iService Forms and the iService Scripting Language (ISL) are a server-side scripting technology that can be used to create dynamic and interactive web applications that leverage the iService web services. An iService Form is an ASP.net page (forms.aspx) that contains server-side scripts that are processed by the iService web server before being sent to the user's browser. You can combine the ISL commands with Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) to create customized interactive Web sites and business processes that leverage all the features of the iService customer interaction system. Forms are created from within the Admin Tools section of iService as shown below.
The iService Forms Tab
The forms interface allows you to create and manage forms of two types: embedded iService forms, and standalone forms. Embedded forms, such as registering as a customer within iService, are designed to be used as part of an existing iService page. That is, they only function when loaded within one of the standard iService interface pages (e.g., findanswers.aspx). These embedded forms allow you to modify the standard iService user interface. They are not intended to be viewed from the forms.aspx page.
Most forms are created as standalone forms that are designed to be used on their own. These forms should include a full HTML page and are viewed from the forms.aspx page (e.g., https://1to1service.iservicecrm.com/Form.aspx?formID=4).
iService forms consist of two elements: the HTML contained within the page (Form Body), and iService actions that the form triggers within iService when the form is submitted (Submit Actions). iService commands can be inserted into your form HTML to interact with iService, such as capturing customer information and saving it as a new contact. These commands, known as the iService Scripting Language, are inserted directly into the HTML of your form and are enclosed within $ signs.
When an iService form is loaded, the forms.aspx page will substitute iService commands with the code necessary to build the final, functional page that interacts with iService to complete its actions. The actions available include:
•Lookup a contact and create a new contact if it does not exist
•Submit a ticket (requires agent login credentials to be submitted with form)
•Submit an “ask a question” interaction
•Send an agent email
•Create a public or private note
•Add a contact to a mass mailing list or mass mailing campaign
•Display Find Answers articles
•Display and allow update to subscriptions to mailing lists, mailing campaigns, and find answers articles (customized My Account – Subscriptions page).
•Login to an iService website.
Web Services Available for iService and Forms
iService is built on an extensive set of web services that are available for building your own integrations. You can find the most current list of web services at https://1to1.iServiceCRM.com/iService.asmx. Although there are a large number of web services, a majority of them are used by the iService agent website for administering your setup configuration, so you only need to be aware of a subset. The most common web services used are listed below.
Creating Contacts
Before a web service can be performed, you will need to authenticate the user. This requires that the user exist in the iService database or be created. Create a new contact using the ContactsAdd web service.
https://1to1.iservicecrm.com/iservice.asmx?op=ContactsAdd
Finding Contacts
There are several methods available for obtaining a list of contacts, or a single contact.
https://1to1.iservicecrm.com/iservice.asmx?op=CustomerInfoSearch or https://1to1.iservicecrm.com/iservice.asmx?op=CustomerInfoSearchAdvanced
Authentication
Most web services will require the user to authenticate to the iService application, and will use a SessionGUID to determine their access rights. Access rights are based upon the userType associated with the user that logs in. You provide a users login (email address) and password to obtain this GUID.
https://1to1.iServiceCRM.com/iservice.asmx?op=LoginContact
Accepting Customer Questions
Questions can be submitted by customers using the AskAQuestionSubmit web service. Users of any type may submit an Ask a Question interaction, but prior to using this service you must first obtain a contactID for the user.
https://1to1.iservicecrm.com/iservice.asmx?op=AskAQuestionSubmit
Creating Notes, Tickets, and Agent Email
Only iService agents can create note, tickets, or send agent emails. To use these web services you must authenticate as a user that has an agent userType. The single web service below is used for SEND_EMAIL or SEND_SECURE or NOTE_PUBLIC or NOTE_PRIVATE or TICKET.
https://1to1.iservicecrm.com/iservice.asmx?op=AgentEmailCreate - Agent Email
Displaying Customer History
To create an "Inbox" for your customers where they can read agent responses and interact with their questions, you must first find the contactID and then retrieve the list of IDs for the root of their interaction threads. Conversations within iService are threaded using a reference number. Once you retrieve the list of
https://1to1.iservicecrm.com/iservice.asmx?op=InteractionHistoryGetThreads
https://1to1.iservicecrm.com/iservice.asmx?op=InteractionHistoryGetThreadAll
https://1to1.iservicecrm.com/iservice.asmx?op=InteractionHistoryGetDetails
https://1to1.iservicecrm.com/iservice.asmx?op=InteractionGetAttachment
https://1to1.iservicecrm.com/iservice.asmx?op=CustomerInfoGetDetails
https://1to1.iservicecrm.com/iservice.asmx?op=CustomerInfoSetDetailsAdvanced
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Intended Users of the Forms Interface
The purpose of the forms interface is to empower business analysts to build various forms that support workflow, customer service, sales, and marketing needs. The user that creates the form does not need to know anything about the underlying web services or .NET code involved. They should have a good understanding of the concepts within iService, and will often be your iService administrator. They build the functionality of the form by simply inserting the commands and configuring the form actions using the graphical interface provided by iService.
Once the form body is created, your web or graphic designer can create HTML for forms without having to know anything about the iService system. This separation of “setup” and “design” makes it easy to build professional looking forms very quickly.
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