Setting Up E-mail Integration
In addition to enabling users to submit issues through Web views, you can configure HelpDesk to directly accept issues submitted by e-mail, as well as keep track of all e-mail conversations associated to the issue. This provides an easy-to-use interface with which most users are already familiar, and enables support staff to manage e-mail exchanges with users without having to spend time entering the details of conversations.
To configure your system to accept e-mail issues:
Open Web Admin using one of the following methods:
In your Web browser, enter //server/helpdeskadmin, where server is the name of your Web server.
In HelpDesk Admin, click Tools > Web > Web Admin.
At the Web server, click Start > All Programs > Vector > HelpDesk > HelpDesk Web Admin.
Log on as a user that belongs to the HelpDesk Administrators group.
In Web Admin, click the E-mail tab and click Incoming Mail.
Select the Project for which you want to enable e-mail integration.
The E-mail Integration Process
Configuring HelpDesk to accept issues submitted by e-mail is a multi-stage process:
Click Add a new Integration to enter the details of an e-mail address you want to use to submit issues to the project and keep the e-mail exchanges. The Add E-mail Integration Account window is displayed.
For each e-mail address, you want HelpDesk to monitor, you must specify:
1. The information that will enable HelpDesk to access the account. (See “ Specifying the E-mail Integration Account”.)
2. The rules that govern how incoming e-mails are handled. (See “ Mail Handling”.)
3. The information you want to copy from the e-mail to the associated issue, and default values for non-mapped fields. (See “ Mapping E-mail Fields to Issue Fields”.)
When you have completed entering the details of the E-mail Integration Account, select Enable this integration , and click OK to save your changes.
Specifying the E-mail Integration Account
Before HelpDesk can convert e-mails to issues, you must specify the addresses that you want to use for submitting issues.
To specify the details of the e-mail account you want to integrate with HelpDesk:
1. In the Hostname field, enter the name or IP address of the POP e-mail server that handles incoming e-mail.
2. In the Port field, enter the port through which the e-mail server communicates. By default, POP uses port 110.
3. Enter a Logon and a Password for the account that HelpDesk will use to access the e-mail server.
Mail Handling
Mail-handling rules determine how e-mails sent to the address specified in the Incoming E-mail Server section are processed.
When an e-mail is received, HelpDesk compares the e-mail fields with the conditions specified in the first entry of the rules list. If the e-mail matches all conditions specified in the rule, HelpDesk executes the specified actions, and then processes the next e-mail. If any of the conditions in the rule are not met, HelpDesk tests the e-mail against the conditions specified in the next rule, until it reaches the end of the rule list.
It is recommended to place a rule that has an Action Type of Queue as the last rule in the list to cover the possibility that the e-mail does not meet the conditions of any rule in the list, in which case, the e-mail will be automatically added to the E-mail Queue for manual processing.
To create an e-mail rule:
In the Mail Handling section, click the Add button. The Add Rule window is displayed.
Enter a Rule Name.
Enter the conditions you want the rule to test for. For example, to test the Body of the e-mail for the word problem:
1. Enable the first empty condition by selecting its check box.
2. Click <Field> and select Body.
3. Click Is Equal to and select Contains.
4. Type problem in the entry field.
5. Next, enter the actions you want the system to perform when all the conditions are met.
For example, to configure the system to create an issue and send a reply to the person who sent the e-mail:
1. Select the Integrate e-mail with HelpDesk check box.
2. Select Create New Issue using these values.
By default, HelpDesk completes the issue using the field mappings defined in the Issue Completion section of the Edit E-mail Integration Account window. To override these mappings for this rule only, click these values. For more information, see “ Mapping E-mail Fields to Issue Fields” .
1. Select Send an e-mail to <Reply to Sender> to send an acknowledgement to the submitter. (For more information, see “ Defining E-mails”) .
6. Click OK to save the rule. The rule is added to the bottom of the mail-handling list.
7. Select the rule and click the Up and Down arrows to specify the processing order for the rule.
In most systems, the first rule checks whether an e-mail refers to an existing issue to avoid the possibility of creating duplicate issues. The easiest way to create this rule is to specify a condition that checks whether the e-mail contains a reference to an existing issue. If there is no match, only then should the system go on to check whether the e-mail contains details of a new issue.