Email Command

About E-Mail Command

E-mail Command allows the technician to delimit fields in the e-mail, according to which the   e-mail can be parsed and corresponding fields can be set.

To configure E-mail Command,

1. In the Mail Server Settings page, click on E-mail Command tab. The E-mail Command configuration screen is displayed.

2. Click on the check box Enable E-mail Command to activate the e-mail parsing feature. If this option is not selected, then the incoming e-mail will be handled as a normal mail based on established business rules even if the incoming e-mails contain the parsing string in the subject.

3. In the E-mail Subject contains text box, enter valid subject line that determines the e-mails which have to be parsed. E-mails containing this text will be parsed for various fields.  Assume the Email subject identifier is given as @SDP@, then emails with subject containing @SDP@ alone will be considered for parsing.

4. Provide any special character (@@, ##, $$, %%, &&, so on) as the Command Delimiter.  The field values assigned between these special characters are assigned to the corresponding fields while the requests are created. Assume if the Command Delimiter is @@ and the email description need to set category field to Printer, then the email description should contain @@Category=Printer@@.

Notes:

• A request can be created / updated / closed / picked up by a technician through e-mails. Operational string "Operation = AddRequest", "Operation = EditRequest", "Operation = CloseRequest" and "Operation = PickupRequest" is used for this purpose.

•     To update, pick up or close a request through e-mail, the corresponding operational string (EditRequest / PickupRequest / CloseRequest) and the RequestId must be present. If not, the e-mail will be processed normally and treated as a new request.

•       When a request is updated through an e-mail, the conversation will not be added in the request. Hence attachments and inline images in the e-mail will not be updated in the request. However, the update information will be added in the history.If the field name given in the e-mail is not available in the application, then parsing will be excluded for that field.

•    If there is more than one value present for a particular field in an e-mail, then the last value alone will be taken and others will be discarded.

•    Request threads with subject containing the "RequestId" and no operational string (EditRequest) will be updated as a normal conversation and a new request will not be created.

•    The e-mail sender should have a login in the application for the E-mail Parsing to happen.  This is because; various operations that can be handled by a user to parse an e-mail are defined by the user's Role. Request authorization (close a request, pick up a request, update a request, accept closure of a request and so on) are set using Roles in the application.

•    The e-mail sender will be considered as the requester if the requester name is not specified in the e-mail.

Permissions and Parameters supported:

a. If the e-mail sender is a requester with requester permissions, then the fields that be parsed are limited. A requester can parse only those fields that he can view in the request form while creating a request.

b. If the e-mail sender is a technician with technician permissions, then the fields that can be parsed are same as those fields that he can view in the request form while creating a request.

c. Fields that can be parsed are LEVEL, MODE, PRIORITY, URGENCY, IMPACT, IMPACTDETAILS, CATEGORY, SUBCATEGORY, ITEM, GROUP, TECHNICIAN, TECHNICIANEMAIL, REQUESTER, REQUESTEREMAIL, REQUESTID, REQUESTTEMPLATE, REQUESTTYPE, STATUS, SITE, ASSET, RESOLUTION and additional field label (the field label given in the e-mail must match the field label set in the product)

d. To change the fields that a requester or a technician can parse, go to Admin --> Request Templates (under Helpdesk domain), select Default Template and add or remove the fields.

The RequestId present in the description of the e-mail it will be given higher precedence over the RequestId present in the subject of the e-mail.

Using Email Command

•  Using Email Commands the value of the Fixed Fields (like Service, Category, Subcategory etc) and manually created Additional Fields for a specific record can be set while submitting a New Record in the Service Desk through email

• The Email Command feature is applicable only for a "New" incoming mail and will be processed only when the "Submit Email as Ticket" Setting Key is enabled in Settings -> Global Settings

• The Email Commands are specified in the email body enclosed within the Email Command Delimiters in the format “Field Name=Value”, e.g. to set the current Service to “Application Services” and Category to “CRM” the Email Command will be (assuming that the configured Email Command Delimiter is ##):

          ##service=Application Services##

          ##category=CRM##

Notes:

1.  Each Email Command should be an individual line in the email body and there should not be any spaces at the end of each line

2.  The mail has to be composed in “Plain Text” or both “Plain Text and HTML” format.

3.  The Field Name mentioned in an Email Command should be available in the Service Desk Project

4.  The Value mentioned in an Email Command should be available in the Service Desk Project (except for those Additional Fields which are Text Box and Text Area fields)

5.  The value mentioned in an Email Command for an additional field which is a Date field should be in the format "yyyy-mm-dd" and the format for a Date/Time field should be yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm

6.  The value mentioned in an Email Command for an additional field which is a Check Box should be either "Yes" or "No" (Yes=Checked, No=Unchecked)

7.  The field name and value mentioned in an Email Command are not case sensitive

8.  Ticket State cannot be set by an Email Command

9.  The form fields like Title, Sub-Title, Grid Control, Static Grid etc are not supported for updating by Email Command

Using  Email Subject Filter

• If the specified string matches the subject line of an incoming email then that email will be considered for Email Command processing

• Please specify the email subject filter string enclosed between the set of below special characters:

          ~, !, @, #, $, %, ^, & and *

• Please note that the set of special characters used before and after the string should be the same

• Examples of valid email subject filter strings:

          #EmailAlert#, #Email Alert#, ##EmailAlert##, #@EmailAlert#@ etc

• Examples of invalid email subject filter strings:

          {EmailAlert}, #EmailAlert@, #EmailAlert##, #@EmailAlert@# etc

Using Email Command Delimiter

• Specify the Email Command Delimiter string to search in the body of an incoming email to identify the Email Commands

• The Email Command Delimiter should contain only the following special characters without spaces between them:

          ~, !, @, #, $, %, ^, & and *

• Space / Numbers / Alphabets and other special characters are not allowed.

• Examples of valid Email Command Delimiter strings:

          #, @, ##, @@, #@, ##@ etc

• Examples of invalid Email Command Delimiter strings:

          # #, #/#, @ @, ##text## etc

Various Fixed Fields supported are

•          Service

•          Category

•          Sub Category

•          Derived Field 1, Derived Field 2, Derived Field 3

•          Request Type

•          Urgency

•          Impact

•          Location

•          Department

•          Title

•          Description

•          CI (Asset)

Various Additional Fields supported and the format of their value is