Email support and management

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Integria IMS allows the creation and edition of tickets by sending emails. Email ticket management is based on the same ACL principles as the Integria IMS interface itself.

This functionality is based on the mail queues configured in each of the groups. For this reason, it will be necessary to previously configure the mail queues of the pertinent groups (see Groups: Mail queue management) and also, the mail parameters of the Email configuration section for its reception.

To be able to manage tickets through email, the parameters must be configured in the Setup in the tab corresponding to the email.

The mail configuration in the group itself is explained in detail in the section Groups: Mail queue management but let's see how it would be configured in our practical example.

Email ticket management logic:

1. When an email arrives at the inbox of the address [email protected] it is checked if it corresponds to any address configured in the Mail Queue parameter of the group configuration.
   1. If no match is found in 'Mail Queue', the email will not be processed.
   2. If it finds a match with 'Mail queue', the ticket will be managed taking into account the configured parameters (default ticket status, ticket type, associated company, etc.).
2. If it matches a valid address in 'Mail Queue', the email is processed. At this point it can happen that:
   1. The email does not correspond to any ticket already created. In this case, a new ticket will be created.
   2. The email corresponds to a ticket previously created in the system. In this case, a new Workunit will be created and the ticket data will be updated.
3. When creating a new ticket, it will be saved with the following values:
   1. Creator: It will be the user associated with the from address. If the user does not exist, it will be created (only if this option is enabled in the 'Mail queue' configuration).
   2. Editor: The same user associated with the from email address will be used.
   3. Group: Group corresponding to the 'Mail Queue'.
   4. Owner: The default user of the group associated with this 'Mail Queue'.
   5. Title: Subject of the mail.
   6. Description: Body of the mail.
   7. Notifications by email: In this ticket field all the email addresses from the TO and CC fields that do not correspond to the address found for the 'Mail Queue' are added.
   8. Ticket files: The email attachments will be added.
4. If the ticket already exists in the system, the content of the body of the email will be added as a comment and the corresponding modifications will also be made.

The following image explains the mail queue management flow:

Once the mail and mail queue corresponding to the group have been configured, in our example we will use [email protected], we can start sending an email.

• From: [email protected]
• To: [email protected]
• CC: [email protected]
• Subject: Problem with the servers.
• Body: We are still having problems with the servers. They've been down all morning.
• Attachment: screen1.png

This email that arrives in the [email protected] inbox corresponds to the email queue configured in the group. As it does not match any existing ticket, a new ticket will be created in Integria IMS with the parameters configured in the group (default ticket status, ticket type, associated company, etc.). In our case, with this configuration.

A ticket will be created with the status New, with the group itself and with the ticket type 'Problem'. In addition, with the values that are specified in the email itself:

• Creator: It will be the user 'admin'.
• Editor: In our case it will also be the 'admin' user.
• Group: 'Engineering'.
• Owner: The default user of the group associated with this Mail Queue which is the 'support' user.
• Title: Problem with the servers.
• Description: ‘We are still having problems with the servers. They have been down all morning.’
• Notifications by email: A copy will be sent to the address [email protected].
• Ticket files: The file attached to the emailscreen1.png will be attached to the ticket.

If we have activated the notification system (see Email sending options in Ticket Settings), users involved in the ticket will receive an email notice informing them of the changes (see Settings of email templates). To add a comment, you just have to reply to that email. As we see in the image, the ticket is identified in the subject.

By replying to this email, a comment will be created in the ticket with its content.

If the response is accompanied by attachments, they will also be added to the ticket as in the creation.

Integria IMS allows you to modify some ticket parameters by email. For this, it is necessary to write the email with a specific syntax. We see it with an example:

[INCIDENT]
GROUP: Support
ASSIGNED_TO: operator
PRIORITY: 3
STATUS: Assigned
RESOLUTION: Invalid
[INCIDENT]

The fields that can be modified and their possible values are:

• GROUP: Name of the group to which you want to change the ticket.
• ASSIGNED_TO: Identifier of the user to whom the ticket belongs. It is the name with which the user logs into Integria IMS.
• PRIORITY: Priority to which the ticket will be changed. The priority is a number between 0 (lowest) and 5 (highest).
• STATUS: Name of the status to which the ticket will be changed. The name of the states is defined in the Tickets tab of the General Settings.
• RESOLUTION: Name of the resolution to which the ticket will be changed. The name of the resolution is defined in the Tickets tab of the General Settings.

It is also possible to modify the time spent in hours in a comment. To do this, the syntax that we must include is:

[WORK UNIT]
TIME_USED: 0.05
[WORK UNIT]

The time spent it takes, if not specified this way, is 0.25 hours. It is important to make sure that the syntax is correct because if it is not, the changes will not be applied and the text will be added as a comment associated with the ticket.

It is possible that when creating a comment via email, an email address appears in the body of the message. This can happen, for example, when using the reply all function.

This way, you know there was an email address there, but you can't guess which one. This option can be configured in the Tickets tab of the General Settings of the application by checking the Masking email addresses check box. When this check is activated, Integria IMS will change all email addresses to the following wildcard address [email protected]

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