Optuma Scripting Support Guidelines

Author: Optuma Team Last updated: Feb 1, 2023 11:09

Overview

Scripting in Optuma has been designed for non-programmers to be able to build custom criteria / tools themselves, while still supporting advanced features and processes.Due to the advanced features scripting allows, the line between what we can support, and what is a “scripting consultation” can be difficult to define. Below are some guidelines for what support we can provide (and where), and what requires a specific consult session

Scripting Video Series

Like all scripting languages, there is a learning curve required, and regardless of your knowledge of Optuma, your first stop in learning Optuma scripting should be our free video series, available here:

https://learn.optuma.com/optuma-courses

These are broken into 3 levels of Beginner (Introduction), Intermediary and Advanced, with hours of examples and lessons designed to get you up to speed with scripting quickly.

Before attempting any scripting we highly recommend completing these courses first, the time you save in avoidable mistakes will make it time well spent!

Community Forum

Once you’ve completed the free scripting courses and you’ve started writing your own scripts, you may come across an issue or a hitch in something you are building, that requires some extra guidance.

In these situations your best option is to post a question on our scripting forum here:

https://forum.optuma.com/forum/optuma-scripting

Be sure to check the forum guidelines before posting any scripting questions you have. As an open community forum, questions may be answered by Optuma support staff, or other users of Optuma familiar with scripting.

The forum is also the perfect place to view examples of scripts posted by other clients, with hundreds of examples you can reference. For this reason, we ask any scripting questions be posted to the forum, rather than emailed / sent as a ticket, as it builds up the scripting database even further.

Scripting Support vs Scripting Consultation

We have always taken a lot of pride in the support we offer Optuma clients, and we’re always keen to help. However, scripting can be a very complex area, requiring hours of time depending on the circumstance.

As support hours are a finite resource, we do need to make sure support offered for scripting is limited to:

  • Looking for an existing scripting function (we can point you in the right direction as there will usually always be a Knowledge Base article, or video you can reference).
  • Dealing with an error or crash in a script General Advice (via the forum) on a basic script you’ve partially completed, but there is something missing or you can not find how to achieve the final result you are after.
  • Pointing you to examples of similar scripts for you to reference.

When is a consult required?

Consults are a paid-for service we offer, which goes beyond the standard scripting support available. A consultation is required if

  • You are unable to build the script yourself.
  • Or you have an advanced script that you have tried to build yourself, but cannot get it to produce the results you are after.
  • Or only have a set of rules you wish us to build into a script for you.

There are two types of scripting consultation available, one is where we connect up with you via Zoom to work together on a script(s), so you can learn the process as we go. This requires you to have completed the free series on scripting available via our course site.

The other option is for you to send us the rules for the criteria you would like scripted (in dot point, with a screenshot example of the chart setup where possible). We then review the details and provide a quote on how much it would cost for us to build the full scripts for you. If you confirmed, you wanted to proceed we’d then build and send you the final scripts to use on your system.

Scripting consultation requests can be sent to support@optuma.com