Configure TaskRay External Task Ownership & Completion

Do you collaborate with customers during their onboarding? Are they responsible for completing tasks for your project? If that's the case, then we've got just the right feature for you. 

Using External Ownership, it is possible to:

• Assign project tasks to external customers
• Allow customers to update tasks e.g. complete tasks, record notes, etc.
• Notify customers when a task has been assigned to them
• Remind customers of any outstanding tasks
• Give customers the ability to view work assigned to them via the Public Dashboard.

External Ownership leverages the External Owner Completion Flow to allow external customers to directly interact with TaskRay and update tasks assigned to them. The External Owner Completion Flow is an overridable screen Flow, so administrators can save their own version to customize how it works. 

Using Salesforce Sites, it is possible to provide access to the External Owner Completion Flow to customers. While initial setup for Salesforce Sites requires a System Administrator, assigning tasks to external customers can be done by any user who has access to a given task. 

Configuration Overview

This section will outline all the steps to configure using our out-of-the-box External Owner Completion utility in Tools and Settings that allows you to set up certain parts of the feature in a matter of a few clicks.

Below are the high-level steps for configuring and using this feature:

1. Register Salesforce Site Domain (through Setup)
2. Create New Salesforce Site (through Setup)
3. Complete External Owner Completion Utility (through TaskRay Tools and Settings); the utility will configure the following:
   
   1. Populate TaskRay Global Settings with relevant Site information
   2. Assign a TaskRay License and Permission Set to the Site Guest User
   3. Create Sharing Rules on the TaskRay Project for the Site Guest User
   4. Add Fields to Tasks (through Setup)

Additionally, there are a few optional configurations that might apply to your specific use case. Once the feature is fully configured, you could further customize it. Details on the optional configurations can be found in this article.

Step 1: Register Salesforce Site Domain [Admin]

The first step to set up Salesforce Sites is to register a Salesforce domain. If you have already done this, you can skip to the next section of this article. 

1. From Setup, navigate to:
   • Lightning: User Interface | Sites and Domains | Sites.
   • Classic: Build | Develop | Sites.
2. In the box at the bottom of the page, enter a domain name and click on Check Availability. If it is not available, enter a new domain name.
3. If it is available, select the I have read and accepted the Salesforce Sites Terms of Use checkbox.
4. Click Register My Salesforce Site Domain.

Step 2: Create New Salesforce Site [Admin]

1. If you are not already on that page, from Setup, navigate to:
   • Lightning: User Interface | Sites and Domains | Sites.
   • Classic: Build | Develop | Sites.
2. In the Sites section at the bottom of the page, click New.
3. Enter a Site Label (i.e. "TaskRay External Completion").
4. The Site Name should automatically generate based on the label that you enter.
5. [Optional] Enter a Site Description.
6. If necessary, change the Site Contact.
7. Select Active Site Home Page by clicking on the lookup icon next to the field. In the window that comes up, select trExternalOwnerComplete.
8. Make sure the Require Secure Connections (HTTPS) and Upgrade all requests to HTTPS checkboxes are checked.
9. Click Save.
10. On the Site Details page, click Activate.

Step 3: External Owner Completion Utility [Admin]

The following steps can be completed directly in the TaskRay app.

TaskRay offers an External Owner Completion Utility to simplify this process and guide an administrator through the process for deploying the External Owner Completion Flow. This utility can be accessed in TaskRay Tools and Settings once you complete registration and creation of the external sharing Salesforce Site.

Important! Salesforce Site for the TaskRay External Owner Completion must be configured prior to going through this utility.

To access the External Owner Completion Utility, navigate to the TaskRay app in your Salesforce org and open Tools and Settings menu. Tools and Settings can be accessed from the TaskRay toolbar by clicking on the Gear icon in the upper right corner. 

Within Tools and Settings, under Admin, click on the External Owner Completion to open the utility. 

This utility will walk you through the steps to configure the TaskRay External Task Ownership and it will consist of the following steps:

1. Register a Domain Name and Public Site

This section correlates with Step 1 (Register Salesforce Site Domain) and Step 2 (Create New Salesforce Site) of the article above. Set the Site Setup Complete? toggle to True if this has been completed. 

If you still need to configure site settings, click on Open Site Setup button and refer to the following sections of this article: Register Salesforce Site Domain and Create New Salesforce Site.

2. Select Public Site for Hosting Feedback Forms

Using the dropdown, select the site that you would like to use for External Task Ownership (configured in the previous step). When selected, click on Apply Selection.

3. Assign a TaskRay Permission Set and License

Click Assign to automatically assign the TaskRay External - Completion Flow Access Permission Set and a TaskRay License to the Public Site Guest User.

4. Create a Sharing Rule for the Public Site

Click on Create Sharing Rules to create Sharing Rules that grant the TaskRay External Sharing Site Guest user read-only access to the TaskRay Tasks that have been given an external owner.

5. Update TaskRay Task Page Layouts [Admin]

To make tasks available for external ownership, you will need to add three fields to the TaskRay Task Page Layout: External Owner, External Owner Email, and External Owner Notifications Enabled. These fields are necessary to assign tasks to customers and send them notifications of their assigned tasks. In addition to these fields, there are two fields that record the completion information: External Owner Complete and External Owner Comments. This step will need to be completed in Salesforce Setup.

To add the fields to the TaskRay Task Page Layout:

1. From Setup, navigate to:
   • Lightning: Objects and Fields | Object Manager | TaskRay Task
   • Classic: Create | Objects | TaskRay Task
2. Click Page Layouts.
3. Select the page layout where you'd like to add the fields.
4. Move the following fields onto the page layout:
   • External Owner
   • External Owner Email
   • External Owner Notifications Enabled
   • External Owner Complete
   • External Owner Comments
5. Click Save
   

6. OPTIONAL External Owner Email Configuration

Your customer's may not be familiar with TaskRay since it's an internal tool used to manage projects. This option allows you to white label the external notification email header so customers can recognize your organization. By default, the email will use the TaskRay logo and color.

• To upload a logo, click Upload File and open the file with your company logo.
• To change the banner color, use the color selector to select a color. Alternatively, you can enter the Hex # or RGB values. Once your color is set, click Done. 

Once completed, you can view your changes by making a project viewable in Public Dashboard and viewing the Public Dashboard Link.

If you're not satisfied, you can modify the settings or reset back to the default settings at anytime in Public Dashboard Setup Utility in TaskRay Tools and Settings.

That's it!

This should complete the setup for the TaskRay External Ownership feature. Next, in order to assign tasks to external stakeholders, you will need to fill out the external ownership details on tasks. Instructions on how to do this can be found in this article: Assigning Tasks to External Owners.

Lastly, you can also refer to this article to setup the Public Dashboard, a feature that will allow external owners to view their work: Configure TaskRay Public Dashboard.