Adding a populated field to an incident form

Question

Hi,
hopefully someone here can help me out, I'm looking to add a field to the Incidents form in SCSM 2012, specifically a 'Location' dropdown with a few of our sites already in it and a 'room number' text box.
I'm having trouble getting started with this customisation and the more I read TechNet articles and blog posts the more difficult it seems.
Does anyone have any pointers on how to achieve this?
Thanks.

Answer 1

So there are two things that you need to do to do this. First: add a place to store this information. Second: add controls to the form so those places are exposed for editing. 
The first part is more complicated, but not hard. Let's start with some design choices:
i'm assuming these two values are properties of the affected user, rather then the incident? the distinction here is if the location and room number are the location of the user having the issue, or a unique location for this issue. imagine a printer problem,
and bob calls this problem in. should the location field be linked to Bob's office so the analyst can find bob in the building, or should it be blank until bob specifies the room number that the printer is in? 
If you want user properties, then the first step would be to
extend the user class (specifically, System.Domain.User) using
the SCSM authoring tool, by adding a ENUM or list property for the location, and a text property for the room number. you'll want to
save and seal this MP, then close the unsealed version and open the sealed version before continuing. If you want the Incident properties, you'll do the same process, only to the incident
class (System.WorkItem.Incident) instead oft he user class. 
In regards to the second part, customizing the form: start by creating a second MP to store the form. you'll want to keep the class and form definitions separate, due to some property reference issues if they are in the same MPs. If the location is linked
to the user, then you'll want to follow
this example to create read only fields linked to the user in the new form. If Not, then you'll want to
customize the incident form, and
add a text box and
list control to link your form properties. Either way, save and seal the form MPs and import them both into Service Manager. 
Open the forms and check your work. you'll note the dropdown has no entries. you'll want to create a third MP, this time inside SCSM (not the authoring tool) to store the List entries. find the list you created in the authoring tool and
add some entries. 
At this point, if you are just storing the information on the incident, then you're done. if you are storing the data on the users, then you'll want to populate this information. you can do this with some automation, like powershell or orchestrator, to get
this data populated from it's original source, say the HR system that assigns offices, or you can customize the user form to expose these properties so your analyst can start populating this data.