Change field values via email, but NOT at the top of the email body?
So, as it stand now, whenever I create a ticket, I try to set the ticket field variables via email. For example, if I want to close a ticket via email, the email may look something like this:
"@status=closed
I have fixed the issue for you. Please contact us with any further questions.
Regards,
Me"
However, we have been getting confused emails back from end-users about the code at the top of the email. What I would really like to do is have that code placed at the bottom of the email instead.
So, the way I would like the email to look is as follows:
"I have fixed the issue for you. Please contact us with any further questions.
Regards,
Me
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following is code used by our ticketing system. Please ignore.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@status=closed"
Unfortunately, KACE only looks at the very beginning of the email for these types of variables. At least, as far as I know.
Is there any possible way to make it so KACE looks through the ENTIRE email for these variables?
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Posted by:
chucksteel
6 years ago
You could do this using service desk rules. I'm assuming that you are carbon copying the service desk email when you send this to the user, so your email is being included as a comment. You could create a rule that checks for the existence of "@status=closed" in a comment and changes the ticket status. You would probably need to create separate rules for each field that you want to change.
Comments:
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This works, but only for fields that have set variables to select from. I have two fields, namely Submitter and Due Date, where creating rules for every possible entry simply isn't feasible.
Is there anything else that can be done? - GFC_ 6 years ago-
I guess I would question what your work processes are that involve making all changes via email, especially something like submitter.
If your SQL skills are up to it, you could make your rules that find comments with @submitter then use a regular expression or text functions to find what is after the variable and perform the update bases on that. It might be possible, but certainly not easy.
The only other route would be contacting Quest professional services and paying them to code a modification. - chucksteel 6 years ago-
Hey Chuck! Just following up with you to let you know that I managed to implement your solution.
It required a total of 450 ticket rules in KACE to get it the way I wanted it. I have all the rules set to only run on ticket save (since that is the only time they really need to be ran).
Below is a sample email of it in action. This was an email one of our IT staff sent in reply to an automatic alert that someone was locked out of a program called Director.
"
Unlocked.
--Below is code used for our help desk system. Please IGNORE.--
@category=Password::Director
@priority=Normal
@ticket_source=Phone
@status=Closed
@technician=[omitted]@[omitted].com
@submitter=[omitted]
"
Basically, what used to happen was that the email was reversed. The bottom code would be on top, and the message to the user "Unlocked." would be on the bottom. This was actually causing confusion for our end users as they did not know what the email meant.
With this change, we can now more effectively communicate with our users.
If you can, Chuck, I have another quick question. I am not sure it belongs here but I do not know where else to go (maybe the Contact page on the site itself?).
I posted a deployment tip under Microsoft Office 2013 last month. The tip was an explanation of how I created an Outlook macro in VBA that was able to structure and send emails via Outlook with the code above to change KACE ticket fields. Basically, you would open the macro from within Outlook, and it would bring up a little program that has all the options you have in KACE: a dropdown for category, a dropdown for priority, etc. When it was filled out, you could hit "Create Ticket" (or reply to ticket) and it would automatically create and send an email to your KACE helpdesk email with the code in it (an example of such code is above).
That deployment tip actually got one or two people who were very interested in what I did and perhaps implementing it themselves, which was great! However, I log on today to find that my tip was removed, with the reason "Determined to be spam through moderation".
Now, my tip was clearly NOT any type of spam, as I spent time writing that tip up for the sole purpose of helping others (and it appears it did help some folks here). Do you know anything about why this could have happened, and is it possible to get the post back up? Or, if the post is lost, can I at least get a greenlight to post it again? I am really unsure why it was flagged as spam. I thought it might be some automated thing that flagged it, but I posted it a month ago (I would figure that, if it was an automated system that flagged it for spam, it would happen right when I posted it).
Hopefully you can clear that up for me. Again, apologies for asking here, as I am not sure where else to do so. If I am in the wrong by asking here, please feel free to contact me privately.
Enjoy your day! - GFC_ 6 years ago
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Hey GFC_,
Can you point me in the direction of that tip or post it as a comment here? I'm quite curious. Thanks! - esylvest 6 years ago
