Associating a contact to an incident

In 8.0 and subsequent releases, when creating a new incident, you cannot create a new contact record directly from the incident workspace.  That is, from the incident workspace, you cannot click the Contacts tab and enter contact information in those fields. Instead, you must use a contact workspace to associate the contact record to the incident.

When creating a new incident, you may need to create a new contact record at the same time. In other cases, the contact record may already exist and you need to create a new incident for that record. The steps and options for creating new incidents and associating contact information to the incident are provided below.

Workspace requirements: When associating contacts to incidents, your incident workspace MUST include the Contact field with a magnifying glass icon. This allows staff to search for the contact from within the incident. When editing an incident workspace, this field is added from the Toolbox by expanding the Incidents table and dragging the Contact field listed under the Incidents table.

In addition, if you wish to add incidents to open contact records, the contact workspace MUST include the Incident View relationship item in the workspace. The default contact workspace includes the Incident View item on the Incidents tab.

For more information on editing workspaces, refer to Answer ID 2483: Setting Up a New Workspace.

Creating a New Incident and a New Contact Record

If the contact record does not already exist in your site, you must create both the contact record and the incident and associate them together. You can start with either record first and then create the other record and then save them both.

Option 1: Creating the Incident first.  You can open a new incident and then create a contact record from within the incident.

1. Select New > Incident from the upper left corner of the RightNow Console.
    
2. Right click on the Contact field and select Add New.  Or click the magnifying glass icon and select New Contact. The contact editor / workspace opens.
    
3. In the contact editor, add your contact information, including name, email address, login information and custom fields.
    
4. Click OK.  The contact editor closes.
    
   Important: At this point, the contact name populates the Contact field in the incident.  However, the contact record has not yet been saved to the database.  The contact record is created when the incident is saved. If you cancel the incident from being created, the contact record is not saved to the database either.
    
5. Fill out the incident information and save the incident.  At this point, both the incident and contact record are saved and added to the database.

Option 2: Creating the Contact Record First:  You can create your contact record first and then open an incident while adding the contact.

1. Select New > Contact from the upper left corner of the RightNow Console. The contact editor / workspace opens.
    
2. Add contact information in the editor.
    
3. Click the Incidents tab and click New.  The incident workspace / editor opens. Note that the contact's name populates the Contact field in the incident.
    
4. Fill out the incident information and click OK.
    
   Important:  The incident editor closes and the incident displays on the Incidents tab in the contact record. The incident, however, is not yet saved to the database. You must finish saving the contact record in order to create and execute any actions associated with the incident (such as sending a response). If you cancel the contact record (close without saving), then the incident is not saved to the database either.
    
5. Save the contact record. At that point, both the contact and incident are added to the database and any actions associated with the incident such as sending a response to the contact are executed.
    

Creating a New Incident for an Existing Contact

If your contact already exists in your site, you can associate the contact to the incident in a couple of ways.  You can search for the contact and then create a new incident for the contact or you can create the new incident and then associate the contact to the incident.

Option 1: New Incident from a Contact Report.  You can run a report that lists the contact record to be used with the incident and then create an incident specifically for that contact record.

1. Run a report that lists contact records or incidents and use search criteria so that the contact of interest is listed in the report output.
    
2. From the report, right click on the contact record and select New > Incident (For selected Org / Contact).

This creates a new incident that is automatically associated to the contact record you selected.  In the new incident, the Contact field in the incident workspace displays the first and last name of the contact. When you click the Contacts tab, the contact information displays and is editable.

Note: From the report, you can also click on the contact record to highlight that row in the report and then click the small down arrow beneath the New button in the toolbar and select Incident (For selected Org / Contact).  

Option 2: Associate Contact to New Incident.  You can also start with a new, blank incident and from the incident editor, you can associate the contact of interest to your new incident.

Note: To use this option, your incident workspace MUST include the Contact field with a magnifying glass icon to allow you to search for the contact from within the incident.

1. Create a new incident.  You can either select New > Incident from the upper left corner of your console or if you have an incidents report open, you can click the New button from the toolbar.
    
2. Click the magnifying glass next to the Contact field.
    
3. In the pop-up window, search for the contact of interest by name or other criteria such as email address or organization.  From the search results, double click on the contact record or click on the contact record and click Select.

When the search window closes, the contact's name populates the Contact field.  When you click the Contacts tab, the contact information is listed and you can edit the fields if necessary (and your staff profile allows you to edit contacts).

With the contact associated to the incident, you can fill out the incident information and proceed with handling the incident.