Handler - SLADeadline
SLADeadline handler calculates the deadline of an incident (or other kind of data card) by selecting the strictest deadline attached to the incident. If you do not have a license for Efecte Service Level Management, only the default SLA configuration can be used. This means that configured SLA paths are not taken into account and only one SLA can be used. This configuration is done using metadata.
Paths to all SLAs related to the incident are configured in the attribute's metadata. The SLADeadline handler uses the value of the priority attribute in the incident data card to get the corresponding value of the selected priority from the SLA data card. See Handler - SLAFinder documentation for more information about how priority is used to determine resolution time requirement from SLA data card. Each SLA data card has a business hours data card attached to it and the business hours are taken into account when calculating the actual deadline.
Only one SLA is supported for one entity. You must not use multiple SLAs for calculating different deadlines in a single data card for example chaining deadline calculation through other attribute values.
The following default colors are used for different deadline statuses. (These can be overridden; see Optional attribute metadata.)
- Black due date is in the future (or the incident was closed before deadline).
- Orange due date is today.
- Red due date is in the past (or the incident was closed late).
The following screenshot shows an example incident with two SLADeadline attributes.
Target reaction time is due today, as highlighted by the orange color:

If you have separated BusinessHours configuration from SLA configurations, you may also use the Business Hours attribute metadata configuration to define the business hours. For more information, consult the Handler - BusinessHoursFinder documentation.
SLADeadline handler assumes that the priority attribute (code='priority') is found on the template where it is located. If support for manually set deadlines is needed, also the custom deadline attribute (code='customDeadline') has to be added to the template. If the Close time attribute metadata is not set, an attribute indicating the closing date of the data card (code='jobDateClose') is also mandatory.
If you want to make the most of SLADeadline handler, you need license for Efecte Service Level Management. Without the license SLA path configurations are not taken into account and only one SLA (default SLA) can be used.
The following tables provide information on the attribute settings and metadata requirements for the SLADeadline handler.
Table 1. Attribute Settings
| Handler name | Datatype |
|---|---|
SLADeadline |
Date and time |
Table 2. Required Attribute Metadata
| Name | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
Business Hours attribute |
[attribute_code] |
Code of the Business Hours attribute of this template. If Defining this metadata overrides all SLA metadata configurations. Check more information on |
Path to SLA data card |
$attributeCode$ |
Path to SLA data card. Multiple paths allowed. An example path: $ This is optional with This is used only if there's license for Efecte Service Level Management Check more information on Handler - SLAFinder . |
SLA attribute |
[attribute_code] |
An attribute code of this template which contains the SLA used in the data card. The SLA may be retrieved by using SLAFinderHandler or the attribute may be a plain reference to the SLA data card. Do NOT use $ or [] -signs here. This is optional with This is used only if there's license for Efecte Service Level Management. Check more information on SLAFinder |
Start time attribute |
[attribute_code] | Code of the attribute indicating the start time of deadline calculation. If the attribute has no value, the current system time is used as start time. |
Close time attribute |
[attribute_code] | Code of the attribute indicating the closing date of the data card. |
Default SLA template |
[template_code] |
The template code of SLA template. If Efecte Service Level Management is licensed and default SLA settings are configured, default SLA will be used as a fallback SLA configuration if no SLA data cards are found using other configurations. |
Default SLA data card |
string |
The name of SLA to be used. If Efecte Service Level Management is licensed and default SLA settings are configured, default SLA will be used as a fallback SLA configuration if no SLA data cards are found using other configurations. |
Table 3. Optional Attribute Metadata
| Name | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
Priority attribute prefix |
[an integer value] | Prefix of priority attribute code in SLA template. If not defined, the default priority_ is used. |
Unchangeable |
on/off |
If set on, users cannot edit the attribute value through the user interface. |
ValueChangeHandler attribute |
[attribute_code] | Code of ValueChangeHandler attribute which knows the state history of the incident. This is needed if "on hold" times should be taken into account in deadline calculation. |
On-hold value |
A static value of the attribute which ValueChangeHandler monitors, e.g. 3 - pending - waiting for customer
|
There may be multiple values for this metadata. At least one value is needed for taking "on hold" times into account. |
Late color |
[D51B00] |
HTML color code for incidents, whose closing date is after deadline, or unclosed incidents whose deadline is in the past. |
OK color |
[000000] |
HTML color code for incidents, whose closing date is before the deadline, or the deadline is in the future. |
Soon color |
[FF9900] |
HTML color code for today's jobs. |
Taking "On hold" Time into Account
In deadline calculation it is possible to take into account the time that an incident has been "on hold", by using SLADeadline and ValueChangeMonitor handlers in combination. This means that the deadline is "pushed further" the same amount of business time that the incident has been on hold during its lifetime. ValueChangeMonitor attribute is needed because it records history of the incident's states. To do this, the SLADeadline attribute must have two additional metadata configurations: 1) ValueChangeHandler attribute which tells it which ValueChangeMonitor to use, and one or several 2) On-hold values which define what states are considered "on hold". Note that the On-hold values must exactly match static values of the incident's status attribute that ValueChangeMonitor monitors (the status attribute typically uses DatacardHiddenState).
See the screenshot below for a configuration where two "on hold" states are defined.
Reference to ValueChangeMonitor attribute and one or more On-hold values need to be configured to take "on hold" time into account in deadline calculation.

If "on hold" states are defined, it also means that while the incident is on hold, it has no deadline. Only when it comes out of "on hold" a new deadline is calculated, taking into account the time spent on hold.
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