Bookman - configuration

This article explains how to set up the Raley Bookman app on your Atlassian instance.

Prerequisites

• Jira Service Management cloud
• Jira cloud (if you're keeping assets as Jira work items)
• Jira/JSM admin access
• JSM Premium or Enterprise edition (if you're keeping assets in JSM Assets)

Jira configuration

NB! This section is applicable only if you're keeping assets to be booked as Jira work items

Your Jira instance will be used as the Asset management system that keeps track of your bookable assets. In other words, a single issue (work-item) in Jira will be used to represent a particular single Asset that will be shown for bookings via JSM Portal.

An example of such an asset might be a: 

• Meeting room
• Corporate vehicle
• Appointment slot with a professional

You define your assets in Jira in one or several projects. Projects can be Company or Team managed. You can use any workflow or issue type for your assets that makes sense for your organization.

When you have your Jira configured, use Issue navigator to easily produce a JQL expression which defines the subset of Jira tickets eligible for bookings. 

An example of such JQL could be: project = ABC and issueType = "Corporate car"

Assets configuration

NB! This section is applicable only if you're keeping assets to be booked as JSM Assets

Your JSM Assets will serve as a source for the assets that Raley Bookman will allow to be booked. The whole process for configuring JSM Assets is well described here, so as soon as you have your JSM Assets configured, you should be able to produce an AQL expression which defines the subset of JSM Assets eligible for bookings.

To obtain the required AQL expression, navigate to Assets (in the Jira top menu), then choose the Schema which contains the objects of interest. Press on the Filter button and choose Advanced AQL tab. There you can play around with the AQL to get the right subset of objects.

The screenshot below demonstrates this in detail:

JSM configuration

Your JSM Portal will be used as a front-door where customers or employees can make bookings for assets. As Jira admin, define one or several request types that correspond to the type of assets that you want to be bookable via the portal.

An example of such Request type configuration is below:

Here we have 4 request types for different types of assets that we'll display for bookings. Now, let's go to the Bookman configuration console (Apps → Raley Bookman) and add the corresponding mappings as shown on the screenshot below:

In this example, we use one Service Desk called Assets Booking and map the JSM request type to a JQL/AQL statement which defines asset issues bookable through that request type. 

For example, if a user wants to book a golf car, then the Bookman app will show all JSM Assets found by AQL objectType = "Golf Car".

On the other hand, if a user wants to book a training studio, then the Bookman app will show all Jira work items found by JQL issueKey in (AMPL-1, AMPL-2).

There are no additional requirements regarding your Booking Request types - they can contain any fields that you may find useful in your organization. Also, you have complete freedom in the workflow configuration for your Booking project in JSM.

Customization of Booking Durations

Every booking time slot has FROM and TO datetime fields. The only requirement that Bookman imposes on them is that TO must be greater than FROM. By default, if you don't assign From Date Crontab in the Configuration, the FROM and TO fields will be visible as two inputs with calendar picker as shown on the screenshot below:

Either using the calendar picker or by typing directly into the inputs, you can provide any from and to with the granularity of one minute.

However, sometimes you may want to impose limits on which datetimes are valid for the FROM field. You can do that by specifying a CRON expression on the From Date Crontab. The CRON expression that you specify defines the set of valid FROM datetimes. This will also be reflected on a calendar widget. Here are some examples of the CRON that we support:

The From Date Crontab will be evaluated for the timezone specified in the TimeZone combo-box  which is just below the From Date Crontab.

If you specify the From Date Crontab, you can also indicate one or more durations for which the booking can be made. Those durations are configured under the TimeZone combo-box and look like this:

In this example, there are two durations, for 1 and 2 hours, respectively, which means that a user first has to decide if they want to book an asset for 1 or 2 hours, then the From calendar widget will show available reservation slots for the chosen duration and the end time will be reflected accordingly:

Asset Access

If you're using JSM Assets, then you also have to provide a token through which Raley Bookman will be pulling Assets-related information from your JSM instance. 

You can find more information on the generation of Atlassian tokens here: https://support.atlassian.com/atlassian-account/docs/manage-api-tokens-for-your-atlassian-account/

Once you have the token generated, connect it to your email on Bookman configuration → Settings panel