Custom task inbox on business console

Hi,

It is well known that we have an option to customize task inbox while creating a task in designer and the same can be deployed to MWS. Once deployed, this customized inbox can be used in any custom portal application or at least a default one can be accessed under “Tasks” section on MWS.

Question is, do we have similar option on Business Console? Can we use a custom task inbox on business console?

I know that we can create a custom business console gadget and add it to an AppSpace. But it involves work starting from scratch. Instead I am looking for a solution similar to how “Task Details View” work. In Task Details view case, we just customize the default portlet that gets created for this and deploy it to MWS. Automatically, when opened and viewed on Business Console, this portlet is merged with the theme and UX of business console.

Is there similar feature for Task Inbox too?

For the Task Inbox we have provided an out of box gadget. So if you go to an Appspace and then click on Add Gadget, you should be able to find Task Inbox as one of the Gadgets under the “Business Console Tasks” category.
After adding the gadget click on the gear icon which opens the Gadget settings, you can do customizations there such as selecting the task types or columns you want to show etc. After this customization is done you should see the inbox with the tasks assigned.
Clicking on the TaskID or CustomID(if configured from BC administration) opens the task details.

The idea here is that you can add the out of box gadget which shows the Inbox list which opens task details, but you should be able to add other gadgets of your choice if desired and customize the Appspace created. If this is not sufficient and there is a need for additional customization required for the OOB task inbox you can log the details of the enhancement.

Also the Task Details customization is not limited to customizing via the portlet. If you create a new Appspace and add the Workstream gadget under “Business Console Common” category it should show the list of task types, processes and cases. If you hover over a Task type it should show pop up a down arrow image(img attached). If you click on it you should see the option customize task details page. Click on it and then on the view that opens click on edit. You can see that you can customize the task details page for this task type to either add new gadgets or remove the existing gadgets if you dont need them.

Thanks for the reply Amit. Need one clarification. When you say “we can customize by selecting columns we want to show”, you mean the choices are amount columns that come out of box only? Or is there a way we can add custom columns (other than customId) that reflect business data? For example, instead of showing typical task information like TaskId, assignedTo, TaskName, CreatedBy etc etc… Can I remove these and customise inbox to show columns with blend of both task and business data like TaskId, SalesRequestId, TotalAmount, VendorId, AssignedTo etc etc…

Please provide your insight

For the My Inbox which covers all task types it will not be possible to add business data fields as the fields may vary across task types. You will need to have a custom task type inbox then. To use that you can add the OOB gadget…Business Console Gadgets > Instance List Management. Here you can go to Gadget settings and then select the Task type and select the option Show only my tasks. This should then act as a Inbox and you should be able to choose the business data columns.

That’s cool. Will try that and let you know. Thanks a lot Amit.

Hi Amit, I just tried this like you explained:

  1. Dragged “Instance Management List” gadget.
  2. Under “Gadget Settings”, selected task type. then ticked “only my tasks”
  3. Saved

I dont see any other option where I can choose the business data as columns. When checked under “Configure Columns”, I see same old task related columns.

Did i miss something? (I am on latest fixes - Fix6)

Hi Prasad,

After configuring “Instance List Management” gadget with proper task, first it will display default columns.
Later you can change default columns with your required columns(Business Data columns too) through “Configure Columns” menu option by click Gear symbol next to search bar.

I have attached screen shot of “Configure Columns” window with Business Data fields.

Mean while, Can you please let us know the BC version you are using…?

Thanks and Regards,
Vishwanath G T.

Strange!!! I did follow exactly same steps you explained in your post. But no luck. Attached is screenshot from my Business Console.

BC version/fix details:

Version: 9.12.0.6.303
Build Date: 2017-04-08
Installed Fixes: SBPPortal_9.12.0_Fix6

Hi All,

I am able to see Business Data fields under “Configure Columns” after making sure I have selected “Index field in Database” checkbox while I was adding Business data fields for the task in Designer.

Thanks everyone

Hi Prasad,

We are using v9.9 and we have a similar requirement for the custom task inbox in the business console. Enabling the ‘Index field in database’ option worked just fine for viewing the business data in the custom columns as well as custom search.

However, I noticed a strange thing where the existing tasks are not visible after enabling this option. Does this work only for the new tasks after enabling this property? Have you encountered such issue?

Hi Kannan,
Yes… noticed that only New tasks are visible after enabling the indexing option. Old ones are not visible on console but can be found from MWS Task list management page.

You may have to run Reindex from Task Engine Administration ui.

Yes Prasad, true…But as suggested by Vinay, I ran the reindexing for that particular task type and all the old tasks are also now visible in Business Console as well. Thanks Vinay for your suggestion.