The User Requests template is intended to deliver a single view of all of the activities a user has been involved in, with activities displayed on a series of cards. Each card includes information about a request, followed by buttons for the tasks and activities the current user can perform.
User Requests displays data for the current user recorded in the platform's history service. This may include workflow, form submissions, or third party applications that log data back to the platform.
The User Requests template also has configuration options that allow it to integrate with the My Account template.
Workflow and History
The cards displayed on the User Requests template source their data from the history created when a process instance starts. Workflow processes must record histories to appear on this template.
Page Title and Content
The User Requests template displays its title and content, including inline elements, as per the Default template. Articles using the template do not display related content of any type.
Filtering - Which Requests are Displayed?
The cards shown by the template are requests started by the current user, requests that have been assigned to the current user, or requests that have tasks the current user can claim.
Filters set up in the article extras control the records that will be returned by the template. See Filtering in Self Service and User Requests for a detailed look at building filters.
Category Panels
Request cards are organised into four categories (the four panels in the screenshot above), depending on the current status of the process they relate to. The names and descriptions of each category panel can be managed from the User Request article extras, where you can also set the number of visible cards and the order they appear in.
Requests Awaiting Response (Assigned Tasks)
These requests have been assigned to, or claimed by, the current user. Each card displays the process name and description, its start and last updated date, and any tasks the user can perform as buttons. The text in these buttons is the task name, which can be overridden by the task description in your workflow model. If a task can be unclaimed an "unclaim" button will appear. An unclaimed task will return to the claimable task panel so other users can claim it.
The user tasks in a workflow model can be set up to prevent unclaiming. If the "prevent unclaim" task listener has been added to a task the unclaim button won't appear. This is also true if a task has been assigned directly to a user and there are no other eligible candidates to claim the task if it were to be unclaimed.
Requests You Can Help With (Claimable Tasks)
The cards in this category have tasks that the current user is an eligible candidate to perform. Each card displays the process name and description, its start and last updated date, and any tasks the user can perform as buttons. The text in these buttons is the task name, which can be overridden by the task description.
Users can claim tasks to work on, moving them up into their assigned task panel, or click directly on a task button, which will take the user straight to the relevant task form, claiming it automatically.
In Progress Requests
These requests were started by the current user. They may be assigned to another user, or waiting to be claimed by someone. The only action the current user can perform is to cancel the request. Not all requests can be cancelled - the workflow has to have a cancellation action built into it - see Building Cancellation into your Workflow Models for more information. Each card displays the process name and description, and its start and last updated date.
Complete Requests
This panel lists the requests that have finished. These are workflow histories that have been "sealed". Each card displays the process name and description, and its start and end date.
No Requests
If the user hasn't made any requests that match the settings in the article extras (for example, the user has made an enquiry via the website, but the article is only configured to show event bookings) they'll see the "No Requests" message.
Cards
Status
Requests are either "in progress" or "complete". You can change the text that appears in the top right of cards using the article extras.
Card Title
The card title is taken from the
Card Summary
The card summary is the value of the latest history summary event's
Dates
The dates on the card are the date that the process instance started and the date of the last submitted user task that updated the process. These will be the same if no one has interacted with the process since it was started.
Task Actions
A series of buttons may appear in the request card, each of which is generated by a user task activity in the process instance. Requests that do not have tasks that the current user can act upon (ie those "in progress" and "completed") do not display any buttons apart from "cancel" (see In Progress Requests above). The text for each button is provided by the task name or description set in the process model.
Claim and Unclaim
If a request can be claimed or unclaimed by the current user they'll see a link beneath the standard task buttons. The default "claim task" and "unclaim task" text can be managed using the article extras.
Details View
Each card links through to a full view of the request that includes a summary and list of events in its history.
Page Title
The page title of the details view is the name of the process instance being inspected.
Tasks
The same tasks displayed in the category view appear in the top right of the details view.
Summary
The card summary appears beneath the page title. It is taken from the description of the process instance. The summary also includes the request reference number - the business key of the process instance - and the start and last updated dates.
Summary Details
The summary details block displays the most recent self-service summary event. The summary data is displayed using the summary form set in the Workflow Start action field of the form submission that created this process instance. See the workflow Summaries and History article in the knowledge base for more information.
The title of this block is set in the article extras. The extras also let you set the message that will appear of no summary can be found.
Event Details
Beneath the summary a chronological list of events is displayed, with the most recent at the top. These events are taken from the history associated with the request. Each event includes the following.
Title
The title is the value of the history event's
Date and Time
The date and time of the event are the values of the history event's
View Details Link
Listed events may display a "View details" link. These links are only present if the event they correspond to has form data saved in it. Clicking the link displays the saved form data in read-only mode. The data for the event, and the name of the form used to display it, are taken from the relevant history event..You cannot control, via the User Request configuration, whether this link appears or not. It will always appear if form data has been saved with an event.
If the article is configured to display summary events, these will always include a "View details" link because summary events always store the form data associated with them.
Event Details Configuration
The following settings are available in the article extras.
Include Private Events
Check this box if "private" events should appear in the event details list. It is strongly recommended that private events are only displayed on articles secured to staff/admin users. Private events are generally used to record user tasks carried out by staff members that do not need to be seen by the person who raised the request.
Include Summary Events
If checked, summary events will appear in the event details list. Summary events are generated in addition to standard events. They are used to update the main summary displayed above the event list. If checked users will see two events for every action (one standard event and one summary event). For this reason we don't recommend including them.
My Account Integration
User Requests includes configuration that controls how it appears when it is displayed as a panel on the My Account template.
Panel Title
The panel title is the title of the User Requests article.
Panel Links
The panel can include links to the four Category Panels described above. You can toggle the links on or off and set the text for them in the article extras. If you enable "recent requests" the links are styled as buttons.
Recent Requests
The panel can also be set to display a configurable number of recent requests. The requests can be displayed in two modes. In both cases the title of the request acts as a link to the Details View described above.
Cards
List
Article Extras
| Field Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| RESTRICTPROCESSESLIST | List box | Select one or more processes to display information about |
| RESTRICTPROCESSESLABELA | Hidden | The labela values of the selected processes |
| RESTRICTHISTORIESLIST | Text input | Enter additional labela values from histories you'd like to display |
| NOREQUESTSTITLE | Text input | The title of the message should a user have no requests |
| NOREQUESTSDESCRIPTION | Textarea WYSIWYG | The message displayed should a user have no requests |
| INITIALPAGESIZE | Number input | The number of cards in each panel when the page first loads |
| SORTORDER | Drop-down list | The ordering of the cards in each panel Options are CREATEDASC, CREATEDDESC, LASTUPDATEDASC, LASTUPDATEDDESC |
| CLAIMTEXT | Text input | The label for the claim task button |
| UNCLAIMTEXT | Text input | The label for the unclaim task button |
| LABELINPROGRESS | Text input | The label for "in progress" request cards |
| LABELCOMPLETE | Text input | The label for "complete" request cards |
| SUMMARYDETAILSHEADING | Text input | the title of the summary panel visible when a user clicks through to view a request |
| MISSINGSUMMARYMESSAGE | Text input | The text to display if there is no summary |
| HISTORYEVENTINCLUDEPRIVATE | Checkbox | Check to display history events flagged as private in the details view |
| HISTORYEVENTINCLUDESUMMARYEVENTS | Checkbox | Check to display all of the summary events logged during a history |
| TITLEASSIGNED | Text input | Panel title for assigned cards |
| DESCRIPTIONASSIGNED | Textarea WYSIWYG | Description of the assigned cards panel |
| TITLECLAIMABLE | Text input | Panel title for cards that can be claimed |
| DESCRIPTIONCLAIMABLE | Textarea WYSIWYG | Description of the claimable cards panel |
| TITLEINPROGRESS | Text input | Panel title for in progress cards |
| DESCRIPTIONINPROGRESS | Textarea WYSIWYG | Description of the in progress cards panel |
| TITLECOMPLETE | Text input | Panel title for cards that are complete |
| DESCRIPTIONCOMPLETE | Textarea WYSIWYG | Description of the complete cards panel |
| MYACCOUNTALLLINKTEXT | Text input | The link displayed in My Account to view all requests |
| MYACCOUNTASSIGNEDENABLED | Checkbox | Check to display a link to assigned requests |
| MYACCOUNTASSIGNEDLINKTEXT | Text input | The link displayed in My Account to view assigned requests |
| MYACCOUNTCLAIMABLEENABLED | Checkbox | Check to display a link to claimable requests |
| MYACCOUNTCLAIMABLELINKTEXT | Text input | The link displayed in My Account to view claimable requests |
| MYACCOUNTINPROGRESSENABLED | Checkbox | Check to display a link to in progress requests |
| MYACCOUNTINPROGRESSLINKTEXT | Text input | The link displayed in My Account to view in progress requests |
| MYACCOUNTCOMPLETEDENABLED | Checkbox | Check to display a link to completed requests |
| MYACCOUNTCOMPLETEDLINKTEXT | Text input | The link displayed in My Account to view completed requests |
| DISPLAYRECENTREQUESTS | Drop-down | If "No" the panel will only display links to the User Requests article. If "Yes" a number of recent requests will also be displayed |
| DISPLAYMODE | Drop-down | Either "Cards" or "List" |
| RECENTREQUESTMAXCOUNT | Number input | The number of cards/items in the list to show |
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