Customizing › How to Customize the Request Status List › Add an Additional Request Status

Add an Additional Request Status

You can customize the request status list by adding additional request statuses for one of several purposes not covered by the default statuses. One common purpose is for approval or rejection of a request by a specific department, for example, the Finance department.

Follow these steps:

1. Use an editor, such as Notepad, to edit the appropriate requestshared.xml file for the language of your system. For example, for English, edit the file in the %USM_HOME%\view\webapps\usm\locale\icusen\request folder.
2. Add an additional line, including the number and text for the new status to the following sections: <request_header> and <request_item>.
3. Select an unused numeric status value in the appropriate range for custom status values for the status you are adding. An example follows:

   <st_500>Pending Financial Approval</st_500>
   ...
   <st_700>Rejected by Financial Approver</st_700>
   ...
   <st_900>Approved by Financial Approver</st_900>
   ...
   

   Note: If possible, limit the text of the status value to 40 characters. Text longer than 40 characters can be truncated in the drop-down status menu lists and request status fields. In such cases, the entire text string is displayed to catalog users only in the tooltip text that appears when users mouseover request status fields.

4. Copy that line to the custom section or sections where you want them to appear. Examples include <request_item_approval>, <request_item_fulfillment>,

   <request_item_stuck_approval_action>, and <request_item_stuck_fulfillment_action>.

5. Delete the text from the line you copied and modify the line to include the statval="value" expression.

   An example for the previous step follows:

   <st_500 statval="500"/>
   ...
   <st_700 statval="700"/>
   ...
   <st_900 statval="900"/>
   ...
   

   Note: This technique is illustrated in greater detail in the Example section that follows this section.

6. Save the requestshared.xml file.
7. Test your changes by verifying that they are correctly reflected on the request-related user interface screens (the Request Details, Approve Request, and Fulfill Request screens).

Example: Add New Approval Statuses

To add approval statuses 500, 700, and 900, all related to financial approval, add the new lines for these statuses to the request_header, request_item, and request_item_approval_action sections of the requestshared.xml file. Examples follow, in bold.

Specify the numeric value and text in the request_header and request_item sections, and specify only the numeric value (without the text) in the request_item_approval_action section.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> 
...
- <request_header>
  <!--  status values must be synchronized with the status list in request_item, request_item_approval_action and/or request_item_fulfillment_action   --> 
  <st_1>Pending</st_1> 
  <st_2>Completed</st_2> 
...
  <!--  400 to 499 are reserved   --> 
  <st_400>Pending Approval</st_400> 
  <!--  500 to 599 can be used for custom pending approval status   --> 
  <st_500>Pending Financial Approval</st_500>
  <!--  600 to 699 are reserved   --> 
  <st_600>Rejected</st_600> 
  <!--  700 to 799 can be used for custom rejected status   --> 
  <st_700>Rejected by Financial Approver</st_700>
  <!--  800 to 899 are reserved   --> 
  <st_800>Approved</st_800> 
  <st_801>Approval Not Needed</st_801> 
  <!--  900 to 990 can be used for custom approved status   --> 
  <st_900>Approved by Financial Approver</st_900>
  !--  991 to 999 are reserved   --> 
  <st_999>Approval Done</st_999> 
...
 </request_header>
- <request_item>
  <!--  status values must be synchronized with the status list in request_header, request_item_approval_action and/or request_item_fulfillment_action   --> 
  <st_1>Pending</st_1> 
  <st_2>Completed</st_2> 
...
  <!--  400 to 499 are reserved   --> 
  <st_400>Pending Approval</st_400> 
  <!--  500 to 599 can be used for custom pending approval status   --> 
  <st_500>Pending Financial Approval</st_500>
  <!--  600 to 699 are reserved   --> 
  <st_600>Rejected</st_600> 
  <!--  700 to 799 can be used for custom rejected status   --> 
  <st_700>Rejected by Financial Approver</st_700>
  <!--  800 to 899 are reserved   --> 
  <st_800>Approved</st_800> 
  <st_801>Approval Not Needed</st_801> 
  <!--  900 to 990 can be used for custom approved status   --> 
  <st_900>Approved by Financial Approver</st_900>
  <!--  991 to 999 are reserved   --> 
  <st_999>Approval Done</st_999> 
...
  </request_item>
- <request_item_approval_action>
  <!--  status values must be synchronized with the status list in request_header and request_item   --> 
  <!--  A "default" value for the attribute "current_status_value" indicates these statuses will be listed by default in the "item status" menu if no other custom statuses are defined   --> 
  <custom_menu current_status_value="default">
  <!--  400 to 499 are reserved   --> 
  <!--  500 to 599 can be used for custom pending approval status   --> 
    <st_500 statval="500"/>
  <!--  600 to 699 are reserved   --> 
  <!--  700 to 799 can be used for custom rejected status   --> 
  <st_700 statval="700"/>
  <!--  800 to 899 are reserved   --> 
  <st_800 statval="800">Approve</st_800> 
  <!--  900 to 999 can be used for custom approved status   --> 
   <st_900 statval="900"/>
...