Using Designer

You can use the vFire Core Designer to make basic changes to vFire Core templates such as details windows, submission forms and mail message templates. You can also rebrand your vFire Self Service portal systems to reflect your brand and user requirements.

To consider

To what extent do you want to configure vFire Core?

You can change the names of fields and menu items using the System Titles window. You can change the spelling, the terminology (for example, rename Call to Ticket), and so on.

To configure windows further, use the Designer to add and remove fields from windows, rearrange them, and change colors.

Using the Designer, you can configure the following:

Details windows	Windows in the main application such as the Incident Details, Request Details or Person Details. For a full list of windows that can be configured in the Designer, click here.
Forms	Forms designed to collect specific information for a particular organization, for example to allow an analyst to capture more information about a User when logging a call.
Portal screens and submission forms	These are windows which are used in the Self Service Portal for viewing calls, knowledge entries, or configuration items, or for submitting calls or requests (linked to Call Templates or Workflow Templates in the main application). When Users complete and submit a portal submission form, it will generate a new call or request in the main application.
Message Templates	These are the mail message templates used by the system to send out an email or internal message after a particular event, such as when a call is logged.
User Survey Forms	Surveys can be sent out automatically to Users on closing calls. The Users can fill out the survey, describing the quality of the service they received in relation to the issue, and this information is entered into the vFire Core database
Screen Sets	Each entity type in vFire Core, such as CMDB Item Type, Call, Request, Knowledge, or Person, has a standard set of screens known as a screen set. The system administrator can define custom screen sets for calls, requests, tasks and User Surveys. You can then configure existing screens and create custom screens in the new screen set.
Skins	You can brand multiple Self Service portal systems using the Skins tab. In this, you can create a number of skins, and choose the colors, fonts and logo that appear in your Self Service portal system(s).

Be Aware

Before working with the Designer, we strongly recommend that you undertake appropriate training.

Before modifying or deleting existing fields, list items, rules, and other entities created in Designer, careful consideration must be given for where those entities are being used and how the change will affect dependent items, such as conditional branching tasks in workflows, IPK Rules, and so on.

Exercise caution when using the Designer to modify screen designs which have been customized by Alemba Professional Services. Contact your Alemba account manager if you are uncertain about whether your actions will impact these customizations.

For more advanced customizations, contact Alemba Professional Services.

Designer is not compatible with Vista and Internet Explorer 9. A known limitation with vFire Core and Vista/IE9 prevents screens rendering correctly in Designer.