“You may delay, but time will not, and lost time is never found again.”
— Benjamin Franklin
I got a little sidetracked last time and never got around to building out the code that we need to automate the set-up of application-level properties, so let’s get right to it. Let’s see, at the push of our new button, we wanted to create a Category, a Role, and a Menu Item. We don’t want to create them if they were already created, though, so first we should check and see if they exist, them create them if they don’t. Everything will be named in accordance with the underlying application, so let’s start out by gathering up all of that application-specific data right at the top:
var gr = new GlideRecord('sys_app');
gr.get('name', appName);
var scope = gr.sys_id;
var prefix = gr.scope;
var menu = appsgrcope.menu;
gs.addInfoMessage('Scope: ' + scope + '; Prefix: ' + prefix + '; Menu: ' + menu);
The scope, prefix, and menu values obtained in this section will be used in setting up the Category, the Role, and the Module (menu). First let’s do the Category:
var category = new GlideRecord('sys_properties_category');
category.addQuery('name', appName);
category.query();
if (category.next()) {
gs.info('Category ' + appName + ' already exists.');
} else {
gs.info('Creating category ' + appName);
category.initialize();
category.application = scope;
category.name = appName;
category.title = "System Properties for Application " + appName;
category.insert();
}
There’s not much mystery here: we look for a Category on the sys_properties_category table, and if we don’t find it, then we create. We can take the same approach for the Role:
var role = new GlideRecord('sys_user_role');
role.addQuery('name', prefix + '.admin');
role.query();
if (role.next()) {
gs.info('Admin role already exists: ' + role.name);
} else {
gs.info('Creating Admin role ' + prefix + '.admin');
role.initialize();
role.sys_scope = scope;
role.name = prefix + '.admin';
role.suffix = 'admin';
role.description = appName + ' Administrators';
role.insert();
}
Last, but not least is the sidebar menu item. Here we have to check to see if the application has its own menu section, put the item there if it does, and put it with the other System Properties if it doesn’t:
var module = new GlideRecord('sys_app_module');
module.active = true;
module.link_type = "DIRECT";
module.query = "/system_properties_ui.do?sysparm_title=" + encodeURIComponent(appName + " Properties") +"&sysparm_category=" + encodeURIComponent(appName);
module.order = 999;
module.roles = role.name;
if (menu.nil()) {
gs.info("Adding to System Properties Menu ... no orginal menu");
module.application = 'd546447bc0a8016900046469895b557a';
module.sys_name = appName + " Properties";
module.title = appName + " Properties";
} else {
gs.info("Adding to Module Menu ... has an established menu");
module.application = menu;
module.sys_name = "Application Properties";
module.title = "Application Properties";
}
module.insert();
That’s pretty much it. We can wrap all of that up into a function in a global Script Include, and then update the UI Action to call that function when the button is clicked. Here is the entire script of the new Script Include:
var AppPropertiesUtils = Class.create();
AppPropertiesUtils.prototype = Object.extendsObject(AbstractAjaxProcessor, {
setUpApplicationProperties: function() {
var appName = current.getDisplayValue('name');
gs.info("Setting up system properties for the following application: " + appName );
var gr = new GlideRecord('sys_app');
gr.get('name', appName);
var scope = gr.sys_id;
var prefix = gr.scope;
var menu = gr.menu;
gs.info('Scope: ' + scope + '; Prefix: ' + prefix + '; Menu: ' + menu);
var category = new GlideRecord('sys_properties_category');
category.addQuery('name', appName);
category.query();
if (category.next()) {
gs.info('Category ' + appName + ' already exists.');
} else {
gs.info('Creating category ' + appName);
category.initialize();
category.application = scope;
category.name = appName;
category.title = "System Properties for Application " + appName;
category.insert();
var role = new GlideRecord('sys_user_role');
role.addQuery('name', prefix + '.admin');
role.query();
if (role.next()) {
gs.info('Admin role already exists: ' + role.name);
} else {
gs.info('Creating Admin role ' + prefix + '.admin');
role.initialize();
role.sys_scope = scope;
role.name = prefix + '.admin';
role.suffix = 'admin';
role.description = appName + ' Administrators';
role.insert();
}
var module = new GlideRecord('sys_app_module');
module.active = true;
module.link_type = "DIRECT";
module.query = "/system_properties_ui.do?sysparm_title=" + encodeURIComponent(appName + " Properties") +"&sysparm_category=" + encodeURIComponent(appName);
module.order = 999;
module.roles = role.name;
if (menu.nil()) {
gs.info("Adding to System Properties Menu ... no orginal menu");
module.application = 'd546447bc0a8016900046469895b557a';
module.sys_name = appName + " Properties";
module.title = appName + " Properties";
} else {
gs.info("Adding to Module Menu ... has an established menu");
module.application = menu;
module.sys_name = "Application Properties";
module.title = "Application Properties";
}
module.insert();
gs.addInfoMessage("System properties for this application have now been successfully initialized. Use the System Properties Tab at the bottom of the page to add, change, and delete System Properties for this application.");
}
},
type: 'AppPropertiesUtils'
});
… and here is the code that we will add to our UI Action to call the script and then refresh the page:
new AppPropertiesUtils().setUpApplicationProperties();
action.setRedirectURL(current);
Now that we have all of the pieces in place, the only thing left to do is to give it all a try and see if everything works out as we intended. The first thing to do is to pull up an app and push the new button. For testing purposes, I created a useless sample app, just to see if we can’t give this thing a go and see what happens.
To test things out, all we have to do is pull up the application and click on the Setup Properties button and then see what happens:
As you can see from the image above, not only did the message come out indicating that the set-up work has been completed, but the Setup Properties button itself is now no longer on the page, as its work has been done and there is no longer any need for the UI Action. All I need to do now it wrap all of these parts and pieces into an Update Set and post it out here one day for those of you that might want to take a closer look …
