Last Updated on November 19, 2022 by maximosecrets

This article will look at three scenarios to show that by default work log records are visible in other applications than the one they were created in.

Creating a Log Note from View Service Request

In a previous article REDDING – Tony Redding created a service request 1273, we can see this in the Self-Service View Service Requests application. You can read the article on the Self-Service Service Request here – http://maximosecrets.com/2021/10/01/self-service-service-requests/.

You can navigate to Service Request 1273, but for the self-service user the View Service Requests application is mainly read-only.

However, lower down in the application in the Log section there is a button “Update Service Request” which allows the requester, or the person affected, to create a log note. I have entered as a Summary – “Conference Room still too hot” and in the Details entered “Please can you give me an update to request 1273 the conference room on the 4^th floor is still too hot and nobody wants to use it.”.

After pressing the OK button, the new Work Log record is saved, and you could review it by launching it from the Log table window.

In the Service Requests application in the Log tab and the Work Log you can see the log note created from the View Service Requests application, that should be no surprise, it is the same record. The Work Log record is marked as Viewable, meaning that it can be seen in the View Service Requests application. Note, the Work Log Type is CLIENTNOTE.

In the article, Service Requests – Related Tickets, the follow-up Incident 1250 was created, you can see this from the Related Records tab, Related Tickets table. You can find the article here: http://maximosecrets.com/2021/10/26/service-request-related-tickets/.

If we navigate to Incident 1250 and the Log, Work Log tab, then the same CLIENTNOTE created by REDDING can be seen. Log Notes created in one application can be viewed in follow-up applications.

Creating a Log Note Reply from an Incident

In this scenario we will create a new log note from the Incidents application. Incident 1250 is marked as a Global Issue and the field “Is Global Issue” will then appear (it will also be checked), if it was not a Global Issue it would be hidden. This field (TICKET.ISGLOBAL), cannot be modified, if you try you will receive error “BMXAA4272E – Referenced as global issue in other tickets.”.

I am using the Work Log type of UPDATE. The default types are:

• CLIENTNOTE – Recommend leaving this for log notes created in the View Service Request application, or when client has called in to the Service Desk. It is the requester’s notes.
• UPDATE – Used for updates to the ticket. Recommend this is used by anyone who is not the technician investigating the issue or performing work to resolve it.
• WORK – Used by technicians or others who are performing work to resolve the request or issue. If you leave it to work related log notes then it will help others who need to respond to a follow-up, which may be a work order or a problem record.
• APPTNOTE – Should not be used unless it is a log note specifically about an appointment. Appointments are made on assignments and these log notes will be visible in the Graphical Assignment application, a part of Maximo Scheduler.

The LOGTYPE Synonym Domain can be updated with other log types, especially for UPDATE and WORK.

In the Work Log I have added a Summary as “Visit to conference room this afternoon (Wed)” and in the Details I entered “Hi Tony, we are aiming to come and see for ourselves around 15:00 this afternoon to perform a preliminary investigation. Normally this is because other rooms have been set to be much cooler than normal, so we will try and get around some of the other offices on the 4th floor at the same time. We’ll make an update on this record later with our findings. Regards – Facilities team.”.

Notice I have checked the Viewable field, to allow this log note to be read by those using the Self-Service View Service Requests application.

In Service Request 1273, the originator for Incident 1250, the log note of type UPDATE created on the Incident record is also visible.

The log notes which will be visible are those for the existing record, any originating record, and any follow-up record.

The log note created on Incident 1250 is visible on the Self-Service View Service Requests application because the log note was marked as Viewable. If it were not Viewable then it would not be shown on the View Service Request application, it would be visible in the Service Requests application.

Don’t worry about both records being Created By REDDING, this would not be normal. User REDDING is set to access multiple applications to save me from logging in/out with other user accounts.

Incident 1250 was marked as a Global Issue, this means that the log note will be visible in records with a relationship type of RELATEDTOGLOBAL, i.e in our scenario it is visible for Service Request 1292 and 1293. However, it is not visible on Service Request 1291 where the relationship type was RELATED.

Notice after saving Incident 1250 the Work Log record is read-only except for the Viewable checkbox, which can be modified. The client viewable field can only be modified on the record which created the work log entry.

Creating a Log Note Reply from a Work Order

From Incident 1250 I have used the action Create Work Order and in the Related Records tab you can see the Related Work Orders table shows the FOLLOWUP work order 1323.

I have navigated to Work Order 1323 and you can see that it shows only the Work Log records from the originating record Incident 1250 and not the work log records from the originating Service Request 1273. 

On Work Order 1323 I’ve created a new work log record of log type WORK and marked it as Viewable. Summary was “Result of Investigation to hot conference room”, with Details as “This afternoon we found the conference room temperature at 26C particularly and 27.5C in the South-West corner. We found Roger Jones office thermostat set very low at 18C and have adjusted this to 21C. We will monitor the conference room over the next few days, but it probably requires RJ thermostat to be moved. This should have been done after the partition move last autumn.”.

On Incident 1250 you can see the work log record coming from work order 1323. But it is not visible on SR 1273 and so is not visible in the View Service Requests application. It is also not visible in Service Requests 1292 and 1293 which have a relationship of RELATEDTOGLOBAL with Incident 1250. The work log inheritance is only for immediate relationships and not relationships which are further removed up or down the line. 

Modify/Delete Work Log

The Modify/Delete Work Log action can be used by those with the Security Group option to:

• Modify a Work Log record, the Type, Summary, Details or the client Viewable field
• Delete a Work Log record

This action does not display the Work Log records that were created in other applications except that in the Service Requests application you can see the work log records created by the requester in the View Service Requests application. For Incident 1250 it is only the Work Log records that were created on that Incident record that will be visible, you do need to go to the source record to modify or delete a work log record. 

Work Log Configuration

The WORKLOG object is used by multiple applications, primarily those based on a TICKET or the WORKORDER objects. The Purchase Requisitions and Purchase Order applications also have a Log tab. It is also used on quite a number of the Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) applications. It is also possible to add a Work Log to other applications without too much difficulty.

There are two hidden fields Change By (MODIFYBY) and Change Date (MODIFYDATE) which are updated in the background whenever a work log record is updated. This allows the table to be audited using the Electronic Records function in Database Configuration.

In the Work Order Tracking and Service Requests applications the Work Log uses a relationship called WORKLOG which will be found in the TICKET and WORKORDER objects. The Where Clause of the WORKLOG relationship is empty and if you modify it, you are changing the default behaviour described above. I would suggest not modifying the WORKLOG relationship.

There are two System Properties to help with customisation of what Work Log records are displayed:

• psdi.worklog.ticket.useTKrelationship – when set allows you to override the default rule for displaying work log entries on a ticket. Your new rule would be entered in the relationship called CUSTOMTKWORKLOG found in the TICKET object.
• psdi.worklog.workorder.useWOrelationship – when set allows you to override the default rule for displaying work log entries on a work order. Your new rule would be entered in the relationship called CUSTOMWOWORKLOG found in the WORKORDER object.

To be honest, when writing this article, I thought that the default work log functionality did more than this. There are a few common ITIL scenarios, SR to Incident to Problem, or SR to Incident to Change, where you would want to see the original service request log notes on the Problem or Change applications and where a log note created in those applications would be visible on the Service Request. It doesn’t do this, and I have raised a case with IBM Support. Why then is there the client Viewable field on Problem, Change and Release applications if there is little chance of someone on the View Service Request application being able to see what you have written. Of course, you could use the two CUSTOM relationships to achieve this, then the Viewable field could be used effectively. 

The phrase I remember being used 15 years or more ago when this was first released in Maximo v6 is that the work log shows the records up and down the line, following the lineage of records created from the service request. For example, SR 1273 created follow up Incident 1250. If I create two work orders 1300 and 1301 both from Incident 1250 then log notes created in SR 1273 or Incident 1250 would be visible in both of those work orders. Also, log notes created in either of those work orders would be visible in Incident 1250 and SR 1273. However, a log note created in work order 1300 would not be visible in work order 1301 and vice versa. But I was mistaken, it seems that it does not work (or no longer works) this way. I tested this on an ICD system, and it works the same way as it does in Maximo.