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Queue Administrator's Guide

(Portions of this document are taken from the RT Draft Manual , Copyright, 2003, Best Practical Solutions.)

Introduction

As a queue administrator, you can make the following changes to your queue:

There are other changes that can be made to your queue, on request:

Set up spam screening

To reduce the number tickets that are spam, you can set up spam screening by entering a threshold number for your queue. If you're not familiar with threshold scoring, go to Set your Spam Scoring Level for more information.

To set the spam threshold for your queue,

  1. Click Configuration>Queues then click your queue name.
  2. Enter a number in the Spam Threshold text box, then click Save Changes.

Set up an automatic email reply

RT lets you set up automatic email replies, based on specified conditions, by creating a Scrip Template and setting up a Scrip:

Scrip templates

A template is essentially a form letter that goes along with a Scrip action. A simple example could be, "Dear [name of requestor], your ticket has been created and its ticket ID is [this number]."

Creating a new Scrip template
  1. Click Configuration>Queues.
  2. Click your queue name, then click Templates>New template in the left navigation bar.
  3. Enter a name, description, and content:
    • Name: the name of the template, preferably something descriptive. We recommend that you not use the same name as any of the global templates. If you name a template the same name as a global template, RT will default to using your template only, even if you choose the global template.
    • Description: The words that will appear under the name of the template in RT's list of templates.
    • Content: The form letter the users will see. This can include the subject line of the email at the top, just leave two lines between the header/subject and body/letter. Content can be simple or be personalized by including code like:

      • "We received you request regarding: "{$Ticket->Subject()}"

      where $Ticket is the ticket number and Subject() is the subject line from the requestor's messsage.

      Note: You can send the content of your message as an attachment, rather than in the body of the auto-reply. To do this, add the following header to the top of the Content field of the template:

      RT-Attach-Message: yes

      (Remember to leave two lines between the header and the body text.)

  4. Click Submit.
Modifying a Scrip template
  1. Click Configuration>Queues.
  2. Click your queue name then click Templates in the left navigation bar.
  3. Click the name of the template to modify.
  4. Make the necessary changes
  5. Click Submit.
Deleting a Scrip template
  1. Click Configuration>Queues.
  2. Click the name of the queue.
  3. Click Templates in the left navigation bar.
  4. Check the box next to the template to be deleted then click Submit.

Scrips

You can use the Scrip feature in many ways, one of them being an automatic email reply when a new request is submitted. A Scrip contains three parts:

  • condition: something that has to happen to activate the Scrip, like a ticket being created.
  • action: what the Scrip does in response to the condition, e.g., notify the ticket's requestor.
  • template: essentially a form letter that goes along with an action. A simple example could be, "Dear [name of requestor], your ticket has been created and its ticket ID is [this number]."

Scrips can apply to queues but an individual ticket can't have its own Scrip.

The default global Scrips installed with RT 3 are:

  • On Create, Autoreply to Requestors with Global Template: Autoreply: When a ticket is created, email notification is sent to the Requestor.

  • On Create, Notify AdminCcs with Global Template: Transaction: When a ticket is created, email notification goes to the Admin Cc's that a ticket has been created.

  • On Correspond, Notify AdminCcs with Global Template: Admin Correspondence: When a Watcher type of Admin Cc adds a reply to a ticket, email notification is sent.

  • On Correspond, Notify Requestors and Ccs with Global Template: Correspondence: When a Watcher adds at public reply to a ticket, the Requestor and any other watchers (i.e., Cc's and Admin Cc's) receive email notification.

  • On Comment, Notify AdminCcs as Comment with Global Template: Admin Comment: When a comment is added to the ticket, email notification is all Admin Cc's.

  • On Resolve, Notify Requestors with Global Template: Resolved: When a ticket is completed, a form letter is sent to the Requestor stating that work is completed.

Creating a Scrip
  1. Click Configuration>Queues.
  2. Click the name of the queue then click Scrips>New Scrips in the left navigation bar.
  3. Enter a description in the Description box.
  4. Select a condition from the Condition dropdown list, e.g. On Create for when a new request is submitted.
  5. Select an action from the Action dropdown list, e.g. AutoReply to Requestors to send email.
  6. Select a template from the Template dropdown list.
  7. Click Submit.
Modifying a Scrip
  1. Click Configuration>Queues.
  2. Click your queue name then click Scrips in the left navigation bar.
  3. Click the name of the Scrip to modify.
  4. Make the necessary changes, then click Submit.

Note: You cannot modify scrips that apply to all queues.

Deleting a Scrip
  1. Click Configuration>Queues.
  2. Click the name of the queue then click Scrips in the left navigation bar.
  3. Check the box next to the Scrip to be deleted then click Submit.


Note: You cannot delete global Scrips, i.e., Scrips that apply to all queues.

Change access rights to your queue

RT comes with a default set of rights defined: system-wide and Requestor rights. Addditionally, the RT admininstrators set up a queue administrator group and queue consultant group for each queue they create. The names for these groups typically include the name of the queue.

System-wide: Everyone who has access to RT on help.mit.edu has the following rights:
-CreateTicket (Create Tickets)
-ReplyToTicket (Add replies to Tickets)
-SeeQueue (Know that your Queue exists, i.e., Queue will appear in visible listings for this user.)

Requestors:
-ReplyToTicket (Add replies to Ticket)
-SeeQueue (Know that your Queue exists, i.e., Queue will appear in visible listings for this user.)
-ShowTicket (View tickets)

Administrators:
-AdminQueue (Administer the queue.)
-CommentOnTicket (Enter comments to tickets.)
-CreateTicket (Create tickets.)
-DeleteTicket (Delete tickets.)
-ModifyACL (Modify access rights.)
-ModifyQueueWatchers (Add/remove queue watchers.)
-ModifyScrips (Create and change Scrips.)
-ModifyTemplate (Create and change Scrip templates.)
-ModifyTicket (Make changes to tickets.)
-OwnTicket (Assign self as owner of tickets.)
-ReplyToTicket (Enter replies for tickets.)
-SeeQueue (Know that your Queue exists, i.e., Queue will appear in visible listings for this user.)
-ShowACL (View access rights to your Queue.)
-ShowScrips (View Scrips.)
-ShowTemplate (View templates.)
-ShowTicket (View tickets.)
-ShowTicketComments (View comments in tickets.)
-StealTicket (Take ownership of tickets away from a consultant and own them.)
-TakeTicket (Take ownership of tickets.)
-Watch (Become a Watcher of a ticket by making self a Requestor or Cc Watcher.)
-WatchAsAdminCc (full rights) (Assign self as an Admin CcWatcher of a ticket.)

Consultants: Users who are members of the consultants group for your Queue:
-CommentOnTicket (Add comments to tickets)
-CreateTicket (Create tickets)
-ModifyTicket (Modify fields in Tickets, e.g., status, dates, etc.)
-OwnTicket (Set self as Owner of Tickets)
-ReplyToTicket (Add replies to Ticket)
-SeeQueue (Know that your Queue exists, i.e., Queue will appear in visible listings for this user.)
-ShowACL (See rights granted to users and groups)
-ShowScrips (See Scrips that have been created for the Queue.)
-ShowTemplate (See a Scrip's e-mail template.)
-ShowTicket (View tickets)
-ShowTicketComments (See Comments entered into Tickets.)
-TakeTicket (Take ownership of a Ticket by clicking on the Take button.)
-Watch (Become a Watcher of a ticket by making self a Requestor or Cc Watcher.)
-WatchAsAdminCc (Assign self as an Admin CcWatcher of a ticket.)

You can add or remove rights for the group associated with your queue and for other groups in RT.

To change rights,

  1. Click Configuration>Queues, then click on the name of your queue.
  2. Click Group Rights in the left navigation bar.
  3. Scroll to your group under User defined groups.
  4. To remove a right, click in the check box next to it. To add a right, choose it from the dropdown list.

    5. For example, if you want to give another User defined group, outside of your Queue, rights to view your Queue's Tickets, find the group and select ShowTicket from the dropdown menu.

  5. Click Submit when you're finished making modifications.

Note: The administration of RT at MIT is fundamentally through the use of user-defined groups set up for each queue by the RT administrators. Typically, you will not want to modfy System Groups, Roles or User rights, but rather make access right changes through the User Defined groups. If you think that you need to make changes to the System Groups, Roles, or User Rights, contact the RT administrators to get guidance on doing this.

Send email notification when ownership is assigned

If you want consultants in your queue to receive email notification when they are assigned as owners, do the following:

  1. Click Configuration>Queues.
  2. Click the name of the queue then click Scrips>New Scrips in the left navigation bar.
  3. Enter a description in the Description box.
  4. From the Condition dropdown list, select On Owner Change.
  5. From the Action dropdown list, e.g. Notify Owner.
  6. From the Template dropdown list, choose Global Template: Transaction.
  7. Click Submit

Create a custom field for your queue

Custom fields are fields that you can attach to your tickets in order to categorize tickets or track additional ticket information. They appear only on tickets in your queue, and are administered by you and your fellow queue administrators. You must be a queue administrator to be able to create custom fields for your queue.

To create a new custom field:

  1. Go to Configuration>Queues>your queue>Ticket Custom Fields>New Custom Field.
  2. Fill in the following fields:
    • Name: Whatever you like, e.g., "Topic" or "Account Number".
    • Description (optional): Text that describes the purpose of the field.
    • Type: Choose what type of field this is. The most common types are "Enter one value", which gives you a short text field to fill in for each ticket, and "Select one value" which gives you a drop-down list of predefined values to choose from for each ticket.
    • Applies to: Choose "Tickets".
    • Enabled: Leave this box checked.
  3. Press the Submit button to create the field.
  4. If you chose a "Select" type field, you will now see a new "Values" section. This is where you enter the allowed values for your new field. You can enter only one value at a time. For each of these values, you fill in:
    • Sort: A number representing the order in which the value should be displayed in a drop-down list.
    • Name: The value that will be shown in the drop down list.
    • Description (optional): Additional text that describes the entered value.
    Press Submit for each value you enter.

Automatically populate custom fields on an email-generated ticket

Note: If you have not already created your custom field, please refer to the section above (Create a custom field for your queue).

A) Configure your email messages to include a special mail header. You will need to choose a label that describes the custom field, but which contains no spaces. For example, if your RT custom field is called "Issue Type", you might choose a label "IssueType".

The format of the mail header is:

X-QCF-label: custom-field-value

where label is the space-less form of the custom field name you have chosen and custom-field-value is the value you want to store in the ticket's custom field.

Using the "Issue Type" custom field example, the mail header might look like this:

X-QCF-IssueType: Software Defect

This will set the ticket's Issue Type custom field to "Software Defect" once you have applied the following RT configuration steps:

 

B) For your queue, create a new template.

  1. Go to Configuration>Queues>your queue>Templates>New Template.
  2. Fill in the following fields:
    • Name: Whatever you like. The recommended name is "CustomFieldExtractor" - if you choose this name, you will not need to set up the scrip defined in step C below. If you choose a different name for the template, you will need to follow step C.
    • Description: Whatever you like.
    • Content: Enter the following (including the # signs) and replace your-cf with the name of your Custom Field, and label with the label you chose for the mail header in step A.

      Note: Make sure to use the Pipe key (vertical bar) and not lower-case "l" where vertical lines appear.

      # Syntax:
      # cf-name | Headername or "Body" | MatchString(re) | Postcmd | Options
      #
      # allowed Options:
      # q - dont record a transaction for adding the CFV
      #
      # put the content of Header "X-QCF-label" into the custom field "your-cf"
      #
      your-cf|X-QCF-label|.*||q|

    This template maps the mail header to the RT custom field name. For the example in step A, the configuration line in the template would look like this:

    Issue Type |X-QCF-IssueType|.*||q|

  3. Click Submit to create the template

C) This is only required if you named your template (from step B) something other than "CustomFieldExtractor".

For your queue, create a Scrip. This is what will actually populate the custom field when a new ticket is created, based on the new template you just created.

  1. Go to Configuration>Queues>your queue>Scrips>New Scrip.
  2. Fill in the following fields:
    • Description: Whatever you want.
    • Condition: Choose OnCreate.
    • Action: Choose Extract Custom Field Values.
    • Template: Choose the name of the template you just created from the list.
  3. Click Submit to create the Scrip

Any mail sent to your queue with the email header that you specified in the template should now populate the custom field. For example, if you have a custom field called "Version", the email header "X-QCF-Version: 4.1.12" would put the value "4.1.12" in the custom field.

Assign Watchers to your Queue

If you need someone to track email reply activity for all tickets in your Queue, you can assign someone as Cc Watcher for the Queue.

To do this,

  1. Click Configuration>Queues, then click on the name of your Queue.
  2. Click Watchers.
  3. Under Find People whose,enter the username of the person you want to assign as Watcher, then click Go.


    4. Result: Your name displays under the Add new Watchers, Users section.

  4. From the dropdown list, choose Cc, then click Save Changes.

The assigned person will receive email activity for all tickets created in your Queue. You can remove the person at any time, and add new people, by repeating steps 1 and 2, then clicking on the checkbox next to the person you want to remove, then clicking Save Changes.

(last modified: 6/16/06)