Request

Allow creation of tickets, tasks, etc by mail / #5516

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Summary

v0.085 - refactor query filters
open
Jun 7, 2007
Jun 7, 2007 / guest
Jun 11, 2008 / pixtur
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suggested
 

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Allow sending mails to Streber.
Streber should place all received emails in a queue where someone with the necessary privileges
can convert them to a new task, a new issue, a wiki article, ...

If the mail contains some kind of reference to an existing task, issue, ... add it automatically
as a response to that existing item. (or maybe notify the corresponding admin that a new response was mailed
and that he should approve it before being added)

Products like Eventum (eventum.mysql.org) or Request Tracker (www.bestpractical.com/rt) already have this feature


also see double tasks:

3 Comments

pixtur

May 13, 2008
version 2
Really important?
I vote agains this feature because it seems unrelavant. Later it might be doable by an API.

guest

Jun 10, 2008
Importart - yes
I'd like to be able to do things like:
  • Have a open project called "maintain colo hardware".
  • Set a task "Upgrade memory" with sub-task "check quotes from vendors".
  • Then I'd email the vendors for some pricing.
  • It would be good to be able to forward these emails into streber.
Since a Task, Folder, Document and Topic are pretty much the same thing. And files can be "attached" to all of these. It would seem straight-forward to just import the email as a Task (which can be changed to a XXX later). Use the subject as a task name, email body as description and attachments as task file attachments. User would be defined by the From: email, and maybe a virtual project "Inward Email" could be use as a mediating point between inward email and final location in streber.

Note, I think that full ticket management by something like RT should be done by RT. It might be nice if there was an API so some interaction could occur, but the above might cover a lot of situations.

My view is that projects tend to collect requirements, allocate tasks and provide resources/information so the tasks can met the requirements. Being able to have a "conversation" via email with a Project is secondary, but being able to add information via email would be very useful and save a lot of time.

Nicholas

pixtur

Jun 11, 2008
version 2
balancing
Although I agree about the functionality you request I also see the implementation side. Adding some kind of email client to streber not only be a lot of work, it would be code that is not really relevant for the core features. Even given this handler is easy to code (which I doubt), it would stay in the project forever and need additional future resources for maintaining. I really learned that additional code will lead to additional problems.
That's why we should invest the time into writing an API (which shouldn't be that hard) and write a neatly separated data wrapper in perl or python to convert e-mails into API.calls ala 
<xml>
<action
 function="taskNew" 
 accountId="123"
>
  <task>
   <name>xc</name>
  </task>
<action>

Considering the current speed of development this might be a pretty distant future.

 
 

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