Relate inspections

Civic Platform provides a way for your agency to allow public users to schedule or re-schedule inspections. When your agency implements Citizen Access, you can provide public users with the ability to request/schedule multiple or repeat inspections. For example, a contractor might require multiple concrete pours for a large project and thus require numerous concrete inspections. This feature allows the contractor to schedule multiple concrete inspections for their project based on their pour days.

To implement this feature, you must set the Citizen Access Multi-inspection schedule field to Yes for an Inspection type. Then, you must enable multiple inspection scheduling for a module in Citizen Access Configuration on the Module Settings page. If you do not enable multiple inspection scheduling for a module in Citizen Access, public users do not have the ability to schedule multiple inspections for an inspection type, even if the configuration in Civic Platform allows for it. For complete configuration instructions for this feature, see the “Managing Inspections” section in the Citizen Access Administrator Guide.

You can specify how public users schedule inspections online by configuring inspection calendars. Civic Platform provides different inspection scheduling configuration options, including same day and next business day scheduling. This section describes the steps necessary to configure inspection scheduling for Citizen Access.

The configuration that you complete in Civic Platform affects the inspection scheduling options in Citizen Access. In Civic Platform, you set the scheduling options for each inspection type. For example, if want to give public users the option of choosing the date and time on which they schedule an inspection, then set the calendar display by configuring the dates and times from which public users can choose. You can also configure inspection scheduling so that public users can only choose from three inspection scheduling options: Same Day, Next Business Day, and Next Available Day. When public users choose one of these three scheduling options, Civic Platform schedules the inspection on the date and time that best match the selected option.

Civic Platform provides the ability to manage inspection scheduling for public users and user groups. You do this through the request/pending inspection feature for Civic Platform and Citizen Access. This feature allows a public user to request an inspection date. Civic Platform does not set the appointment, but it sets a flag on the inspection and assigns a pending status to it until the agency approves the inspection date and time.

For example, a public user logs into their Citizen Access account and requests a plumbing inspection on September 6th during AM hours. After the public user submits their request through Citizen Access, the inspection maintains a pending status until the agency approves the inspection appointment by using the inspection calendar. Upon approval, Civic Platform uses EMSE to send an email confirmation of the inspection appointment to the public user.

Users can view which inspections are in the pending status at any time by filtering the Inspection Calendar to show Requested Pending Inspections. You can view approved inspections in the inspection list by selecting All Inspections in the Calendar Show drop-down list.

Administrators must do the following configuration tasks in Civic Platform to implement the request and pending feature. First, you must pre-define the inspection types and must set the scheduling parameters. Then, you must navigate to the inspection type tab in the inspection calendar administrator portlet and choose the Request Only - Pending option from the Schedule Inspection in Citizen Access drop-down list for applicable inspection types. This configuration changes the Schedule link to a Request link for the applicable inspection type in the public user’s inspection list in Citizen Access. Then, you must navigate to the Content Customize portlet to define the emails to use for the request and pending feature.

Administrators must also can navigate to a Module in Citizen Access Configuration and customize the content or labels to use with the modular inspection scheduling web page. For additional information on customizing web pages and complete inspection scheduling configuration details for Citizen Access, refer to the Citizen Access Administrator Guide.

To configure request only and pending inspections

1. Configure Request only-pending scheduling option for inspection types in the Inspection calendar.

   1. From the Administration menu, select Calendars > Calendars

   2. Navigate to the inspection calendar portlet and select the Inspection Type tab.

   3. Choose the Request Only - Pending option from the Schedule Inspection in ACA drop-down list for those inspections to which you want to apply the request only feature.

      

   4. Select Submit

2. Customize related emails.

   1. From the Administration menu, select Agency profile > Content customize.

   2. Configure the email sent to the public user after they request an inspection online.

      ACA_EMAIL_INSPECTION_STATUS_CHANGE_CONTENT

      ACA_EMAIL_INSPECTION_STATUS_CHANGE_SUBJECT

   3. Configure the email sent to the public user after the agency approves the inspection appointment in Civic Platform.

      AA_EMAIL_INSPECTION_STATUS_CHANGE_CONTENT

      AA_EMAIL_INSPECTION_STATUS_CHANGE_SUBJECT

3. Customize the labels and text on the Schedule an Inspection web page for a module in Citizen Access Configuration. For steps, refer to “Working With Web Pages” in the Citizen Access Administrator Guide.