sorted. After the temp table is populated the next line in the Filter I run bcp.exe to query the temp table in a sorted order. The results of the query are stored to a character field.

To run Excel, I first locate the the Excel.exe file. It is usually only in one or two locations on the local hard drive. To locate, I issue a Set Fields command $PROCESS$ cmd.exe /c "if exist """$zTmpField1$""" (echo Yes) else (echo No)" whereas zTmpField1 contains the full path where I think it may be, for example "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\Excel.EXE" for Excel 2003. If it is not there then I check for where it would be for Excel 2002. If you think you may use Excel in more than one place within your application store this value in a Global field and populate it when the main control form is loaded. This way you can easily access the Excel path from any form in your system.

HTH
Stephen




From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Pierce, Catherine A.
Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 11:05 AM
To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
Subject: Re: What Bugs you about Remedy?


**
I would like them to make it possible to display a report in Excel. There was a workaround in 5.x, and our users really appreciate us implementing it. Unfortunately, the workaround isn't functional in 6.3, and I am sure we will hear complaints as soon as we upgrade.



From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Scott Ames
Sent: Monday, January 30, 2006 11:31 AM
To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
Subject: [ARSLIST] What Bugs you about Remedy?


**
What bugs you about Remedy and what would you like to see them fix or change? Sometimes Remedy has the functionality, but it's implemented in such a way as to be quite a pain. Sometimes the functionality is totally missing. What bugs you and what would make your job easier?

For example:

I would love to see a simple single sign on implementation that doesn't require a lot of development.

I would like to see a robust ODBC driver for Remedy that has all the functionality.

I would like an option to generated the record ID in advance when a record is created rather than when it's saved. ...etc...


20060125This posting was submitted with HTML in it

20060125This posting was submitted with HTML in it
20060125This posting was submitted with HTML in it

I would like to be able to refer a field in a Guide Goto Label. Then
more dynamic workflow can be used.

--
Jarl


On 2/1/06, Heider, Stephen wrote:
> **
> The way I accomplish this in the Windows User Tool with ARS 6.3:
>
> 1. Build a string that contains the report.
>
> 1a. Create any header lines, with each line ending in a Return.
>
> 1b. Create detail lines that have the columns tab-delimited, with each
> line ending in a Return. For example, FirstName tab LastName Tab
> PhoneNumber Return.
>
> 1c. Create any footer lines, with each line ending in a Return.
>
> 2. Save the string to a text file in a folder on the local hard drive (ie.
> c:\temp). I use a GUID + ".txt" for the filename to ensure that it is
> always unique.
>
> 3. Run Excel with the name of the text file. Excel will load the file with
> the detail lines in the proper columns.
>
> Note that the report is not formatted (bold, colors, italics, borders, etc.)
> but it works. Onve the data is in Excel you can create charts/graphs and
> make it look nice.
>
> Comments:
> With reports that will always be less than 8000 characters I prefer to call
> a UDF from the DBMS (SQL Server 2000) in the Active Link or Filter.
>
> With reports that could be more than 8000 characters I call a stored
> procedure which populates a temp table - one row per line in the report. So
> that the lines on the report are in the proper order I have a Section column
> and a SortOrder column. For headers I set Section=1, Detail Lines -
> Section=2, Footers - Section=3. These columns allow you to generate the
> rows in any order. For example, in some reports I have the Totals listed in
> the header. Yet the totals are not known until after processing the detail
> lines. I simply set Section=1 to ensure the totals appear at the top. The
> SortOrder column determines how each row within each section is sorted.
> After the temp table is populated the next line in the Filter I run bcp.exe
> to query the temp table in a sorted order. The results of the query are
> stored to a character field.
>
> To run Excel, I first locate the the Excel.exe file. It is usually only in
> one or two locations on the local hard drive. To locate, I issue a Set
> Fields command $PROCESS$ cmd.exe /c "if exist """$zTmpField1$""" (echo Yes)
> else (echo No)" whereas zTmpField1 contains the full path where I think it
> may be, for example "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\Excel.EXE"
> for Excel 2003. If it is not there then I check for where it would be for
> Excel 2002. If you think you may use Excel in more than one place within
> your application store this value in a Global field and populate it when the
> main control form is loaded. This way you can easily access the Excel path
> from any form in your system.
>
> HTH
> Stephen
>
>
> From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList)
> [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Pierce, Catherine A.
> Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 11:05 AM
> To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
> Subject: Re: What Bugs you about Remedy?
>
> **
> I would like them to make it possible to display a report in Excel. There
> was a workaround in 5.x, and our users really appreciate us implementing it.
> Unfortunately, the workaround isn't functional in 6.3, and I am sure we
> will hear complaints as soon as we upgrade.
>
> From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList)
> [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Scott Ames
> Sent: Monday, January 30, 2006 11:31 AM
> To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
> Subject: [ARSLIST] What Bugs you about Remedy?
>
> **
> What bugs you about Remedy and what would you like to see them fix or
> change? Sometimes Remedy has the functionality, but it's implemented in such
> a way as to be quite a pain. Sometimes the functionality is totally missing.
> What bugs you and what would make your job easier?
>
> For example:
>
> I would love to see a simple single sign on implementation that doesn't
> require a lot of development.
>
> I would like to see a robust ODBC driver for Remedy that has all the
> functionality.
>
> I would like an option to generated the record ID in advance when a record
> is created rather than when it's saved. ...etc...
>
> 20060125This posting was
> submitted with HTML in it
> 20060125This posting was submitted
> with HTML in it 20060125This
> posting was submitted with HTML in it


UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at http://www.ARSLIST.org

**

This is an interesting question. I believe ARS is one of the best development environments I've experienced. However I believe the application called ITSM needs some improvement. The following are bugs I have seen:

- no referential integrity at many key places of ITSM. If you delete something one place, it should delete it on all supporting tables. There are so many occurrences of this in ITSM that I don't want to name specifics.

- Out-of-the-box Reporting capability on the Consoles is just bad. Only an experienced Administrator can figure it out. I am always altering this for my user community.

- Change Request Templates do not work! I have had to build my own using the dreaded GUID. Oh, by the way, the GUID process could be made a little simpler.

- Now an ARS complaint. The overall philosophy of a Remedy ARS system is to hide low level coding (such as C, SQL and XML). I'd like to see the ARDBC creation become like the Web Services process. Hide everything, and make the interface between different DBMSs a form selection process. Good grief, they do it everywhere else. Incorporate it in a new type of form or just call it ARDBC form. When you actually write one of these, the "C" ends up a template anyways! Why not package this into a form process.

- Another complaint about ARS. The function "Display as Text" needs to allow a border around the hidden box. I'm tired of adding an additional box around "Display as Text" fields.

This is all I can think of right now,
Gordon Frank
US Army

20060125This posting was submitted with HTML in it

**

On 02/02/06, Frank, Gordon Mr 114th Sig BN wrote:

**

This is an interesting question. I believe ARS is one of the best development environments I've experienced. However I believe the application called ITSM needs some improvement. The following are bugs I have seen:

- What development environments have you worked in? Whilst I don't mind working in the Admin tool, I can't say its one of the best dev environments .... the vanilla Admin tool, which is all I have access to, can be pretty painful to work with at times. I'll always hark back to Foxpro 2.6 through to VFP 5.0, which for me at least, had a great development environment.

- no referential integrity at many key places of ITSM. If you delete something one place, it should delete it on all supporting tables. There are so many occurrences of this in ITSM that I don't want to name specifics.


You should see some of the apps we have here on the AS/400s .....


- Out-of-the-box Reporting capability on the Consoles is just bad. Only an experienced Administrator can figure it out. I am always altering this for my user community.

I'll second/third/fourth that - I keep on training people on using it ... and they rarely seem to "get" it.




20060125This posting was submitted with HTML in it

Jarl,

That and the ability for a Set/Push action to use a "VALUE MAP" from a
local field too.

Fill a field with something like....

"
'Local field id' , $remote field id$
'Local field id2' , $remote field id2$
'Local field id3' , $remote field id3$
"

Then just have a third type of "map" (currently there is "Custom",
"matching ID") of "Advanced" or "see Field" and only identify the
field to be referenced. ( Kind of like the "Cross reference field" in
a Notify Action, only in a Set Field/Push field field map.)

That would add TONS of flexibility to ARS workflow.

Frankly I think each action should be completely data driven from
fields in the current transaction. (Even things like the "If no
matching values found", "If multiple matching values found", "refresh
table field" etc.. yea you can do the "refresh table field thing with
a different construct, but why not just make it a part of the
"Advanced" Change field action by letting it point at a local field?)

And if you want to really standardize this stuff... (Which would be
fine with me...) Then create a set of Remedy "owned" field ID's that
are special propose for just the "Advanced" stuff and simply let use
set those fields and call a simple "Do what ever those fields say"
*special command*, or new action. That way we add the fields, set the
fields and say "do it now" with our workflow, but the reset of the
design is managed from Remedy Eng.



And if you get one step farther than that... :)

And actually have a client side scripting language, that we can call
like a "filter plugin" (but in active links) and can do all of what
active Links can do from inside the scripting language... well... then
we are cooking with gas. You could create scripts that take parameters
and do all of this with minimal "extra" fields on the form. Plus your
scripts (again assuming a call method similar to the "Filter plugin
design", and the language picked is a fairly robust existing language
that does things like RegEx's) could be custom functions for things
like "fixing capitalization" or "field pattern checking" etc...


To bad the Client is not fully open sourced so that WE could enhance
it and send it back to Remedy for "addition" into the next version. :)


Oh to dream the dream of yesteryear for a better ARS tomorrow... But
me thinks we may ask to much....

--
Carey Matthew Black
Remedy Skilled Professional (RSP)
ARS = Action Request System(Remedy)

Solution = People + Process + Tools
Fast, Accurate, Cheap.... Pick two.
Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence.


On 2/2/06, Jarl Grøneng wrote:
> I would like to be able to refer a field in a Guide Goto Label. Then
> more dynamic workflow can be used.
>
> --
> Jarl


UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at http://www.ARSLIST.org

Keep in mind that the api for ARDBC plugins is available to expose
things other than external databases. It can be made to read flat
files, ldap directories, anything of your choosing. I don't see how
you can make this a form that you can just point and click since the
target can be anything.

What problems have you had with the change templates? These work for
us if used as intended (i.e., through a filter push to the change
template form top create a new change request).

Axton Grams

On 2/2/06, Frank, Gordon Mr 114th Sig BN wrote:
> **
>
> This is an interesting question. I believe ARS is one of the best
> development environments I've experienced. However I believe the application
> called ITSM needs some improvement. The following are bugs I have seen:
>
> - no referential integrity at many key places of ITSM. If you delete
> something one place, it should delete it on all supporting tables. There are
> so many occurrences of this in ITSM that I don't want to name specifics.
>
> - Out-of-the-box Reporting capability on the Consoles is just bad. Only an
> experienced Administrator can figure it out. I am always altering this for
> my user community.
>
> - Change Request Templates do not work! I have had to build my own using the
> dreaded GUID. Oh, by the way, the GUID process could be made a little
> simpler.
>
> - Now an ARS complaint. The overall philosophy of a Remedy ARS system is to
> hide low level coding (such as C, SQL and XML). I'd like to see the ARDBC
> creation become like the Web Services process. Hide everything, and make the
> interface between different DBMSs a form selection process. Good grief, they
> do it everywhere else. Incorporate it in a new type of form or just call it
> ARDBC form. When you actually write one of these, the "C" ends up a template
> anyways! Why not package this into a form process.
>
> - Another complaint about ARS. The function "Display as Text" needs to allow
> a border around the hidden box. I'm tired of adding an additional box around
> "Display as Text" fields.
>
> This is all I can think of right now,
> Gordon Frank
> US Army 20060125This posting was
> submitted with HTML in it


UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at http://www.ARSLIST.org

Whats really bugs me is that there is not possible to copy from
arlogdisplay. Need to save as rtf-format, open this and then you can
copy.

--
Jarl


On 1/30/06, Scott Ames wrote:
> **
> What bugs you about Remedy and what would you like to see them fix or
> change? Sometimes Remedy has the functionality, but it's implemented in such
> a way as to be quite a pain. Sometimes the functionality is totally missing.
> What bugs you and what would make your job easier?
>
> For example:
>
> I would love to see a simple single sign on implementation that doesn't
> require a lot of development.
>
> I would like to see a robust ODBC driver for Remedy that has all the
> functionality.
>
> I would like an option to generated the record ID in advance when a record
> is created rather than when it's saved. ...etc...
>
> 20060125This posting was
> submitted with HTML in it


UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at http://www.ARSLIST.org

**

Jarl,



I agree that is annoying. You might try downloading the core files and updates from here: http://unxutils.sourceforge.net/ and simply use ‘tail –f logfilename.log’ :-) As long as you set your MS-DOS console to have a large enough buffer (several thousand lines), you should be fine. Besides… it lets you use real UNIX commands on Windows, which is soooooo nice!



Enjoy,



Matt Reinfeldt
Senior Support Engineer

Entuition Inc.

Email: matt.reinfeldt@entuition.com

http://www.mattreinfeldt.com | http://www.mwrug.com



-----Original Message-----
From: Jarl Grøneng [mailto:jarl.groneng@GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2006 3:19 AM
To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
Subject: Re: What Bugs you about Remedy?



Whats really bugs me is that there is not possible to copy from

arlogdisplay. Need to save as rtf-format, open this and then you can

copy.



--

Jarl





On 1/30/06, Scott Ames wrote:

> **

> What bugs you about Remedy and what would you like to see them fix or

> change? Sometimes Remedy has the functionality, but it's implemented in such

> a way as to be quite a pain. Sometimes the functionality is totally missing.

> What bugs you and what would make your job easier?

>

> For example:

>

> I would love to see a simple single sign on implementation that doesn't

> require a lot of development.

>

> I would like to see a robust ODBC driver for Remedy that has all the

> functionality.

>

> I would like an option to generated the record ID in advance when a record

> is created rather than when it's saved. ...etc...

>

> 20060125This posting was

> submitted with HTML in it





UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at http://www.ARSLIST.org

20060125This posting was submitted with HTML in it

Another one to add:

The funky assignment rules used in the ITSM modules. There is a
complete lack of thought behind the weights assigned to each of the
CTI/RSD combinations. I couldn't convince anyone at Remedy that this
was a bug. They were convinced it was by design, though they could
not locate the notes as to why it was designed that way.

CTI RSD 1
CTI RS 2
CTI R 3
CTI 4
CT 5
C RSD 6
C RS 7
C R 8
CT RSD 9
CT RS 10
CT R 11
C 12
RSD 13
RS 14
R 15

Axton Grams


On 2/8/06, Matt Reinfeldt wrote:
> **
>
>
> Jarl,
>
>
>
> I agree that is annoying. You might try downloading the core files and
> updates from here: http://unxutils.sourceforge.net/ and
> simply use 'tail –f logfilename.log' J As long as you set your MS-DOS
> console to have a large enough buffer (several thousand lines), you should
> be fine. Besides… it lets you use real UNIX commands on Windows, which is
> soooooo nice!
>
>
>
> Enjoy,
>
>
>
>
> Matt Reinfeldt
> Senior Support Engineer
>
>
> Entuition Inc.
>
>
> Email: matt.reinfeldt@entuition.com
>
>
> http://www.mattreinfeldt.com | http://www.mwrug.com
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jarl Grøneng [mailto:jarl.groneng@GMAIL.COM]
> Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2006 3:19 AM
> To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
> Subject: Re: What Bugs you about Remedy?
>
>
>
>
> Whats really bugs me is that there is not possible to copy from
>
> arlogdisplay. Need to save as rtf-format, open this and then you can
>
> copy.
>
>
>
> --
>
> Jarl
>
>
>
>
>
> On 1/30/06, Scott Ames wrote:
>
> > **
>
> > What bugs you about Remedy and what would you like to see them fix or
>
> > change? Sometimes Remedy has the functionality, but it's implemented in
> such
>
> > a way as to be quite a pain. Sometimes the functionality is totally
> missing.
>
> > What bugs you and what would make your job easier?
>
> >
>
> > For example:
>
> >
>
> > I would love to see a simple single sign on implementation that doesn't
>
> > require a lot of development.
>
> >
>
> > I would like to see a robust ODBC driver for Remedy that has all the
>
> > functionality.
>
> >
>
> > I would like an option to generated the record ID in advance when a record
>
> > is created rather than when it's saved. ...etc...
>
> >
>
> > 20060125This posting was
>
> > submitted with HTML in it
>
>
>
>
>
> UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at http://www.ARSLIST.org
> 20060125This posting was submitted
> with HTML in it