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Per-comment attribute


Art Thomas (111) | asked Aug 19 '13, 12:03 p.m.
We've built a bridge that sync's Defects between RTC and another system. We would now like to selectively sync Discussion updates - i.e., allow the person who's using RTC to indicate which Discussion comments should be sync'd, as opposed to just syncing all comments.

We've solved this for two other ticketing systems, and now need a solution for RTC. In one of the other systems, the user clicks an action button to explicitly send updates. In another, we were able to add a checkbox to the comment entry input form for them to indicate whether this update should be sync'd or not.

How can we do something similar in RTC?  

So far, our best suggestion is to have the user add keyword text to the body of the comment itself (e.g., **SYNC**), and then our code would parse for that keyword and sync accordingly.   

Another idea was to have a separate field for comments that should be sync'd, but that would break up the comment history of the Defect, making it tougher to follow the history.

While functional, we're hoping for a more user-friendly and less error prone solution.

Thanks for any suggestions!

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sam detweiler (12.5k6195201) | answered Aug 19 '13, 3:22 p.m.
edited Aug 19 '13, 3:23 p.m.
What mechanism are you using for synchronization with RTC? the repository manager interface?
this will send ALL comments OUT to the other party.. it is expects ALL comments (sent) back at a minimum.
you cannot 'change' a comment contents.

there was an addition of support for timestamps in the comments added on 3.0.1.1, so at least they could be ordered and kept time clock synched with the source.

about the only other way would be to add function to the message handler  (item connector client) receiving the updates from the remote system and  filling in any of the missing data locally before submitting the changes to RTC. (again if u are using the repository manager interface).

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Art Thomas commented Aug 19 '13, 4:48 p.m.

We're using the RTC SDK to search for modified Defects & pull the fields of interest, and to push changes back whenever changes are made in one of the other systems. 


sam detweiler commented Aug 19 '13, 5:14 p.m.

so, in that case you have full control of what needs to flow back & forth. unfortunately, short of your SYNC flag in the content, there is no way to flag a comment with your special info.

I was binding support and development groups together. and the external customer had full visibility to anything not marked 'internal'.  Sadly, there was no way to extend RTC to enable an 'internal' comment. so we had to have support monitor the content and flip the flag to 'public' after consultation with the development group.
this means that development could not ask the customer a direct question ('can you send me another log from date x to date y')..

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