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Alemba Service Manager 10.3

Release notes

Information

X Prerequisites

  • .Net Core Hosting Bundle 2.2 Alemba recommends Windows Server 2019. C++ 2015 Redistributable may be required on older versions of Windows to support .Net Core
  • .Net Core Hosting Bundle 3.1 This is in addition to .Net Core 2.2 Hosting Bundle

New Features

X Forced Call Ownership

Core Analysts can now be granted permission to assign calls directly to an analyst or group.

This applies the existing behavior in Nano to Core and is controlled via the IPK or Workflow Management role and is effective when the “Take Over on Forward” setting is enabled. Previously this setting only applied to Analysts who were logged in to Nano.

When this setting is enabled, calls forwarded to other analysts are actually assigned immediately.

When forwarding to a group, the call will be assigned to the default analyst for the group if that is configured.

X Web Hooks

A new section has been added to the Integration Platform that can be used to configure calls to external web services for various events on Calls, Requests, Tasks, Assets and People.

Webhooks screenshot

The API calls are triggered at specific points in the lifecycle of an entity and the web hook admin section allows administrators to configure the payload of each web hook (using the same syntax as the $select and $filter in the API)

Webhooks screenshot

Once created and set to active, web hooks will immediately start sending for matching entity events. Past and pending web hook messages can be monitored from the web hook admin page.

Webhooks screenshot

The information includes the HTTP headers and payload sent with the request and details of the response.

The receiving web service must respond with HTTP Status code 2xx to be considered successful and ASM will retry up to 3 times if there is a failure.

Administrators have the option to redeliver any message for troubleshooting purposes.

We are planning to expand this functionality to cover all of the primary entity types and we may also extend the events that can be used to trigger a web hook

X Time Zones

All dates in Core, Portal and Nano are now consistently displayed using the current users current time zone settings

Time Zoning should be enabled in all systems going forward and the application server time zone must be set to the same as the database server.

The Server Time Zone setting must also be set to the same as the application server time zone.

User time zones should also be set to ensure consistent formatting of dates.

Important: The behavior of the Time Zone settings has changed from version 9 to version 10. It is strongly recommended that the time zone configuration of the ASM system be reviewed prior to upgrade.

In some cases the used time zone of the database may need to be adjusted. An SQL script is available for this purpose. The script will convert all datetime values in the database from the currently configured Server Time Zone to the specified time zone and will update the Server Time Zone value.

X Multi Language

Available Languages can now be limited by Organization. This setting will restrict the languages that are visible to a portal user after their first log in.

Improved performance in the Language admin screen.

Option to specify Service Titles per language in the Language admin screen.

You are now able to configure message templates for specific languages.

When an email is sent to a known User, the message template is selected based upon that users Language. This is defined in the Person details screen.

X OAuth 2.0 for Microsoft 365 Email and Azure Dev Ops Connectors

Added support for OAuth 2.0 to the EWS, Dev Ops and Microsoft POP3, SMTP and IMAP Connectors.

Email OAuth 2.0 Support must be enabled in Preview Features before this functionality can be used.

When enabled, a new setting will be added to the Email Server Details screen.

X New Nano Styling

X Option to Show Results from the Unspecified Partition in CI and Service Search Fields

When this preview feature is enabled, Search Fields for Services and CI’s will show results from the Unspecified Partition in addition to the current Partition.

This provides a simple mechanism for defining CI’s and Services in a shared partition.

This setting can be enabled from the preview features using the setting - Service and CI QD Fields to Additionally Search Unspecified Partition.

X Option to Show Users from All Partitions on Call Logging

Option to search for users from your partitions when logging a new call in Core.

This setting can be enabled from the preview features using the setting - Call User Search Field to Initially Search Available Partitions.

When this setting is enabled, the User search field in the Core call details screen will return results from all partitions available to the current analyst. When the user is changed, the partition of the call is changed in line with the selection. After saving the call, the partition is then committed and the screen behaves as usual.

Performance Enhancements

X Improved Tiered Select Control

New tiered select control in Core. This new control is used for Problem Types, Request Types, Knowledge Profiles, Implementation Types and Attributes.

Tier control

The previous tiered select control was very slow with more than 1000 problem types. The new control has been tested with more than 15000 problem types and is much faster.

X Faster Page Load in Core

All pages in Core have been modified to reduce the time to display useful information. In many cases the form will now load in less than 1 second.

We’ve also addressed several memory leaks that would cause the browser to crash.

X Standalone Screen Upgrade Tool

You are now able to create a new system using an existing database and then use the screen upgrade tool to patch the screens.

Previously it was necessary to install a version of vFire or ASM that matched the version of the database and then to upgrade.

This command line utility is installed in the SDK folder and is also available on SharePoint for use with older versions.

Other Improvements

X Other Improvements

  • Portal Add Note description field can now be made mandatory using the designer
  • All Date Inputs in the Portal now use a standard Date Picker rather than a text field.
  • Call History in the portal is now ordered from newest to oldest
  • Fixed a number of memory leaks that would cause the browser to crash
  • Fixed an issue related to Date parsing using the SAM connector
  • Fix for Call 49357 - Service Catalogue on SSP description not displaying correctly
  • Fixed various issues with copying and pasting of text into rich text editors throughout the system
  • Fix for Call 49394 - When zooming out of the workload tab, it doesn't resize automatically and the page requires a refresh to show correctly.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause the Portal to load the wrong skin
  • Analysts are now able to edit the selected Service on a call that was logged via the Service Catalog. This field can still be made read-only using the designer if desired.
  • The Partition filter on Core searches will now default to Your Partitions and the selection is now persistent
  • Fix for Call 49485 - Able to log kb with invalid profile selected
  • Improved error handling in the data-grid widget
  • Fixed a configuration error in the Contracts entity that prevented updates via the API
  • Fixed an issue with Search Field permissions and partitioning in Core that would cause Search Fields to display the wrong results