Current To Do Zone

The Current To Do zone is designed to streamline the process of working on To Do entries from assignment to completion. It displays key information about the user's current To Do entry and provides functions that help minimize the number of steps it takes to resolve the entry and potentially other entries related to it.

Important: The information here assumes that you have configured the system to use the ability to have a substatus of Assigned, which includes the In Progress value. If you are not taking advantage of the substatus, then see below for information about how the functionality described here works differently.

The following sections provide more detail about the zone.

To Do Entry Visible

If you have a To Do Entry that is currently In Progress, its information is visible in this zone when you launch the system. As described in Working On A To Do, most of the actions in the system that cause a new To Do Entry to be pushed to this zone cause that To Do Entry to be updated to Assigned / In Progress. If you use those actions then the To Do Entry in this zone will always be your current In Progress. However, there are use cases that populate the To Do entry without assigning it to you. If you perform those actions, the To Do Entry that is pushed to this zone and remains until you perform a subsequent action that refreshes the information in this zone.

Next To Do Assignment

Users may have the option to click the Assign me a To Do button to request the next To Do entry they should work on. This functionality is optional and can be configured to follow your organization's business rules in determining the next task for a user. For example, if your organization practices work distribution "on demand", this feature can be configured to find the highest priority entry a user can work on and assign it to the user. Refer to work distribution for more information on this business practice.

Note: Next To Do Assignment Rules Are In A Plug-in. Refer to Installation Options for more information on how to configure the system to take advantage of this function.

If the system is successful in determining the next entry the user should work on, this entry is assigned to the user and moved to In Progress and becomes the user's current To Do. Its information is displayed on the zone.

To Do Information

The user's current To Do may be set using the Next Assignment algorithm, or by actions described in Working On A To Do. Once a current To Do has been set, the zone displays details related to the To Do.

The Message describes why the entry exists. The message description allows the user to drill into the page on which the entry's respective object is displayed. For example, if the entry is associated with an asset that needs review, the user is brought to the asset page to view the information and potentially take action. If the To Do type has been configured to associate a script with this To Do entry's message number, then instead of being taken to the respective page, the associated script is launched.

Info displays the standard To Do information. An icon Comments icon appears if there are comments on the To Do and a Log Entry icon appears if there is a log entry of type Forwarded, Sent Back or User Details on the To Do. Clicking the description drills into the To Do entry page allowing the user to view more information about the entry or make changes to it as needed.

Depending on the status of the To Do entry and whether you are allowed to perform the actions, the following action buttons may be visible.

You may use the Complete button in the zone to complete the current entry.
If the current entry is In Progress and assigned to you, you may use the Hold Progress button to put the entry into the On Hold status. This is useful if your implementation wants an accurate picture of how long it takes to work on a To Do entry. You can put the entry on hold if you need to wait for some event to occur before continuing progress on the entry.
You may see the Start Progress button if the current entry is assigned to you and not currently in progress. You may also see this if the current entry is Open and in a role that you are in. (This may happen if you drill into an open To Do from the To Do Search page.) Clicking this button puts the entry into In Progress.
You may see the Stop Work button if the current entry is assigned to you and is not currently In Progress or On Hold. Clicking this button returns the entry to the Assigned state (resetting the assigned substatus).

Next / Previous Buttons

The Previous and Next buttons are enabled on this zone under the following conditions:

The user selected an entry either on the To Do List page or the To Do Search page.
At least one other entry exists below (for Next) or above the entry selected (for Previous).

Note: The system recommendation is to use the To Do Management or To Do Dashboard / To Do Details portals to manage work lists of To Do entries. Those pages use the worklist zone to manage the list and these Next and Previous buttons are not applicable.

Clicking Next or Previous will bring the user to the transaction indicated on the To Do Entry's message, where its respective object is displayed. It also makes that To Do the Current To Do displayed in the zone.


Keyboard Shortcut	Comments	Alternate Shortcut
`Alt+Y`	Previous To Do
`Alt+Z`	Next To Do	`Alt+Shift+Z`

Note: Refer to Shortcut Key Summary for information about the alternate shortcut.

Note: When a user drills down on a To Do entry from the To Do List page, the system automatically changes the status of the entry to Assigned and In Progress. If Next To Do or Previous To Do is subsequently used to scroll through this list, the system does not change the To Do entry's status. You may click the Start Progress button in this zone.

Related To Do Entries

If the To Do entry has non-complete related entries a summary Related To Do description appears. The description states the total number of related entries, how many are still in Open, how many are assigned to current user and how many assigned to others. This hyperlink navigates to the To Do Search query allowing you to review the related entries. At this point you may decide to assign entries that can be positively identified as being caused by the same problem as the current To Do also to you.

If at least one related To Do entry is Open or also assigned to you, the Complete All button is visible. If you determines that the related To Do entries have been resolved with the appropriate action taken, the button may be used to complete in one step the current entry and all related entries that are Open or assigned to you.

If the related entries are not resolved with one action, you may opt to use the Complete button to complete the current entry alone and work on related entries one at a time. Using the related To Do information hyperlink you may navigate to the To Do search page and drill into the first related To Do to work on using the message hyperlink. This entry now becomes you current To Do and the Next and Previous action buttons are set to scroll through the related entries list. It's not automatically assigned to you. Use the Start Progress button in this zone to assign it to you and start progress.

Implementations Not Using Substatus

If your implementation is not taking advantage of the substatus as described in The Lifecycle Of A To Do Entry, some functionality described above works differently.

When launching the system, no To Do Entry is populated in this zone by default. To Do entries only get populated in this zone when you take an explicit action.

Any action that automatically assigns you a To Do Entry only performs that step and does not update it to In Progress.

The buttons Start Progress, Hold Progress and Stop Work are never visible.

If you are using To Do Search and drill in on an entry before assigning it to you, you'd need to go back to To Do Search page or drill into the To Do Entry page to assign it to you. Similarly, if you use the Next / Previous buttons to work through a list from either To Do Search or To Do List where the entries are not already assigned to you, the recommendation is to return to the respective pages to assign them to you.