Forum

I want to love the ability that we now have to create conditional attributes for custom fields.  I'm using it for several of our clients for their Service Catalog items.  It's been a help but it's also been a hindrance in the various hoops you seem to have to jump through in order to actually use them.

I would VERY MUCH like info on or updates to or someone to look at and improve the following with regards to Conditional Attribute Groups (CAG)

1. WHY IS THERE NO INACTIVE FLAG FOR THEM???  If I build one and I don't need it anymore (but maybe want to still use the Custom Template) or made a mistake and need to just flat out inactivate it, I apparently can't.  The only way is to somehow "trick" the system into taking a BS custom template that I've created to then release the one that's attached to the CAG that I want to inactivate (which involves getting out of CAG, getting back in, quickly flipping the custom template before the system catches back up).

2. WHY IS THERE NO INACTIVE FLAG FOR A QUESTION WITHIN A CAG???  This is usually why I have to inactivate a CAG...  Because there appears to be NO MEANS to remove (inactivate) a question in a CAG.  So, if I have to remove a question from it, I basically have to rebuild from the ground up. (NOT FRUSTRATING AT ALL...)

3. The setup for these are kinda not super-intuitive and the online documentation is not that great either. I've had to walk our resource/maintenance team through how to create several times and their eyes are still glazed over...

4. What number/sort order trumps what??  Invariably, one of my questions (usually one that appears based on the decision of a question before it) does not appear in the correct order I want it in the list (such as RIGHT AFTER the question I just asked).  What order are these questions following?  The sort order on the CAG?  The sort order on the Custom Template? The order in which they were added TO the CAG? (ID#?) The order in which they were CREATED as a custom attribute (custom attribute id)?

5. If I have more than 10 custom fields on a template, I am only initially able to add the first 10 fields from the custom template to the CAG.  This has happened multiple times lately.  I often have more than 10 custom fields that need to be added to a CAG.  What will happen is that the first 10 will show in the dropdown (Mapped Custom Attribute), I'll add those, but then no more custom attributes appear in the list.  I either have to close the CAG tab and come back in to see the rest of the list or, more often than not, log completely out of the system and back in to see the rest of the list.

I know I've run across other things...  Just can't recall them right now.

I don't mean to be a complete curmudgeon and all complain-y but, honestly, I'm not sure if this should have been released without a fuller Beta test.  I understand that it's a beast to try to build new things for us and appreciate the effort put into it.  But if something is not going to work or be too much of a hassle to use, people aren't going to use it and you'll have a piece of your software that you'll have to maintain for the small percentage of those that toughed it out and are using it (like us).  I recommend fixing the above and building out the capability further.  And making it easier/more intuitive (the "you have to build a custom template and then REBUILD that for the CAG" is a bit of a pain... and don't get me started on Section Headers...).

Thank you for listening to my rant. I only ask for these things to make the product better and, even moreso, my life easier.

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Sarah Rhodes
Sr. Lead - ServiceAide ISM
Stefanini
Southfield MI
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