Audit trails, case narratives, and attachments

User forms include two tabs. The Audit tab enables users to display the work history and narrative entries for a case. On the Overview tab, the Attachments area enables users to view or add file and URL attachments to a case.

Audit tab

Click the Audit tab to open a new page with the following two sections:

• History — The history of this case (also called the audit trail) and its attachments. The header identifies the time that an a description of the task or assignment, and the name of the operator who performed the action. All three columns can be filtered to further specify data that is shown.
• Case narrative — Presents data from the History section of the Audit tab in a format that resembles RSS stream notifications. Each row displays a work object status change or attachment event, attachments, and Operator ID information.

History section

Each row contains a date and time, description, and the operator's full name. Dates and times on the history display are presented in the time zone indicated in the Time Zone field of your Operator ID data instance.

• History instances created by agents list system as the Operator ID.
• History instances created by the Pega-ProCom agent when performing bulk processing list system, on behalf of Name. as the Operator ID.

To see additional detail in a pop-up window, hold the mouse pointer over a row.

History information is cumulative and permanent; it cannot be changed. If the work item contains incorrect information, you can overwrite or replace it with correct information.

Click Export to Excel to export the history report to Microsoft Excel.

Geolocation tracking

If the geolocation tracking feature is enabled, the Location column contains Map it links for each requestor entry. Clicking a link opens a Google Map showing where the entry was made.

Case Narrative section

The Case Narrative section presents data from the History section in a format that resembles a series of RSS feed notifications.

The section displays rows, each of which records work object status changes (except agent actions), or attachments activities (notes, files, URLs, and so on). By default, the most recent action appears at the top. The user can reverse the order by clicking the Showing newest on top link. Selecting the Show child cases check box displays child case status changes and attachments. Each row contains:

• The operator's image and full name. Clicking the name displays a pop-up dialog containing additional Operator ID information.
• The case name and work object ID.
• Attachments, identified by an icon and the subject text. Users who hold valid attachment permissions can open it by clicking the highlighted subject, or delete it from the system using the Delete link. When a note is added using the Attachments tab on the work form, only the first 64 characters appear. A subject line is also displayed when the rich text editor is used. Users can click a note to display the entire message; clicking the refresh icon returns to the abbreviated view.
• The relative time of the change (for example, 57 minutes ago) appears on the right side of the row. After 24 hours, the date and time appears. Refreshing the tab updates the times.

You can customize the presentation in a copy of the Work-.pyCaseNarrative section.

Attachments

Expand the Attachments header to list the existing attachments to this case, or to review, edit, or delete existing attachments. The Basic View form allows users to enter Note, File, URL, or Content attachment types. The list is grouped by attachment categories; their associated attachments are listed beneath the category name.

File attachments

To create a file attachment:

1. Click Add and select Attach a File. A pop-up dialog opens. Two methods are available for attaching a file: selecting an individual file, or dragging and dropping one or more files.
2. To select a single file:

• Enter a description in the Description field.
• Type a full file name and path, or click Browse to navigate to the file. Select the file, and click Open.
• Select an attachment category, if applicable. The list of available categories depends on the attachment type, privileges, work type, and other factors that are determined through attachment category rules. If a category is not selected, the default category File (the attachment category Work-.File) is applied to the attachment.

3. To drag and drop files:

• Select a file and drop it in the Drag and Drop Files area. This adds the file to the array beneath the area.
• Optionally, edit the description and select an attachment category.
• Add files as needed.

The user can, within the same dialog, enter both a file name and path, or drag and drop files .

4. Click OK.

The standard flow action Work-.AttachAFile provides a similar capability, but without a pop-up dialog.

Choose the Edit Attachments action Work-.EditCategorizedAttachments (when configured in a flow) to revise an existing file using workstation software such as Microsoft Word. The system retains both the original file and the updated file, with a higher version number.

URL attachments

A URL attachment links the work item to a web page or other object accessible with the HTTP protocol. To create a URL attachment:

1. Click Add and select Attach a URL.
2. Enter a subject in the pop-up dialog.
3. Enter the URL.
4. Select an attachment category, if applicable. The list of available categories depends on the attachment type, privileges, work type, and other factors that are determined through attachment category rules. If a category is not selected, the default category URL (attachment category Work-.URL) is applied to the attachment.
5. Click OK.

The standard local flow action Work-.AttachAUrl provides a similar capability, but without a pop-up window.

Content attachments

Appears if you select the Enable for attachments option on the Application rule's Integration tab. This option allows the user to browse and attach files located in CMIS repositories. The ones displayed in the pop-up window are obtained from Connect-CMIS rules that shown in the operator's profile.

To create a content attachment:

1. Click Add and select Attach Content.
2. In the pop-up window, select an attachment category from the drop-down list.
3. Select a repository name, and select the file.
4. Click Attach.

Attachments (Advanced)

Click the Advanced link to enter any of the six attachment types. In addition to Note, File, URL, and Content attachments, two other attachment types are available in the advanced view. Unlike the four Basic View types, these two attachment types each require that a Pega 7 Platform ActiveX control be on the user workstation.

Screen Shot attachments

To add a screen shot attachment:

1. Click Add and select Attach a Screen Shot to open the pop-up dialog.
2. The Window Name field shows the title of each window on the user's workstation, even if minimized. Select one window title from the list to bring the target window to the front.
3. Enter a short text description in the Note field.
4. Select an attachment category, if applicable. The list of available categories depends on the attachment type, privileges, work type, and other factors that are determined through attachment category rules. If a category is not selected, the default category Screen Shot (attachment category Work-.ScreenShot) is applied to the attachment.
5. Click Attach Selected Window.
6. Click OK.

The standard local flow action Work-.AttachAScreenShot provides a similar capability, without a pop-up window.

This feature is sometimes called screen capture. The prScreenCapture ActiveX control supports this capability. The attachments are instances of the Data-WorkAttach-ScreenShot class.

Scanned document attachments

If the user's workstation includes a scanner, the user can create and attach a GIF or TIFF image scanned from a paper document using Pega Document Scanning.

To add a scanned document attachment:

1. Select Create Scanned Document to open the pop-up dialog.
2. In the Attachment Category field, select any category from the drop-down menu. If no category is selected, the default category File is set on the attachment.
3. Add a Note if desired.
4. Click Scan. You can follow the progress of the scanned image on the screen. The file is uploaded to Pega 7 Platform, and a message reports when the upload is done.
5. Click Submit to complete the Scan action.

The standard local flow action Work-.pyCreateScannedDocument provides this capability. Attachments are instances of the Data-WorkAttach-ScanDocument class.

Customizing the history display

The standard harness Work-.HistoryandAttachments supports the standard display of history and attachments. You can override this rule for your applications, to change the layout, contents, or functions available. Alternatively, you can present the history section or attachments sections within a user form.

The standard section Work-.HistoryListView executes a standard list view rule History-.HistoryListView.ALL. To change the columns or presentation, override this rule in the History-ZZZZ class, where ZZZZ is the name of a class group or work type in your application. (Do not override the section unless you are making advanced changes; it is not auto-generated.)

Customizing the attachment display

The standard section Work-.Attachments supports the Add button to allow the user to add attachments (of four types for Basic View, or all six types for Advanced View. This section includes the standard section Work-.AttachmentListView (not auto-generated) which executes the standard list view Link-Attachment.AttachmentList.ALL. Although no fixed limit exists on the number of attachments that a work item can have, the standard list view rule displays a maximum of 100 attachments.

To customize the presentation, override the auto-generated sections or the list view rule. (Do not override the Work-.AttachmentListView section unless you are making advanced changes.)

Referencing attachments

You can use the standard page list property pyAttachments to reference attachments by type (Link-Attachment class).

You can use the function alias pxIsAttachmentOfCategoryInCase to check if an attachment of a particular category is attached to a case.

Attachment versioning

Assuming that the category's business purpose is clearly defined (invoice or expense report, for example), users can use categories to identify and maintain multiple document versions as described in the following example:

1. A user opens a case, displays the Audit window, and clicks Add> Add a File in the Attachments sections to open the File Attachment pop-up dialog.
2. In the dialog, the user selects the file, enters the name, selects the category (Invoice), and clicks OK to attach the document.
3. Later, another user (with edit and create privileges) opens the same case, opens the attached document, saves a copy locally, and edits it.
4. The user then uses the pop-up dialog to add the revised copy as a new attachment. The user enters a name (the original name can be used — the date/time stamp differentiates them), selects the Invoice category, selects the revised document, and clicks OK to add the new version.
   
   Under the Invoice category array, the new version appears above the original.

Users can review any version. Outgoing email activities send only the latest version.

Related information

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