[feature request] Access invisible tool pages through hard links

[massey21]

Overview
Currently, tools marked 'invisible' show a blank page if you navigate to their hard link (e.g., nemo.mydomain.tld/tool-control/123/). I would instead like to be able to see the invisible tool, even if it's unfindable by any other means.

Use Case
Following my "everything is a tool" paradigm, I want a private ticketing system that I or my staff can use to assign tasks to ourselves (or each other) without it being public to all 250 users. So for example, I want to make a tool called "Travis" that's marked invisible, and then report problems to myself to create a sort of to-do list. Ideally (because it's invisible) it wouldn't generate email notifications, but I can work around that if needed.

Why in NEMO?
Centralizing this in NEMO versus using another task tracking program is just helpful because it makes NEMO my one stop for everything facility-related.

Elements Involved
(a) Don't hide the 'invisible' tool page when navigating by hard URL
(b) [optional] disable email notifications for problems/tasks on invisible tools

Thanks for considering!

[rptmat57]

1. My only concern with that part is that showing the tool control page could lead to some issues if people try to engage the tool. We would need to double check that most of those functions are not allowed (unless user is a staff member maybe). We could also allow showing hidden tools by hard links only for staff?
2. For this second element, I believe hidden tools do show up in the maintenance page and tasks can still be updated even if the tool is hidden. we might want to keep that feature in case there are heavy repairs during which the tool is being hidden in the meantime, but we want staff to update the description during those repairs and people to be notified.

Thoughts?

[massey21]

1. Making it accessible only to staff would work.
2. I might be mistaken, but I thought I tested this specifically last week and found that it doesn't show up in the maintenance page. As long as only staff can see it, I wouldn't be opposed if it did/does show up.

[r-xyz]

Hi all,
My two cents on the topic since we might also be interested.

1. I would agree on limiting it only to Staff or certain categories, otherwise it sounds more like security through obscurity (usually not a good idea).
2. On our instance hidden tools are showing up in Maintenance (not sure about email notifications). They are also showing up in calendar to Staff.

[r-xyz]

Alternatively, you might want to simply add an extra button to create tasks on Maintenance page, with popup to select tool with search function (including hidden ones). Similar to what already happen with "Schedule new training" under trainings.
Is showing tool page an hard requirement for your use case?

[massey21]

Limiting to staff sounds reasonable. Showing a tool page is not a hard requirement -- the solution you propose is fine. For now, we've switched to using Teams for staff members' to-do lists. Of course, I'd prefer if everything were in NEMO so all info is in one place.