Basic Tutorial

Build your first object schema

To create a new schema:

1. Click on Insight → Insight Object Schemas option. You will reach the Insight Object Schemas screen.
2. Click on Create an Object Schema link. You can also click on the Getting Started with Insight link to watch a brief introduction on Insight.
3. Choose the option of Empty Object Schema from the dialog as shown below.
   
   
4. Give it a name of your choice e.g, "Mindville Resources". The key will be auto generated from the provided name. You can provide a description too.
5. Click on Create button and voilà! You have your basic schema set up. Well done! You will now see your schema under Insight → Insight Object Schemas.

If you click on your schema from the list, you will land on Object Schema View screen.

Create object types

Define object types which will help you model your data.

1. To create an object type, from the Object Schema View screen as shown above, click on create and create "Company Assets" as your first object type. You may choose an icon and enter a description.
2. Set its parent to "None".
3. Click on Object Type button at the far right and choose the Create option to create another object type and name it "Server Type". Provide a description to it and choose an icon for it.Set its parent to "Company Assets".
4. Create all other object types as well as shown in the diagram below. All the object types that you will create are highlighted in yellow. Additionally, the sketch also points out references to other object types which you will create in the next part of this tutorial.
5. For all the object types, set the parent to "Company Assets".
   
   

Create attributes

To see all attributes, click on any object type and then click on the Attributes button at the far right of Object schema View screen as shown below. Insight creates few default attributes when you create the object type.

To create an attribute, you have to simply append it to the list as shown below.

Each attribute needs the following to be defined:

• Name: A name of your choice. 
• Type: The type either could be a Default, Object among many others. 
• Type Value: The value for a type. The options listed in Type Value depend on the value selected for Type. E.g, if you select Default in Type, the Type Value options are Text, Textarea, Date, Email etc. If you select Object in Type, then the Type Value options are other user-defined object types. In your schema, Location, User, Software etc will be listed as Type value when you select the Type as Object.
• Additional Value:
  • As the name suggests, it helps you specify any additional information for the attribute. One piece of additional information could be the connection between object types. Objects normally have references to other objects. For e.g, you would want to know which Manufacturer produced each of your Servers i.e, Server HAS A Manufacturer. 
  • To connect object types, you choose the Reference while keeping Type selected to Object as shown in the screenshot above.
  • Insight provides other options for this too and it will depend on what you select in Type. 
  • Insight is flexible and gives you a way to create your own Additional Value for the Type=Object. You have to simply type in the name and it will be created for you when you click on Add button as shown in the screenshot above . You can then use this to define attributes of any other object type.

Now, create attributes for all your object types as shown in the table below.

Additionally, for the Server → Installed Software attribute, click on the cog wheel at the far right and choose Configure. Under the Cardinality tab, check the checkbox Unlimited. This allows you to specify more than one software installed on a server.

You need not create any attributes for the object types : Location, Server Type and Computer Type.

Create objects

For all the object types that you created earlier in this tutorial, you can now create objects for them as shown in the table below.

You should fill up values for all attributes for every object. You can also create more objects for each of your object types if you want.

View object graphs

Click on the Graph button at the top right of the row showing the schema information. You will see a graphical representation of the object schema which will show how all the object types are knitted together. This is the Object Schema graph.

Additionally, if you click on Graph on the row showing the object type information,  it will show a graph for every object type which will further help you see its relationships with the other object types. This is the Object Type graph.

Object schema graph is shown below.

Object Type graph is shown below.

Link your Insight schema to a Jira project

Linking schema data to your Jira project essentially means that you can pick objects present from your Insight schemas and make them accessible on issue screens like Create Issue screen, Edit issue screen etc. which ensures that data about your resources is accessible from the issue details.

In order to do this, you need to create Jira custom fields and attach them to your issue screens.

Create a custom field

As an example, for a custom field, you decide that to report problems with any of your servers, you will attach all objects of Server type from your Insight schema to the "Create Issue"  issue screen of your Jira project. This will ensure that when you create an issue, the Server name is readily available as a part of the issue details itself.

1. Navigate to Custom fields from your Jira instance.
2. Click Add Custom Field and select the Insight Object/s field option.
3. Fill in the name "Affected Server" for the field and make it visible on the "Create Issue" screen of your project and click on the Update button. The field will now be listed on the Custom Fields in Jira. You can attach this field to all the other issue type screens of your project too!
4. Click on the cog wheel of the newly created custom field and select Configure. You will land on the Configure Custom Field screen in Jira. Now, click on Edit Insight Configuration.
5. Define the following for. Scope section:
   1. Object Schema to "Mindville Resources".
   2. Set the Filter Scope(IQL) to an IQL(Insight query language) query which will select objects of Server Type and also ensure that it is sorted in ascending order. You can change the IQL to select any other objects that you may want to populate on issue screens.
6. Define the following for the User Interaction section:
   1. Choose Select as the Type of interaction - this means that the Server objects will be listed as a dropdown element on the issue screen.
   2. Fill in Object attributes in Issue view - Select which attributes of Server you want to show on the issue screens after you create the issue.

Test the custom field

Create a Jira issue (Ensure that you enabled the custom field on "Create Issue" screen for your project).

You should be able to see the custom field like this:

View custom field on issue details

After you create an issue, you should able to see your custom field on issue details as shown below.

Link your Insight schema to Jira Service Desk

Attach a custom field to Jira Service Desk project

1. Go back to the Insight custom field you created earlier (Affected Server). Make sure that the field appears on your desired Jira Service Desk project screens.
2. Go to your Jira Service Desk project and click on Project Settings.
3. Select any Request Type where you want the Insight custom field to appear. The screenshot below has selected the request type "Desktop/Laptop Support".
4. Click on Edit fields and then Add a field.
5. You should see the field Affected Server in the list of selectable fields (If not, you have not assigned your custom field to your Jira Service Desk project screens correctly). Select the field and click Apply.
6. You will get a warning as shown below. Click on the action Enable and then Show. 
   
   

Test the custom field on the request type

Click on the icon (Raise a Request) at the left panel pf the project to create a new request. Select the "Desktop/Laptop Support". You will now see the custom field available on the form.