BMC Remedy Customization Best Practice Guidelines

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www.bmc.com

BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM

BMC Remedy Customization Best Practice Guidelines

February 2011

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1. Customizing BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51.1 Customizing BMC Remedy ITSM applications using overlays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.2 Workflow change guidelines for BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91.3 User interface change guidelines for BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM . . . . . . . . . 111.4 Forms change guidelines for BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131.5 Administration change guidelines for BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM . . . . . . . . . 141.6 BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM customizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

1.6.1 Customized BMC Remedy ITSM fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171.6.2 Customized BMC Remedy ITSM form views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191.6.3 Customized BMC Remedy ITSM buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211.6.4 Customized BMC Remedy ITSM tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221.6.5 Customized BMC Remedy ITSM workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231.6.6 Customized BMC Remedy ITSM table columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281.6.7 Customized BMC Remedy ITSM foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291.6.8 Customized BMC Remedy ITSM relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311.6.9 Customized BMC Remedy ITSM work logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321.6.10 Customized BMC Remedy ITSM process flow bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331.6.11 Customized BMC Remedy ITSM notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

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Customizing BMC Remedy OnDemand andBMC Remedy ITSMThe BMC Remedy ITSM solution is highly configurable; for example, it can change behavior based on changes toadministration data. You might have unique needs that will require you to customize the solution. This informationdescribes how to adhere to best practice standards when customizing the BMC Remedy ITSM applications in boththe BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM on-premise environments. Customizing the solution usingthese best practices enables seamless upgrades and ongoing maintenance of the solution.

This information discusses how to use the BMC Remedy Action Request (AR) System Overlays feature tocustomize BMC Remedy ITSM applications.

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Customizing BMC Remedy ITSM applications usingoverlaysThe BMC Remedy AR System Overlays feature enables you to customize applications and avoid conflicts withfuture application versions. The feature enables you to track customizations and preserve changes to yourapplication objects even if they are modified during an application upgrade.

An is a copy of a BMC Remedy AR System structure or workflow object that is used in place of the overlay origin. Out-of-the-box BMC Remedy AR System application and server objects, and objects created in the Baseobject

Development mode of BMC Remedy Developer Studio, are origin objects.

To customize out-of-the-box BMC Remedy AR System objects and ensure that the customizations are not lost whena BMC Remedy AR System application or server is upgraded, create an overlay of the origin object, and modify theoverlay instead of the origin object.

At runtime, the BMC Remedy AR System server and clients (such as the mid tier and BMC Remedy User, useoverlay objects in place of the origin objects. For example, if a filter is to be used during an operation and BMCRemedy AR System detects that the filter has an overlay, the server executes the overlay filter instead of the originfilter. Or if a client is required to fetch an object from the server and the object has been overlaid, the client fetchesthe object’s overlay instead.

During upgrades, a BMC Remedy AR System installation program ignores overlays---it does not undo theirmodifications, overwrite them, or delete them; in fact, it is unaware that overlays exist. The install program changesonly the objects that were installed with the application or server. After the upgrade, the application or servercontinues to use the overlays instead of the origin objects for runtime operations.

Overlays also make it easy to identify all the customizations in your applications.

Restrictions on using overlays

Overlays perform the following functions:do not

Preserve customizations made to an object that is deleted during an application upgrade. If an existing objectin your production environment is deleted during an application upgrade, any overlay of the object is deletedas well.

Automatically merge customizations with functionality added during upgrades. For example, if a filter hasthree new actions in an upgraded application, those actions will not automatically be added to the filter’sexisting overlay. Instead, you must identify the new actions by comparing the overlay to the upgraded originobject and then add them to the overlay if you decide to use them.

Enable you to make all possible changes to BMC Remedy AR System objects. For example, you cannotmake changes that would alter the underlying database, such as changing a field’s data type.

Overlayable objects

You can create overlays for the following objects:

Active linksImagesActive link guidesLocal applicationsEscalationsMenus

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FiltersPacking listsFilter guidesViewsFormsWeb servicesFields

Non-overlayable objects

You cannot create overlays for the following items:

Custom objects---A custom object is an object created by a BMC Remedy AR System user. Upgrades do notmodify or destroy custom objects.

Deployable applications---Overlays of deployable applications are not supported for licensing reasons. Youcan, however, overlay and customize the objects within the deployable applications. Creating and modifyingdeployable applications is not permitted in Best Practice Customization mode. For more information, see the

BMC Remedy Action Request System Introduction to Application Development with BMC Remedy DeveloperStudio guide.

Overlaid objects---You cannot create multiple overlays for the same object.

Overlay objects---You cannot create overlays of overlays.

Form data---BMC Remedy Distributed Server Option (DSO) mappings, DSO pools, flashboards, Skins, andtemplates are stored as data in a form. They are not BMC Remedy AR System objects. Therefore, youcannot use overlays to customize them, and any modifications that you make to them might be lost when anapplication or server is upgraded.

For more information concerning overlays, see the BMC Remedy Action Request System Form and Application.Objects Guide

Best practices for BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM

To make code changes to BMC Remedy ITSM applications that are retained when you upgrade:

Make any customizations to out-of-the-box workflow using overlays when you are customizing BMC Remedyapplications. Overlays protect the customization from being lost during an upgrade.Use an overlay to customize a field but ensure that the field continues to be used for the same purpose.Overlays do not protect the contents of fields,so re-purposing an existing field to do something other thanwhat it was originally designed for can cause issues in the applications and the code using the field.When making a user interface change, make a form overlay and then make an overlay of the view that youare working on. During an upgrade, your changes will be saved but you must ensure that making thesechanges as overlays will not merge user interface changes in future application releases with the overlaidview.Take performance into account when making any code changes. If you add an active link workflow, you mustensure that it does not make the same server calls as an existing workflow, which would impact performance.Tune user interface widgets such as table fields to use indexes and chunking. They should display data onlywhen that data is required.

NoteIn the BMC Remedy OnDemand environment, you must use overlays to customize objects. Also,when you use overlays you still must test your customizations when you upgrade.

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Workflow change guidelines for BMC Remedy OnDemandand BMC Remedy ITSMWhile overlays do provide protection from customizations being overwritten during an upgrade, they do not preventissues occurring from the workflow interacting with other system components that change during an upgrade.Because of this, you should keep workflow changes to a minimum and keep the the changes separate from theexisting application flow. The following information includes some examples of workflow changes that can be doneand which will not be impacted by changes to other parts of the application.

You can make the following workflow changes for both the BMC Remedy OnDemand and the BMC Remedy ITSMenvironments. Use overlays for these changes so that there is a way to track the changes that are made, even if thecode that is added is new code.

To existing forms, add new workflows that do not affect the processing of existing workflows. You mustensure that the new workflow does not change how the existing workflow runs through the process. Becausethe process workflow can change from release to release, you should avoid these types of code changes.Add new forms to the system and add new workflows to support the processes on these new forms. Add new workflows to read data from your new forms. This can involve either:

Adding active links to the main forms associated with new buttons or linksAdding table fields to existing forms to read data from newly added forms and the workflow to interactwith the tables

If you are making changes to key processes in the application, you should avoid changing the following workflowprocesses:

Status flowsPermission-based workflow (multi-tenancy, support groups)Interactions with processes such as approvals and BMC Remedy Assignment EngineInterface forms

Most of the changes that are required for these processes can be done by configuring the data that drives them.Continue to use this method to make changes to how these processes work, rather than making changes to theunderlying code which drives these processes.

The following recommendations apply to both the BMC Remedy OnDemand and the BMC Remedy ITSMenvironments:

Use service calls to avoid performance impacts. Evaluate the data that you want to pull into a new form. Ifyou determine that a number of queries must be completed via active links to retrieve the data, perform thefollowing actions:

Investigate using filters instead of active links.Use a service call from an active link to reduce the number of server calls required to retrieve theinformation.

NoteFor more information about customization designs for the BMC Remedy OnDemand environment, seethe document on the "Customizing BMC RemedyBMC Remedy On Demand Customization DesignsOnDemand" web page on the BMC Developer Network website.

Use escalations sparingly and only to add to new forms due to the potential impact on system performance.Do not change out-of-the-box web services due to the potential impact on applications that might use theseweb services for integration purposes. Changes to out-of-the-box web services might be overwritten duringan upgrade. The best solution is to copy an out-of-the-box web service and extend that web service for anyspecific requirement.

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Use a namespace that does not conflict with out-of-the-box or future system workflows to build any workflowthat is added to the system. You can use a unique prefix for your application objects to avoid any futureworkflow conflicts if multiple companies are running on the same instance of the BMC Remedy AR Systemserver.

Related topics

Customized BMC Remedy ITSM workflow

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User interface change guidelines for BMC RemedyOnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSMYou can change the user interface via data changes at the configuration level, and you can preserve these changesduring upgrades. Many of the menus that are displayed in the system can be extended via changes to back-endforms. For more information about the customization designs for BMC Remedy OnDemand, see the BMC Remedy

document.On Demand Customization Designs

If you are updating a view within the system to add new fields or rearrange how a view is laid out, make an overlayof the form and the view you are changing to preserve your changes during an upgrade.

NoteAn overlay of a view enables you to copy the out-of-the-box view and make changes to that view.However, during an upgrade, the application may change the base view. In this case, you will need tomerge your view changes either back to the upgraded view of the form or merge the changes from theupgrade view to the overlaid view.

For a new view, you can add user interface widgets to:

Retrieve data from other formsChange the layout structure of the data

The following recommendations apply to both the BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM environments:

Add any new table fields to a view or a form with care due to the potential performance impact. Consider thata table should be refreshed only when the data is needed. It must have a qualification that makes use ofindexes in order to search forms with lots of data. The table must use data chunking to limit the rows that arereturned at any given time. It must have a qualification that uses indexes to search forms with lots of data.One possible way to reduce the load on the primary forms is to add a new user interface workflow to a newlycreated form, and then add a view field to the existing form that can load that newly created form. This wayenables these changes to be isolated from the exiting form, and better overall system performance. For moreinformation about the customization designs for BMC Remedy OnDemand, see the BMC Remedy On

document.Demand Customization DesignsAvoid polling menus or active links due to potential performance impacts.Any forms or views that are added must use field IDs that are outside of the range reserved by BMCSoftware. For more information about the customization designs for BMC Remedy OnDemand, see the BMC

document.Remedy On Demand Customization Designs

Branding the interface using Skins

The goal of branding is to typically change the color scheme, icons, and/or background images to meet yourcorporate standards.

BMC Remedy AR System provides the Skins feature that enables you to brand an application. Use Skins to makechanges to an application's color scheme and the images on buttons. Skins are configured using data rather thancustomized using the application itself so they are fully supported during an upgrade.

You can change the icons on the BMC Remedy AR System Mid-Tier login screen. You should not change the CSSfile that comes with BMC Remedy AR System. The best way to change the images on the login screen is to replacethe image that is referenced:

In the BMC Remedy Mid-Tier images directory, replace the and files withlogin_image.jpg login_logo.gifthe files provided for the customer. The reference to the files is as follows:

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String login_img = "images/login_image.jpg";String logo_img = "images/login_logo.gif";

Related topics

Customized BMC Remedy ITSM fieldsCustomized BMC Remedy ITSM buttonsCustomized BMC Remedy ITSM form viewsCustomized BMC Remedy ITSM tooltipsCustomized BMC Remedy ITSM process flow bar

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Forms change guidelines for BMC Remedy OnDemand andBMC Remedy ITSMThe following guidelines explain how to make form changes so that your changes are not affected by systemupgrade. They apply to both the BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM environments. As with anycode changes, they should only be done via overlays.

You can add new fields. However, avoid adding new required fields because you may need to changeexisting integrations. Alternatively, you can provide a default value for the new required field so that it can beset automatically if an older integration interfaces with the application.Add new fields in the field ID range that is not reserved by BMC. For more information, see the BMC Remedy

document.On Demand Customization DesignsDo not remove any existing fields, because it can potentially affect the overall processing of the applicationsand affect existing workflow. If you do not wish to have a field appear to a user, use an overlay of the formand view to remove the field from the view so that it is not visible to the user.Do not change the properties of existing fields, including whether they are required fields, data types, andpattern matching, because it can affect the existing processing of the record, and are overwritten during anupgrade. If you need to change these properties, create a new field, change the properties on that field asappropriate, and then hide the original field.You can add new forms but add them in your specific namespace.You can add values to a linear selection field, but BMC does not recommend it because it causes data andworkflow issues. You can add values to a nonlinear selection field.If you add new fields to a form that should be accessible to integrations, they must also be exposed in theinterface forms and web services.

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Administration change guidelines for BMC RemedyOnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSMIn general, changes to administrative actions might cause changes to the structure of the production environment.Because of these structural changes, you must adopt a change control process and ensure that the changes aremanaged and tested before introducing them into the production environment. This section discusses certain areasthat should not be configured on the production system.

NoteThis section provides mandatory rules to follow when working in the BMC Remedy OnDemandenvironment. These rules should be treated as suggested best practices in the BMC Remedy ITSMenvironment.

BMC Atrium CMDB class model changes

The BMC Atrium CMDB interface enables an administrator to add new classes or attributes by changing the datathat represents the data model structure of the application. These data changes result in BMC Remedy ActionRequest (AR) System forms being added or modified in the BMC Remedy AR System server. After making any datamodel changes, you must make the information available to the BMC Remedy ITSM applications. These changescan affect the applications, so do not make them directly on the production system. Use a change control systemand manage the changes in the development environment. Test all changes with BMC Remedy Asset Managementand the BMC Atrium Discovery processes to make sure that they have no impact on existing application orintegrations.

BMC Atrium CMDB reconciliation rules changes

BMC Atrium CMDB reconciliation uses data-driven rules that are set up by an administrator. They manage data flowfrom a provider of data (such as BMC Atrium Discovery), how it is combined with data from other data providers,and how it is published into the BMC Atrium CMDB production dataset. Changing reconciliation rules can affect howdata from discovery sources or even manually entered data is put into the CMDB. These changes can cause data tonot populate the CMDB or to populate it incorrectly. Because changing these rules can have an adverse impact onthe business, make these changes only be done on the development server under change control.

BMC Service Level Management

The BMC Service Level Management application is used to manage service level agreements (SLAs). The creationof SLAs and service level targets causes workflow to be generated in the application and causes data to becollected and evaluated as part of the overall processing of the application. Creating or updating an SLA or servicelevel target can result in escalations and measurements occurring incorrectly, which can result in noncompliance.Because these targets must be built appropriately and because of the impact on the production system if they arenot and the potential performance impact of BMC Service Level Management adding workflow to the system, makethese changes only in the development environment.

Software License Management

The Software License Management module in BMC Remedy Asset Management defines the rules that ensure that abusiness is in compliance with its license contracts. The process makes uses a rules-based engine to define how to:

Find software configuration items (CIs) in the BMC Atrium CMDBRelate CIs to contracts and the rules for calculating whether the business is in compliance with its licenseagreements

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Software License Management contains the following functionality:

Defines the rules that the engine uses to do the connection and compliance checks.Generates contracts and certificates to manage new licenses.

Changes to the rules used for the connection and compliance checks can adversely affect the environment byproducing inaccurate license counts. Make these changes only on a development system under changemanagement control.

Changes to contracts and certificates for managing new licenses leverage existing rules, so you can make changesto them directly on the production system.

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BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSMcustomizationsThis information describes the types of customizations that you can make for each application and those which youshould not make. These customizations apply for both the BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSMenvironments.

General customizations

For information about the functionality that is common across the BMC Remedy ITSM applications, and to identifycomponents of that functionality that can be customized and those that should not be customized, see:

Customized BMC Remedy ITSM fieldsCustomized BMC Remedy ITSM form viewsCustomized BMC Remedy ITSM buttonsCustomized BMC Remedy ITSM tooltipsCustomized BMC Remedy ITSM table columnsCustomized BMC Remedy ITSM workflowCustomized BMC Remedy ITSM process flow barCustomized BMC Remedy ITSM work logs

Module and subsystem customizations

For more information, see:

Customized BMC Remedy ITSM foundationCustomized BMC Remedy ITSM relationshipsCustomized BMC Remedy ITSM notifications

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Customized BMC Remedy ITSM fields

You can add fields or change field information in your environment. Typically, you make field changes to accomplishthe following:

Capture some additional information about a record.Provide a way to store a key to link to a separate table.Change the context of an existing field to make it required (this can be accomplished by changing the fielditself or adding additional workflow against that field).Manage the values of enumerated fields. The following types of enumerated fields are part of theapplications:

Custom fields are designed to have a gap between the enumerated values. You can add new values inthose gaps as long as you use odd number values. This will ensure that you have no conflicts withvalues added by BMC.For inline enumerated fields, you will want to add new values only to the end of the list because of theimpact that these changes have on existing workflow and data if you make changes to the middle ofthe list.

When making field changes, know how the fields will be used by existing workflow and integrations. To ensure thatexisting functionality will continue to work, understand the interface forms and application interactions. If one ofthese interactions expects that a field is not available or is not required, your design must determine how to handlethese issues.

Best practices for customizing fields in both BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC RemedyITSM

Regarding field changes, BMC recommends:

Do not change data types for existing fields. If you need a field to hold a different data type, add it as a newfield, and hide the existing field.If you make an existing field required, add a default value. You can either change the properties of the fielditself or set the default by workflow. This will ensure that existing integrations to the form will continue to work.If a field must be accessible to other systems, ensure the field is added to the interface forms for thatapplication. Each application will have defined interfaces for creating, querying, and updating data. These aredocumented in the . In general, the namingBMC Remedy Action Request System Integration Guideconvention for these forms is to add _Interface and _Interface_ as suffixes to the form name Create.Follow the field ID standards for BMC Remedy ITSM applications to ensure that a field does not conflict withanother field added by BMC in future releases. (This requirement will not exist in the future because the BMCRemedy Action Request System server will eventually provide the required functionality.)The following field ID ranges are reserved by BMC and should not be used by you:

BMC Remedy AR System Reserved Ranges:1 – 536,870,9111,000,000,000 – 2,000,000,000

The following custom ranges are used by BMC, so you can use them:not536,870,912 – 999,999,9992,000,000,001 – 2,147,483,647

NoteWhen creating fields for BMC Remedy ITSM, explicitly ensure that the field IDs are not created withinthe reserved ranges.

Do not change the database name for an existing field. Reports in the system typically make use of thedatabase field name when querying the database. You can change the display label of a field, but thedatabase name should remain consistent.You can add new values to custom enumerated fields, but add only odd number values to prevent any future

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conflicts with application upgrades.Enumeration values are incremented with room to allow for values to be inserted between them (1000,2000, 3000 and so on).You can add values anywhere in the list. Use odd numbers because even enumeration values arereserved for BMC. Following is an example of inserting a value into a custom enumeration field:

For linear enumerated fields, you can add new values only to the end of the list. Otherwise, any value thatfollows a new value added in the middle now has a new value, which impacts existing workflow. Thisworkflow would need to be updated. Also, any existing data in the system would need to be transformed tohandle the new value. Finally, any integrations that use this field would need to be updated. An example of alinear enumerated field: Enumeration values are 1, 2,3,4,5, and so on.

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2. 3.

Customized BMC Remedy ITSM form views

One of the benefits of the BMC Remedy Action Request (AR) System platform is that you are able to customize thelayout of your forms. BMC provides a set of Best Practice views that are based on best practice workflows for eachBMC Remedy ITSM application.

TipA Best Practice view is an improved version of the related form. In this view, the fields most commonlyused are immediately visible. You can access less frequently used functionality from the tabbedsections of the form or from the links in the navigation pane. For example, on the Incident requestform, the field is included in the Best Practice view to encourage the use of templates.Templates

You might want to update views to:

Place a new field appropriately in the user interface so that it can be accessed by an end user.Adjust the layout of a view to make the flow more appropriate for the needs of a company (you might want tohide unused fields, for example)Change the color scheme of a form to make it fit in with your corporate "look and feel."

NoteUse overlays to make changes to views. The underlying view provided with an application maychange from version to version and some work will be required to merge your customizations withchanges that might occur for future versions of the application. Ensure that user interface changesyou make are limited. As much as possible, use the out-of-the-box forms layout.

When making changes to the views, ensure that you leverage the user interface to support the appropriate userflows. Evaluate the views in the context of how an end user will use them, and then you can determine where toplace each new data field. The current Best Practice views assume that the user will start entering data in the fieldsfrom top to bottom in the left column and then move to the right column to enter any other data that needs to becaptured.

The BMC Remedy ITSM applications display only data that is required most of the time in the main views. If data isrequired only for some specific supporting actions, that data is moved to a separate dialog and is accessed via thenavigation bar on the left side of the form.

Best practices for customizing forms in BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM

Use the following best practice approach to making customizations to forms:

Instead of changing colors, backgrounds, and images directly in the view, leverage the BMC Remedy ARSystem Skins feature. With the Skins feature, you use the Skins form to add data to reference the viewswhere you want to change the color or images or add a new color or image. These changes do not affect theform definition itself, so all of these changes are backward compatible.Always make changes using an overlay of the form and view.Use the overlaid view in your workflow. Because the BMC Remedy AR System server uses the view name asa unique identifier, the original view name must be used to ensure that workflow is not broken.

You can always go back to the original view provided with the application by disabling or deleting your overlay.

When updating views, ensure that you display only the required fields on a view. BMC Remedy AR System does notrequire that a field be displayed on a view for it to be accessible via workflow. If you have a field that is there only tosupport referencing other data, you do not have to display the field in any views.

In the BMC Remedy AR System view structure, each language has its own separate view on a form. If the change

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that you make must be displayed in multiple languages, you must make the same change for each of the views thatrepresent each individual language, using the steps already given.

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Customized BMC Remedy ITSM buttons

A button is a type of field that you can add to a form. The same issues concerning field IDs and views also apply tobuttons. The main reason to add a button is for workflow navigation to other forms or to enable the form to pull datainto it through the use of the new button.

When adding a new button, evaluate the functionality provided by the button and determine the most appropriateplace to put the button on an existing view. If the functionality will be used infrequently, you can add a link in the leftnavigation bar instead of adding a button. The navigation bar enables you to add the functionality without clutteringthe view itself.

Best practices for customizing buttons in BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC RemedyITSM

For adding buttons, use the same field ID structure that is recommended for fields. Also, if you have the samefunctionality on many forms, ensure that you leverage the same field ID for all the buttons across all of the forms sothat they can share the workflow.

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Customized BMC Remedy ITSM tooltips

Tooltips display information when a user hovers over a field or row in a table. For example, tooltips in the BMCRemedy ITSM applications can include information about the people related to the form, such as the requester,customer, or assignee. They can also display data when the user hovers over a row in a table; for example, therelationships table in BMC Remedy ITSM provides record details when you hover over the rows.

Best practices for customizing tooltips in BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC RemedyITSM

You can change the information in a tooltip; however, the data that you add to a tooltip must exist on the currentform. The reason is that pulling data each time you display a tooltip results in performance issues from calls to thedatabase, which should be avoided. Instead, provide the data as a hidden column in a table field and display thedata from the table only when required. If the data is about a user, when you retrieve the initial user information alsoretrieve all the other required information and store it in hidden fields.

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Customized BMC Remedy ITSM workflow

You can change the existing workflows or add new workflows and still ensure that the new or modified workflows willwork successfully with the applications.

Adding a new workflow

You can add a new workflow to extend the functionality of an application. However, that workflow needs to be builtso that it does not affect the primary flow of the application. Examples of workflows that you can add that would notaffect the processing of an application include:

Client-side workflow (active links) that provides for navigation to other forms or displays lookups to select datathat is pulled into the existing formServer-side business logic (filters) that perform the following operations:

Validation of data in new fields that have been addedAdditional notifications (either as integration points to the BMC Remedy ITSM Notification Engine or asseparate BMC Remedy Action Request System notifications)Pushing data into other forms that have been added

TipThe Notification Engine provides a back-end workflow model for defining whichnotifications should be sent, based on events in the application. For further informationabout the BMC Remedy ITSM Notification Engine, see the BMC Remedy ITSM

.Notification Engine Guide

Setting data from newly added forms into fields that have been addedServer-side Escalation Logic, which enables data to be polled periodically and permits actions to beperformed on this data. You can add this functionality to new forms, but use caution when you are adding it toexisting forms because it might impact system performance.Menu Objects, which you can add to fields to enable the lookup of data to populate fields. If you define amenu as a type-ahead menu, it will show values based on the data being entered in the field. However, usethis option sparingly to avoid performance impacts on the form.

Best practices for customizing workflow in BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC RemedyITSM

Ensure that existing optional processes are not changed to required processes, because this will affect existingintegrations that do not expect required functionality. To ensure that you are not affecting other workflows, BMCSoftware recommends that you leverage the BMC Remedy AR System functionality that shows the workflow that isassociated with a field. This will enable you to see which functions are affected by populating a specific field withdata.

After you have ensured that your new workflow will not affect existing functionality, build and test your new workflow.Provide a name for your workflow that identifies it as your new workflow. The best approach is to add a new ormodified identifier to the name of your object as either a prefix or suffix. This will ensure that the workflow is notoverwritten during an upgrade. Also, it will enable you to see which workflow is added or modified. Addingcomments to the change history tab for the workflow object will also track changes made to the workflow. Followingis an example of how to document workflow changes.

Sample customer document

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If changes are required to out-of-the-box workflow to support your customizations, use overlays to make changes tothe BMC Remedy AR System workflow objects. This will ensure that these changes are preserved after an upgrade.If you want to revert back to the original functionality of the application, you will disable or remove the overlay forthese objects.

Updating existing processes

This information discusses how to update existing application processes.

Status

The status workflow provides functionality that is critical to the running of the applications. Status drives the processflows for the applications. The applications have a specific field that drives status flows (for example, see the Statusfield in the Incident Request window for BMC Remedy Incident Management that follows). Typically, this is Field ID7, except for BMC Remedy Change Management, which has a different field ID so it can have more controllablestatus transitions. The following information describes:

The status components that cannot be changed due to their involvement in processing applicationsThe functionality that you can change and how you can implement these changes

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Because status values and basic flows are integral to the processing of applications, you cannot change theworkflow that controls these areas. However, you can customize other areas to extend the functionality ofapplications, and in the case of BMC Remedy Change Management, you can control the process flow via data.

Updating change status transitions

You can access the data-driven model for status transitions for BMC Remedy Change Management and ReleaseManagement via the Process Flow Configuration window. This window enables you to change how a change recordmoves between the existing status values. It also controls the status values that appear in the menu so thatStatusjust the values for appropriate transitions apply for the current state. Transitions are managed via data, so nochanges to code are required to manage status flow changes. For more information, see the BMC Remedy Change

.Management User Guide

Process Flow Configuration window

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Updating status reason

The status reason is a value that is contextual to the current status. You can extend this field is to provide someadditional information for the current status or provide a way to trigger workflows from a function that occurs duringthe specific status.

Components on the back-end include base workflow functionality, data, and an enumerated field that drives thestatus reason. You can add values for additional status reasons, but BMC does not recommend it because youwould need to make additional changes to the selection fields.

If you make changes, you must perform the following actions:

Update the data in the SYS:Status Reason Menu Items form (shown in the following window) to add theadditional values for the menu. These items will be based on the value of the current status.

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Update the enumerated field Status_Reason (Field ID 1000000150) to add the new value. Use the sameenumeration as you did when you created the data record. Add a value that is an odd number so that it is notimpacted by future upgrades.Ensure that the changes to this field are done on the HPD:IncidentInterface_Create form and the appropriateforms for data loads for each application that you are changing.

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Customized BMC Remedy ITSM table columns

You can add data from a form that is referenced from a table field. You might want to do this to enable the data to beseen in the table, or you might want to use the data in your workflow.

In order to customize a table's columns, you must create overlays of the BMC Remedy AR System form and viewthat the table's fields reside on.

When adding columns, remember that these columns have field IDs and must be added using the field ID. Also, follow the naming conventions discussed in the recommendations BMC Remedy On Demand Customization

document to avoid conflicts with column names added by BMC.Designs

There are various reasons for adding table columns. If you want to make the data visible to the end user, make surethat the table column is visible and in a position that makes sense for a end user to see. If you are leveraging thisdata for workflow, make sure that the table columns are hidden.

Best practices for customizing table columns in BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMCRemedy ITSM

The most efficient way to get data from a table is to include it in the table field and not build additional workflow toget the field. This will make the workflow much more efficient. This is important in . Use hidden table columnstooltipsto show data in a tooltip because it reduces the calls back to the system to retrieve record data that you are alreadydisplaying.

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Customized BMC Remedy ITSM foundation

The BMC Remedy ITSM foundation contains all of the common data structures that are used across the BMCRemedy ITSM applications. These include:

Operational categorizationProduct categorizationCompany informationPeople informationAssignment rulesApproval rules

Operational categorization and product categorization

Operational categorization is a structure that is leveraged by the BMC Remedy ITSM applications to define whathappens in a record. Product categorization is a structure that is leveraged by BMC Remedy ITSM and BMC AtriumCMDB to categorize the configuration items (CIs). Both of these structures are used extensively within BMCRemedy ITSM to perform a number of functions such as:

Assignment routingApproval routingIncident matching lookupsReports and queriesSoftware license managementChange process managementRelationship lookups

Any changes that are made to these structures have a ripple effect across all BMC Remedy ITSM applications andBMC Atrium CMDB, so BMC does not recommend changing these structures. These structures can work with eachother to help drive the processes listed, so often you will find that designing both operational and productcategorizations appropriately provides the required functionality. Examples of how to define effective categorizationsare provided out-of-the-box.

Company Information

The company structure determines how multi-tenancy is used within the applications. Do not change the workflowaround how multi-tenancy is implemented in the applications, because it would have a ripple effect across allapplications.

People information

The People Information form is a key structure for providing information about other structures within the application.The following functions are driven by the People Information form:

Application permissionsAuthenticationNotification subscriptionsSupport group relationships

You can can add new fields and buttons to this form, but be aware that the people form also has a built-in model foradding additional variables data. This functionality lets you add name or value part data sets, which will be related tothe people record. If all you require is information to be visible on the record, this might be the easiest way.Reporting this information is not easy so the decision to add new fields or to use this functionality should be basedon whether you want to report on the data and whether you would want to pull this data into other forms. If you wantto pull data into other forms, add the field directly to the form, because this will work better from a performancestandpoint.

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Assignment routing

The assignment routing forms provide the following functions:

Select a support group upon submitting a recordProvide data to the BMC Remedy Assignment Engine that assigns an individual to the record that usesassignment rules

This functionality is tightly integrated across BMC Remedy ITSM. The typical customization is to add a field to usethe mappings for an application to pick a support group. To add this type of functionality, you must:

Add the appropriate data to your main form (for example, HPD:Help Desk).Add the appropriate data to the Assignment Mapping form.Extend the support group lookup workflow and menus to make use of this additional field in the qualifications.

Approval routing

The approval routing functionality is leveraged by BMC Service Request Management, BMC Remedy ChangeManagement, and BMC Remedy Asset Management to assign the appropriate approvers to the record. Thefollowing components are leveraged by approvals:

Approval process lookupsMappings for level or management of approval chains

TipAn approval chain connects different kinds of approval processes together so that they occur insequence.

Approval rules in the BMC Remedy Approval Server

In addition, BMC Service Request Management enables to you build custom approval chains. This functionality isdata driven and enables you to take advantage of any fields on the form to link an approval process to a request.

You can add a new fields to a mapping for selecting an approval process or add an additional field to look upindividual approvers, but make these changes with care.

To extend the process selection process in BMC Service Request Management, use the approval chainfunctionality, which is data driven and automatically generates the appropriate workflow to link the approval processbased on the required data. For more information, see the BMC Remedy Service Request Management

.Administration Guide

For BMC Remedy Change Management and BMC Remedy Asset Management, you must make some changes tothe workflow and forms. You must add your new fields to the Approval Process Form and then you will need tochange the approval process workflow to look up the process based on that data.

To add a new field for individual approvers lookup:

Add the field to the approval mapping form.Pull the field into the appropriate join forms.Update the appropriate approval rules in the BMC Remedy Approval Server.

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Customized BMC Remedy ITSM relationships

One of the key structures used to link BMC Remedy ITSM applications is the application relationship model. Youcan use the relationship module to search for relationships and display the relationships in a table. From the tableyou can then perform actions on the data via Quick Actions forms.

Adding new relationships requires you to make some changes to the data and certain selection fields to support thedisplay of the new relationship type in different languages. Such changes are not recommended.

You can easily change the Quick Actions section of a relationship, however, by adding some configuration data andworkflow, which triggers the configuration data to perform an action on the selected item in the table.

To make changes to the Quick Actions forms:

Extend the data in the SYS:Request Type Action Lookup form:Define the Association Type as ALL, which means that it appears for all associations.For the Request Type Action, enter the name of the action to appear in the menu.For the Associated On Form Name, enter the name of the form on which you are working.For the Request Type, enter the object to which you are linking.

Add the workflow in the Quick Actions execute field that will trigger based on the selected request type.

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Customized BMC Remedy ITSM work logs

Work logs track the changes that have happened for a record. The work log is composed of text fields that hold theinformation, attachment fields to support attachments, and a type field that represents the type of capturedinformation.

Incident Work Info window

On the Work Info window, you can customize the Work Info Type field to add new values. New values that you addshould be odd numbers so they do not conflict with future values that BMC might add. Do not remove anout-of-the-box Work Info Type values because their removal might cause upgrade problems.

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Customized BMC Remedy ITSM process flow bar

The process flow bar is the area at the top of the main process screen that shows the overall process involved for aparticular application. At each stage of the process, a number of available actions can occur for each process state.

You can customize the process flow bar to extend the actions that can occur for any individual process state. Youcannot customize the process flow stages. For example, if you wanted to add a new value to the “Investigation andDiagnosis” stage of an incident, you could add a new action to appear on the drop-down menu via configuration datain the system, and then add your own Active Link workflow that would be triggered based on the selected data.

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Customized BMC Remedy ITSM notifications

Notifications in the BMC Remedy ITSM applications are managed by a dedicated subsystem that sends outnotifications. This subsystem enables you to use configuration data to determine which notifications are sent out fora user. You can access this information through the user's people profile record. You can also use data to configurethe text of the messages that are sent out.

You can add new notifications by performing the following actions:

Adding configuration data to define the notifications so that they are displayed in the notification registrationinterfaceAdding workflow that passes the notification information into the BMC Remedy ITSM Notification Engine

NoteBMC does not recommend making changes to the out-of-the-box notification workflow because thechanges might affect the processing of the applications. Instead, add new notifications that supportyour notification functionality changes, and unsubscribe users from the old notifications. This helpsyou to preserve notification functionality during an upgrade.

Email support

The BMC Remedy ITSM Notification Engine uses the BMC Remedy Action Request (AR) System email engine asthe mechanism to send out email notifications. The current integration does not support inbound email or outboundemail templates. The system can be customized to provide support for inbound email, which is currently beinghandled via extensions created by BMC Professional Services. For more information about the BMC Remedy ITSMNotification Engine, see the .BMC Remedy ITSM Notification Engine Guide

Documents

BMC Remedy Customization Best Practice Guidelines