The Washington DC release has a lot of new features. One of my favorites is 'Playbooks For Portals.'

This feature enables the playbook experience on portals for end users. Imagine having a record producer for complex user cases, such as an application with more than 50 fields. Users may not necessarily complete the form in one go. Now, we can guide them through structured playbook processes. This article explains how you can extend the playbook experience to end users for your custom process.

For those who do not like to read a lot, check out the video at the end of this article.

The 'Case Playbook for Onboarding' application lets you experience the feature out of the box (OOTB). Instructions for enabling the playbook experience for onboarding cases can be found here. Additionally, it installs some dependent apps and plugins.

Onboarding playbook intake experience for end user

Onboarding playbook process experience for end user

In this exercise, we'll enable the experience on case table for product type of cases.

Plugins Required:

| | | | | |
| --------------------------------- | ----------- | ----- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| Case Playbook for Product Support | sn_product | 5.1.0 | Required if you want to use the product case playbook and record generator being shipped with the app. |

You might have two scenarios now:

1. Enabling only the process tab in portal ticket page.

2. Enable the intake experience as well for your users.

If you only wish to enable the process tab on portal for users to track the process then you can skip steps 2 to 6.

We first need a playbook. Here I am using the one shipped with "Case Playbook for Product Support" app. Define your own process using Playbooks if needed or use existing process. Navigate to Process Automation > Workflow studio > Create a new process in Processes tab.

It is recommended to create a new choice labeled 'Draft' for state field on your table. Why? If your intake process is lengthy, users might need to return and continue filling out the form. Therefore, any records created through the intake experience or record generator should have the state set to 'Draft' by default. This helps identify records where the user has not yet completed the intake process. Additionally, it prevents triggering any additional processes. To do this, navigate to 'sys_choice.list' and add a new option with the label 'Draft' and value '0' (use something else if already used) for the state field. For the case table, the choice is shipped along with the application but needs to be activated. Playbook record producers were being used by agents till now as first activity of the process. This now can be extended to end users as well. The record generator is tied to a playbook and it automatically comes as the first activity in your playbook when playbook is triggered. Navigate to Playbook Experience > Record Generators > New Here I am using the record generator shipped with Case Playbook for Product Support app.

You selected some fields in the view used in above configuration. By default, end users such as customers or consumers might not have access to these fields. Therefore, appropriate read, write, and create ACLs need to be created so that users can fill in the fields. It is recommended to add write and create roles with a condition based on State=draft. This will ensure that users can only edit the fields in the draft state.

Now it is time to create a content item on portal so that users can navigate to the playbook experience. Now you can create content items of Playbook type. These content items are specifically configured to enable the playbook experience on portals.

Navigate to Playbook Experience > Playbook Content Items > New

Note: The csm_intake page is shipped with "Playbooks for Customer Service Management " application. You may clone this page if needed and modify as per your requirement.

After above steps, you can navigate to the portal where the catalog(selected in content item) is mapped and execute the content item. It should take to the playbook intake experience where the record generator will be mapped as first activity followed by other activities in your playbook.

However, it's noticeable that during the process, users are not automatically navigated to the ticket page. Ideally, users should be automatically redirected to the ticket page upon completing the intake process steps. For example, after completing the 'Gather additional information' step, the playbook should direct the user to the ticket page.

You can create a new playbook activity action that changes the record state from draft to new. Afterward, map the action to appear during the 'Gather additional information' activity. This condition will be used in the widget to reroute the user to the csm_ticket page once the state changes from draft to new, indicating that the user has completed the intake process.

Note:The steps to create the activity action are covered in video embedded below. As this is specifically a playbook feature, hence not covered in detail.

Navigate to Service Portal > Widgets > Open the widget "CSM Intake Redirect" and add below code in the client controller section. As a best practice, you should clone this widget to modify and replace on csm_intake page or your custom page.

   spUtil.recordWatch($scope, 'sn_customerservice_case', c.data.filter, function(response) { //replace sn_customerservice_case with your table.

        if (response.data.operation == "update" && response.data.record.state && response.data.record.state.value != "0") { //checking if the state is not draft

            if (($window.location.href).indexOf('?id=csm_ticket&') == -1);
            $window.location = "?id=csm_ticket&table=" + c.data.table + "&sys_id=" + c.data.sys_id;
        }
    });

Now, when the record state changes from draft, the user will be routed to the csm_ticket page. You can customize conditions based on your specific requirements, especially if you are not using the draft state.

Once the user is routed to the csm_ticket page, they need to see the "Process" tab to track the process. Navigate to Standard Ticket > Standard Ticket Configuration > Open on the config of your table > Click New in "Tabs" related list.

Widget Parameters:

playbook_uib_page_url	/now/playbook-portal/csm_case_process
playbook_experience_id	0d71033773f220109edbc1f52ff6a741

Cool fact: The playbook experience is actually a UIB page iFramed in the playbook widget.

Leave your feedback in comments.