Introduction
Infowise Ultimate Forms is a complete platform for no-code business solutions in SharePoint. Our customers use it to implement a wide variety of internal and external processes. We, here at Infowise, use Ultimate Forms extensively to implement our own internal solutions as well. One of the most widely used solutions is our internal Help Desk.
In this blog article I would like to expand the topic first covered in this blog post. There I was explaining in details how you can create Help Desk applications by integrating your SharePoint's lists with emails. You saw how easy it is not only to receive new service requests via email, but also how to configure email-based approval processes.
Functions
You will find Value Pickers throughout the many components of Ultimate Forms. You use them when you need to assign or compare a dynamic value.
Dynamic values are useful when the actual value can only be known at execution time. For example, [First name] [Last name] is a dynamic value made up of contact's first and last name. This value will be different for each contact.
Dynamic values contain text, column values (as illustrated above), simple arithmetic and functions. We offer a wide selection of different functions. For example, $Year() function will return the year part of date, such as $Year([Created]).
Value Picker makes it easy to use functions and columns. When a Value Picker is in use, it expands to reveal the available columns and functions.
$Extract Function
One of the most useful functions, especially when dealing with email import, is $Extract. As its names implies,$Extract function allows you to extract parts of a longer text according to patterns that you define.
For instance, you want to email an update a service request, implemented as a SharePoint list item. You would want to pass the unique identifier to the system. This unique identifier specifies which service request you want to update. The item ID is the usual candidate for this identifier.
In our internal CRM system, we pass the ticket ID in the subject line of every outgoing email. The format is: "some subject IWID:100", where the ID is 100. This way, when the customers reply and we import that reply, the system knows which ticket it needs to update.
Using $Extract
$Extract function accepts 2 parameters:
- Value - can be text, column name, another function or a combination of them. This is the incoming value you want to extract from.
- Pattern - instructs the system how to extract the value. Generally in the format Prefix^Suffix, where ^ is the value you want.
For example $Extract([Subject]|?IWID:^) will extract the ID number from "some subject IWID:100". You might notice that we preceded the prefix with a question mark. It means that we a looking for it at any position within the text. Without the question mark, it would expect the text to start with IWID:.
Also, we omitted the suffix, which means we are going to get everything up to the next space, line break or comma. To include all the text up to the line break only, specify \r as the suffix.
In our internal CRM system we use $Extract functions for any purposes:
- Update the correct ticket the additional details coming from subsequent email. We use $Extract to get the ticket ID from the subject line. $Extract([Subject]|?IWID:^)
- Categorize tickets. By including IW:Sales or IW:Support tags in the body of the email and CC'ing our CRM system, we instruct it to properly tag the new ticket. $Extract([Body]|?IW:^)
- Close tickets. By including IWID:Close tag anywhere within our reply, we instruct the system to mark the ticket as closed.
Additional Usage Ideas
$Extract function is a great tool for a variety of uses. You can use it whenever you need to convert unstructured data to structured (such as First Name column value). An example of unstructured data could be the free text in the body of an email or any other free text column.
For example, you are receiving emails in semi-structured format. Those could be for example web form submission details. It could be something that looks similar to this:
First Name: John
Last Name: Doe
You can use $Extract to use parts as input for SharePoint columns. $Extract([Body]|First Name: ^) will produce John. Once your data becomes structured, you can now use it with great ease in any of your business processes. By parsing email data, you are providing input for your structured processes.
Available Throughout Ultimate Forms
You might notice that the Value Picker and, as the result, $Extract function are available not only in email. In fact, currently 8 components make use of this module:
- Forms - used in conditions for permission and validation rules.
- Actions - used in conditions for actions, Create/Update actions for setting values and as parameters for various action types.
- Import - used in conditions and in Create/Update/Sync actions for setting values.
- Print - used in conditions for selecting default print templates.
- Item ID - used in conditions for selecting ID template.
- Alerts - used in conditions for alerts.
- Associated Items - used in Associated Items Summary field in conditions.
- Color Choice - used in Indicator column for specifying values.
You can see now how powerful this single function can be. Which provides you with a great tool for making your business systems even more intelligent.
