Business issue:

Sometimes it is desirable to include Call Log attachments in MAPI or SMTP emails sent to Assignees or even back to the Profile Customer. HEAT currently only allows you to choose static file names for attaching to Autotask emails.

Technical solution:

Third Sky has successfully implemented a solution where the first n attachments (generally 3 or less) on a call can successfully be forwarded along with any MAPI or SMTP email.

The solution entails a set of 3 pairs of "temp" fields on the Call Log record to store the first three attachment names and attachment links. Through the use of a SQL trigger that could be easily mapped to MS SQL, Oracle or Sybase, any insert or update to the HEATGen table is monitored to see if the record is a Call Log Attachment record*. If it is, the appropriate Attachment names and locations are pulled from the record, processed, and written back to the Call Log Record.

With the file locations and names on the Call Log Record, Autotasks can now use the data in these fields in the "Attachments" area of an email action. In general, you can add the three location fields with a comma separator and have success even if only one, two, three, or no attachments exist on the Call Log. Alternately these fields can be used to include "links" to files for internal profile members rather than attaching the actual files.

Solution Issues:

1. For BPAM, this solution only works well if users are in the habit of copying attachments to the HEAT Call Log Attachments location, or if attachments are generally stored in a network share that is also available to the BPAM engine. User run Autotasks can find local files, but generally only if the user running the Autotask is the same one who attached the files. A simple modification to the HEATGen trigger can compare an attachment's file location to the system file store location and only include files that are in the general storage location.
2. If a file name includes a space character, the "attachment" functionality works fine, but using the file location as a "link" in the email does not produce good results (e.g. anything before the space is a clickable link, and after is not; therefore the user needs to cut and paste the whole string into the Windows Run dialog to launch the file
3. When using MAPI, if an attachment does not exist (can not be found by the Autotask), manually running the autotask can sometimes cause Call Logging to shut down. If the autotask is run from BPAM, the action of sending the email will fail, but BPAM is not affected.
4. The HEATGen table is dropped and recreated with each Edit Set commit. Therefore a separate trigger needs to be created on the HEATDb table to recreate the trigger on the HEATGen table if you do not want to manually recreate this trigger after each commit.

Thanks to Ken Michelson, Director - Boston Office, for this Tech Tip. If you need help implementing one of our Tech Tips, email sales@thirdsky.com and ask about our Pay-As-You-Go Consulting Support Service.

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