Email support and management

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

This feature is based on the mail queues configured in each of the groups. Therefore, it will be necessary to previously configure the mail queues of the according groups (see Groups: Mail queue management) and also the mail parameters in the section E-mail configuration for reception.

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

Specifically the POP/IMAP parameters section:

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.

Logic of email ticket management:

1. When an email arrives to the inbox from the address [email protected] it is checked whether it corresponds to an address configured in the Mail Queue parameter of the groups configuration.
   1. If no match is found in “Mail queue”, the email will not be processed.
   2. If a match with “Mail queue” is found, the ticket will be managed keeping in mind 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 may 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 address of the mail will be used.
   3. Group: Corresponding group with the “Mail Queue”.
   4. Owner: The default user of the group associated with this “Mail Queue”.
   5. Title: Mail subject.
   6. Description: Body of the email.
   7. Email notifications: In this ticket field, all the email addresses of the TO and CC fields that do not match the address found for the “Mail Queue” are added.
   8. Ticket files: 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 the mail queue corresponding to the group have been configured, in our example we will use [email protected], we can start by sending an email.

• From: [email protected]
• To: [email protected]
• CC: [email protected]
• Subject: Problem with the servers.
• Body: We continue to have problems with the servers. They have been down all morning.
• Attachment: screen1.png

This email that arrives in the inbox of [email protected] corresponds to the mail 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 set in the group (default ticket status, ticket type, associated company, etc.). In our case, with this configuration.

A ticket with New status will be created, with the group itself and with the ticket type “Problem”. Also, with the values specified in the email itself:

• Creator: It will be the user “admin”.
• Editor: In our case, it will also be the user “admin”.
• 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 continue to have problems with servers. They have been down all morning.”
• Email notifications: A copy will be sent to the address [email protected].
• Ticket files: The email attachement will be attached to the ticket screen1.png .

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

When responding to this email, a comment will be created on the ticket with its content.

If the answer is accompanied by attached files, they will also be added to the ticket as happens in the creation.

Integria IMS allows you to modify some ticket parameters by email. For that, 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 the ticket belongs to. 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 state the ticket will be changed to. The name of the states is defined in the Tickets tab from the General Configuration.
• RESOLUTION: Name of the resolution the ticket will be changed to. The name of the resolution is defined in the Tickets tab from the General Configuration.

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 also possible to modify the time spent in hours in a comment. For that, the syntax that you must include is:

[WORKUNIT]
TIME_USED: 0.05
[WORKUNIT]

The time taken, if not specified in 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 through the email some email address appears in the body of the message. This can happen, for example, when using the reply all function.

If it is considered that this information may be sensitive and it is preferred that it does not appear in the comments, Integria IMS allows the email addresses to be masked. That way, it is known that there was an email address there but you will not be able to guess which one. You may set this option on the tickets tab from General Application Configuration by checking Masking email addresses. When this check is activated, Integria IMS will replace all email addresses by the following wildcard address [email protected]

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