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iTop Extensions

Configurator for automatic object creation

name:
Configurator for automatic object creation
description:
Templating based on existing objects.
version:
1.2.2
release:
2022-08-31
itop-version-min:
2.5.0
code:
combodo-configurator-for-automatic-object-creation
state:
stable
alternate-name:
Stencils (templating)
diffusion:
iTop Hub
php-version-max:
PHP 8.1

This extensions aims at improving the end-users productivity. It automatically creates a set of prefilled objects out of existing data.

Features

Amongst the possible usages, you can:

  • Preset work orders on a user request, depending on the selected service, to be executed when the request is being assigned to an agent.
  • Preset a list of characteristics on a contract, depending on the selected service, to be recorded right when a contract is being created.
  • Preset the SLAs depending on …
  • Preset server interfaces

This can be combined with Object Copier… for instance: Create a “Move to production” request from a CI. The request gets automatically (or not) assigned, then the work orders are prefilled.

Note that in most cases you will have to alter the existing data model to define your template class.

Triggering

The templates will be copied under the following circumstances:

  • either when an object is being created
  • or when an object is reaching a given state (lifecycle required)

The objects being in the scope of the trigger can be filtered out by the mean of an OQL: SELECT UserRequest WHERE team_id_friendlyname='Doers'.

Actions

Once the triggering conditions have been met, the module will perform the following:

  1. Look for the templates. This is done by the mean of an OQL. E.g. SELECT WorkOrderTemplate WHERE service_id = :trigger->service_id
  2. For each template,
    1. Instantiate an object called the copy
    2. Perform a series of action on the copy. This is formalized as a list of actions. For instance, “clone(description)+set(ticket_id,$trigger->id$)” will copy the attribute description from the template, then set the parent ticket to be the ticket that triggered the copy
    3. Optionaly find the children of the current template, and for each child perform the same operations; (i.e. a + b + c, recursively)
  3. Optionaly perform a series of actions (set a value, apply a stimulus) back on the triggering object.

A report is displayed (though this is optional) on the triggering object:

Revision history

Date Version Description
2022-08-31 1.2.2 - Add compatibility with iTop 3.1 (Obsolete requires)
- Add configuration for Copying Mailbox standard to mailbox OAuth
2022-03-23 1.2.1 Remove deprecated function
2021-12-21 1.2.0 - Fix clone/copy of Caselog and direct Linkset attributes
- Add 3.0 compatibility
2021-12-20 1.1.5 - Fix clone/copy of Caselog and direct Linkset attributes
2020-03-06 1.1.4 - Update DE translations
- Fix copy_scalar on lifecycle's state attribute
- Restore compatibility with iTop before 2.6
2019-03-26 1.1.2 - Fix Issue when copying list with object copier
- Fix Custom Date format in Stencils actions
2019-01-16 1.1.1 Security hardening
2018-12-19 1.1.0 - Support for attachment copy
- Fix duplicated links on Ticket creation from CI
2018-06-26 1.0.14 Add copy_head verb for CaseLog attributes, ES translation
2017-11-15 1.0.13 Fix error displayed in error message or tooltip, about read-only attributes being set.
2017-09-29 1.0.12 Showing action in object details only when target class is writable.
2017-04-04 1.0.11 Case logs : when using set on a case log, the entry was set twice, the HTML formatting was lost, and if the log was first copied from the source, it was broken.
2017-03-27 1.0.10 With some customizations (preset on ticket dates), the refresh of dependent fields was broken. Regression introduced in iTop 2.3
2017-03-23 1.0.9 Fix for XSS vulnerability
2016-08-09 1.0.8 Fix for compatibility with iTop 2.3.0 (still backward compatible): properly handle the breadcrumb + bug fix when using hidden fields and case logs.
2015-10-05 1.0.7 Fix for compatibility with iTop 2.2.0 (backward compatible)
2015-09-30 1.0.6 New verb: nullify. Usefull for leaving a date or datetime undefined (differs from the verb reset because the default value for such attributes is “now”)
2015-07-02 1.0.5 Transfer data from the triggering object to the copies: copy_from_trigger. New verb for custom actions: call_method.
2015-04-08 1.0.3 Retrofit data from the copies to the triggering object: retrofit_from_copy
2015-02-13 1.0.2 Handle the case of an object created (no lifecycle)
2015-02-06 1.0.1 Fixed bug on the reporting: when several rules apply, then only the last report is being displayed
2015-02-03 1.0.0 First released version

Limitations

These are the limitations of Object Copier.

The following types of attributes are currently not handled and therefore cannot be preset (and no error message is given):

  • 1-N links (e.g. Server Interfaces)
  • Blobs
  • Stop watches

The workaround is to use the verb 'call_method' (new in 1.0.4) and implement your need as a method of the destination object.

Installation

Use the Standard installation process for this extension.

Configuration

Setting name Description Example
rules an array of rules

A rule is made of…

Rule setting name Description Example
name A unique identifier (not used yet)
trigger_class The class of objects triggering the copy UserRequest
trigger_scope Any OQL returning objects of the class trigger_class SELECT UserRequest JOIN Team … WHERE Team.org_id = 123
trigger_state Optional: the reached state. If left blank, then the object creation will trigger the actions. If a lifecycle is defined, specifying “new” has the same effect as leaving the parameter blank assigned
report_label Optional: Label or dictionary entry for the report displayed on the created/modified triggering object (additional banner). The feedback is disabled if this entry is missing A task list has been created for the ticket
templates An OQL. The parameters :trigger->xxx are available to filter on the triggering object SELECT Template WHERE team_id = :trigger->team_id
copy_class The class of objects to create for each template WorkOrder
copy_actions A series of actions (see below explanations) that will be executed on each couple template/copy
copy_hierarchy Optional. Must be set to copy a hierarchy of templates array('template_parent_attcode'⇒'parent_id', 'copy_parent_attcode'⇒'parent_id')
retrofit_from_copy Optional: A series of actions (see below explanations) to be executed back on the triggering object, for each copy (the copy being the object from which values will be picked)
copy_from_trigger New in 1.0.4 - Optional: A series of actions (see below explanations) to be executed on the copy, the triggering object being the data source
retrofit A series of actions (see below explanations) to be executed back on the triggering object. Will be executed once, and after all the retrofit_from_copy actions have been performed
report_label can be localized without the burden of create dictionaries. To do so, create the settings report_label/<language_code> (e.g. “menu_label/FR FR”) for each supported language. The setting report_label will be the default value.
If copy_hierarchy is set, then make sure that the query templates will not return at the same time templates and one of their children. Otherwise, children templates will be instantiated a number of times (first as a template, then and as child of one of the templates). Adding the condition AND parent_id = 0 will be sufficient in most of the cases.

An action is specified as a string having formatted as “verb(arg1[,arg2[…]])”. It implies a source object and a destination object. Source and destination objects both depend on the context in which the series of actions is defined:

  • copy_actions: source is the current template object, destination is the corresponding copy
  • copy_from_trigger ( new in 1.0.4 ): source is the triggering object, destination is a copy
  • retrofit_from_copy: source is a top level copy, destination is the triggering object
  • retrofit: source and destination are the triggering object

The following verbs are available:

Verb Parameters Description
clone_scalars <none> Copy all the scalar attributes from source to destination
clone attcode1,attcode2, … Copy the given attributes from source to destination
reset attcode Reset the attribute (on destination) to its default value
nullify attcode New in 1.0.6 - Reset the attribute to its null value (will appear to be undefined from the end users perspective)
copy att_to_read,att_to_write Copy from att_to_read (source) to att_to_write (destination)
append attcode,string Append the string to the attribute (destination). The string can contain placeholders (see explanations below). Commas must be escaped with a backslash. Newlines (\n) are allowed. The character set must be utf-8.
set attcode,value Set a value (destination). If the value is a string, it can then contain placeholders (see explanations below). Commas must be escaped with a backslash. Newlines (\n) are allowed. The character set must be utf-8.
add_to_list attRead,attWrite,attLink,value attRead (source) is an external key, attWrite (destination) is a N-N link set, attLink is an attribute on the link class that will be set to <value>
apply_stimulus stimulus code Applies a stimulus on destination. Note that this verb does record the object
call_method function name New in 1.0.4 - Calls the provided method on the written object. Its prototype must be “public function xxxx($oSource)”. The function can send exceptions in case of failure. In such a case, the error message gets displayed in the log/error.log file
clone_attachments <none> New in 1.1.0 - Copy all the attachments from source to destination
There is no verb for recording (insert/update), because the module is in charge of that. This is of particular interest when implementing call_method: you do not need to call DBUpdate on the destination. On the other hand, should you modify the source object, then you have to save it to the DB. Anyhow it is wiser to perform the modification from another actions set, where the modified object will actually be the destination.

Available placeholders:

  • $this->attcode$ where this represents the source object
  • $trigger->attcode$, where trigger represents the triggering object (only for copy actions)
  • $current_contact_id$
  • $current_contact_friendlyname$
  • $current_date$
  • $current_time$

Limitations

  • Before 1.1.2 with iTop 2.4.0 or above, if you have defined a custom date format for your iTop, the a date attribute is not decoded correctly when using $this->attcode$ or $trigger->attcode$, leading to an error | Error | itop-stencils: rule #3 - Action: set(start_date,$trigger->start_date$) - Wrong format for date attribute start_date, expecting "Y-m-d H:i:s" and got "13-12-2018 00:00:00".
  • From 1.1.2 (and iTop from 2.4.0) for Date (or DateTime) attributes only, the following syntax as to be used:
    • $this->raw(attcode)$ or $trigger->raw(attcode)$

Configuration example

'itop-stencils' => array(
   'rules' => array(
      array(
         'name' => 'Work orders',
         'trigger_class' => 'UserRequest',
         'trigger_scope' => 'SELECT UserRequest',
         'trigger_state' => 'assigned', // triggered when reaching this state
         'report_label' => 'A task list has been created for the ticket', // Label or dictionary entry
         'report_label/FR FR' => 'Une liste de tâche a été créée pour ce ticket',
         'templates' => 'SELECT WorkerOrderTemplate WHERE service_id = :trigger->service_id', // A query to define how to look for the templates
         'copy_class' => 'WorkOrder', // Class of the copied templates
         'copy_actions' => array( // Series of actions to preset the object in the creation form
            'clone(name)',
            'clone(description)',
            'set(ticket_id,$trigger->id$)',
            'set(team_id,$trigger->team_id$)',
            'set(agent_id,$trigger->agent_id$)',
         ),
         'copy_hierarchy' => array(
            'template_parent_attcode' => 'parent_id',
            'copy_parent_attcode' => 'workorder_parent_id'
         ),
         'retrofit' => array( // Series of actions to retrofit some information from the created object to the source object
            'set(private_log,A task list has been created for the ticket)',
         ),
      ),
   ),
),

Troubleshooting

All errors are logged to the file log/error.log

The behavior from the end-user perspective is:

  • If no template have been found, the rule is ignored
  • If an error is found (wrong OQL, the target object cannot be written, …) nothing is shown in the GUI.
extensions/itop-stencils.txt · Last modified: 2023/03/15 11:30 (external edit)
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