Hi Nathan

It is possible to populate the 'Description' field with pre-populated text when selecting a Case Type through the use of a Dynamic Linked Item.

To begin with create a new report based on Cases and add the Columns 'Type' & 'ID' > Summarise by 'Type' > Add a Calculated Column, called 'CASE', which uses the following Case formula:

'CASE  type_name

WHEN 'General Enquiry' THEN 'Test 1'

WHEN 'Implementation Case' THEN 'Test 2'

WHEN 'Portal Case' THEN 'Test 3'

WHEN 'Support Call' THEN 'Test 4'

ELSE 'Not a listed type'

END'

This formula states that when the Case Type is 'General Enquiry' give me 'Test 1', when the Case Type is 'Implementation Case' give me 'Test 2' etc. This formula is a guideline and can be modified to meet your specific requirements. In order for this method to work properly all Case types must have been referenced in an existing Case. If not, I would recommend creating dummy Cases with these Types.

Next, create a Dynamic Linked Item (DLI) based on the report just created. To do this go to Start > Configuration > Customisation > Cases > Custom Fields > New Custom Field > Give it a name different to your existing Case Type field > For Data Type select 'Dynamic Linked Item' > Select the Report you have just created > For Display Column select 'Type' > For Value Column select 'ID'.

Following this, you need to create field mappings to populate fields in the form when a Type is selected. To do this, scroll to the bottom of the record and select 'Add field mapping' > From the Report Column select 'CASE' & from the Form Field select 'Description'. This will map the text specified in your Calculated Column to the 'Description' field. You can also create a field mapping to set the existing Type field when you use your new 'Type' DLI field. To do this select 'Add Field Mapping' > From the Report Column select 'Type' & from the Form Field select 'Type'.

Once you have Saved & Close this, you may wish to edit your Form Layout so that your new DLI field appears in a position of your choice. Once completed, the following result should look similar to this. here you can see 'General Enquiry' has been selected in the 'Issue Type' DLI, which has populated the existing 'Type' field with the correct value and populated the 'Description' field with 'Test 1'.

 This is very helpful, thank you! 

A couple of questions, though.

1. I have created 5 dummy cases, as I have 5 different issue types. Is it okay that after I have created those dummy cases and selected each issue type that I hide that field on the form? I just don't want to have a field that says "Issue Type" and then a field below, "Type", containing the same options.

2. When I create a new case and choose an issue type, this issue type gets added to the report. So the next case I create as duplicate options.

For example, let's say I have my 5 Issue Types: "Air, Car, Rail, Hotel, Other". Then if I create a new case and select issue type "Air", the next case I go to create will have in the issue type picklist "Air, Air, Car, Rail, Hotel, Other". Is there a way to avoid this? I added critera "Id <= 34" (as those five dummy cases are case Id 34 or less). But I don't know if this will run into trouble later, if our case counts get reset or something (we are looking to create a couple different case "series" for different groups within our organization... but that is another topic!).

Thank you again,

Nathan

Hi Nathan

If you are referring to the original 'Type' field then yes i would recommend hiding this field. 

If within the report you Summarise by 'Type', then even if you have more than one Case with Issue Type 'Air', the option will only appear once in the report. The result of this is that it will also only appear once in the Issue Type DLI. 

Kind Regards

Support

After looking at a couple videos on your knowledge base, I understand the function of "summarise by" now. I went a slightly different route, and created dummy Marketing Campaigns and entered my issue type as the name, and entered the description in Goal. Then I ran a report to show only those items and created a dynamic picklist to populate the desired fields on my forms. I don't think I will run into any problems with that methodology... right?!

Anyway, thank you again for your tremendous help on this matter! I wouldn't have figured it out had I not looked at your suggestions.

Nathan