Creating Issues

A set of rules is used to interpret the email (i.e.: specific subject) and then determine how to enter the issue into the system. This feature provides the ability for Fast IssueTrack to poll and manage a common mailbox, creating and updating issues as required.

Depending on the mail rule matching the mail, the originator of the email could be emailed a message ("We have received your email, and it will be responded to shortly, ..."). The email would contain a ticket # (the issue Id appended with a random security #). For example, a notification's subject would be in the following format:

"Issue #17 Updated By cjustus (cjustus->pworthing,Open,1,"Demo needs updating") [ID-17-1108148515696]"

The contents of the initial email would become an issue within the system, with properties (priority, project, area, environment, assigned to, etc.) defined by the mail rule. Any attachments in the email would become attachments within the issue. If the email was sent in an HTML format, it would be converted to plain text.

Updating Issues

After a user receives a notification, in order to update the issue they would respond directly to the originator (by either replying to the notification or in a new message, as long as the ticket # is included in the subject, e.g. "[ID-17-1108148515696]" in the example above). This response would be appended to the issue's history, and would also be parsed for instructions to update the issue's fields. For example, including

Status:Ready For Retest
Priority:4
customString:Testing update by email

Random Notes:
- This feature can be particularly complex - mail rules are based on regular expressions, which can be confusing at first. Therefore, we have outlined a few simple examples.
- Testing will require a dedicated email address to have FBT retrieve mail from.
- Testing should not be done from a personal email account because it will extract all emails sent to this account. - Emails that do not match any rules are simply discarded. You may wish to create a catchall in case messages are incorrectly sent.

Mail Rule Notes:
A series of mail must be created. Mail rules are processed in an order defined by the user. When a mail rule matches an incoming message, no additional rules are compared. Mail rules are based on mail headers and regular expressions. Full documentation for regular expressions can be found here
Plain English documentation with examples can be found here

We also support binary operations and bracketing of rules:

Examples of common regular expressions:

Scan for all emails from terry@alceatech.com:
Regular Expression:

Scan for all emails mentioning the word Order:
Regular Expression:

Scan for all emails from Terry containing the text "Order":
Regular Expression:

Create a "Catch-All" rule to catch everything:
Regular Expression:

Mail Management Setup Tutorial

Step 1: Create a return message that will be sent to the user.

"Admin Menu -> Anonymous Email Retrieval ->Return Messages"

In the "Message Name" field, enter a symbolic name for the return message (Ex: OrderResponse)
In the "Message" field, enter the contents of the message to be sent to the user (Ex: Thanks for your email, we are processing it, blah blah blah…)

Step 2: Create your mail rule(s)

"Admin Menu -> Anonymous Email Retrieval -> Mail Rules"

In the "Mail Rule Name" field, enter a symbolic/meaningful name for the rules. (Ex: Order)
In the "Regular Expression" field, you would enter a regular expression for the mail rule. (Ex: "Subject: .*order.*" [without the quotes])
The remaining fields apply to how to handle emails that match the regular expression.
Project, Area, Environment, and Priority.

Select an Assignment Type:

There are 2 assignment types: Simple - Assign issues to a single individual or Complex - for assigning issues to multiple users based on various algorithms. Common options:

• Round-Robin: Assign first issue to A, Assign second to B, Assign third to C, and then repeat (forth to A, fifth to B, etc…)
• Load-Balance: Examine number of open issues assigned to A, B, and C - whoever is least busy gets the next issue.
• Simple: Assign to a single user.

Select a Return Message - This is the message to be sent to the originator of the issue. Do no choose any return message if you do not wish to send the originator an automated response. In our example, we would choose "OrderResponse".

Step 3: Configure your mailbox

"Admin Menu -> Anonymous Email Retrieval -> Mail Server Administration"

A mail processing configuration screen - configuration of a POP account, password, and server, possibly additional info (time between polling). Use the "Submit and Test" button the first time to see that Fast IssueTrack is able to connect correctly to your mailbox.