This post will detail a method to add the list of printers from you Service Manager environment. These printers can be found at Configuration Items > Printers. Printer issues are some of the most common incidents that are submitted. Using this method, your end users can select their printer from a list, and it will automatically be added as an affected configuration item on the incident.
AD Connector
To begin, we need to create an AD connector that imports the printers from your Active Directory. I recommend keeping this connector separate from your AD connectors, as it will make it easier to enable/disable them as needed.
To create the connector, go to Administration > Connectors, and select “Create Connector”. Select the Active Directory connector and give it a name. Keep the domain selected (as opposed to the OU), and the appropriate credentials. For “Select Objects”, select the “Provide LDAP query filters for computers, printers, users, or user groups” option, and type “(objectcategory=printqueue)” in the box (minus the quotes). It should look like this:
Complete the AD connector wizard. Go ahead and tell the system to synchronize the connector. Let the sync complete, then confirm that your connector is working by viewing the printers under Configuration Items > Printers.
Request Offering
Now we need to create our request offering. Go to Library > Service Catalog > Request Offerings and select “Create Request Offering”. Give it a name and description, and assign it the default incident template.
On the User Prompts screen, give your form instructions if you want, and add a field for summary. Now add another field and change the “Prompt Type” to query results.
On the Configuration Prompts screen, select “Select Printer” and click configure. On the “Select Class” step, change the search filter to “All basic classes” and select “Active Directory Printer”.
Skip to the third step (Display Columns) and select the printer properties that you want to display. I suggest at least “Printer Name”. I am also going to add the Location field.
Finally, on step four, check the last box, “Add user-selected objects to template object as affected configuration items”. You also check the “All the user to select multiple objects” (as I do) box if you want them to be able to submit one incident for multiple printers.
Now that we have the prompt configured, we need to map our other fields to incident fields. I only added Summary, so I am going to map that to the “Title” field. The printer field does not need to be mapped, as they will be mapped to the affected items field automatically.
Next, add any knowledge articles and publish the request offering. You can now add the request offering to a service offering to publish it to your web portal. Here is what the request will look like:
When the incident is submitted, the printer is listed under “Affected Items”.
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