To modify the ProblemTracker general preferences, press the "General Preferences" button located on the ProblemTracker Administrator home page. You can modify the following preferences:

General Options

• Display Order Button on Button Bar
  The order button displays the order form in a separate browser window. If you wish to remove this button from the button bar, select "No".

• Remove Records from Database on "Delete" Operation
  This option determines whether a delete operation merely marks a record and associated records as deleted or executes a true delete and removes these records from the database. The default setting for this option is "No".

• Enable Session Locking with Administrator Level Override
  A record edit locking feature is activated when the "Yes" radio button is selected. Users who begin editing, deleting or task operations on a record will lock access to that record until moving to another operation. Record locks can be overridden by users with Administrator level privileges. When an override occurs, the Administrator is notified and asked to confirm the override. The user who's lock has been released, will receive a notification message that their operation was overridden and could not be completed. The default setting for this is "No" (i.e. Session Record Locking is disabled).

• Include "State Manager" in the Assignee List on Add Operation
  Selecting "Yes" for this preference will allow the value "State Manager" to be displayed in the "Assigned To" field when this field is visible on the Add page. Selecting "State Manager" in the "Assigned To" field on the Add page will assign the newly created record to the user listed as the State Manager in the Workflow Properties based on the values of the Product and Status fields within the new record. Please review the Workflow Properties section for an explanation of how State Managers are used as a means of automatic assignment based on the Status and Product fields.

• First Record Number
  Enter any integer equal to or greater than "0" to be the number of the first record created in this workgroup. Each new record will be automatically assigned a number sequentially starting from the value listed for this preference. For example, if "100" is entered for this preference, the number of the first record created will be "100" and the number of the second record will be "101". The default value for this preference is "0".

  The value of this preference can only be changed when there are no records present in the workgroup. If you wish to change the value of this preference after records have already been created, you must first delete all records in the workgroup, then change the value of the "First Record Number" preference. To delete all records in the workgroup, refer to the instructions in section called Permanently Deleting Multiple Records.

• Banner Background Color
  You can choose from several colors for the ProblemTracker Title Area.

• User Name Format for Reports and Email Messages
  This option determines what will be displayed to identify a user in the Reported By and Assigned To fields in the Home, View, Query, History, and Email Notification Messages. The selection in this option will also affect the sorting of reports that use the Reported By or Assigned To fields in the layout.
  • When User ID is selected, the information entered in the User ID field of the user's profile will be displayed and used for sorting in the reports.
  • When Full Name is selected, the information entered in the First and Last Name of the user's profile will be displayed. The name will be sorted alphabetically by first name in the reports.
  • When First Name is selected, the information entered in the First Name field of the user's profile is displayed and used for sorting in the reports.
  • When Last Name is selected, the information entered in the Last Name field of the user's profile is displayed and used for sorting in the reports.

• Database Type
  This value must be selected when the workgroup is created through the Workgroup Management System. For information on selecting a database type, please review the section Adding a Workgroup.

• Enable Alerts
  Selecting Yes for this option allows you to use the Alerts feature. The Alerts feature allows you to configure ProblemTracker to send an alert message at a specific date and time or when a record's state has not changed within a certain period of time. Please review the Alerts section for more details about using this feature. This option will not be displayed unless you are using ProblemTracker Enterprise Edition and you have entered a valid Alerts license key in the License Manager (or you are using a trial version).

• Enable Discussion
  Selecting Yes for this option allows you to use the Discussion feature. Discussion allows various threads to be initiated within each record for users and groups to view and post messages. Please review the Discussion section for more details about using this feature. This option will not be displayed unless you are using ProblemTracker Enterprise Edition and you have entered a valid Discussion license key in the License Manager (or you are using a trial version).

• Enable API
  Selecting Yes for this option allows you to use the Add API feature. This option will not be displayed unless you have entered a valid API license key in the License Manager. This feature must be installed using its own installation setup program separate from the ProblemTracker installation.

• API User
  The user selected will determine the settings used when a record is created via the Add API. These settings include the privileges and field visibility granted to this user based on group membership. This option will not be displayed unless you have entered a valid API license key in the License Manager.

• Enable Add Record via Email
  Selecting Yes for this option allows you to use the Add Record via Email feature. Please review the Adding Records via Email Overview for more details about using this feature. This option will not be displayed unless you have entered a valid Email license key in the License Manager.

• Enable Self-Registration
  Selecting Yes for this option allows you to use the Self-Registration feature. Self registration allows end users to create their own ProblemTracker user account without assistance from an Admin user. Information about use of this feature can be found in the Self Registration section.

• Enable Inet Page
  Selecting Yes for this option allows you to use the Anonymous Add form. The Anonymous Add form allows end users to add records to this workgroup without a user account. Please review the Anonymous Add section for more details about using this feature. This option will not be displayed unless you have entered a valid Anonymous license key in the License Manager (or you are using a trial version).

• Enable Knowledge Base
  Selecting Yes for this option allows you to use the Knowledge Base feature. A Knowledge Base is a type of ProblemTracker workgroup that allows you to publish articles that can be searched by your end users to find answers to common issues or questions. Please review the Knowledge Base Overview section for more details about using this feature. You must have selected Knowledge Base as the template type when the workgroup was created in the Workgroup Management System. Information on adding a new workgroup can be found in the Adding a Workgroup section of the WMS Help Guide. You must enter a valid Knowledge Base license key in the License Manager (or you are using a trial version).

Record Visibility Options

Record Visibility allows a ProblemTracker administrator to set up an environment where access to records is restricted on a user group basis. Disabling record visibility can have the benefit of faster performance since enforcing record visibility restrictions requires more complex database queries. Please review the user group privileges in the User Administration section for internal user groups. If there are already records entered into the workgroup, you may wish to edit the record visibility of those records using the Edit Results operation in the Query page.

• Enable Record Visibility
  Enables record visibility control (record-level security). Set this to "Yes" to enable this feature.

• Limit Record Visibility Selection To A User's Own Groups
  For those users with the ability to edit the visibility of a record, this option selects whether they should only be able to select from user groups that they are a member of (Yes), or whether they should be able to pick any user group (No). For maximum security, it is recommended that this preference be set to "Yes".

• By Default Include Group 'Users' For Record Visibility On Add Operation
  When a record is added, it is automatically made visible to the user groups that the user reporting the record is a member of. This option selects whether the "Users" group should be included in this list of user groups (Yes) or not (No). If you intend to use the record visibility feature to limit access to records, you should select the value No (since all non-Restricted users are a member of the "Users" group, including this group means that all non-Restricted users can view any record). Non-Restricted users are users that have "Static" or "Floating" selected as the license type. Restricted users are users that have "Restricted" selected as the license type. For more information about distinguishing between users of different license types, please review the Users section.

Record Visibility and the Inet Page

Since there is no logged in user associated with issues reported via the Inet Page, there is a setting available in the Inet Page Options to configure the Record Visibility for issues submitted via the Inet Page. If the Inet Page feature is enabled and Record Visibility is enabled, please verify that the "Make Visible To These User Groups" setting in the Inet Page Options is set such that issues added via the Inet Page are visible to the appropriate user groups.

Record Visibility and Add via Email

When processing emails, ProblemTracker may not be able to map an incoming email to a user account (there is no user account with the same email address). In that case, it uses the Record Visibility settings in the Incoming Mail Configuration for the record which it creates from the unmapped email. If the Add Records via Email feature is enabled and Record Visibility is enabled, please verify that the "Record Visibility for Unmapped Emails" setting in "Set Global Mail Options" for Incoming Mail is set such that issues added via email which can not be mapped to a user account are visible to the appropriate user groups.

Source Code Control Options

• Enable Source Code Control Integration
  Setting this option to Yes allows your database to interact with the Source Code Control system specified in the next 3 options.

• Source Code Control Product
  Microsoft Visual Source Safe is the only product that can be used for Source Code Control Integration at this time.

• Path to srcsafe.ini
  Specify the path to the srcsafe.ini file that is present on the server machine where ProblemTracker is installed.

• Path to ss.exe
  Specify the path to the ss.exe file that is present on the server machine where ProblemTracker is installed.

Multinationalization Options

• Character Set
  The character set and the corresponding available languages for the database will be displayed. This list is based on the workgroup settings in the Workgroup Management System.

Record Visibility is a feature that restricts the records a user is able to access based on user group membership. This is useful in environments where you need to limit the records that are accessible to customers or external users while still allowing these users to access records that are pertinent to their company or account. To configure Record Visibility, please use the steps below:

1. Enable the feature and set the Record Visibility options in the General Preferences section described above
2. Set the Record Visibility privileges in the Privileges section
3. For any user that is not a member of a user group with the privilege "Override Record Visibility" (most likely all external users or customers), add the user to at least one user group other than the "Users" group so that this user can see the records he/she reported. For example, you may choose to create a user group for each company, vendor, or external user. This is required because by setting the option By Default Include Group 'Users' for Record Visibility on Add Operation to "No" in the General Preferences, any records added to the system will not be accessible to members of the Users group. If the user is a member of only "Users" group, then he/she cannot even view the records they submitted. Refer to the User Groups section for details on creating user groups and adding users as members