DoIT Alerts

You may have heard the news: RT is better, shinier, and faster than ever before! The move to RT 6 brings a more intuitive experience to our daily workflows. While there are plenty of technical improvements under the hood, here are the standout features that will make your day-to-day tasks smoother and more efficient.

What’s New in RT 6?

1. Avatars: A More Visual Experience
   RT has gotten much more colorful. RT 6 introduces native support for user avatars. Instead of just seeing names, users are now visually identified throughout the interface—such as in ticket history and menus—using either uploaded images or auto-generated initials.
   Pro Tip: Update your look on the About Me! Go to your Initials > Settings > About Me > Picture.
   
   

2. Modern Compose Window
   The editor is newly upgraded and offers a cleaner toolbar and superior native support for dark mode. Most importantly: you can now build links using text! No more messy URLs cluttering your responses. You can now also paste images directly into your reply without having to save them and attach them as an image. 

1. Calendar View
   Need to visualize your deadlines? In any saved search, look for the grid of four boxes on the top right. You can now toggle between a standard table and a color-coded calendar view. Try adding "Date" fields to your searches to see a helpful layout of upcoming due dates.
   
   

2. Smarter Inline Editing
   When you make an inline edit to a ticket, RT 6 automatically reloads the ticket history and smoothly scrolls you to the newly added transaction. Inline Editing is practically everywhere. On the ticket display page, look for the subtle edit icons next to fields like Owner, Status, or Custom Fields. You can change these values right on the display page, and they will save instantly in the background without refreshing your screen.
   
   
   

3. Seamless Mobile Support
   Working on the go? The interface now scales beautifully on mobile and zoomed-in screens. Navigational menus now auto-close on click and dynamically highlight your active sections for better clarity.
   
   

4. Log your time in My Day and My Week
   If you’re a heavy user of the “Time Worked” part of RT, updating tickets individually is a chore. Instead, go to Tools > My Week and see an overview of all tickets worked this week and an easy way to add time to all of the tickets at once. My Day provides an easy way to enter updates all at once with multiple assigned tickets.
   
   

There are many tips and tricks for the beginner to the expert - did you know…

• There’s a dark mode for RT? Set your Theme Mode to dark on the Preferences page (Initials > Settings > Preferences) and hit Save Changes. 

• That if you highlight text on the ticket display screen and reply, it quotes the text in your reply?

• There are handy keyboard shortcuts to quickly navigate and triage tickets - press the ? (Shift + /) on your keyboard to see them! 

• If you type a ticket number into search and hit Enter, RT will take you straight to that ticket?

• At the top of the Ticket History section, look for the little link that says "Hide ticket history" or the option to filter out system messages. You can toggle this so you only see the actual comments and email replies from humans, collapsing all the automated system noise.
  
  

There are many more improvements under the hood, and more to come. Let us know what you’ve been enjoying in the new RT upgrade! If you have any questions or concerns, you can Request Help here. 

• Attached Inline Image for Upgrade Alert: RT 6 Has Arrived!
• Attached Inline Image for Upgrade Alert: RT 6 Has Arrived!
• Attached Inline Image for Upgrade Alert: RT 6 Has Arrived!

10/22 Update 1:45 pm: 

Amazon has fixed the AWS outage issue. Most systems are working normally with only a few systems with updates still in progress. If you are having any technical difficulties, please contact our Technology Support Center. 

10/20 Update 1:45 pm: 

We are continuing to monitor the situation. The following is an updated list of the services impacted by the AWS outage: 

• Adobe
• Ally
• Blackboard
• Confluence
• CourseArc
• DocuSign
• Panopto
• Pantheon
• Poll Everywhere
• Publisher Integrations in Blackboard
• Respondus Lockdown Browser & Monitor
• Smartsheet
• UMBC's PAW Procurement System
• UMBC Request Tracker (RT) System
• UMBC Travel System
• UMBC Technology Support Center phone system
• YuJA
• Zoom

For more information, please see the Vendor Status Dashboard.

10/20 Update 10:40 am: 

UMBC is currently experiencing impacts on the following platforms: 

• Ally
• Blackboard
• Confluence
• CourseArc
• Panopto
• Poll Everywhere
• Publisher Integrations in Blackboard

10/20 Update 10:04 am:

This morning an Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage is causing global disruptions, impacting many platforms. As of 8:30 am, Amazon has resolved the issue but there may be impacts to other systems. 

The Division of Information Technology will continue to monitor the situation. Timely updates will be shared on AWS Health Dashboard. 

Starting August 1, 2024, Google will implement changes that impact ad blocking tools in Chrome and how YouTube videos are viewed. Chrome no longer supports tools that block ads, including third-party extensions, and has developed technology to inject ads into the videos themselves to bypass ad-blocking tools. 

• More Information about YouTube change impacts ad blockers, increases ads on 8/1

• More Information about WT2021 Instructional Technology Update

• More Information about FA2020 Instructional Technology Update