15.2 Creating an issue

15.2.1 The distribution list

15.2.2 The issue type

15.2.3 The issue details

15.2.4 The issue sheet

15.2.5 Creating an empty issue

The majority of issues will be created by first selecting the documents to be issued then setting the other issue details, including assigning the Distribution List - see section 15.2.1 - The Distribution List. In this case, locate the documents to be issued, select them (by checking the boxes to the left of their icons - see Figure 15.2-1) and click on   Selected  |   Issue  . (Other documents may be added to the Issue later - see section 15.3.5 Changing the documents in the issue.) The documents may be selected in the same way irrespective of whether they are stored in a standard folder structure or in a collection - see section 16.

Figure 15.2-1: Example of selecting documents for issue

Having clicked   Selected  |   Issue  , you are taken to the blank Issue Sheet. At this stage of its creation, the progress bar (see Figure 15.2-2) on the Issue Sheet indicates that the issue is at the "Set Distribution" stage. (Note that the Issue sheet illustrated in Figure 15.2-4 is at a later stage.) The first thing that the issue needs is a Distribution List to be assigned to it, as described in section 15.2.1 - The Distribution List.

Figure 15.2-2: Example of the progress bar on an issue sheet

Following this, the issue type should be selected from those offered as described in section 15.2.2 - The issue typee available issue types (see section 13.2.7) are defined by the metadata schema on the workspace in which the issue is being created. The issue type largely determines the fields which users will need to fill in when responding to the issue - see section 15.2.2 - The issue type.
When an initial Distribution List has been assigned and the issue type selected, click "Next" to move to the "Set Details" stage of the issue - see section 15.2.3. Until the issue details have been set, the creation of the issue has not been completed.
When the issue details are set, and "Next" is clicked, the new issue (indicated by ) is created in a collection (see section 16) called Issues in the current location. If no such collection exists, one will be created. At the same time, in the Tasks Out column (see section 15.4.3.2 Tasks Out) of the folder view or collection search page containing the issue, a new, pending task will be created beside the issue and any documents associated with the issue for the person who sent out the issue.

(The alternative method of creating an issue is to create an empty issue as described in section 15.2.5 Creating an empty issue.)

15.2.1 The distribution list

The Distribution List of an issue is the set of people to whom the issue is circulated. An issue cannot be created with an empty Distribution List. It must be sent out to at least one individual.

The Distribution List is specified, as described below, by selecting from the users who are members of the folder where the issue is being created. However, there are several reasons why not all folder members may have full access to the documents in the issue. For instance, their access rights (see section 4.6) may have been restricted or the documents may be private (see section 13.2.2). Once the issue is sent out (see section 15.2.2), all of the users in the Distribution List will be able to read and comment on the issued documents irrespective of the access they previously had to these documents.

When the issue is at the "Set Distribution" stage of its creation, the initial Distribution List must be associated with the Issue. To do this, select the name of a company from the Company column - see Figure 15.2-2. (This list is determined from the set of people who have access to the current location (see section 4.2 Workspace and folder members) by taking the contents of the Organisation field of their Edit Details page (see section 5.6 Personal Details). The Organisation field is initially completed by users when they first log in - see section 2.1 Logging in - and can be edited later via the   User  |   Edit Details   menu action - see section 5.6 Personal Details.) When a company name is clicked, the users whose Organisation is set to this company name will appear in the People column. Selecting a user displays their name in the Selected column. The Selected column constitutes the Distribution List.

Clicking a different company name will replace the set of names in the central column with those users associated with the new company. To remove a user from the Distribution List when they have already been selected, select their name from the Selected column. The name will be removed from the Selected column.

An issue must have a non-empty Distribution List. If you click "Next" before adding any users to the Distribution List, an error will be reported and you will be forced to return to the "Set Distribution" stage of the issue.

If an earlier version of the document being issued has been issued before, you will be given the opportunity to assign the same Distribution List to it as was applied previously.

The Distribution List may be edited at any point until the issue is sent out - see section 15.3.2 - Editing the Distribution List.
Before proceeding to the next stage of the issue lifecycle, you must specify the Type of the issue. The available issue types (see section 15.2.2 - The issue type) are available in the drop-down box labeled "Type of issue". Finally, click "Next" to proceed to the next stage of issuing - setting the Issue Details.

15.2.2 The issue type

The metadata type of the issue (see section 13.2.7 - Issue Type) determines

• the metadata fields which apply to the issue itself - i.e the metadata fields selected from the General Field set for this metadata type - see section 13.2.8 - Metadata fields
• the format of the responses required from the users in the Distribution List

The list of possible issue types is restricted to those available at the level where the issue is being created. Thus it may be best to unfold (by clicking on ) the folders containing the documents to be issued so that the issue can be created in a suitable location. Once the issue has been created, further documents may be added to it as described in section 15.3.5 - Changing the documents in the issue. Another alternative is to store all documents to be issued in a collection (see section 16 - Collections) rather than in a traditional folder hierarchy.

Typically, a metadata schema will define a number of metadata field sets (see section 13.2.11 - Metadata field sets). The General field set is always present and is used to associate metadata fields with particular metadata types for documents, folders, issues and reviews. The remaining field sets are used by the issuing process and are often given names like for information, for approval or for review.

When an issue type is allocated to an issue, this determines the field sets which may be applied to the issue. These are displayed in the Response Type (see section 15.2.3 - The Issue Details) drop-down list on the Edit Issue page and appear as the one selected for each user in the Purpose of Issue column on the Issue Sheet (see section 15.2.4 - The Issue Sheet). The metadata fields used by each field set define the number and format of the response fields which each user will be required to supply when they respond to the issue - see section 15.4.2 - Responding to an issue.

In addition, field sets other than the General field set may be associated with metadata types other than issue types. For instance, a document of type invoice may have a number of fields selected in the for approval field set. If a document is issued, of a type which uses the same field set as the current issue type, the response fields are determined by the ones used by the document not the issue.

Thus, in the Issue Sheet illustrated in Figure 15.2-3, documents of different types but issued for the same purpose have different response fields associated with them.

Figure 15.2-3: Example of response fields for different documents on an issue sheet

15.2.3 The issue details

Once the initial Distribution List and the issue type have been specified, the page refreshes to the Issue Sheet at the "Set Details" stage as indicated by the progress bar - see Figure 15.2-3.
The basic details associated with an issue include its name and description. These can be entered here. Also, if the issue type chosen for this issue has metadata fields associated with it, this page offers the opportunity to provide values for these.

The remainder of the page contains 2 sections. The first pertains to the users in the Distribution List (see section 15.2.1 - The Distribution List) and the responses to the issue which are required of them. The second section relates to the documents which are being issued.

Initially, the response information for all users is displayed on a single line. Clicking on "Show all" expands out the names of all users in the Distribution List so that the settings for each user may be edited individually.
The following columns are displayed (either for each user individually or for all users at once):
The Chosen column indicates either the "Show all" link or a check box for each user .
The User column indicates either All Users or the name of the user.
The Response Type can be selected using the drop-down list. The available response types are determined by the metadata field sets (see section 13.2.11 - Metadata field sets) which apply to the chosen issue type. If "No Type" was selected as the issue type, the only available response type will be Default. The response type determines the format of the response which is expected from users, e.g. checking a box, entering a paragraph of text, redlining a document using Brava! (see section 19 - Brava! Integration). (The default issue type is defined on a per server basis by the system administrator. Therefore, it is not possible to make any hard and fast statements about the response information required from users on an issue of this type.)
The Due Date is the date by which responses are required. The due date is used by the Tasks In (see section 15.4.3.1 - Tasks In) column of the folder view and collection search page to indicate to users how soon tasks assigned to them need to be completed.
The Comments & Action Notes text box allows the creator of the issue to give further directions to the members of the Distribution List by entering comments here.

The Response Type, Due Date and Comments & Action Notes fields may have their values set independently for different users by clicking on the hyperlinked text "Show all" to display each user on a different line. To set the same values for all users, either

• set the values once with All Users displayed in the User column, or
• click on "Show All" to expand the users into separate rows, set the desired values in the top row and then click to specify the same value in all remaining boxes in this column

The set of documents associated with the issue can be displayed by clicking on "Show Current Documents... " For these documents, their names are displayed along with any General metadata field values (see section 13.2.8 - Metadata fields) which have been set for them.
Once the issue details have been set, click "Next" to show the Issue Sheet at the "Not Sent" stage, with the data which has so far been associated with it.
Until "Next" is clicked and the issue details submitted, no new issue has been created. When a new issue is created, a create event will be registered - see section 4.7.2 - Event categories. When "Next" is clicked, the new issue (indicated by ) is created in a collection (see section 16 - Collections) called Issues in the current location. If no such collection exists, one will be created.

Note

1. No information is mandatory on the Set Details page and a new issue will be created by clicking on "Next" without providing any additional information.
2. If the Issue is not given a name when it is created, it will be assigned a name of the form Issue #ID where ID is the unique Business Collaborator ID of the issue object.

15.2.4 The issue sheet

Once the issue has been created, the progress bar on the Issue Sheet indicates that the issue is "Not Sent".

Figure 15.2-4: Example of an issue sheet

As shown in Figure 15.2-4 , the Issue Sheet now displays the following information:

• that this is an Issue Sheet
• issue name - to the left of the progress bar, which indicates "Not Sent"
• in the issue details section
  `
  • who created the issue and when
  • any metadata values assigned to the issue, if any (to the right of the creator name and date)
  • who sent out the issue - blank until the next stage of the issue lifecycle
  • when it was sent out - blank until the next stage of the issue lifecycle
  • description - the standard Business Collaborator description (see section 2.2.2 - A Typical Page)
• in the issued to section
  • the names and company of the users specified in the Distribution List
  • whether these users have delegated their task (see section 15.4.4 - Delegating an action),
  • the information required from these users
  • the purpose of the issue (as determined by the Response type set on the issue)
  • the comment date (i.e. the Due Date set on the issue for this user)
  • comments from the person who created the issue
  • whether they have completed their actions
• in the documents issued section, where the documents are grouped according to their metadata type
  • information about each of the documents being issued including its name, linking to the document itself (in the Download column)
  • its revision number (in the Rev column) if not the first revision
  • its size
  • its metadata type (see section 13.2.5 - Document type)
  • (any metadata fields for this document type)
  • its description
  • the name of the person who created the document
  • when it was created.

The attributes of the Issue (i.e. the Distribution List, its metadata type and values, its details and the documents associated with it) can be edited until the Issue has been sent out - see section 15.4.1 - Sending out an issue. Clicking on the Issue Sheet triggers a read event, as described in section 4.7.2 - Event Categories.

Note

Anyone who has sufficient access rights may navigate to the Issue Sheet and view the Distribution List, issue details and documents associated with the issue sheet. The only actions available to them are those which will not modify the issue - see section 15.5 - Actions always available on an issue. They will not be able to respond to the issue until it is sent out to them - see section 15.4.2 - Responding to an issue.

15.2.5 Creating an empty issue

An issue can be created in one of two ways. Either, as described in section 15.2 - Creating an issue, by selecting documents and creating a new issue from this selection or by creating an empty issue and subsequently attaching documents to it.
A documentless issue would be appropriate, for instance, for sending out a form-based request for information to a group of users. Alternatively, a documentless issue can be converted into an issue with documents by later adding documents to it - as described in section 15.3.5 - Changing the documents in the issue.

To create an empty issue and then add documents to it, click   Add  |   Issue  . This will create a collection (see section 16 - Collections) called Issues in the current location unless one already exists, in which case the new issue will be added to it.
You will be directed through the issue creation stages of Set Distribution including assigning a metadata type - see section 15.2.1 - The Distribution List and section 15.2.2 - The issue type, and Set Details - see section 15.2.3 - The Issue Details - as before. However, the Issue Sheet - see section 15.2.4 - The Issue Sheet - for the new issue will indicate that no documents are associated with this issue.