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Service Screen


The Service screen includes a view that provides the Book Appt and Cancel Appt buttons for running the ABS.

Activities View

The Activities view displays the activities associated with service requests. Table 37 describes the buttons in this view.

Table 37.  ABS Buttons in the Activities View
Item
Description

Book Appt

Clicking this button sends a synchronous request to the ABS for time slots in which to book the selected activity. The available appointments are returned in a dialog box.

Cancel Appt

Clicking this button sends a synchronous request to the ABS or the Optimizer to cancel an appointment, release the appointment for other schedules, and set the status of the selected activity to Cancelled.

The request is sent to the ABS or Optimizer, depending on the horizon that contains this activity. If the activity (Planned Start and Planned End) overlaps the ABS and the Optimizer horizons, the request goes to both the ABS and Optimizer.

Confirm

Clicking this button in the Book Appointment dialog box sends a server request to confirm the selected appointment and release the lock on the remaining slots.

Cancel

Clicking this button in the Book Appointment dialog box sends a server request to reject all proposed appointment slots and to release the lock on these slots.

Conditions for Appointment Booking

Before booking an appointment, make sure that the work time and the service region are specified for an activity and that the activity is not repeating.

If the Lock Schedule flag is set (TRUE), provide values in the Planned Start and Planned End fields. In this case, no time slots are required and the Book Appointment dialog box does not appear.

If the Lock Assignment flag is not set (FALSE), specify manually the employee for an activity.

Conditions for Canceling an Appointment

To cancel an appointment, set the service region, make sure the activity is not repeating, and the activity (Planned Start - Planned End) is not in the Glued period. If the Cancel Appt request is successful, the fields that define an activity are unchanged except for the activity Status, which is set to Cancelled.

The choice of sending the Cancel Appt request to the ABS or Optimizer depends on these conditions:

  • If the Planned Start and Planned End values are less than the start time for the ABS horizon, then send a request to the Optimizer.
  • If the Planned Start value is less than the start time for the ABS horizon, and the Planned End value is greater than the start time for the ABS horizon, then send a request to the Optimizer and the ABS.
  • If the Planned Start value is greater than or equal to the start time for the ABS horizon and the Planned End value is less than the end of the ABS horizon, then send a request to the ABS.
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