Customer Options

There are two interfaces for customers to access FootPrints for self-service:

• Traditional Customer Self-service—Classic FootPrints customer Homepage with three frames, including left-hand toolbar.  Requires users to log in before accessing any features.  Supports roles and multiple project access.
• Customer Service Portal—Simplified, single-frame page that can be embedded within your existing web site's frames.  Customers can access Knowledge Base without logging in.  There is no support for different roles and the Customer Service Portal must be customized per project. Some available options, such as submitting and viewing Requests, do require identification by the customer.  This is a simplified way of providing customer self-service and it is primarily geared for external customer support. If you enable the Customer Service Portal, a set of options associated with it are displayed on this page. Refer to Customer Service Portal Administration for details on those options

Project-wide options for Customers are configured on the Customer Options page.  These options affect all Customers in the current Project.  For more information on Customers, refer to About Customers.

The options include:

• Fields Displayed and Ordering
• Customer Email Address Format
• Key Required
• Project Menu
• Enable Customer Service Portal

Project Menu

If Traditional Customer Self-service was selected, the Project Menu section is displayed. When Customers log into FootPrints, if they belong to multiple Projects, they can be presented with a drop-down menu to choose the Project to enter (of their available Projects). This option must be enabled in a Customer's default Project for the drop-down menu to appear.  Consequently, it is recommended that you enable this option in all projects to which Customers belong.  Customers who only belong to one project are not affected.

Fields Displayed and Ordering

This dialog is used to choose the columns to display for Customers in the current Project, as well as the order of the columns.  These columns apply to all Solution and Request lists available to the Customer.

To use this dialog:

1. Choose the Type of Fieldto choose from.  The three categories are FootPrints Fields (status, title, priority, etc.), Issue Information (public fields only), and Contact Information fields (public only).
2. Under Available Fields, select a field.
3. Click Add Field .  The field is listed in the Displayed Fields field.
4. To change the order of fields to be displayed, highlight a field in the Displayed Fieldsfield and click the up or down arrow to move it.
5. To delete a field from the display, highlight the field in the Displayed Fieldsfield and click Delete.

Note

Issue number is not available in the dialog, but it is automatically displayed as the first field in all lists.  Title is also mandatory, but the placement can be selected in the Displayed Fields field.

While the columns chosen here apply to both Solution and Request lists for Customers, there are some exceptions.  If Status is chosen, that column is displayed in Request lists, but not in any Solution lists.  This is because all Solutions available to Customers have the special status of Public Solution.  If Popularity is chosen, that column is displayed in Solution lists, but not in the View Mine Request list because that field does not apply to Requests.

Note

The names of many of the fields in FootPrints can be changed by the administrator (e.g., Title, Priority, Status, Description, etc.). For clarity, this manual always uses the default names for these fields.

Primary Key Options

Customer Email Address Format

If Email address is the primary key for the Address Book associated with the current Project, the administrator can determine whether a complete address (including “@” and domain name) is required.  There are three options:

• Require full address—Only email addresses which include an @ sign and domain address are accepted, e.g., jsmith@widget.com.
• Require user name only—Only email addresses without an @ sign and domain address are accepted, e.g., jsmith.  In this case, the default domain (defined by the System Administrator) is appended to the user’s ID name for email notification.
• Allow either format—Both formats are allowed.

Primary Key Required

If this option is required, Customers can only login if their unique key is found in the Address Book.  This option only applies to shared Customer accounts.  Unique Customer accounts are allowed into the system based on whether they are in the password file, i.e., they were added to the system with a unique ID and password by the Administrator or were auto-added via the Auto-Add feature.

Enable Customer Service Portal

The Customer Service Portal allows customers to access FootPrints and search the Knowledge Base without first logging in.  Some available options, such as submitting and viewing Requests, do require identification by the customer.  This is a simplified way of providing customer self-service and it is primarily geared for external customer support.  More information about this feature is found in Customer Service Portal Administration.