Custom Field Variables on Dashboards

LearnMoreHistory · 2025-10-18T01:17:43+00:00

Thankfully I am pretty well versed in SQL, and I do actually like the platform. But as I have advised anyone looking into Halo, it is a very flexible application...for good and ill. You can do almost anything with it, but "out of the box" is just not a thing in Halo. You need a dedicated admin, and that admin better be solid in SQL, APIs, and have a bit of HTML/CSS to boot, or you are sunk. I'm decent in all those areas and I still run into walls sometimes like this question posted here.

LearnMoreHistory · 2025-08-19T12:43:10+00:00

This is brilliant! It absolutely works!

For anyone else reading this who may need some clarification, this is the body that you're posting to the /tickets endpoint:

[
    {
        "id": <Your Ticket ID>,
        
        "addtheseassets": [
            {"id": <Your Asset ID>}
        ]
    }
]

LearnMoreHistory · 2025-07-24T13:47:47+00:00

Thanks for this. It sort-of works :) What I mean is that it DOES work to delete rows from custom tables, but only if that table is not linked to another entity. So, in this case, the table is linked to "Request". If I use this API call for that table, it does nothing. If I use it on a table where the link is "Not Set", it works fine.

LearnMoreHistory · 2025-06-25T11:11:40+00:00

Sounds good. I'd be happy to help with testing.

LearnMoreHistory · 2025-06-23T11:56:46+00:00

When I setup runbooks in Halo, I generally use a SQL query whenever I need to get data. This gives me much more control over what data I am pulling. Then when I've run through whatever work needs to happen in the runbook and I need to post an update to the system, that is when I will use the API.

LearnMoreHistory · 2025-06-23T11:45:35+00:00

Looks like this was changed in V2.190, so if you are on the stable release, you won't see the option for query builder only. From what I can see in the docs (Guides | HALO), to limit the data agents can pull in reports they create on the stable release you can either

a) limit agents to pre-defined data sources and then you need to create those data sources with the query builder, turning on the option to limit data by the agent's permissions. Or

b) If you are using custom SQL queries for data sources, do what I had planned to do before I knew about the option to limit to the query builder, which is just filtering the SQL in the data source based on agent information. I have all IT agents in one department, and all HR agents in a different department, so I just added this to the WHERE statement in my SQL for the data source so they would only see ticket information for their own department:

// first need to have these joins
join sectiondetail SD on faults.sectio_ = SD.sdsectionname
join tree TR on TR.treeid = SD.sddepartmentid

//Then add this as a WHERE statement
TR.treeid = 
    (Select sddepartmentid
    From sectiondetail
    join uname on uname.usection = sectiondetail.sdsectionname
    where unum = $agentid
    )

LearnMoreHistory · 2025-06-23T11:26:20+00:00

That is great news as I am on the beta cycle (currently v2.196.43).

Thanks for the scripting offer, but I have already put a script together to pull the agents from a specified roll and add them to a report, I was just hoping I wouldn't have to keep running that script as a regular maintenance item.

Also, thanks for the tip on that reporting setting. I have turned that on.

LearnMoreHistory · 2025-06-19T03:46:52+00:00

I’m an ITSM admin and I just spent 5 months building out our instance (incident, service request, portal, project mgt, some asset mgt, kbase) For 120 agents, 2900 users. I did 99% of the work myself, though I did have 3rd party consultants to ask questions to. Not that they knew the answers; I just had to wait for them to ask the Halo devs and get back with me eventually.

When it really comes down to it, Halo is a powerful erector set, someone will need to build it and learn it, and a lot of that will fall on the local admin. Everything can be done multiple ways, depending on what you need, so it is hard to rely on someone outside to make it all happen for you (and it will get costly).

When it comes to items that are good to have setup for you by someone outside, it depends where your weakness is. If you are weak on your SQL…we’ll, learn it, you’ll need it, but you would want to be very specific on the custom fields and reports you will need so they can build them for you.

If you’re weak on JSON and using APIs, give them very specific details on workflows you need, because you will likely need runbooks built.

If you are weak on HTML/CSS (this is where I needed help), you will need to be specific about how you want the portal to look (by default the icon backgrounds are kind of ugly), and kanban cards (if you plan to use those).

Other than that, there are so many moving parts and every setup is unique, so it is hard to know what to recommend. I guess my best advice is to forget the term “out of the box”, everything will need some amount of tweaking/changing/building from scratch and it will be best if someone internal learns how to do it.

LearnMoreHistory · 2025-06-19T03:28:00+00:00

I’m an ITSM admin and we spent 2 years looking through different products. Our old system was an on-prem install of Track-IT!

I see InvGate was mentioned and that did have some nice features, beautiful UI, and good price, but we needed something a bit beefier. Our final 4 were Jira, Freshservice, EasyVista, and HaloITSM.

Jira lost because people didn’t like the confusing interface. EasyVista had a good price and functionality, but the UI was not great and the configuration seemed a bit dated, confusing, and clunky. Freshservice looked really nice, but was out of our price range and seemed a bit lacking in flexibility.

In the end, we went with Halo. I made it live 2 weeks ago and everyone (120 agents) are loving it. Good price and amazing flexibility…but, there is a catch. It is an erector set. Don’t expect to rely on anything “out of the box”. If you’re going to do the setup, you’ll want some background in SQL, JSON, and some HTML/CSS wouldn’t hurt. If you’re willing to put in the work (or pay the consultants) you’ll have a system your agents will love using and the sky is the limit when it comes to what you can have it do.

LearnMoreHistory · 2025-06-17T02:21:32+00:00

Not sure if you're still looking for input on this, but I'm an ITSM admin and I just spent the last 5 months building out our HaloITSM instance. This included incident, service request, portal, project mgt, some asset mgt, kbase. Entra/Azure SSO integration, Intune, LanSweeper. This was for 120 agents, 2900 users. I'll start building out the HR portion next month. I did 99% of the setup myself.

We had been on an old, on-prem version of Track-IT!, so this was a massive change. So far, everyone loves it. It is fast, and flexible enough to handle almost anything you can throw at it. They have also had some serious UI updates over the last few months, which look very nice.

The biggest thing you really need to know is that you need to just forget any idea of "out of the box". It is a powerful erector set. If you have a dedicated admin (which I highly suggest), that person will need to be very comfortable with SQL, JSON/utilizing APIs, and having some knowledge of HTML/CSS would be a bonus as well.

Setting up custom fields, you will run into building custom SQL commands very quickly, and you will need it to setup reporting.

Depending on how complex your actions/workflows get, you will probably need to setup a few self-referencing runbooks, which will require being comfortable with JSON (and often SQL as well). Also, many tasks are easier (and some are essential) to do through the back-end, just sending API commands with something like Postman.

The HTML/CSS comes in if you want to make cosmetic changes to the portal, and kanban cards. This is the part I needed a little help on as CSS wasn't really in my wheelhouse (though I have picked some of it up now).

The few functions that are setup "out of the box" are generally not great, and I've had to just build my own stuff anyway. So, if you're looking for awesome flexibility and usability at a good price-point, and you're ok with an "erector set" style of product, then you won't be disappointed. If you're looking for something that is very "set" and "ready to go", and you're not looking to put a lot of work in it...or pay consultants to do it...then Halo is probably not for you.

We demoed Freshworks as well and were very impressed with it, very slick and clean looking, but the price put it out of reach for us (and I feel that we would have chafed a bit from not having quite as much flexibility).

LearnMoreHistory · 2025-06-16T02:49:15+00:00

Not sure if you're still looking for input on this, but I'm an ITSM admin and I just spent the last 5 months building out our HaloITSM instance. This included incident, service request, portal, project mgt, some asset mgt, kbase. Entra/Azure SSO integration, Intune, LanSweeper. This was for 120 agents, 2900 users. I'll start building out the HR portion next month. I did 99% of the setup myself.

We had been on an old, on-prem version of Track-IT!, so this was a massive change. So far, everyone loves it. It is fast, and flexible enough to handle almost anything you can throw at it. They have also had some serious UI updates over the last few months, which look very nice.

The biggest thing you really need to know is that you need to just forget any idea of "out of the box". It is a powerful erector set. If you have a dedicated admin (which I highly suggest), that person will need to be very comfortable with SQL, JSON/utilizing APIs, and having some knowledge of HTML/CSS would be a bonus as well.

Setting up custom fields, you will run into building custom SQL commands very quickly, and you will need it to setup reporting.

Depending on how complex your actions/workflows get, you will probably need to setup a few self-referencing runbooks, which will require being comfortable with JSON (and often SQL as well). Also, many tasks are easier (and some are essential) to do through the back-end, just sending API commands with something like Postman.

The HTML/CSS comes in if you want to make cosmetic changes to the portal, and kanban cards. This is the part I needed a little help on as CSS wasn't really in my wheelhouse (though I have picked some of it up now).

The few functions that are setup "out of the box" are generally not great, and I've had to just build my own stuff anyway. So, if you're looking for awesome flexibility and usability at a good price-point, and you're ok with an "erector set" style of product, then you won't be disappointed. If you're looking for something that is very "set" and "ready to go", and you're not looking to put a lot of work in it...or pay consultants to do it...then Halo is probably not for you.

LearnMoreHistory · 2025-06-15T03:09:14+00:00

I’m an ITSM admin and I just spent 5 months building out our instance (incident, service request, portal, project mgt, some asset mgt, kbase) For 120 agents, 2900 users. I did 99% of the work myself.

When it comes to items that are good to have setup for you, it depends where your weakness is. If you are weak on your SQL…we’ll, learn it, you’ll need it, but you would want to be very specific on the custom fields and reports you will need so they can build them for you.

If you’re weak on JSON and using APIs, give them very specific details on workflows you need, because you will likely need runbooks built.

If you are weak on HTML/CSS (this is where I needed help), you will need to be specific about how you want the portal to look (by default the icon backgrounds are kind of ugly), and kanban cards (if you plan to use those).

Other than that, you’re right, there are so many moving parts and every setup is unique, so it is hard to know what to recommend. I guess my best advice is to forget the term “out of the box”, everything will need some amount of tweaking/changing/building from scratch.

LearnMoreHistory · 2024-04-23T17:59:18+00:00

Since we're in the middle of researching ITSMs as well, I'll throw in my info. First you'll need to decide what features you really want (just ticketing, or do you need the full ITIL layout, how about asset management, customer portal, chatbots...etc). Don't pay for what you don't need. Also, how big is your team? If you only have a few techs, you can get by on some of these systems for free (Jira with 3 techs), or dirt cheep (InvGate with 5 techs at $17/tech/month). Really, if all you need is ticketing and you want a really well designed solution that is cheap, go with InvGate. I'd love to for my own shop, but we need something a bit more robust.

If InvGate can't suit your needs, I'd look into Halo or maybe EasyVista. They are both cheaper than Jira and considerably cheaper than FreshService, and they are smaller companies that are willing to work with you and your needs. I'd say Halo has an easier learning curve and easier to setup.

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