Understanding Response-Related Updates

The questions configured on the customer service request type can be set up to perform related updates when the start / stop / transfer service request is processed and / or completed.

A response-related update can store the response value in a specific attribute or characteristic on objects such as Person, Account, Premise, SP and SA. In some cases, the the response value can be used to derive the actual value to store on a particular field, e.g. when the field is a foreign key to an admin table.

The base product provides a CS Request Type Related Update business object (C1-CSRTRelUpd) for configuring response-related updates. Refer to the business object configuration in the application for more information.

The following describes the functionality that this business object supports.

Related Update Entity Defines The Object To Update

A response-related update specifies a Related Update Entity, which identifies the maintenance object - i.e. Account, Person, Premise, SP or SA - and the part of the object to update - i.e., table field, characteristic or a custom element in the CLOB (XML) field.

Related Update Entity is an extendable lookup (C1-CSRTRelUpdEntity) that has base-supplied values for updates to the following:
  • Fields on the Person, Account, Premise or SP tables
  • Characteristics on Person, Account, Premise, SP or SA
  • Custom elements in the Person or SP CLOB fields
Your implementations can add other objects to update by adding values to this lookup.

Response-Related Updates Are Staged For CS Request Processing

Response-related updates are staged into the CS Request Person / Account / Premise or directly on the CS Request, so that all object updates are done at the same time - i.e. when the CS Request transitions to a specific status.

For instance, with a Start Service Request, the Person(s) and Account are updated when the CS Request transitions to the Service Processing state. An algorithm on that state transitions the CS Request Person and CS Request Account staging records, that will in turn, update the Person(s) and Account. The CS Request SA records are also created and transitioned at that point. Thus, the updates to SA characteristics are also applied at that time. The CS Request Premise(s) are transitioned when the CS Request transitions to the Completed state. The same applies to SP-related updates that are staged directly on the CS Request, as there is no staging object for SP.

Each response-related update specifies a Processing Algorithm that is responsible for staging the update on the applicable CS Request staging object. The base product provides processing algorithms for the Related Update Entities that are supported in base. Refer to the algorithms types for the CS Request Type Related Update - Process algorithm entity, for more details. If your implementation opts to extend the values of the Related Update Entity lookup, you must develop the corresponding algorithms.

Staging Related Updates

The Stage Related Updates plug-in on the CS Request Type (BO) is responsible for invoking a customer service request type's response-related updates. It reads the Response-Related Update configuration and invokes the associated CS Request Type Related Update - Process algorithm for each response-related update.

The Stage Related Updates plug-in spot is invoked using a common service script, Process Related Updates (C1ProcRelUpd).

When a self-service start / stop / transfer request is finalized, an enter algorithm on the service task's Service Processing state calls the Process Related Updates service script before transitioning the CS Request (that in turn, transitions CS Request Person, CS Request Account and CS Request SAs). Refer to the Self-Service Start/Stop/Transfer Task (C1-SSStartStopXferServiceTask) business object, for details on this lifecycle processing.

Premise and SP updates are applied when the start/stop request completes and when a transfer request pre-completes. Refer to the Start Service Request (C1-StartServiceRequest), Stop Service Request (C1-StopServiceRequest) and Transfer Service Request (C1-TransferServiceRequest) business objects, for details on this lifecycle processing.

Note: For more information on start/stop/transfer finalization, refer to the Start Service Finalization, Stop Service Finalization and Transfer Service Finalization operations.

Enabling Response-Related Updates

To enable response-related updates for configured CS Request Type Questions:
  • Determine the Related Update Entities that your implementation needs to support:
    • To use the base-provided Related Update Entities, configure the CS Request Type Related Update - Process algorithm instances for the specific fields and / or characteristics that should be updated from the responses.
    • Configure any additional Related Update Entity lookup values and develop the corresponding CS Request Type Related Update - Process algorithms for them.
  • Identify the CS request type questions that will trigger response-related updates. Configure a Response-Related Update for each of these questions, specifying the applicable Related Update Entity and Processing Algorithm.

    Refer to Setting Up Response-Related Updates for more details.