Source: https://atomicwork.docs.pageloop.ai/product/requests/request-management/request-types-attributes-and-prefixes

# Request types, attributes, and prefixes

## Request types

Requests created by employees can be [incidents](/product/incidents-problems/incident-management) or [service requests](/product/requests/catalog-and-routing/service-catalog-and-services). Service requests are requests for a particular service from a workspace service catalog. Eligible employees can also raise [changes](/product/change-management/how-to-create-changes) when a change template is enabled for requester access for their user segment.

Agents can additionally initiate [changes](/product/change-management/how-to-create-changes) and [problems](/product/incidents-problems/problem-management-explained) when logged in.

For employee-raised changes, field visibility, editability during and after creation, and required fields are controlled by [requester settings on each change attribute](/product/change-management/change-attributes). These settings are separate from the request attribute settings described below.

Every workspace can have its own setup/configuration for requests, so please make sure to go to the correct workspace settings before customizing any field.

## Attributes

Attributes are the fields that capture information on any service request, incident, change or problem. You can configure attributes to apply across a workspace or to one specific item.

### Common attributes

Common attributes apply across a request type. Go to **Settings > Your workspaces > \[Workspace name] > Attributes (Service management)**. On the **Service management** tab, create or edit an attribute and choose which request types it applies to — service request, incident, or problem. On the **Change management** tab, create or edit common change attributes to apply to all changes.

### Item-specific attributes

Item-specific attributes apply to a single catalog item, incident form, or change template. Go to **Settings > Your workspaces > \[Workspace name] > Service catalog (Service management)**, open the relevant tab, then open the item, form, or template and add attributes there.

> [!NOTE]
>
> Problems have common attributes only. You can scope an attribute to problem records on the Service management tab, but there is no per-item layer for problems.

### Default attributes

These attributes ship with every workspace.

| **Request attribute**   | **Attribute type**                                                      | **Editable** |
| ----------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------ |
| Agent                   | All                                                                     | No           |
| Status                  | All                                                                     | Yes          |
| Priority                | All                                                                     | No           |
| Impact                  | Incident record, Problem record                                         | No           |
| Urgency                 | Incident record, Problem record                                         | No           |
| Category, Type and Item | Incident record, Problem record, Service request record (where enabled) | No           |

Category, Type and Item form a three-level classification, for example Hardware > Laptop > Battery replacement. Admins choose which request types use this classification and can change that choice at any time.

## Adding a new request attribute

When you create an attribute, you can specify:

- Display name

- Attribute type. It can be one of these types:

  - Short text

  - Long text

  - Checkbox

  - Dropdown, which supports 3-level dependent nested fields

  - Multi-select

  - Phone number

  - Number

  - Date

  - Email

  - Content block

- Request type. You can choose which types of requests in a workspace will have this attribute associated with them.

When you create a custom attribute, you can also define whether:

- It’s a mandatory attribute for every request

- It’ll be visible to the requester as a part of the request form

- The requester can edit its values. For example, if you have a custom attribute called department, an employee from a department that is not on the list should be able to add their department.

- For Date or Date-time attributes, you can choose to allow only past dates, only future dates, or both.

## Request prefixes

You can customize request prefixes to better categorize and organize your requests.

- Go to **Settings > Your workspaces > \[Workspace name] > Workspace settings (Workspace settings)**.

- Edit prefixes for the various request types.

Here are some notes to keep in mind as you edit the prefix:

- The prefix has to be a minimum of 2 characters and a maximum of 6 characters. You can't use numbers as a part of the request prefix.

- In a workspace, every request type needs to have a unique prefix.