Employee Blogs


  • Dovetail Seeker 1.1 Shipped
    We have added a few bows and ribbons to Dovetail Seeker our handy web based search service for Clarify. We’ve made it easier for search clients, like Dovetail Mobile Agent , and Dovetail Search for Clarify , to page results. Added example code for consuming Seeker’s search services from a .Net client. Better documentation of the search service API. Details Details Here is a copy and paste of our release notes for this version with all the gritty details. Version 1.1.0 Documentation added with information on the Seeker Search Web Service API . Added...
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  • 6 hours, 22 minutes ago by kmiller to Kevin Miller
    0 Comments 19 Views
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  • hMailServer: a free email server that's great for demos and testing
    When doing testing or demos, I often need to send and receive email. For example, Dovetail EmailAgent requires a mail server for receiving incoming mail. Dovetail Rulemanager needs a mail server for sending outgoing notifications by email, as well as for sending outgoing email. When I'm in the office, I could use our corporate mail server (although I don't like to use production systems for testing). If I have internet access, I can use GMail, or another free hosted SMTP/POP3 server. But when I'm on the road, its not uncommon to end up in a conference...
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  • 12 hours, 39 minutes ago by gsherman to Gary Sherman
    0 Comments 24 Views
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  • Improved Case & Solution linking workflow within Dovetail Agent
    One of the more underused features within Clarify/Dovetail is the ability to link cases to solutions. Its a great feature - I just don't see it used often enough. This allows organizations to track which solutions are used the most, and use that information to feed back to production groups (development, engineering, documentation, etc.) to help prioritize changes/fixes/enhancements. Making it easier for agents to link solutions and cases would certainly be beneficial. If its hard, they're less likely to do it. So, make it easy.   Dovetail...
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  • 11-18-2008, 5:34 PM by gsherman to Gary Sherman
    1 Comments 89 Views
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  • Incorporating Dovetail Search into your Case & Solution Workflow within the Clarify Client
    An additional customization is provided with Dovetail Search for Clarify that allows Search to be incorporated into your case and solution workflow. For example, from the Case form, clicking the Dovetail Search button will open the Search form, and can search Solutions using the case title. A solution can be opened from the Search results form, and the Link to Case button on the Solution form can be clicked, which will link the solution to the case. Clicking on the Dovetail Search button from the case form: opens the Search form, and automatically...
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  • 11-18-2008, 5:21 PM by gsherman to Gary Sherman
    0 Comments 75 Views
  • Dovetail Search for Clarify
    Ever since we introduced Dovetail Seeker this summer , I was anxious to incorporate its capabilities with our applications. It is integrated within Dovetail Agent, Dovetail SelfService, and Dovetail Mobile Agent. Kevin also demonstrated how to incorporate it into your own applications (his particular example was integrating Seeker with an ASP.NET 2.0 web application). We've now integrated Seeker with the Clarify Classic Client, bringing the simple and ubiquitous search box into Clarify. Dovetail Search provides the User Interface (UI) for searching...
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  • 11-18-2008, 4:39 PM by gsherman to Gary Sherman
    1 Comments 104 Views
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  • Query Converter - a New Tool to Migrate ClarifyCRM Queries to fcQuery Objects
    Long time ClarifyCRM users may have a number of traditional Clarify queries accumulated over time. After such a business acquires Dovetail Software CRM products for Clarify database, it becomes one of the migration issues: how to reuse Clarify queries in the new thin client. Dovetail Software Agent has no built-in support for Clarify queries, and for a good reason. fcQuery is far superior to traditional Clarify query model and all the users are highly encouraged to abandon Clarify queries in favor of fcQueries. If the business no longer uses Clarify...
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  • 11-18-2008, 3:43 PM by Marek to Marek Pawelczyk
    0 Comments 70 Views
  • Site And Contact Merge Tools in Dovetail Agent
    Dovetail Agent v.4.1 has been expanded to include two tools to merge duplicate sites and contacts. Before Dovetail Agent v.4.1, this functionality was available as Clarify Classic Client extension known as fcMerge, which is still available as a separate product. While fcMerge is also capable of handling duplicate address, part, and employee records, Dovetail Agent version of the tool concentrates on sites and contacts only, as these are the most likely ones in need of merging. The new tools do not use any Clarify technology. No more Clarify form...
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  • 11-18-2008, 10:16 AM by Marek to Marek Pawelczyk
    1 Comments 91 Views
  • Dovetail Mobile Agent: Only show the queues that have stuff in them
    As I've mentioned before , I use Dovetail Mobile Agent for my day-to-day case activities. Its simplicity and ease of use really pleases me. Even though it was targeted as an app for mobile devices, it works just as well using normal browsers on desktops & laptops. On the Home page, there's a link to My Open Cases , Recent Activity for my workgroup , as well as a list of My Queues (including the number of items in the queue). But, its not actually all of my queues. Its only the queues that have stuff (such as cases) in them. If a queue is empty,...
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  • 11-05-2008, 5:30 PM by gsherman to Gary Sherman
    0 Comments 148 Views
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  • Looking for your opinion on linking cases to solutions
    One of the more underused features within Clarify/Dovetail is the ability to link cases to solutions. Its a great feature - I just don't see it used often enough. This allows organizations to track which solutions are used the most, and use that information to feed back to production groups (development, engineering, documentation, etc.) to help prioritize changes/fixes/enhancements. Solutions Solutions have a title, an id, and a description of the problem. They also have 1 or more resolutions (workarounds). For example, take a look at this solution...
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  • 11-05-2008, 5:02 PM by gsherman to Gary Sherman
    2 Comments 152 Views
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  • Getting Things Done - with Dovetail ArchiveManager (DIET)
    I am currently working on a project where I need to take a database from empty to usable with a script file. I am at the point where I need to import data files, and the data files I need to import don't exist. The customer has the data, and luckily they have a tool to create nice, tidy data files for me - Dovetail Software's Data Import Export Tool (DIET). The challenge for me is to make it easy for them to use DIET, so I can get the data files that I need. DIET is the perfect tool for the job, because it is designed to do exactly what I need....
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  • 10-24-2008, 4:07 PM by styson to Sam Tyson
    0 Comments 135 Views
  • Resize text areas on any page
    We use Community Server for both our internal as well as our external blogs. One of the things that I hate is the tiny textarea that they give you for entering comments:     Solutions If you're using Google Chrome , it allows you to easily drag and resize and textarea. It just works - nothing to do.   If you're using Firefox, there's a bunch of Firefox add-ons , as well as a bunch of GreaseMonkey scripts for doing the same thing. I grabbed this GreaseMonkey script: Textarea Drag Resize It allows me to easily drag and resize any textarea:...
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  • 10-23-2008, 6:36 PM by gsherman to Gary Sherman
    4 Comments 236 Views
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  • Dovetail Mobile Agent and Your Recent Case Activity
    One of my favorite features in Dovetail Mobile Agent is the Recent Workgroup Case Activity view which displays a listing of all  the cases recently modified by agents in my workgroup. At the end of the day I sometimes browse Recent Case Activity using my Dash from the comfort of a bar stool or easy chair. Here is a snapshot of the Call Administrator workgroup (my emphasis not some silly CSS style) This is also quite a handy view for Support Managers wishing to keep tabs on their minions agents. Why filter by workgroup? The short answer is to...
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  • 10-23-2008, 5:17 PM by kmiller to Kevin Miller
    1 Comments 185 Views
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  • Blackberry’s Web Browser Caching Stinks
    Ran into an issue taking Dovetail Mobile Agent for a test spin on a Sam’s Blackberry Pearl. We noticed pretty quick that web pages were not getting refreshed. It was really obvious when I logged in to my account using Sam’s phone and saw his cases rather than mine. It turns out that the web browser on this particular Blackberry does not check with the web server to see if a particular web page has been updated. We found a pretty easy fix. Just add a Cache-Control HTTP header to every web page sent by the web application. Every page?! Isn’t that...
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  • 10-23-2008, 1:54 PM by kmiller to Kevin Miller
    1 Comments 199 Views
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  • Consuming JSON in ClearBasic
    Recently I had the need to consume JSON in ClearBasic. For example, I make a request to a web service, and the service returns a result set in JSON format. I want to display those results within Clarify. JSON JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format. JSON is a pretty popular data transfer format, especially for the web. Here's an example of a simple JSON object: { "FirstName": "Joe",       "LastName": "SixPack",      ...
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  • 10-22-2008, 12:42 PM by gsherman to Gary Sherman
    4 Comments 332 Views
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  • Customer Service – Poor Execution or Customer's Preference
    There is an ongoing debate within the Support & Service industry as to why more CS&S issues aren't handled by means other than live agents. There are those who say that vendors haven't created the right solutions for customers to implement. There are others who claim that customers like to talk to live people, not machines. When I say machines, I am also including people utilizing technology, including self service, live chat, and emails, to name a few. Basically, anything but a live person. If you take the first position, you would believe...
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  • 10-15-2008, 5:56 PM by slynn to Stephen Lynn
    0 Comments 162 Views
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  • Creating IIS7 web applications from the command line
    While trying to decide if I should create a Windows Installer for Dovetail Mobile Agent. I was doing some research on how to automate the setup of web applications on IIS7. Turns out it is quite easy from the command line when you are local to the web server using AppCmd . With the helpful batch prowess of of Chad Myers I cooked up this batch file which creates a web application with its own application pool. @echo OFF SETLOCAL SET webSiteName= "Default Web Site" SET vdir=/mobile SET physicalPath=C:\projects\mobile\source\Dovetail.Agent.Mobile...
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  • 10-09-2008, 6:32 PM by kmiller to Kevin Miller
    0 Comments 256 Views
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  • Deploying an ASP.Net MVC web application to IIS7
    The next installment in my exciting series where I capture what I know about deploying Dovetail Mobile Agent which could be boiled down to How To Be a Web Server Administrator in the year 2008 . Moving from IIS6 this time we take a look at getting an ASP.Net MVC application deployed to IIS7. Thankfully this is pretty easy. To try out this experience I created a Vista SP1 Enterprise virtual machine and added the IIS 7 windows feature. I know. I know. Most enterprise customers will want to use Windows 2008 as their favorite IIS7 platform, I had to...
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  • 10-07-2008, 2:53 PM by kmiller to Kevin Miller
    2 Comments 795 Views
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  • Keyboard Shortcuts for Dovetail Mobile Agent
    In a past post , I discussed how to use GreaseMonkey to modify a web application, particularly, Dovetail Mobile Agent. In my last post , I linked to a GreaseMonkey script that added keyboard shortcuts to Basecamp. Now let's combine the two together. Access Keys for Mobile Clients Keep in mind that Dovetail Mobile Agent already has Access Keys (shortcuts) that are geared for mobile devices. The access keys are numbers. This works well on a mobile device, but it doesn't make as much sense for non-mobile devices. Notice in the image below that each...
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  • 10-07-2008, 11:01 AM by gsherman to Gary Sherman
    2 Comments 299 Views
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  • Installing a ASP.Net MVC web application on IIS6
    Getting ready to release Dovetail Agent Mobile I am working on what our installation story will look like. I want to keep things simple (for me) right now because it is currently tricky to support IIS6 and IIS7 using a Wix based windows installer. For the documentation I am compiling a list of operations to get what is essentially a ASP.Net MVC web application up and going on different web servers. Later we may later add an installer that encapsulates this pain but right now it is just too darn hard to do this well using Wix . Do you hear me Microsoft?...
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  • 10-06-2008, 3:45 PM by kmiller to Kevin Miller
    2 Comments 557 Views
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  • Keyboard shortcuts for Basecamp
    Greasemonkey script Quickcamp adds keyboard shortcuts to Basecamp . We use Basecamp for our keeping track of our professional service engagements, and as you can probably tell from my recent posts, I'm quickly becoming a huge fan of GreaseMonkey. So Quickcamp makes a nice add-on to for my environment. Cool stuff.
  • 10-06-2008, 10:25 AM by gsherman to Gary Sherman
    1 Comments 259 Views
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  • Clarify Additional Features Forms
    I recently responded to a  question about adding a Save button to the CR (Change Request) form in Clarify. Dusting off my Clarify knowledge, I gave some details about how to simply copy the Save button from the Additional Features form. I'm sure not everyone knows about these forms. We wrote about this years ago, in one of our newsletters, but I figured it couldn't hurt to share it again here. Additional Features Forms There are three forms in the Clarify Classic Client that are never displayed in a Clarify client session, but which are extremely...
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  • 10-03-2008, 4:07 PM by gsherman to Gary Sherman
    0 Comments 468 Views
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  • What do Dovetail Software Customers Think of Our Customer Service?
    Scott Hornstein , co-author of the book Opt-In Marketing , recently penned A Novel Concept: What Do Customers Think of Customer Service? for Sales and Marketing Management and his column does indeed raise a somewhat novel concept. That is, he conducted a Q&A with the most important people in business, the customers to find out what they really think. Writes Mr. Hornstein, "We discuss CRM and customer service issues from a lofty position. We speak of strategies and processes and successes—the articles and case histories I find are largely congratulatory....
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  • 10-02-2008, 12:37 PM by slynn to Stephen Lynn
    0 Comments 215 Views
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  • Using Ubiquity to "edit" web pages
    I commonly take screen-shots of our web applications, and use them here within my blog. Occasionally when I do this, I want to hide or obfuscate certain pieces of information. For example, I may want to share a screenshot of a case from one of our production systems, or I may have some data that I use in my dev system, that isn't exactly "professional", so I wouldn't want the outside world seeing it. Or perhaps even a URL that I don't want to expose. I used to do a bunch of work, and jump through some hoops in order to make everything...
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  • 09-28-2008, 11:39 PM by gsherman to Gary Sherman
    0 Comments 266 Views
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  • Commenting on Solutions
    One of the things I've wanted to do for a long time is have the ability to add comments on objects within the Clarify/Dovetail system. As a specific example, I've wanted to be able to add comments to a solution. For those not versed in Clarify/Dovetail speak, a Solution is essentially a KnowledgeBase (KB) article. By allowing comments, I (and others) can (hopefully) enhance the information that is within the Solution. For example, consider a  KB article that is available on the web, such as a Microsoft KB article , or a Dovetail KB article...
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  • 09-28-2008, 11:05 PM by gsherman to Gary Sherman
    0 Comments 321 Views
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  • Microsoft + jQuery
    Totally rockin announcement today: Microsoft will be shipping jQuery with Visual Studio. If you follow the Dovetail Developers, you already know that we're big fans of jQuery at Dovetail . ScottGu has details on his blog about this announcement, as does John Resig . Scott Hanselman also has a good write-up. From ScottGu's post: We will distribute the jQuery JavaScript library as-is, and will not be forking or changing the source from the main jQuery branch.  The files will continue to use and ship under the existing jQuery MIT license. We will...
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  • 09-28-2008, 11:02 PM by gsherman to Gary Sherman
    0 Comments 537 Views
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