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1 # BEGIN BPS TAGGED BLOCK {{{ 2 # 3 # COPYRIGHT: 4 # 5 # This software is Copyright (c) 1996-2014 Best Practical Solutions, LLC 6 # <sales@bestpractical.com> 7 # 8 # (Except where explicitly superseded by other copyright notices) 9 # 10 # 11 # LICENSE: 12 # 13 # This work is made available to you under the terms of Version 2 of 14 # the GNU General Public License. A copy of that license should have 15 # been provided with this software, but in any event can be snarfed 16 # from www.gnu.org. 17 # 18 # This work is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but 19 # WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of 20 # MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU 21 # General Public License for more details. 22 # 23 # You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License 24 # along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software 25 # Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 26 # 02110-1301 or visit their web page on the internet at 27 # http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html. 28 # 29 # 30 # CONTRIBUTION SUBMISSION POLICY: 31 # 32 # (The following paragraph is not intended to limit the rights granted 33 # to you to modify and distribute this software under the terms of 34 # the GNU General Public License and is only of importance to you if 35 # you choose to contribute your changes and enhancements to the 36 # community by submitting them to Best Practical Solutions, LLC.) 37 # 38 # By intentionally submitting any modifications, corrections or 39 # derivatives to this work, or any other work intended for use with 40 # Request Tracker, to Best Practical Solutions, LLC, you confirm that 41 # you are the copyright holder for those contributions and you grant 42 # Best Practical Solutions, LLC a nonexclusive, worldwide, irrevocable, 43 # royalty-free, perpetual, license to use, copy, create derivative 44 # works based on those contributions, and sublicense and distribute 45 # those contributions and any derivatives thereof. 46 # 47 # END BPS TAGGED BLOCK }}} 48 49 =head1 Introduction 50 51 This is a basic tutorial for setting up asset tracking in RT using Best 52 Practical's Assets extension. At the end, you'll have a basic configuration 53 that lets you add assets, search for them, link them to tickets, etc. 54 55 =begin HTML 56 57 <img src="http://static.bestpractical.com/images/assets/asset-search.png" 58 alt="Asset Search Results" /> 59 60 =end HTML 61 62 You can follow along with the tutorial and try setting things up yourself to 63 get a feel for all of the administrative controls. If you want to get a jump 64 start, the files to set up this basic configuration are provided in the 65 L<RT::Extension::Assets> distribution in the F<etc> directory. For 66 configuration, look in F<etc/Tutorial_Configuration.txt>. You can copy all or 67 part of it and paste it into your F<RT_SiteConfig.pm>. 68 69 To load the test catalog, custom fields, and users, follow the 70 installation instructions in L<RT::Extension::Assets/INSTALLATION>, then 71 run the following from your RT directory: 72 73 sbin/rt-setup-database --action insert --datafile \ 74 local/plugins/RT-Extension-Assets/etc/tutorialdata 75 76 This will change the default catalog name, create some users, and give those 77 users asset permissions. Only asset rights are granted, so you need to grant 78 additional rights if you want to experiment with creating tickets and linking 79 assets. The initial user passwords are 'password'. You should only run this on 80 a test RT instance, as it is not intended to be used for configuring a 81 production system. 82 83 =head1 Getting Started 84 85 Install the extension following the instructions and some new tables will be 86 added to your RT database and the assets code will be installed. As with all 87 extensions, first add C<RT::Extension::Assets> to your C<@Plugins> line. 88 89 There are a few configuration options you might set before starting. Assets 90 offers a C<$DefaultCatalog> feature that works similar to RT's 91 L<DefaultQueue|http://bestpractical.com/docs/rt/latest/RT_Config.html#DefaultQueue>, 92 but you can probably skip it for now since you don't have any catalogs yet. 93 94 More interesting are some optional portlets you can activate to add asset data 95 to RT's pages. MyAssets and FindAsset portlets are available for placement on 96 RT at a Glance or in dashboards and a UserAssets portlet is available for the 97 user summary pages. 98 99 These portlets are fairly self-explanatory and you can add them by finding 100 C<$HomepageComponents> and C<@UserSummaryPortlets> respectively in 101 F<RT_Config.pm>, copying to F<RT_SiteConfig.pm>, and adding the portlets you 102 want. There are also examples in the tutorial sample configuration file. Note 103 that C<$HomepageComponents> makes the portlets available, but doesn't put them 104 on RT at a Glance. To add them, just click the Edit link on the upper right-hand 105 corner of the homepage. C<@UserSummaryPortlets> does automatically add the 106 "Assigned Assets" portlet to the User Summary page. It will appear based on the 107 position in the configuration, so just place it in the list where you want it 108 to appear. 109 110 Once you have your configuration complete, restart your server and you're ready 111 to go. 112 113 =head1 Catalogs 114 115 For the initial configuration, we'll log in as RT's root user so we have full 116 rights on the asset configuration. You could also create an "Asset Admin" group 117 and assign appropriate rights to allow other users to manage catalogs. 118 119 When you log in you'll see a new Assets menu, but before looking there we need 120 to look at catalogs and some other configuration. Catalogs are to assets what 121 queues are to tickets, so if you've used RT, the relationship should be fairly 122 familiar. Similar to the General queue, a "General assets" catalog is provided 123 to get you started. You can see it at Admin > Assets > Catalogs. 124 125 We're going to use the default, but change it to a name more appropriate for 126 our use. Clicking on the asset name brings us to the catalog edit page and we 127 can update the name to "IT Department Assets". You can update the description 128 if you like as well. 129 130 =begin HTML 131 132 <img src="http://static.bestpractical.com/images/assets/edit-catalog.png" 133 alt="Edit Catalog" /> 134 135 =end HTML 136 137 You'll also notice that catalogs have a lifecycle just like queues. The assets 138 extension comes with a default assets lifecycle, but just like queues you can 139 create new ones with custom statuses and other configuration to allow RT to 140 reflect the states of your assets. 141 142 You can find the asset lifecycle in the asset configuration file in your RT 143 installation at: 144 145 local/plugins/RT-Extension-Assets/etc/Assets_Config.pm 146 147 The initial statuses are new, allocated, in-use, recycled, stolen, and deleted. 148 Depending on your process, you might add new ones like surplussed, donated, or 149 in-repair. To create a new asset lifecycle, just copy the default into 150 F<RT_SiteConfig.pm>, replace the top-level "assets" key with a new name, and 151 make your changes. 152 153 =head1 Asset Custom Fields 154 155 Next we need to create some custom fields to hold our asset metadata. You can 156 find asset custom fields at Admin > Assets > Custom Fields and they work just 157 like custom fields for other RT objects. 158 159 =begin HTML 160 161 <img src="http://static.bestpractical.com/images/assets/asset-cfs.png" 162 alt="Asset Custom Fields" /> 163 164 =end HTML 165 166 The extension will automatically provide some core values for your assets. Each 167 asset can have a Name and Description and, like tickets, they have statuses 168 based on the lifecycle configuration. You can use Name and Description however 169 you want and they are not required. However, many of the asset pages use these 170 fields so it's best to provide a descriptive name to make it easy for people 171 working in RT to identify the asset quickly. The manufacturer's product name 172 can be convenient (e.g., '15" Macbook Pro'). 173 174 Assets come with three user fields you can associate with an asset: Owner, Held 175 By, and Contact. These are provided to cover different types of assets, from 176 laptops to servers to software, and different asset management situations. 177 Owner can hold the user who bought the asset, maybe the head of the department 178 where the budget came from. Held by is who the asset is assigned to. Laptops 179 are assigned to a user and servers might be held (or managed) by the system 180 administrators. Contact can be used to set a manager who might need to know 181 about needed system updates or equipment with expiring support. Like tickets, 182 these roles give you places to attach rights, so use them however they work 183 best for you. 184 185 Any other information you want to track will need custom fields. We'll start 186 with a few basic fields: 187 188 =over 189 190 =item * Serial Number (enter one value) 191 192 The serial number from the asset. 193 194 =item * Tracking Number (enter one value) 195 196 An internal tracking number. RT will assign an asset ID as well, but you may 197 have other systems to integrate with or already have a way to assign asset ids 198 for accounting purposes. 199 200 =item * Manufacturer (dropdown) 201 202 Company that made the asset. 203 204 =item * Type (dropdown) 205 206 Is it a laptop, server, or cell phone? 207 208 =item * Issue Date (date) 209 210 When the asset was given to the owner (or held by) person. 211 212 Assets keep a transaction history like tickets, so you may be able pull this 213 information from the "owner set to X" transaction. Creating a separate field 214 makes it easier to report on. 215 216 =item * Support Expiration (date) 217 218 When the current support contract expires. 219 220 =back 221 222 =head1 Custom Field Grouping 223 224 Any custom fields you create will be displayed on the asset display page in a 225 default "Custom Fields" section. That may be sufficient, but assets also 226 supports RT's new custom field grouping feature, so we can group together some 227 similar custom fields and give them a custom name. If we add the following to 228 F<RT_SiteConfig.pm>: 229 230 Set(%CustomFieldGroupings, 231 'RT::Asset' => { 232 'Asset Details' => ['Serial Number', 'Manufacturer', 'Type', 'Tracking Number'], 233 'Dates' => ['Support Expiration', 'Issue Date'], 234 }, 235 ); 236 237 and restart RT, the dates will be tacked on the end of the Dates portlet and we 238 get an Asset Details label on the other custom fields. 239 240 =begin HTML 241 242 <img 243 src="http://static.bestpractical.com/images/assets/asset-date-details.png" 244 alt="Asset Date and Details Display" /> 245 246 =end HTML 247 248 =head1 Asset Rights 249 250 Now we've got the basic configuration in place to start recording asset data. 251 Next we need to assign some rights so people can view and edit asset 252 information. Our staff are all privileged users so we'll grant all view and 253 modify rights on our catalog to the Privileged role. We'll also include rights 254 to view and modify the catalog's custom fields, although you could set these 255 rights individually on each custom field if you wanted to allow users to see 256 some but not others. 257 258 Similar to queues, you can set rights at the catalog level. Go to Admin > 259 Assets > Catalogs and click on the catalog you want to edit. Click Group Rights 260 in the submenu to assign asset rights to groups like the system Privileged 261 group. 262 263 =begin HTML 264 265 <img src="http://static.bestpractical.com/images/assets/catalog-rights.png" 266 alt="Catalog Rights" /> 267 268 =end HTML 269 270 We also want unprivileged users to be able to see their own assets to make it 271 easier to submit support requests. To give them just the Name and Description 272 on their own assets, we can grant SeeAssets and SeeCatalogs on the catalog to 273 the Held By role. 274 275 All of the asset rights are described in the Assets documentation. You can get 276 much more detailed and fine-grained than this example, allowing selected groups 277 and users to view and modify multiple different asset custom fields across many 278 different catalogs. 279 280 =head1 Working with Assets 281 282 So now that we have all of that configuration done, what can we do? Here are a 283 few scenarios to give you some ideas. 284 285 =head2 Add Assets to Your Catalogs 286 287 To start, staff can now start adding assets to RT allowing you to manage what 288 you have, what state it's in, who currently has it, and when support expires. 289 You could set up an intake process to get new assets added as they come in, and 290 eventually have statuses updated as they are assigned, used, and eventually 291 cycled out. 292 293 If you already have an asset database, even something simple like a 294 spreadsheet, you may be able to do an initial bulk import. Best Practical has 295 released L<RT::Extension::Assets::Import::CSV> which is a CSV import tool to 296 help you with this. 297 298 =head2 Track Assets 299 300 Your staff can now easily track work on assets by linking RT tickets to the 301 assets. Assume you have an issue with an asset, like a server needs a new power 302 supply. Your staff can use the asset search page to find the server. You'll 303 notice that the RT search box is context sensitive, so when you're on an asset 304 page, the search changes to Search Assets and you can search with that as well. 305 306 Once you locate the server asset record, in the Actions menu you'll find 307 "Create linked ticket", which does just that. You select the queue and which 308 user to use from the asset as the Requestor, and you land on the ticket create 309 page with some information pre-filled. 310 311 =begin HTML 312 313 <img 314 src="http://static.bestpractical.com/images/assets/asset-ticket-create.png" 315 alt="Create Ticket for Asset Work" /> 316 317 =end HTML 318 319 As you can see in the screenshot, when you create a ticket with a linked asset, 320 you get an asset portlet on the create page and on the ticket display page as 321 well. If you navigate back to the asset, you'll see a link back to the ticket 322 in the Links section there. This gives you a record of all the tickets that 323 have been opened against this asset. If this is a common scenario for you, you 324 might even add a custom field on the ticket with the vendor tracking number of 325 the repair. During the repair, you might flip the asset to an 'in-repair' 326 status. Then when the ticket is resolved, flip it back to 'in-use'. 327 328 =head2 End User Asset Tickets 329 330 If an end user contacts us with some problems with their laptop, RT makes it 331 easy to find the correct laptop record and create a ticket for them. Since our 332 support staff do this frequently, they have added the Find User portlet to 333 their RT at a glance page and can quickly search for the user and go to their 334 User Summary page (new in RT 4.2). 335 336 We have added the Assigned Assets portlet to the User Summary page, so the 337 laptop is right there on the page when we find the user. We can just click on 338 the asset, then use the "Create linked ticket" action as before to create the 339 new repair ticket. 340 341 =head2 End User Self Service 342 343 Assume we already assign passwords to our unprivileged users so they can use 344 RT's self service interface to submit tickets and they have basic permissions 345 to do so (SeeQueue on the designated queue, CreateTicket, etc.). Since we've 346 given some asset rights to unprivileged users, they can use RT's Self Service 347 interface to find their assets (e.g., laptops, cell phones, etc.) when 348 submitting support requests. 349 350 When they log into the self service interface, they will see an Assets menu 351 that takes them to a page displaying assets assigned to them. In our example 352 configuration, this is based on the Held by setting we set when we gave out the 353 laptop. When they navigate to the asset, they will see the Actions menu with 354 the same "Create linked ticket" action our staff uses. When they click on that, 355 they'll end up on the simplified ticket create page for self service. When the 356 ticket is created, the laptop will already be linked to it, saving our staff 357 the work. 358 359 =begin HTML 360 361 <img 362 src="http://static.bestpractical.com/images/assets/asset-ticket-create-selfservice.png" 363 alt="Self Service Ticket for Asset Work" /> 364 365 =end HTML 366 367 =head1 Summary 368 369 This tutorial is only a quick overview showing how the assets extension can 370 help you track assets. There are many more features you'll find as you explore 371 the assets interface, like stacking multiple assets on a single ticket, bulk 372 update features similar to tickets, and the search interface. Have fun! 373 374 =cut