Q: Is there a way to associate tickets with other tickets in RT?
Context
- Request Tracker 4 (RT) on help.mit.edu
- Ticket tracking at MIT
Answer
Yes. RT has a Links feature that lets you specify relationships between tickets.
Controls
- To see existing relationships
Use the Display tab for a ticket. (This is the default ticket view for most users.) The green section titled Links shows you all existing ticket relationships that apply to this ticket. Any listed linked tickets are hyperlinks. Click on one to go to that ticket. The link type labels (Depends on, Depended on by, etc.) are also links. Clicking on one will take you to a standard search results screen containing all linked tickets of that type. - To create a new, linked ticket
In the same green Links section on the Ticket Display tab referenced above, you can click the (Create) link next to a link type label to create a new ticket linked to the current ticket with the relationship indicated. For example, if you are looking at a parent ticket that has several child tickets and you want to add a new child ticket, click on the (Create) link next to the Children label in the Links section. - To create or update Ticket relationships
From a Ticket display, click the Links tab to go to the management page for links related to the current ticket. You can also click on the title Links in of Links section. The link management page allows you to link an existing ticket to the current one, remove linked tickets, and update other ticket relationships. It also has a special feature to merge one ticket into another (this can only be undone by an administrator, so use with caution).
Different kinds of relationships
- Depends on
The current ticket depends on one or more other tickets. RT enforces a rule such that the current ticket (the dependent ticket) cannot be marked "Resolved* unless the ticket(s) it depends on are resolved. - Depended on by
Other tickets depend on the current ticket. RT enforces the reciprocal rule that any dependent tickets cannot be resolved until the current ticket is resolved. - Parents
The current ticket has a parent ticket. No special rules are enforced, but the relationship is hierarchical and can be used to group several sub-tasks or incident tickets under a parent project or problem ticket. - Children
This is the reciprocal relationship to "Parents" indicating that the current ticket is the parent ticket to one or more child tickets. No special rules are enforced, but the relationship is hierarchical and can be used to group several sub-tasks or incident tickets under a parent project or problem ticket. - Refers to
The current ticket refers to another ticket. No special rules are enforced. This is an informal relationship that does not indicate a hierarchy. It is often used to loosely connect two tickets in different queues that are related, or to connect a knowledge base article or URL to ticket that refers to it. - Referred to by
This is the reciprocal relationship to "Refers to". No special rules are enforced. This is an informal relationship that does not indicate a hierarchy. It is often used to loosely connect two tickets in different queues that are related, or to connect a knowledge base article or URL to ticket that refers to it. - Merge into
This option only appears on the Links page and is permanent. Entering a ticket number into this box allows one to merge the current ticket into the specified ticket. RT will display merged history and watchers for the ticket, and any references to the merged tickets (for example, in follow-up email correspondence) will be treated as if they specified the ticket the other tickets were merged into. This is a one-time operation and can only be undone by an administrator with direct database access. See [How do I split two merged Request Tracker tickets?] for more information.
Screenshots of an empty and populated Links section
(Click to enlarge)