Filtered Lookup in Resco Mobile App

We have talked about Lookup filters for Dynamics 365 web app for many occasions in this blog. Now we will see how to implement this in Resco Mobile app for Field Service. This customisation has to be done through Resco Woodford Solution Customisation application.

Suppose we have below related entities in our scenarios;

What this means is Locations are associated to Accounts. When we set a Location to an Asset we don’t need to see entire list of Locations, but can pick one from the list which are associated to the Account of the Asset. Now this is a typical candidate for a Filtered lookup.

This filtering needs two steps;

1) Create new Lookup view in Location Entity

Create a new View, in fact Clone from Default View. Then Rename the view name accordingly and select Lookup as type.  Check Hide in View Selector since we don’t need to list this as a view in usual browsing.

Now Click Edit filter and add Condition to set Account and click Set Variable which result you with a pop-up to set it. Now select Asset from the Variable Selector and set Account field within it. This is because we are planning to use this to filter by Account Id when we are in Asset Entity.

2) Set newly created Lookup view to Lookup field in Asset

Now go to Asset Entity and Open the form we need to set the filter. Add the Location field and Open the Properties. Then we have to set newly created Lookup as the Initial View by clicking relevant checkbox. Also we have the option to keep the other view or hide it by clicking the check of in the beginning of the row.

Now click Publish All and check the Mobile App after synchronising.

Track Field Technicians locations through Resco Mobile App

We are provided a very strong insight in to Scheduled Jobs’ location and Resource’s suggested path in Dynamics 365 Field Service Schedule Board. In fact, we can optimise the route, prioritise Bookings in terms of geographical location considering and travel time and etc. Anyway, how we going to track what Field Technicians’ real locations are?

Here I am going to explain how to do that.

1) Associate Google Map API Key to Woodford Solution

a. If you don’t have a Google Map API key, sign-up here and retrieve one. Once you register you get $300 worth credits free. It will ask for a credit card number for authenticity, just like in Azure registration, but nothing will be charged, without your consent after fully consumption of free credits.

b. Now go to Settings > Solutions and Open Resco MobileCRM Woodford solution and click Configuration. Then paste the key and save.

c. Now there is a way to check if Key is valid and correctly associated. Browse to Settings > MobileCRM > Mobile Auditing. Then click Mobile Auditing Map link. If a Map is loaded without any issue, everything is in order.

Otherwise you will get below error message.

2) Configure Map for Users

Now go to User Form Customisation and click Web Resource.

Allocate resco_MobileCRM/MapIframe.html web resource as shown below. Also make sure to click “Pass record object-type code and unique identifier as parameters” Then save and publish.

3) Check how its working

Now Browse to User Form of the Field Technician you want to track the location. You will see points within the map in newly added Iframe where User/ Field Technician performed any action with the Resco Mobile App as below.

How Booking Alerts work in Dynamics 365 – Field Services

Booking Alerts in Dynamics 365 – Field services is an activity type with one speciality, which is its ability to show in the schedule board. Booking Alert is actually an effective alert for the Dispatcher who is working with the schedule board.

Booking Alert is created in two entities those relates as below;

Let’s see standard Booking Alert form;

Most of the fields here are obvious and standard for activity types, but two marked ones are special. Idea of them are as follows;
Due date – This Due date is the date/time this Alert will be pop-up in the schedule board. This should be a future date.
Assignees – These are the users who need to be logged in to see the Alert. My opinion these ones should be the Dispatchers in typical Field Service implementation.

Let’s see behind the scene how Booking Alert Status records being populated. Next time to show field is nothing but the Due Date of the parent record.

Caution: Once created don’t change the Due Date in Booking Alert without changing these values in Associate records (this doesn’t update automatically).

Here we see our Booking Alert.

Let’s see what actions user (i.e. Dispatcher) can perform now.

1) Dismiss
Once user click Dismiss, alert will disappear. What happen behind the scene is Status of the Booking Alert Status record becomes Inactive. This is specific to user. In our example if Dismiss is clicked by Jamie Reding, Spencer Low will still see the alert because his record is still Active.

2) Snooze 
Snooze allows user to set alert to pop-up later. (ex. 15 mins). What happen here is Next Time to show field of Booking Alert Status record get updated with next pop-up time.