Associating Attachments with Fields

In some applications, users may add a significant number of attachments within a single issue.  It can then be useful to associate specific attachments with specific fields, or updates to a specific log area field entry.  For example, this can provide a shortcut to viewing an attachment that was uploaded at the same time a specific comment was made.

When an attachment is associated with a field, its file name will appear beneath the attachment.  The field is a link and clicking on the link will open the attachment in exactly the same way that opening the attachment from viewing within the attachment layout within the screen.  Fields that may be associated with attachments will have a  button on the menubar of the HTML Area field, or a similar button to the side of Text Area fields.  Clicking this pops up the same Attachment Add window that is used when the Add button is clicked on the Attachment layout.  Adding attachments via this button result in the uploaded files being regular attachments, and with a link to the field from which they were added.

Attachments associated with the use of EVMail do not have any user interface elements, and will appear the same as attachments associated through the user interface.

The associated attachments are displayed correctly, and will be cleared from the user interface if the attachment is deleted.  An audit trail of the changes to associated attachments are viewable in the History of the issues.

ExtraView provides two methods to achieve this configuration, through the user interface on add and edit screens, and when inserting or updating an issue via EVMail.

Configuration for Add and Edit Screens

The feature may be configured on fields with these display types:

• Text Area
• HTML Area
• Log Area (including those with the Present as HTML option set in the Data Dictionary

To configure the option, edit the layout where you want to use the feature within the Design Center and add the layout cell attribute named ATTACHMENT LINK.  Alternatively if you want to use the feature throughout the installation on a field, set the ATTACHMENT LINK attribute as a global attribute from within the field inside the Data Dictionary.

You may set the attribute on any number of fields within add, edit or layouts embedded within these.

The following security permission keys control the behavior of attachments:

PR_ADD_PROBLEM.ATTACHMENT_LINK	Controls the presence of the Attachment Link button on Add screens
PR_RESOLUTION.ATTACHMENT_LINK	Controls the presence of the Attachment Link button on Edit screens
PR_ADD_PROBLEM.ATTACHMENT_ADD	Controls the presence of the Add Attachment button on Add screens
PR_RESOLUTION.ATTACHMENT.ADD	Controls the presence of the Add Attachment button on Edit screens
PR_RESOLUTION.ATTACHMENT_LINK_NOTIFICATION	Controls the presence or absence of the Attachment Link on outgoing emails.  This is useful to allow users in specific roles to see the text within the field associated with the attachment, but not to see or be able to download the attachment

Configuration for EVMail

Properties must be set within the EVMail task configuration.  These will associate incoming file attachments with the field that will contain the body of the incoming email.

If the field containing the body is plain text, set these options:

EVMAIL_BODY_UDF	This provides the field name that will contain the body of the incoming email when creating new issues within the database
EVMAIL_BODY_UPDATE_UDF	This provides the field name that will contain the body of the incoming email when updating existing issues
EVMAIL_BODY_UDF_ATTACHMENT_LINK	Set this option to a value of YES if you want ExtraView to associate any attachments to the incoming email to the field set in EVMAIL_BODY_UDF
EVMAIL_BODY_UPDATE_UDF_ATTACHMENT_LINK	Set this option to a value of YES if you want ExtraView to associate any attachments to the incoming email to the field set in EVMAIL_BODY_UPDATE_UDF

If the field containing the body is to be handled as HTML, set these options:

EVMAIL_BODY_HTML_UDF	This provides the field name that will contain the body of the incoming email when creating new issues within the database
EVMAIL_BODY_HTML_UPDATE_UDF	This provides the field name that will contain the body of the incoming email when updating existing issues
EVMAIL_BODY_HTML_UDF_ATTACHMENT_LINK	Set this option to a value of YES if you want ExtraView to associate any attachments to the incoming email to the field set in EVMAIL_BODY_HTML_UDF
EVMAIL_BODY_HTML_UPDATE_UDF_ATTACHMENT_LINK	Set this option to a value of YES if you want ExtraView to associate any attachments to the incoming email to the field set in EVMAIL_BODY_HTML_UPDATE_UDF