When receiving emails for existing tickets, the i-net HelpDesk requires a reference to this ticket. The following parameters allow various settings to make this reference as unique as possible for external systems.

A supporter can send an email from a ticket. In this case, the i-net HelpDesk server automatically inserts the following combination into the subject of the e-mail:

• the keyword TicketID + specific ticket number + a string of letters.
• e.g. TicketID 3246MKHH.

When replying by email, the i-net HelpDesk server recognizes from this keyword that the email is a reply to an existing ticket. Therefore, the ticket number and a letter string are expected after the keyword.

You can now place one or more characters before and after the combination to mark this part of the subject as not relevant for the user but presumably "technically necessary".

In the following example, an opening and closing square bracket have been used respectively, which are displayed for order number 500 with the keyword TicketID: [TicketID 500OOJ]

The term TicketID appearing in the subject of a sent mail can be replaced by another letter number sequence WITHOUT spaces. Each term in the list will be interpreted as a keyword. the term TicketID will always be considered as a keyword. In future reply emails to the i-net HelpDesk, all terms in the list will be evaluated in the subject.

With the button Add ticket ID format an alternative keyword is added.

• Example: Previously "TicketID" and now new term "OrderNo".

Important: Alternatively select a keyword as term that is usually NOT included in the subject of an email. Not recommended is, for example, as a keyword ID. If the i-net HelpDesk server now reads an e-mail that contains the string ID in the subject, among other things, then an order number plus letter sequence is expected behind it. If this information is missing, the e-mail is rejected as invalid. The sender receives a corresponding e-mail.

The Unique Server ID is used to expand the ticket numbers in sent e-mails to ensure that the e-mail is intended for the current i-net HelpDesk server in case of subsequent replies with this ticket number and server ID combination. This server ID is initially created automatically, but can be customized by the administrator as desired.

The concrete ticket number for the email is created using the following rule: XXXYYZZZ, where:

• XXX is the ticket number, of any length, determined by the i-net HelpDesk server.
• YYY check character with the same number of characters as the ticket number.
• ZZZ additional server ID with any number of characters.

By default, the keyword TicketID plus order number and letter string are placed at the end of the subject. This behavior can be changed here.

The i-net HelpDesk can communicate with foreign service desk systems. The problem is not so much possible auto-reply "ping-pong" loops, as the i-net HelpDesk only sends an auto-reply initially when a new ticket is created.

Further information

The i-net HelpDesk server automatically retrieves emails from one or more mailboxes. The retrieval interval can be defined here. It is also possible to have the email reception date set as the request date, and to expand the positive list of permitted file types in attachments.

By default, the i-net HelpDesk server retrieves the assigned mailboxes every 10 minutes. You can change this time interval here, usually to a single digit lower minute range.

When activated, the date of email reception is used as inquiry date instead of the date reading the email.

Normally, an email from the mailbox is immediately read in as a ticket by the i-net HelpDesk server within the retrieval interval. In the following exceptional case, the checkbox Email receipt date as request date helps:

• The i-net HelpDesk service is not available, e.g. on weekends.
• Now a customer writes a support email during this period.
• Since the i-net HelpDesk service is not running, the customer's email remains in the mailbox.
• On Monday morning, the i-net HelpDesk service is started again, it reads the mailbox and creates new tickets.
• Now the date of ticket creation is taken as the date the email was received in the mailbox.

The following is also affected:

• Date of 'Email received' steps
• Check if the reactivation of a ticket is allowed according to the configured interval
• Date of recalculation of the deadline on reactivation if recalculation of the deadline is activated.

If the i-net HelpDesk is reading more than one mail account, it may happen that users send one and the same email to multiple accounts. With this option activated such a mail is being read only by the first email account. The first account is the one that appears first in the To: recipient field in the email.

Note: Mailboxes are assigned to recipient addresses via the Account Email Address, which is assigned to each mailbox in the configuration. If no email address is entered there, these mailboxes cannot be considered for this function.

Note: Only single emails sent to multiple mailboxes can be intercepted with this. Multiple identical emails, each going to a different mailbox, cannot be detected.

i-net HelpDesk can detect auto-reply emails automatically if those emails are properly labelled. Those emails are often automatic answers (Auto-Reply) of other systems or out-of-office message (OutOfOffice) of colleagues being on vacations. In such cases the email is being read, but the following changes will apply:

• No Automails will be sent
• If the corresponding ticket is still open it will not be marked as 'unread'.
• If the corresponding ticket is closed it will not be reactivated.
• If no corresponding ticket can be found, then a new ticket will be created anyway, without Automails.

The following headers let i-net HelpDesk detect incoming emails as auto-reply. In case this does not work as expected for your communication, please check the headers in the emails of you mailserver or mailservers.

• Auto-Submitted (auto-replied)
• X-Autoreply
• X-autorespond
• Precedence (bulk, auto_reply, list, junk)
• X-Precedence (bulk, auto_reply, list, junk)

The blacklist and whitelist settings can be used to control the display of ticket history to end users or customers. There may be email communication within tickets that should not be visible to end users - for example, communication with an external service provider or similar.

It is possible to specify a blacklist of addresses and domains whose emails should not be displayed to the end user. Alternatively, a positive list can be defined, which contains the addresses and e-mail domains whose emails should be displayed to the end user. All other emails will then not be displayed to the end user.

Emails that are not to be displayed to the end user are assigned the action "Receive email (do not display to end user)" when the email is received.

Tickets in i-net HelpDesk can be changed by incoming emails. This is useful, for example, if an external support company does some additional work and sends the result to the i-net HelpDesk via email. The parameters for recognizing the data field as well as the value to be set (key-value pair) is set in this dialog.

Additional information