Administration Guide

Direct Links to Objects in the Self Service Portal

Alloy Navigator Express uses email and push notifications to communicate information about workflow-related events to Self Service Portal customers, and the majority of those notifications contain direct links to objects. A customer just clicks the link in the message, and the object from the notification opens in the Self Service Portal. For example, when an automated email invites customers to participate in a customer satisfaction survey, that email includes a direct link to the resolved ticket.

To make this happen, the Self Service Portal supports short direct links to all objects available (Announcements, Computers, , KB Articles, Library Items, Equipment Reservations).

The default workflow includes all the necessary macros and a number of ready-to-use notifications that use those macros to generate direct links to objects. Everything you need to do is to tell Alloy Navigator Express the URL of your Self Service Portal. You specify this URL when configuring the Self Service Portal using the Web Configuration tool.

INFO: For instructions, see Specifying the Self Service Portal URL for Direct Links and Installation Guide: Customizing the Self Service Portal Link Macro.

More information about direct links

Direct links to objects in the Self Service Portal must be in the following format:

[SelfServicePortalURL]/Go/[ObjectID]

where:

  • [SelfServicePortalURL] is the URL of your Self Service Portal ;
  • [ObjectID] is the object identifier, such as the number or KB Article ID.

For example, to refer to the #T000018 in the Self Service Portal installed at https://example.com/hd/, use this URL:

https://example.com/hd/Go/T000018

You can use macros to generate such direct links. For example, this macro could be used:

[SelfServicePortalURL]/Go/%[DBF OID]%

In this example:

  • [SelfServicePortalURL] is the URL of your Self Service Portal;
  • %[DBF OID]% is the placeholder for the object’s identifier.

The default workflow provides a system macro holding only the link to the Self Service Portal (i.e. its URL): the Self Service Portal Link (%[SYS Self Service Portal Link]%). Other macros simply use that system one in a combination with the placeholder for the object identifier. For example:

%[SYS Self Service Portal Link]%Go/%[DBF OID]%

When used in workflow, this string will be replaced with the direct link to the object at runtime.

The default workflow contains a number of ready-to-use user macros based on the Self Service Portal Link system macro, and E-mail Notifications that use those macros. You can also create your own user macros, if needed.

INFO: For instructions on creating macros, see Creating User Macros.