Answering Requests

The following instructions focus on answering E-Helpdesk requests by NMOC.

Please refer to the complete Online Help for additional information on the E-Helpdesk functions.

1. Connect to the Portal

You will need to connect to the Protected Portal in order to use the E-Helpdesk. This is the URL to be used:

https://www.nm.eurocontrol.int/PORTAL/gateway/spec/index.html

Enter your credentials (UserName and Passcode) on the Login Page:

A new screen appears, prompting you to select the Role and Domain values to be used:

Select the appropriate values and click on the Go button.

From the now available NOP Portal, locate the following Portlet and click on the Open link:

This opens the E-Helpdesk AO Requests window:

2. List Requests

Note: this step may be skipped - go to 3. Answer Reqtests if you intend to work on all (unfiletred) requests

In the Current tab, start by expanding the QUERY section:

Here you can filter the request according to the following parameters:

Submitter: either a full Token Id (in that case the Token parameter will have to be checked on), or ANU Id.
C/M: Civil, Military or Both
A/M: filters the type of response: Automatic, Manual, or Both
ARCID: the ICAO aircraft Id
ADEP: ICAO Id of aerodrome of departure
ADES: ICAO Id of aerodrome of destination
EOBT Period: (optional - i.e. supports left-open, right-open and closed periods) start and end time
General Interest: specifies if only general interest requests are to be displayed, or all (unchecked by default)
Unable: specifies if only requests that were responded as “unable” are to be displayed, or all (unchecked by default)
(untitled) Request State: one of the following values can be selected: Submitted, Under Work, Responded or Recalled.
REGUL+: indicates the most penalising regulation
(Request) Type: a button to display a pop-up where you can select optionally a target Request Type - example:

This selection will result in the criteria being displayed next to the button:

Provide the relevant parameters (or leave the Query form empty to get all the current requests) then click on the Go button.

Note: in this context, 'Current' means not older that two hours. Should you need to query older requests, please navigate to the Archive tab.

The results of the query are listed in the MASTER section, in the form of a table:

Details

The Details column contains an airplane-shaped icon for each entry, opening a Detached View with all the relevant Flight Details for the selected flight.

State

The State column contains a collection of pictogram indicating the status of the request, Submitted, Unable, Under Work and Responded: :

The request has been recorded and is now waiting to be handled by the NM;

The NM is not able to give an answer;

The request has been locked and the NM currently busy preparing a reply;

The NM has answered. The content of the reply can be found under the DETAILS section:

In addition, submissions of general interest, likely to be useful to the Community (and aimed at reducing the number of requests for the same object), are marked by a bold exclamation mark - and the whole line is highlighted in strong yellow.

Note the slider right below the MASTER section title: it will come in handy to reach a given page in the case of a query returning a very high number of matches unpractical to display on a single page.

3. Answer Requests

Note: Incoming requests matching a pre-defined rule gets an automated response - please refer to the Using Rules chapter for more information on managing such rules.

These are the typical steps you will follow to answer E-Helpdesk requests:

select (click) a request from the list;
in the DETAILS section, click on the Lock button (the State of the request becomes Under Work);
when relevant, select a predefined response type from the pull-down menu;
...or type in your own text in the Response field - remember that you get the corresponding Flight details by clicking on the icon to help you formulate your answer;
optionally type some additional text in the NMOC Comment field;
click on the Submit button to send out your answer to the selected request (the State of the request becomes Responded).

Note: use the Unlock button to discard your changes and release the request for later edition.