Updating Issues via Email

In addition to creating new Issues, existing Issues can be updated via email.  You can respond to a FootPrints email notification and have your response threaded to that Issue. Fields like Priority, Status, and custom fields can be updated as well.

FootPrints automatically appends incoming email to the correct Issue in the correct Project. The Project ID number and Issue number are included in the subject of all FootPrints notification email.  You can reply to the mail, leaving the subject intact (and including new information at the top of the email), and the reply is automatically appended to the correct Issue in the correct Project.  In this way, an Agent and customer can have an email conversation that is seamlessly tracked by FootPrints.

To respond to an email notification:

1. In your email reader (Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, etc.), Reply to reply to a FootPrints email notification.
2. Type your response above the line that states When replying, type your text above this line. In this way, FootPrints only takes the latest information that you add, eliminating duplication in the Description.  You must enter your reply above this line.  FootPrints does not append anything below the line to an Issue.

Do not touch the subject of the email; it contains important information about the Issue and Project IDs and is needed by FootPrints to update the correct Issue.

3. To update fields (optional):
4. Update priority—Must be in the form Priority=n (included in the body of the email), where n is the new priority.
5. Update status—Must be in the form Status=x (included in the body of the email), where x is the new status.
6. Update projects fields—Must be in the form FieldName=data (included in the body of the email), where FieldName is the name of the field and data is the field data.
7. Update Address Book fields—Address Book field data can be included in email submissions in the form FieldName=data (included in the body of the email), where FieldName is the name of the Address Book field and data is the field data.  
8. Subject—Any new information added to the subject of the mail will be ignored. Do not change the Issue and Project ID information in the subject, or the Issue will not be updated properly or at all.
9. Update assignees—Add assignees to the assignees list using the syntax:

assignees=+user_ID

or leave out the plus sign and use:

assignees=user_ID

to add an assignee.  Multiple assignees can be added by leaving a space between the user IDs, for example:

assignees=user_ID1 user_ID2 user_ID3

Subtract assignees using a minus sign, as in:

assignees=-user_ID

Subtract multiple assignees by leaving a space between user IDs, as in:

assignees=-user_ID1  -user_ID2  -user_ID3

You can also add and subtract assignees in the same email as in the following example:

assignees=+user_ID1  -user_ID2 +user_ID3

where the user IDs user_ID1 and user_ID3 are added to the Issue as assignees and user_ID2 is removed from the Issue as an assignee.

Add or subtract teams using the same syntax as for individuals unless there is a blank space in the team name.  If the team name contains a blank space, enclose the team name in double quotation marks.  Please note that team names are case sensitive.

For example, to add Team1 and Team 3 and remove Team 2, the syntax might be:

assignees=Team1 -"Team 2" +"Team 3"

You can also combine teams and individuals using the syntax described above.

• Time tracking—You can add time to an Issue, set the billing rate for an Issue, and add a comment to Issue time tracking via email. If time tracking is not enabled for the project, the text will be processed as a normal description.
• Time—Add time to an issue. Users can only enter a non-zero time value. The syntax for adding time to an Issue is as follows:

time=20

The above syntax would add twenty minutes to the time tracking on an Issue.

time=20m

The above syntax would add twenty minutes to the time tracking on an Issue.

time=1h

The above syntax would add one hour to the time tracking on an Issue.

time=1h 20m

The above syntax would add one hour and twenty minutes to the time tracking on an Issue.

• Billing Rate—Set the billing rate for an Issue. This can be set as a value or as a description (refer to Billing Rates for more information). Only rates that are set for agents on the Edit Agents page can be entered here. Invalid rates are not accepted. The syntax for setting rate is:

time rate=44.50

The above syntax would set the billing rate to 44.50 per hour of the currency for the Project.

time rate=$44.50

The above syntax would set the billing rate to $44.50 per hour. You can use any appropriate currency symbol.

time rate=description

The above syntax would set the billing rate to a description that was set by the administrator (refer to Billing Rates for more information).

• Comment—Enter a single line of text as a time tracking comment. If the mail client wraps it to multiple lines, the other lines will be lost in the time tracking comments, but the rest of the comment will be included as part of the description. The syntax for entering a time tracking comment is as follows:

comment=single_line_of_text

• Combination of time and rate—You can combine an entry to enter both a time and rate for an Issue as in the following example:

time=$44.50, 1h 30m

4. Click Send to send the update to FootPrints. The Issue is updated within a few minutes. If the email rules are configured to send email updates to the customer and/or assignees, email notification of your changes are sent.

 NOTE

You can only update Issues to which you have “write” access.  These include Issues to which you are assigned if you are an Agent or all Issues if you are an administrator. If CC updates are allowed, then you can update the Description of any Issue even if you are not assigned as an Agent. If the update is not allowed, you receive an error notification via email.

The Issue is updated with the new message that the user writes in the Description, and the Issue is closed. Note that the email program (Microsoft Outlook) inserted headers regarding the original message above the line. FootPrints detects this information and discards it.  Only the new message written by the user is included. Because the user wrote Status=Closed on a separate line, the Issue is also closed.  Also note that the Issue (Entry) number and Project ID are included in the subject of the mail. These must remain for the update to occur.

Appending Description

Customer, Agent, and Administrator users can append a new description to any existing Issue to which they are assigned.  

The formatting of the email is as follows:

• Subject—The subject of the email must include the phrase:

ENTRY=n

where n is the Issue number.  Anything else in the Subject is ignored.

• Body—The body of the email becomes the new description.

If the user is not assigned to the Issue, he/she receives an error notification email, and the description is not appended.