Allowing Remote Assistance to accept the machine name as a parameter

In a previous post I talked about how the Program Builder functionality of Service Desk Express allowed me to launch the Microsoft Remote Assistance tool. Whilst this was neat, what I really needed was to be able to prefill the machine name on the remote assistance page with a machine name as shown below:

Remote Assistance Screen

The first thing we needed to do was to hack the Remote Assistance tool to accept a parameter. To do this you need to open

C:WINDOWSpchealthhelpctrVendorsCN=Microsoft Corporation,L=Redmond,S=Washington,C=USRemote AssistanceEscalationUnsolicitedUnSolicitedRCUI.htm

using, for example Notepad. Near the top of the file there is a function called OnLoad that looks like:

function onLoad()
{
;
;
try
{
setTimeout("idComputerName.focus()",250);
g_oSAFRemoteDesktopConnection = oSAFClassFactory.CreateObject_RemoteDesktopConnection();
}
catch(error)
{
FatalError( L_RCCTL_Text, error );
}
;
return;
}

All we need to do is add a couple of lines of Javascript at the top of this function that basically says, if the QueryString of the passed URL (the bit after the ? in a URL e.g. p=51 in the case of http://www.joatit.com/wordpress/?p=51 ) is not equal to the word “machinename”, prefill the machine name in the idComputerName textbox. So after editing, the function should look like:

function onLoad()
{
;
;
try
{
if (window.location.search.substring(1)!= "machinename")
{
idComputerName.value = window.location.search.substring(1);
}
setTimeout("idComputerName.focus()",250);
g_oSAFRemoteDesktopConnection = oSAFClassFactory.CreateObject_RemoteDesktopConnection();
}
catch(error)
{
FatalError( L_RCCTL_Text, error );
}
;
return;
}

Ok, so save that and now we are ready to launch it from Service Desk Express. So as per the previous post, log onto the Service Desk Express application server and run builder.exe that lives in C:Program FilesBMCService Desk ExpressTools. You should be greeted with a screen that looks like the example below:

Program Launcher

In the Filename textbox enter: RemoteAssistance.asp

In the Command line textbox enter:

C:WINDOWSPCHEALTHHELPCTRBinariesHelpCtr.exe -url hcp://CN=Microsoft%20Corporation,L=Redmond,S=Washington,C=US/ Remote%20Assistance/Escalation/Unsolicited/ UnsolicitedRCui.htm?machinename"

and click Build Launch File.

Now using Form Customisation you can add a Customised Toolbar Button of type link to, for example, the Machine Name field in the Inventory Item module, by specifying a URL of:

http://<SDEServerName>/SDE/RemoteAssistance.asp?machinename=$64$

So, the obvious question is, where does the $64$ come from? The answer lies by running the following SQL statement:

SELECT * FROM SMSYSDBINFO WHERE View_Name = 'Inventory Items'

If you find the Machine Name field in the ALIAS column and look across to the INTERNAL_COL_ID for that field, you will find 64.

The final “icing on the cake” comes by using the DB Admin Tool to expose that Machine Name field to the Incident module by adding a new virtual field (let’s say called ‘Asset Machine Name’) through the existing Seq.Inv.Item foreign key. Run the following SQL statement…

SELECT INTERNAL_COL_ID FROM SMSYSDBINFO WHERE View_Name = 'Incident' AND ALIAS = 'Asset Machine Name'

and then using Form Customisation you can add a Customised Toolbar Button of type link on the Incident form to that newly exposed field. Now you can launch the Remote Assistance tool from the incident form, populating the machine name direct from the selected asset!

Hope it helps – as always all comments very welcome!

• Javascript
• Microsoft Remote Assistance
• Service Desk Express