Examples: The Notes, Attachments, and Email packages

The most commonly used packages are Notes, Attachments, and Email.

The Notes package provides a mechanism to log notes for a record type. The notes log is typically used to capture ongoing comments from users about a change request. These comments might elaborate or clarify the request, suggest solutions, include information about the priority or severity of the request, and provide other useful observations.

When you apply the Notes package to a schema, you select one or more record types (for example, Defects and EnhancementRequests). The Notes package adds a Notes tab with two controls for each selected record type. One control is for entering a new note, and the other control is for viewing the full set of notes captured in the log. If a user clicks the latter control, the existing notes are displayed separated by a note header that includes the state, user name, date, and time of the note.

The Attachments package lets users add and remove file attachments related to a record. When you apply the Attachments package to a schema, you select one or more record types, and the package adds an Attachments tab to each selected record type.

The Email package provides a mechanism for creating email messages that notify team members when a specific action takes place. The package adds a stateless EmailRules record type that, when instantiated in the client, lets the user define the condition that generates an email notification, who it is sent to, and what it contains. By creating multiple EmailRules records, you can define different conditions under which email notification is generated. These notifications can be sent to different individuals and user groups.

These examples also illustrate why you must exercise judgment when applying and configuring packages. For example, when the Attachments package is deployed with the HCL Compass Web client, uploading and downloading large attachments can create a bottleneck that slows response times for other HCL Compass Web users. It is important to understand that email rules are evaluated each time a record is written to the database; too many rules can affect response time when the user clicks OK or Apply.