A user sent an email to our support address, which successfully created a new ticket. However, one minute later, the user forwarded the same email again. Instead of generating a new ticket, this second email was merged as an update to the initial ticket.
The email subject did not contain the "{ticket-ID}" text, so why did this occur?
When Helpdesk receives an email, it first checks the subject line for a ticket number enclosed in curly braces.
Email subject {67854293}
If it detects such a number, the message is appended to the corresponding existing ticket.
The situation becomes more complex when the ticket number is absent from the subject. In such cases, the application needs to determine whether to create a new ticket or if the communication is a reply to an existing one, thus avoiding the creation of duplicates.
Consider a common scenario: a user emails the helpdesk while cc'ing another individual. If that individual then "replies to all", their email reaches the helpdesk app without a {ticket-ID} in the subject line. Nevertheless, this message is essentially a reply to an ongoing conversation.
To tackle this, our application checks the SMTP headers of the incoming email, specifically "Message-ID", "References", and "In-Reply-To". If any of these headers include a value that matches an existing ticket's message ID, the new message will be appended to that ticket. This design allows for seamless conversation flow, even if responses occur outside of our application.
If the message's ID does not match any existing tickets, a new ticket will be created.
To ensure that a brand new ticket is created, please avoid using "reply" or "forward" features in your email software when contacting your support address with new content. Instead, compose a new email from scratch.
Additionally, you may want to adjust the "days to allow reopen" setting under "Admin - General settings". This setting ensures that if a ticket has been closed, any new related messages will generate new tickets.
If an email has mistakenly been appended to an existing ticket, you can easily select "Copy this comment into a new ticket" from the popup menu next to the reply. This will help you separate the discussions as needed.