15.4 Sending out an issue and actions on a sent issue

15.4.1 Sending out an issue

15.4.2 Responding to an issue

15.4.3 Tasks

15.4.4 Delegating an action

15.4.5 Completing an issue

15.4.6 Forwarding an issue

15.4.7 Canceling an issue

15.4.1 Sending out an issue

From the Issue Sheet, the issue can be sent out by clicking   View/Change  |   Send out Issue  . To be sent out, the issue must be at the "Not Sent" stage as indicated by the progress bar on the Issue Sheet. As sending out an issue is irrevocable and has implications for the documents being issued, you will be prompted to confirm that you wish to proceed with sending out the issue. Click "Confirm" to indicate that you wish to proceed with sending out the issue.

When the issue has been sent out, the Issue Sheet progress bar indicates that the issue is "Open".

The actions on a sent issue are very different from those on an issue before it is sent. Instead of actions which permit the issue itself to be changed (e.g. changing its name, Distribution List or associated documents), the actions pertain to responding to the issue or completing it. These actions are described in the following sections.

In addition, it is still possible to obtain more information on a Sent Issue and edit the notification related to it.

As a result of sending out an issue, as well as the actions available on the Issue Sheet changing, a number of other changes take place:

• the issued documents have a icon displayed beside their name to indicate that they have been issued. This is important because:
• the issued documents can no longer be changed, e.g. replaced, renamed, have their descriptions modified, their metadata type changed or their metadata altered. This is because issued documents are immutable.
• in the Tasks In column of the folder view or collection search page containing the issued documents, any users to whom the issue has been distributed will see a new task - see section 15.4.3 - Tasks
• in the Tasks Out column of the older view or collection search page containing the issued documents, the person who sent out the issue will see the task change from being Pending - see section 15.4.3.2 - Tasks Out
• a Responses section is added to the bottom of the Issue Sheet - see Figure 15.2-4. This section shows the documents and the users to whom they have been issued, together with each user's responses on each document, when they read the document, when the response was made to each document and if they have completed their action for this document. (Only responses where the user has completed their action on the document - see section 15.4.2.2 - Completing your actions - are visible to other users.)

The Responses section of this page may be very complicated because the responses required of each user will depend on the reason the issue was sent to them. Also, the response fields which apply to each document may be different if the document type has field sets in common with the issue type which is being used. In this case, the field sets which apply to the document type are used in preference to those of the issue type. Where a response field does not apply to a document or a user, this section of the page will display   n/a  .

When an issue is sent out, an event is triggered. This is indicated on the issues' information page as sent out by , and on the "events inside" page of the container as sent out by , .

15.4.2 Responding to an issue

15.4.2.1 Providing a response

15.4.2.2 Completing your actions

15.4.2.1 Providing a response

Only those to whom an issue has been distributed will be able to respond to it. (This includes the person who sent out the issue who will only be able to respond to it if they were also on the Distribution List.) On the Issue Sheet of an "Open" issue, click on   View/Change  |   Respond To Issue  to display the Respond to Issue page - see Figure 15.4-1. This is a view of the issue sheet where the majority of issue details are hidden for clarity and the text boxes and drop-down list boxes for responding to the issue are displayed.

Figure 15.4-1: The Respond to Issue page

As usual, the first line displays the metadata type of the issue and its name with the progress bar indicating that the issue is "Open".

Clicking the "Show details..." link immediately beneath the issue type expands the previously hidden issue details and Distribution List information. Clicking the "Apply" button at the bottom of the page will refresh this page with the detailed information compressed again.

On the Respond to Issue page, documents are grouped by their document type, with links to the document by clicking on their name.

For each document, a number of fields will be available for you to complete, depending on:

• the response type assigned to you by the person who created the issue, e.g. for information, for approval
• the metadata field sets which apply to this type of issue
• the metadata field sets which apply to the document types being issued

You may fill in these response boxes at your leisure. Clicking "Apply" saves your changes (and you will be informed if any of the information you have supplied is inappropriate, e.g. a date in an incorrect format) and refreshes you to the current page. After clicking "Apply", the values you have entered will be retained but will not be visible to any other users.

Clicking "Done" returns you to the Issue Sheet. You will be able to see your own responses in the Responses section of the Issue Sheet. However, these will remain invisible to other users until you complete your actions on the document as described below.

Note

The responses required may be different in the same issue - see Figure 15.2-3

• for different users on the same document because the issue has been sent to different users for a different purpose
• for different documents for a single user because the chosen response type indicates different metadata fields for different document types (or does not indicate any fields for a document type, in which case the available fields are determined by the issue type)

15.4.2.2 Completing your actions

For each document, there is an additional Complete Action column containing a checkbox. From an individual perspective, completing an action indicates that you do not have any more to contribute regarding this particular action.
When you tick the checkbox in the Complete Action column for one of these documents and then click "Apply", you have completed your actions as far as this document is concerned and the page will refresh. You will no longer have any boxes to complete on the document for which you have completed your action and the Complete Action column for this document will display the text Yes. At the same time, the associated item in your Tasks In column (see section 15.4.3.1 - Tasks in) in the collection search page or folder view containing this document will be removed.

Other users will be able to see your responses - only on documents where you have completed your actions - in the response section at the bottom of the issue sheet - see Figure 15.2-4.

To complete all of your outstanding actions, either

• tick the checkbox in the Complete Action column for all of the documents where you have outstanding actions and click "Done" to return to the Issue Sheet, or
• tick the checkbox labeled "This completes my action for " to complete all your outstanding actions

When you have completed all your actions on an issue, the   View/Change  |   Respond To Issue   action will no longer be available to you. The items relating to this issue will also be removed from your Tasks In column (see section 15.4.3.1 - Tasks in) of the folder view or collection search page containing this issue.

Once all users have completed all their actions in the issue, the person who sent out the issue will see the status of the issue in their Tasks Out column (see section 15.4.3.2 - Tasks Out) change to for completion.

An alternative to completing your actions is to delegate these actions to someone else, as described in section 15.4.4 - Delegating an action.

15.4.3 Tasks

15.4.3.1 Tasks in

15.4.3.2 Tasks out

15.4.3.1 Tasks in

The Tasks In column is an additional column in the standard folder view (see section 2.2.2 - A Typical Page) or collection search page (see section 16.4 - Viewing and searching a Collection) which represents tasks which have been assigned to you for you to carry out, i.e. issues where you are on the Distribution List (see section 15.2.1 - The Distribution List). There will be an indication that a task applies to both an issue and the documents associated with the issue. Similarly, tasks will be displayed for reviews - see section 17 - Reviewing.

Nothing will appear in the Tasks In column until the issue has been sent out (see section 15.4.1 - Sending out an issue) or the review created.

The Tasks In will display

(number of issues or reviews related to this document) time until the due date (issue type)

where the time until the due date is the time for this user as set by the issue creator - see section 15.2.3 - The Issue Details. The time will appear in green until the Due Date and in red after it has been exceeded. As the nominated Due Date (and time) approaches, the format of the time will count down and the format will change as necessary, e.g. from days to hours to minutes. If no due date was associated with a user, no time attribute will be displayed. If the type of the issue is "No Type", the issue type will be indicated throughout as Issue.

Clicking on the displays all of the tasks relating to the object as menu items of the form

issue name (response type) (time to completion)

The response type and time to completion depend on the response required of you and the deadline set by the person who sent out the issue - see section 15.2.3 - The Issue Details. If no due date was associated with a user, no time attribute will be displayed.

Clicking on the menu item itself takes you to the Respond to Issue page - see Figure 15.2-1 where you can enter your comments as described in section 15.4.2 - Responding to an issue.

Tasks relating to reviews (see section 17 - Reviewing) are also displayed in the Tasks In column for users. Like issues, reviews may be based on issue types (see section 13.2.7 - Issue Type) and may have completion dates associated with them. However, reviews may be responded to as soon as they are created and so tasks related to reviews appear at this point too. Another important difference is that a review may have an Open Distribution (see section 17.8 - Open Distribution) in which case every folder member will see tasks relating to this review in their Tasks In column.

15.4.3.2 Tasks out

As the creator of an issue, you will not necessarily be a recipient of the issue. The Tasks Out column is an additional column in the standard folder view (see section 2.2.2 - A Typical Page) or collection search page (see section 16.4 - Viewing and searching a Collection) which represents tasks which you have created for other people to carry out. There will be an indication that a task applies to both an issue and the documents associated with the issue. Similarly, tasks will be displayed for reviews - see section 17 - Reviews.

When the issue has been created, i.e. it is at the "Not Sent" stage - see section 15.2.4 - The Issue Sheet - a new Task will appear in the Tasks Out column as indicated in Figure 15.2-1.

The number immediately after the indicates the number of outstanding tasks related to the current object, then the status of the task, e.g. Pending when the issue has not yet been sent out, followed by the issue type in brackets. Pending issues are shown in brown text to distinguish them from issues which have been sent out. If "No Type" was selected as the type of the issue, the issue type will be indicated throughout as Issue.

Clicking on the displays all of the tasks relating to the object as menu items of the form

issue name (issue type) (Status) or issue name (issue type) (time to completion)

As with Tasks In, the time counts down as the Due Date, if any, approaches, with the format altering as applicable and the colour of the link changing when the deadline has passed. Clicking on one of the menu items displays the Issue Sheet for this issue.

Note

If the task relates to a review, the status is omitted from both the task list and the menu item except when the review is for Completion. For a Closed Distribution, this indicates that all of the nominated reviewers have submitted their comments. An Open Distribution (see section 17.8 - Open Distribution) may be completed as soon as it is created.

When the issue is sent out (see section 15.4.1 - Sending out an issue), the task information changes to indicate that the issue has been sent out. The colour changes (issues which have not yet reached their completion date are green and those which have passed it are red) and the information displayed changes to:

(number of issues related to this document) time until the due date (issue type)

Clicking on the displays all of the tasks relating to the object as menu items of the form

issue name (issue type) (time until completion date)

Clicking on a menu item takes you to the Issue Sheet, which is now at the "Open" stage.

Once all users have completed their actions on the issue, the format of the display changes once again to indicate that the only outstanding action which remains is for the issue creator to complete the issue - see section 15.4.5 - Completing an issue.

Clicking on the displays all of the tasks relating to the object as menu items of the form

issue name (issue type) (for completion)

Again, clicking on one of the menu items displays the Issue Sheet for this issue.

15.4.4 Delegating an action

To delegate your actions on an issue to someone else, click the link at the bottom of the Respond to Issue page where it says "Alternatively, you can delegate your action to someone else by clicking here". You will only be able to delegate your actions to someone who is not already in the Distribution List. The users to whom your action may be delegated are shown on the resulting, Delegate action page. (If there is no-one to whom you may pass your action, you will be informed that there are no users for you to delegate your action to.)

Select the user to whom you wish to delegate your action in the same way as the Distribution List (see section 15.2.1 - The Distribution List) is assigned, i.e. click on a company name to display the names of the users from that company. Then click on a user's name to select them. (You can deselect a name by clicking on it in the Selected column.) Finally, click on "Done" to delegate the action and return to the Issue Sheet where the Delegated column indicates that you have delegated your action to the other user and that the issue has now been issued to the other user by you as a result of delegating the action. Also, in the Responses section of the Issue Sheet, the response columns beside your name will indicate that it is not appropriate to have responses from you and that you have completed your action for each of the documents.

You will no longer be permitted to   View/Change  |   Respond To Issue  . The action will have been removed from your Tasks In column (see section 15.4.3.1 - Tasks in) and added to that of the user to whom you delegated the action (who will also now be able to   View/Change  |   Respond To Issue  ).

Delegating an action means that you will not be able to respond to the issue in the future. Once an action has been delegated to someone, it cannot be delegated back to the original person to whom it was assigned. Click "Cancel" to return to the Issue Sheet without delegating the action.

On the issue's information page (available by clicking    |   More Info  ), indicates the user to whom an action has been delegated.

15.4.5 Completing an issue

Completing an issue is an indication that no further responses related to it are required. It may be that all users have completed all their actions on the issue, in which case the Tasks Out column (see section 15.4.3.2 - Tasks out) for the user who sent out the issue will indicate that the issue is for completion. However, it may simply be that sufficient information has been gathered and no more is required.

To complete an issue, click   View/Change  |   Complete Issue  on the Issue Sheet of an "Open" issue. This action is only available to the person who sent out the issue. Completing the issue will prevent anyone else from responding to it. Any tasks related to the issue will be removed from the Tasks In and Tasks Out columns of users - see section 15.4.3 - Tasks.

Completing an issue sets the progress bar on the Issue Sheet to "Closed".

15.4.6 Forwarding an issue

When an issue is sent out, the assumption is that the people on the Distribution List are the correct people to respond to it. However, it may be that the issue is only sent to a nominated contact within a company - the document controller, say. It would then be the document controller's responsibility to forward the documents in the issue to the appropriate people to respond. It might be that different documents should be sent to different people for response. The forward action facilitates this.

Forwarding an issue effectively creates a new issue (or issues) to be responded to. Once these issues have been completed, it is the responsibility of the person who forwarded the issues to return to the original issue and complete their actions on it - see section 15.4.5 - Completing an issue. Unlike delegating an action (see section 15.4.4 - Delegating an action) no automatic completion of tasks takes place.

An issue can be forwarded by the issue creator at any time or by someone to whom the issue has been sent out.

On the Issue Sheet of an "Open" issue, click on   View Change  |   Forward Issue  . This displays the Forward Issue page which is very similar to the Issue Sheet at the "Set Distribution" stage of the issue. (If you have gone directly to the Respond to Issue page by clicking on a menu item in the Tasks In column - see section 15.4.2 Responding to an issue), you will need to click on "Go back" at the bottom of the left corner of the page to return to a folder view and find the issue itself.)

Initially, you must specify which of the documents in the issue should be forwarded and where the new issue should be stored. Use the checkboxes to indicate which document to include in the forwarded issue. Leave the default setting of Click here if you want to store the new issue in the same location as if you have no preference. Click "Next" to move to the "Set Details" stage of the issue forwarding.

Select the users to whom the new issue should be forwarded in the usual way and assign a type to the issue.

Clicking "Next" will take you to the "Set Details" stage of the issue sheet described in section 15.2.3 - The Issue Details.

From this page, clicking on "Next" will take you to the Issue Sheet at the "Not Sent" stage. You can then send out this issue as described in section 15.4.1 - Sending out an issue.

On the issue's information page (available by clicking    |   More Info  ), indicates the name of the forwarded issue and the user who forwarded it.

15.4.7 Canceling an issue

An issue should be cancelled if its purpose becomes obsolete. On the Issue Sheet of an "Open" issue, click on   View/Change  |   Cancel Issue  . This action is only available to the person who sent out the issue. Canceling the issue will prevent anyone else from responding to it. Any tasks related to the issue will be removed from the Tasks In and Tasks Out columns of users - see section 15.4.3 - Tasks.

Canceling an issue sets the progress bar on the Issue Sheet to "Closed".

On the information page of the issue (available by clicking    |   More Info  ), the indicates that the issue was cancelled.