Work Exchange
TicketRx can communicate with third-party ticket management systems and exchange information about work performed on tickets and positive responses sent to one-call centers. This feature relies on tickets being delivered to both TicketRx and the third-part system.
The data about work performed and responses to one-call centers is exchanged in CSV formatted files. File attachments are placed in directories named after ticket numbers. See the example below for more information.
This feature is configured on Work Exchange tab of the Feeds admin module. When export is enabled for a feed, TicketRx will write all the locate statuses, notes, positive responses, and attachments to the FTP site. During import, TicketRx imports all files from the FTP site recursively. The files are removed from the FTP site after reading. This process is repeated nightly.
The work exchange does not include answers to ticket and locate questions. For imported activity, ticket and locate questions are answered using the Default Answer as configured in the Question Admin. This is mainly needed for mandatory questions.
Locate Statuses and Notes
Files with information on work performed are named as work*.csv. For example both work.csv and work-2009-09-15.csv are valid names. It is highly recommended to use unique file names for each batch in order to avoid name collisions.
The following fields are included:
- Ticket Number - Ticket number from the one-call center. Required field.
- Utility - Name of the utility in TicketRx. Not required from third-party.
- Term - Term (member) code from the one-call center. Required for statusing locates.
- Locator - Identifies the locator who performed the work. This is the login name of the user in TicketRx. Required unless the feed is configured with a default locator.
- Work Start - Date when the activity started in ISO date format. At least one of Work Start and Work End fields is required for statusing locates.
- Work End - Date when the activity finished in ISO date format. At least one of Work Start and Work End fields is required for statusing locates.
- Status Category - Status category for the locate. Not required from third-party.
- Status Description - Status description for the locate. Required for statusing locates.
- Status Closing - Whether the status closes the locate ("true" or "false"). Required for statusing locates.
- Billable - Whether the status is billable ("true" or "false"). Not required from third-party.
- Hours Worked - Decimal number of hours worked on the locate. Not required from third-party.
- Feet Located - Total distance marked for the locate. Not required from third-party.
- Addresses Marked - Number of addresses marked. Not required from third-party.
- Notes - Notes for the ticket.
Positive Responses
Files with information on positive responses are named as response*.csv. For example both responses.csv and response_log-2009-09-15.csv are valid names. It is highly recommended to use unique file names for each batch in order to avoid name collisions.
The following fields are included:
- Ticket Number - Ticket number from the one-call center. Required field.
- Utility - Name of the utility in TicketRx. Not required from third-party.
- Term - Term (member) code from the one-call center. Required field.
- When Sent - Date when the response was sent to one-call center in ISO date format. Required field.
- Code Sent - Response code sent to the one-call center. Required field.
- Reply Received - Reply received from the one-call center. Not required from third-party.
- Reply Success - Whether the one-call center accepted the response ("true" or "false"). Not required from third-party.
Attachments
File attachments are placed in directories named after ticket numbers. The files will be imported with the same name under which they appear in the dump. See the example below for more information.
Sample Directory Structure
Sample directory structure on FTP site is shown below:
work-2009-09-15.csv
reponses_2009_09_15_13_15.csv
reponses_2009_09_16_01_15.csv
230050/site.jpg
230050/site-marked1.jpg
230050/site-marked2.jpg
230051/lock.jpg