Introduce a Settings MP

[AdhocAdam]

With each iterative upgrade to the script and a growing feature set, every new version must be reconfigured to place settings back the way they were. This requires an increase in the time it takes to deploy each new version and individually set every setting back to its respective $true or $false settings as configured per organization.

The introduction of a Settings Management Pack would serve the purpose of persisting settings across upgrades and patches of the script. By having a central location to manage these Administration would be able to quickly turn features on or off without having to edit the script.

This MP would:

• introduce a new item on the Administration -> Settings pane
• a custom UI (WPF Form) to edit these settings
• a wholly new subset of the GitHub repository that would demonstrate to how even construct such a thing (thereby further expanding on Travis Wright's original post on the topic)
• serve the exclusive purpose of having a persistent storage location for the script to retrieve its org specific settings from.

[AdhocAdam]

Rewrote and expanded on Travis' post with two posts on the repo's blog. They can be accessed here:

Building a Custom Settings UI (part 1) Building a Custom Settings UI (part 2)

[AdhocAdam]

Branch created at SettingsMP

[AdhocAdam]

Work continues on the Settings MP:

• Load/Save string values (text boxes)
• Load/Save bool values (checkboxes)
• Some input validation through regular expressions on XAML forms
• Some dependent UI controls (i.e. checkbox2 is disabled so long as checkbox1 remains false/unchecked)

[AdhocAdam]

The Settings MP has now seen its first commit. It is in an unfinished state, but does compile a final MPB that can be deployed for further development/testing.

[AdhocAdam]

Apart from the ongoing PowerShell work for the connector in #113, I've devoted a fair amount of time so far this year to breaking down SMLets in order to back into the C# required for the Settings MPB. This alongside re-evaluating UI layout and re-prioritizing work within it. Having done this, I now have a functional Settings MPB that:

• Supports the 121 configurable settings as of the soon to be March 2019 release
• Supports all features as defined per the PowerShell
• Supports dynamic drop downs populated by things such as Incident Status, Templates per Work Item class, custom Class Extensions for CR/MA Support Groups, etc.
• AD Group Pickers for SCOM and SCSM Announcement features
• Mailbox Redirection configuration that creates Additional Mailbox objects with support for their respective editing and deletion

With the functionality of the MPB complete I'll be moving onto the final phase which includes:

1. UI form validation

   • [x] fields accepting numbers (decimal vs. int)
   • [ ] fields accepting specific text patterns
   • [x] dropdowns default/enforce a selection

2. Triple checking data type required fields per the MP's XML file so as to maintain future upgrade compatibility

   • [x] Settings
   • [x] Additional Mailbox
     • uses GUID as key property thus allowing address to be changed
     • other properties are Template GUIDs/DisplayName

3. Code to follow a highly visual pattern of how the UI (WPF) connects to C# which in turn connects to the XML to make learning any aspect of this as easy as possible

   • [x] WPF Forms
   • [x] XAML Code Behinds
   • [x] AdminSettingsWizardData
   • [x] Management Pack XML
   • [x] Inline PowerShell equivalent (where applicable) of C#

4. Publish solution into Settings branch

5. Move the SMLets Exchange Connector's configuration section to pull from the MPB for a currently unknown release date

[AdhocAdam]

Continuing to account for as much validation as possible. Noteworthy items:

• External comment control defaults to stock functionality on first import, thereby ensuring functionality of the connector is maintained
• Multiple Mailbox entries require all templates to be chosen, even though only one is used. This is contrary to the class design itself as these are not all required properties. In doing so this allows potential future validation, logic, and controls to become lax without breaking an upgrade path for the MP
• The longer I stared at Artificial Intelligence options 1, 2, and 3 above the more I realized they are rather large features in and of themselves. As such, a radio control toggles their visibility within this single Wizard Pane
• Artificial Intelligence optional Class Extensions are now drop downs instead of free text and store the GUID of the property (this is more in line with how Support Group Class Extensions are retrieved)
• Problem Support Group support per recent Cireson announcement
• Where applicable, headings feature hyperlinks into the SMLets Exchange Connector Wiki on how to configure features (multi-mailbox, cognitive services, machine learning)

[AdhocAdam]

Settings MP beta 3 published to a newly created Settings branch. Re-used the branch name so as not to break links. Also used this an opportunity to get SettingsMP branch in sync with dev (currently v1.5 at the time of this writing).

Changes from beta 2 (above)

• File and Folder dialogs now leverage "Browse" buttons in addition to regular text entry
• Related User Comments on IR/SR have conditional validation to prevent impossible comment types (e.g. Private End User Comment)
• Using the Delete key clear certain drop down values
• ACS and AML class extensions look only for Decimal and Enum extensions where appropriate

Known Issues

• Decimal values on text boxes requires some finesse in that if you want to enter 25.4, you must type 254, and then place the decimal
• ACS Prioritry Scoring feature still requires editing of Get-ACSWorkItemPriority
• Some fields lack validation for text patterns (comma seperated, ends with "/", )
• To enable ACS keywords for Cireson RO/KA you need to turn the Cireson feature on, save, re-open and then check off ACS features. This is clearly an issue around databinding, but the solution currently eludes me
• Multiple mailboxes can only be deleted one at a time e.g. remove, save, open, remove, save, and so on and so on.

[AdhocAdam]

Version 2 released.