Maintaining Items


Overview

Tasks

Included with

Tivoli Problem Management

Overview

Item

Item is the third level in the SCIM hierarchy. Items are specific brands and models of products.

SCIM hierarchy overview

This help topic covers the maintenance of items as one part of the SCIM. For more information on designing and using the SCIM hierarchy, see Maintaining the SCIM hierarchy.

Work with Item dialog box

Use the Work with Item dialog box to maintain items for the Tivoli Problem Management SCIM hierarchy. See Maintaining Items.

To access the Work with Items dialog box,

  1. Do one of the following:
    • If you are using the Problem Managment Administrator profile or the Tivoli Service Desk Administrator profile, from the Edit menu choose Equipment Definitions to access the Work with System dialog box.
    • From the Help menu, choose Your System Profile and follow the instructions under Work with Equipment Definitions to access the Work with Systems dialog box.
  2. In the Work with System dialog box, select the system to which the component belongs, then choose Components to access the Work with Component dialog box.
  3. In the Work with Component dialog box, select the component to which the item belongs, then choose Items to access the Work with Item dialog box.

Add Item dialog box

Use the Add Item dialog box to add items that define the specific brands or models of the products you support. After you have defined a component, you can add the items that belong to that component. For more information, see Adding an item.

To access the Add Item dialog box:

Edit Item dialog box

Use the Edit Item dialog box to change an item ID, vendor, part number, manufacturer name, or description. For more information, see Editing an item.

To access the Edit Item dialog box:

  1. In the Work with Item dialog box, from the Item List, select the item you want to edit.
  2. Choose Edit.
    Result: The Edit Item dialog box appears.

View Item dialog box

Check the details of an item at either the Work with Item or the View Item dialog box. You cannot make changes when you are viewing an item. For more information, see Viewing an item.

To access the View Item dialog box:

  1. In the Work with Item dialog box, from the Item List, select the item you want to view.
  2. Choose View.
    Result: The View item dialog box appears

Tasks

Adding an item

Use items to define the specific brands or models of the products you support. After you have defined a component, use the Add Item dialog box to add the items that belong to that component.

To add an item:

  1. In the Add Item dialog box, in the Item ID box, type a unique identifier for this item. This identifier can be no longer than 15 characters.
    Note: You can use the same ID for items that belong to different components. For example, "Maintenance" can be an item ID in both the "Laser Printer" and "Air Conditioner" components. Help desk analysts see these item IDs in both the Call Registration dialog box and the Problem Status dialog box.
  2. From the Vendor list, select the vendor for this item.
    Note: This indicates which vendor typically supplies or services this item. You maintain your own database of vendors. For more information, see Maintaining Vendors.
  3. In the Part No box, type the part number used by the vendor for this item.
  4. In the Manufacturer box, type the name of the manufacturer of this item.
  5. In the Description box, type a more detailed description of this item.
  6. Choose OK.

Editing an item

Use the Edit Item dialog box to change an item ID, vendor, part number, manufacturer name, or description.

Note: The item ID is the primary record key. You can change an item ID only if it is not referenced anywhere else. Adding modules to an item references the item ID. After you do this, you cannot change the item ID.

To edit an item:

  1. In the Edit Item dialog box, make any necessary changes to the selected item. For further instructions, see Adding an item.
  2. Choose OK.

Viewing an item

You can check the details of an item at either the Work with Item dialog box or the View Item dialog box. You cannot make changes when you are viewing an item.

To view an item:

  1. In the View Item dialog box, view the item information in the Item ID, Vendor, Part No, Manufacturer, and Description boxes. For details on the displayed information, see Adding an item.
  2. Choose Close.

Deleting an item

You can delete an item when your help desk no longer supports any of the products identified by the item or the modules belonging to the item. Deleting an item also deletes all the modules that are part of the deleted item. This does not cause errors in existing problem records where the SCIM contains the deleted item. To search for a problem record containing deleted SCIM information, you must use a Search dialog box, instead of the simpler Inquiry dialog box. For more information on searching for problem records or defining an SQL query,see Searching and Inquiring.

To delete an item:

  1. In the Work with Item dialog box, from the Item List, select the item you want to delete.
  2. Choose Delete.
  3. At the message that warns you that all modules related to this item will also be deleted, choose Yes.

Searching for an item

If you cannot easily locate a specific item in the Work with Item dialog box, you can perform an SQL search.

To search for an item:

  1. In the Work with Item dialog box, choose SQL.
  2. In the Search dialog box, set the search parameters, then choose OK.
    Result: Items that match your SQL query appear in the Work with Item dialog box. For more information on defining an SQL query, see Searching and Inquiring.