Application tab templates

  • 8 minutes

Service representatives need to have access to the appropriate related and contextual information while they're working with a customer. For example, while a representative is looking at a customer's account record, if they select the primary contact link, the contact record should open in a separate tab in the session. The account record should still be accessible by switching to the tab as needed. In Customer Service workspace, tabs that open within a session to display different information are referred to as application tabs.

Application tab templates in Customer Service let you specify the types of applications that you want to open when a session starts. With application tab templates, you can define the applications that are available for a session. Then, you can associate the applications with a session. For example, you can create the Customer Summary application type and then associate it with chat and text sessions. Now, when a representative accepts the notification from the chat or text channels, a session starts and the Customer summary page loads. You might also create an application tab template to load a relevant external website into a session to ensure that a representative can access the site as needed without opening another browser session.

You can create and manage Application tabs in the Customer Service admin center app. They're available by going to Workspaces and selecting Manage next to the Application tabs section. You can create new templates by selecting the New button on the command bar.

When you initially create an application template, specify the following values:

  • Name - Defines the name of the session.

  • Unique Name - A unique identifier in the <prefix>_<name> format. The following parameters are required for the unique name:

    • The prefix can only be alphanumeric and must be between three to eight characters in length.

    • An underscore must be between the prefix and name, such as Contoso_application_tab.

  • Title - Defines the title of the session that is displayed to representatives in the user interface (UI) at runtime, such as Knowledge article search.

  • Page Type - Defines the type of application to load.

  • Description - Use to provide a description for your reference.

  • Can close - Defines whether the tab can be closed by a representative or not.

Screenshot of the New Application Tab Template screen.

Application types

Eight types of applications are available for you to choose from:

  • Entity list - Displays a view that defines how a list of records for a specific table is displayed in the Omnichannel application, such as displaying a list of open cases.

  • Entity record - Displays a single record for a table, such as a case record for the customer that you're working with.

  • Web resource - Displays web resources that represent files that are used to extend the web application, such as images, HTML files, or JavaScript.

  • Control - For internal use only.

  • Dashboard - Displays a dashboard.

  • Search - Displays search results based on text that is passed to the search control.

  • Third Party Website - Displays Microsoft and external websites as an application.

  • Custom - Displays a custom application that doesn't fit into the other categories.

After you save an application tab template for the first time, a Parameters sub grid appears that includes predefined parameters. These configurable parameters ensure that when the tab is opened, it loads with the correct information.

Screenshot of the Sample Entity Record template showing the Parameters subgrid.

The parameters displayed in the sub grid are based on the page type that was selected for the template. For example, if you selected a page type of Entity record because the tab should load account records, to be sure that it occurs correctly, you need details. These details could include which table the data is coming from, what form to use, and what record data to populate into the application tab.

To ensure that the correct info is loaded, an entity record application type includes the following parameters.

Parameter Example value Description
createFromEntity account A record that provides default values based on mapped attribute values. The lookup object has the following string properties: entityType, ID, and name (optional). Type = JSON Object
data {"firstname":"Rigsby", "lastname":"cho", "jobtitle":"Sales Manager"} The attributes and values for the new entity record. Type = JSON Object
entityId 00aa00aa-bb11-cc22-dd33-44ee44ee44ee GUID of the entity record. Type = String
entityName account Logical name of the entity. Type = String
formId 8448B78F-8F42-454E-8E2A-F8196B0419AF GUID of the form instance. Type = String
processId GUID of the business process. Type = String
relationship Relationship object of the record. Type = JSON Object
selectStageId GUID of the selected stage in business process instance. Type = String

For more information, see Manage application tab templates.

After you have defined application templates, you can associate them with session templates so that they're available when users need them.