You can have the system automatically convert emails into new issues through Incoming Email (IEM). You may configure Issuetrak to retrieve messages from Exchange, IMAP, POP3, or Office365 mailboxes. If you are also using Issue Notifications or any Outgoing Email in your site, IEM will also convert Replies or Forwards related to those messages into notes on their originating issues.
Once configured, Issuetrak will log into the designated mailbox and process any messages in the Inbox folder that are unread into the Issuetrak site. Issuetrak will then attempt to determine if the message is a response to an issue that already exists and if it is unable to match the message to an Issue, a new Issue will be created based upon the settings configured in the mailbox.
If there is a problem processing a message an email will be sent to the designated Notify on Error user, this user is designated at the bottom of the Incoming Email settings for the account in question. The "Notify on Error" message sent will state what mailbox is having the issue as well as the reason for the failure.
To see the available setting options for Incoming Email features, please see our Managing IEM Mailboxes article.
Adding Notes to Existing Issues
The easiest way to add a note to an issue is to reply to its associated outgoing email notification you have received from Issuetrak. However, you can manually reply or forward a message by adding the appropriate subject to the beginning.
Normally, Issuetrak requires that users have visibility on an issue in order to add notes. The option "Require users to have issue visibility to add notes" can be unchecked on the IEM mailbox configuration page in order to remove this requirement and allow users that cannot view the issue to add notes to it.
IEM searches the subject line of each email message for special values that would indicate this message is a response to an existing issue.
The following subject line prefixes are supported by IEM:
- RE:
- VL:
- REF:
- TRS:
- FW:
- SV:
- TR:
- RV:
- FWD:
- ODP:
- Vá:
- ENC
- AW:
- BETR:
- Továbbítás:
- PD:
- FS:
- CV:
- R:
- YNT:
- VS:
- RES:
- RIF:
- ILT:
- WG:
- Antw:
- I:
- ATB:
- VB:
- Doorst:
- BLS:
- YML:
- ??:
- RV:
- İLT:
- ΑΠ:
- ΠΡΘ:
- ΣΧΕΤ:
- הועבר:
- השב:
- إعادةتوجيه:
- رد:
- பதில்:
- முன்னனுப்பு:
- 回复:
- 回覆:
- 轉寄:
- 转发:
Example Subjects
- RE: Issue #1234
- RE: Issue #2345 - Server is down
- FW: Issue #65432
- FW: Issue #555 - Need assistance!
Private Notes
The incoming email module allows replies to email, sent from Issuetrak to be parsed and added as Notes on the sending issue. By default, the notes added to the issue will be set to public. There is one case where that is not true: in a case where a user has the user permission, “Can view and add Private Notes” and where "Private" is enabled on the System Defaults screen. If this combination is in place, then the notes added through replies using the Incoming Email Module will also be set to private.
Application-Level Considerations
There is no limit to the number of mailboxes IEM can process. Each of these mailboxes may reside on a different server and have different access credentials. In addition, each one can be processed differently based on its settings within your Issuetrak interface. This includes —whether or not the system:
- Deletes messages from the mailbox server after processing
- Applies a size limit to the individual Attachments it will add to issues
- Applies a default Assignment, Issue Template, Class, and / or Issue Type to new issues
- Tries to determine Issue Type / Subtypes for new issues using the Subject line
- Tries to determine an Issue Template to use to create new issues using the Subject line
- Adds Subscribers to issues based on the CC line
- Accepts only messages from existing users or from unknown users by:
- Using a default user record to submit their issues
- Using a template to create their user record, then submit their issue
- Using simple defaults to create their user record, then submit their issue
- Emails login credentials to new users it creates from a sender and / or CC line
- Reopens closed issues when additional replies are received
- Accepts only a certain number of messages from the same user within a certain number of minutes (to prevent email loops)
Across all your IEM mailboxes, there are additional options you can configure.
| Option | Definition |
|---|---|
| Email Tokens | When included in an email, it will change values in certain fields, such as user-defined fields, or perform a specific action such as assign or close. |
| Keywords | Specific words or phrases that trigger an email to be bounced and not processed, such as common auto-reply or spam terms. |
| Excluded text | Standard confidentiality or disclaimer statements that are left out of the text when emails are processed. |
| Blocked attachments | Specific attachments that can be excluded from processing, such as a logo or other image file included in email signatures. |
Server-Level Considerations
The messages in your mailbox are processed as quickly as the set frequency of the Windows Scheduled Task controlling IEM. The scheduled task is always deployed with an initial start time of 12:12 AM and set to run every 2 minutes by default with a random offset between 0-120 seconds.
The scheduled task consists of two processes that are launched consecutively: The Email Retriever and the Email Processor. Premises customers can change the frequency of this task, however, it is important that the frequency not be set too short. Especially with multiple mailboxes, you should give the task enough time to process all of its mailboxes before it is set to run again or performance problems can occur.
The system inserts"Submitted by direct email to [Mailbox Account ID]"in the Issue Description or Note as it converts email messages. This is the only noticeable difference between how the system responds to issues or notes added through IEM and those entered through the site’s interface. All other processes will apply as normal, such as Issue Notifications, Workflows, Substatus Rules, Service Level Agreements, etc.
Logging Considerations
There are two logs maintained for Incoming Email: The Product log and the Service log.
The Product log is kept for informational purposes and logs the content of every email processed by Issuetrak. You can locate it by clicking the gear icon in the top right to open the Settings Lightbox > Incoming Email beneath Email > View Log on the right context menu.
The Service log is generated by the Incoming Email Scheduled Task and contains information related to the Web server's communication with the Incoming Email server(s), as well as receiving and processing the emails into issues. Each log file will be up to 20MB. Once a file reaches 20MB, a new log file is created. Up to 10 log files will be kept. The Service log is stored in each Issuetrak site's web folder within pathto:\WebFolder\Services\IEM\Logs\.