How to create Tracking Tickets for RT tickets transferred out of my queue

Context

• Request Tracker (RT) on help.mit.edu
• Request Tracker queue administrators

If you have not already done so, you may want to review available options for tracking tickets you transfer out of your RT queue into other queues before you implement this solution. See Tracking Ticket transfers out of your RT queue

Solution

Summary

We recently added a new global scrip to MIT's central Request Tracker (RT) instance on help.mit.edu. Whenever a ticket's queue is changed, this scrip will check to see if a special local template exists in the queue of origin with the name "Create Tracking Ticket". If it does, the scrip will use this template to create a tracking ticket with the parameters specified in the template.

The reason this check has to be made by a global scrip is because RT will execute a queue change FIRST, before running any scrips based on the transaction. This means as soon as you change the queue on a ticket, the scrips of the DESTINATION queue will apply, not the scrips of the queue of origin. This constraint makes it difficult for a team to track all tickets that they transfer to other queues, without having to go to the administrator of each possible destination queue to "turn something on."

This solution of using a global scrip enables a queue administrator to simply and easily keep track of all tickets leaving their queue, by creating a template. No other action is needed. This will result in a linked tracking ticket, usually created in the queue of origin. The template can be configured to control status and content of the tracking ticket.

Details

If you want to turn this feature on for your queue, all you need to do is create local template attached to your queue. This example will step you through a basic implementation:

1. Navigate to Tools > Configuration > Queues > Select and click on your queue
2. Go to the Templates tab and click on Create
3. Fill out the new template form exactly as shown below:
   • Name: Create Tracking Ticket
   • Description: Create a tracking ticket for every ticket transferred out of your queue
   • Type: Perl
   • Content:

     ===Create-Ticket: tracking
     Queue: Tooltime::Test Queue
     Subject: This ticket tracks and links to a transferred ticket
     Refers-To: TOP
     SquelchMailTo: othomas@mit.edu
     Status: resolved
     Content: This ticket was automatically created when ticket #{$Tickets{'TOP'}->id}
     was transferred to the queue {$Tickets{'TOP'}->QueueObj->Name}. You can use
     this ticket to count escalations and transfers out of your own queue. If you
     have access to {$Tickets{'TOP'}->QueueObj->Name} you can check on the
     transferred ticket at < {$RT::WebAuthURL}/Ticket/Display.html?id={$Tickets{'TOP'}->id} >.
     ENDOFCONTENT
     

4. Click on the Create button to create and save your new template

Important Make sure your template's name is "Create Tracking Ticket", exactly as shown inside the double quotes. Otherwise the global scrip will not trigger.

• The above template creates a tracking ticket in the queue Tooltime::Test Queue; you will want to change the queue name to your queue
• It sets the subject to "This ticket tracker and links to a transferred ticket"; you can change this to anything that'll make it easy for you to identify tracking tickets in your queue
• It will link to the original ticket via a "Refers To" link
• It will set an email squelch for the address "othomas@mit.edu"
  Squelching email to certain recipients is optional, but depending on your queue notifications may be important. If you have notifications to AdminCc Watchers triggered by ticket creation, you may want to add your AdminCc Watchers to this list of squelched addresses. Otherwise they will receive email notification whenever such a tracking ticket is created.
• It sets the ticket content to a simple message, inserting a few pieces of relevant information

Only for users running their own Request Tracker servers We have received requests for the code of the globally installed Scrip that allows this tracking ticket mechanism to work. If you run your own Request Tracker instance and are interested in adding this to your instance, you can find the scrip code in this file: Request Tracker Tracking Ticket.pdf

What if my AdminCc is a group and I want to squelch notifications?

You can squelch mail to all members of a group, but the code that needs to go into your template will be a little more complicated. The code below will look up your group and add all member email addresses to the SquelchMailTo field. You will want to substitute the name of your group for "tooltime-team" in the example.

SquelchMailTo: { my $group = RT::Group->new( $RT::SystemUser );
$group->LoadUserDefinedGroup("tooltime-team"); $group->MemberEmailAddressesAsString; }

Additional help

As always, please contact tooltime@mit.edu for assistance administering and configuring your RT queues on MIT's central RT instance.

See also

• Tracking Ticket transfers out of your RT queue
• Request Tracker (RT) Queue Administrator's Guide

...to be continued...