CF Web>STToRTDocumentation (2019-01-29, DanielAllen)

ST to RT Documentation

This document is for users familiar with ST who are now going to use RT; and additionally to note CSCF-specific details that aren't documented in the campus RT instructions (see below for campus docs).

RT roles in comparison to ST and who gets Email

The first two roles, Requestor and CC, are for clients on the ticket. Clients may be outside CSCF, or internal. There may be more than one of each.

Requestor - receives an email:

After the request is submitted
After any correspondence/replies
When the request is resolved
Does NOT get email notifications for comments but can see the comments if they login

CC: optional - receives email after any replies/correspondence on the ticket.

The remaining four roles are for people who aren't clients. This possibly includes problem-solvers outside CSCF, however they should only be assigned to Owner and Admin CC.

Owner (to be used as the first "Owner" from ST): Expected to resolve the ticket. An RT can only have ONE owner -- receives an email:

After any transaction on the ticket that they did not do themselves
Includes comments, replies, changing queue, etc.
The ticket Owner also receives email reminders for stale tickets, if reminders have been set up on the queue.

Supporters (to be used as secondary "Owners" from ST): optional; for anyone who is expected to do work on a ticket, but is in a supporting role. An RT can have multiple supporters -- receives same emails as an Owner. CSCF/MFCF-specific and not available for tickets that are outside CSCF/MFCF queues. (Use Admin CC for this role outside CSCF/MFCF).

Accountable (to be used as "Responsible" from ST): optional; for Point of Contact or other person who isn't doing work on the ticket, but is responsible for its resolution. -- receives same emails as an Owner. CSCF/MFCF-specific and not available for tickets that are outside CSCF/MFCF queues. (Use Admin CC for this role outside CSCF/MFCF).

Admin CC (same as ST): optional- for people who expect to be informed about the ticket, but are not expected to do work on the ticket. Receives email:

After any transaction on the ticket that they did not do themselves
Includes comments, replies, changing queue, etc

RT at a glance (Homepage)

Initially when you login to https://rt.uwaterloo.ca

you will be on your RT at a glance page. This page includes:

Quick Search which includes the Queue names and the status
10 highest priority tickets I own
10 newest unowned tickets
Tickets I requested
Quick ticket creation

You can customize this screen by clicking on Logged in as [username] on the top bar, Settings > RT at a glance

The Basics Tab

When on a ticket page, The Basics tab takes you to the Modify ticket window. You can change the following fields here:

Owner
Queue
Time Worked
Priority
Barcode
Machine Name
Location
Summary
Subscription Code

Working with Tickets

Replying

To Reply to the requestor:

Click on the Actions link at the top right then the Reply link or in the body of the request (if you want the request text to appear in your reply, click on the Reply button in that part of the request).
If you want to add a One-Time CC: you can type the full email address of someone. Even if this person has a userid in the RT system you still need to type their full email address here
You can attach files as well; the attachment size is limited to 25 MB
Make sure to hit the Update Ticket button once you're done

Commenting

To comment on a request, follow the same procedure as Replying but click on the Comment link instead

Note: Comments get enetered into the request and can be viewed by the requestor, but are NOT emailed to the requestor

Commenting silently

To comment without sending it to AdminCCs, on the comment page, you can uncheck the "Recipients" checkbox on the upper-left, and saving will result in a recorded comment that doesn't email them. This can be used to record time spent without spamming AdminCCs. Note that you need to include text in the update box (such as "time spent in research"); if the comment text is left blank, but you record time, it will still send email to AdminCCs!

Resolving a ticket silently

As noted elsewhere, resolving a ticket will send email to the requestor(s). If you uncheck the "Recipients" checkbox on the upper-left, you will not "squelch" replies to the requestor, by RT best-practice. This is not UI best-practice, since the checkbox implies you can prevent replies, but that's what RT does.

Priorities

New tickets in CSCF queues will start off as priority 3 by default. Emergencies (and only emergencies) are priority 1. Lowest priority is 5. Tickets coming from other queues may have other priorities recorded; however, 1-5 is the current campus standard.

Statuses

A ticket will start off as New. Change it to Open when you start working on it - if you are owner and make a Reply (to the requester), it will Open automatically. Otherwise you will have to manually change it to Open.
Use Stalled in the same way as with ST.
Use Resolved as done in ST. This will send email to the requestor saying the item has been resolved. You should first communicate with the client to be sure they are in agreement that it can be closed.
Rejected does not send email to the requestor. IST uses Rejected for spam, and/or inappropriate requests that don't require reply to requestor. If the client will be expecting communication about the item, instead first communicate with the client, then you can call their item Resolved.

Preferences

To view ticket comments and replies in a fixed-width font, as ST does to preserve whitespace, set the user preference: "Display plain-text attachments in fixed-width font"
To hide unset fields, go to preferences and scroll all the way down to the last field that says Hide unset fields? , click Yes and Save Changes
Other suggested preference changes:"default queue", "show oldest first", "WYSIWYG editor" (to add a toolbar hidden by an arrow on the right-hand side of the ticket response/comment box)

Sending an email into a ticket

In ST, we could send email to rt-em-gw+NNNNNN@cs.uwaterloo.ca or ST-comment+NNNNN@cs.uwaterloo.ca and that would be added to the appropriate ST item. In RT, any email that you send to rt@uwaterloo.ca with a subject line in the form of : "[UW-RT #NNNNNN] anything can go here, but probably the appropriate subject heading" will be added to the appropriate RT as a reply (sent to requesters). This will include linking in any attachments. Quoted text is collapsed rather than removed.

email may be sent from off-campus to existing tickets in this manner as well.
email to rt-comment@rt.uwaterloo.ca will become a comment (not sent to requesters).

Creating a ticket via email

email from on-campus to rt- queue-name, e.g. rt-cscf-top@rt.uwaterloo.ca, will create a new ticket in that queue.

Searching

There are several different ways to search for ticket information.

Use the Search... box in the top right of your screen:
- When you know the ticket number OR
- To quickly search for a string in the subject line of tickets
- prefix the search with the word "any" to search for tickets with any status (Open or Resolved) - great for finding any tickets on a particular person or topic!
Use the "Simple Search" to quickly search subject lines, queues, etc. (see below for details)
Use the "New Search" (aka Query Builder) to build your own query (see below for details)

NOTES:

Full 'content' searches, will take a few seconds to produce results.
Attachments will not be searched.
Number of tickets found and tickets actually displayed, may not match
- The number of tickets found (displayed at the top as Found 104 tickets) may not match the number of tickets displayed on the screen. You will only see the tickets you have privileges to see, but the system will tell you the total number of tickets found in the database that match your criteria. If you need access to a ticket you cannot see, email rt@uwaterloo.ca for assistance.

Simple Search

NOTE: Simple search will only show tickets with an active status (generally: new, open or stalled), unless a status is specified in the search.
Click on the Search menu and choose Tickets/Simple Search ; search by:
- Ticket number: enter ticket number and click ‘Search’
- Subject search: enter search criteria in quotes (e.g. “printer”) and click ‘Search’
- Queue search: enter queue name (e.g. rt-help) and click ‘Search’
- Owner: type name of a privileged user and click ‘Search’ to see open/new/stalled tickets owned by that user
- Content search: enter fulltext:word (e.g. fulltext:printer) and click ‘Search’
  - fulltext searches cannot be combined with subject search, or other text searches
  - fulltext searches can be combined with a status, queues (e.g. fulltext:printer open)
Combo searches:
- testing jsmith - will result in tickets with ‘testing’ in subject that are owned by jsmith
- rt-help new – will result in tickets in the ‘rt-help’ queue that have a status of new
- fulltext:network open– will result in open tickets that have ‘network’ in the ticket content somewhere
Number of tickets found and tickets actually displayed, may not match
- The number of tickets found (displayed at the top as Found 104 tickets) may not match the number of tickets displayed on the screen. You will only see the tickets you have privileges to see, but the system will tell you the total number of tickets found in the database that match your criteria. If you need access to a ticket you cannot see, email rt@uwaterloo.ca for assistance.
Searches including '-' (dash or hyphen) require a special syntax to escape properly.
- It requires single quotes surrounding double quotes surrounding the search term. eg., '"search-term"'

New Search (aka Query Builder)

To build your own query choose Search/Tickets/New Search.
Choose the relevant criteria:
- Note about searching on Status:
  - If you need to choose a Status, choose the status you are searching for in the default section of the drop down list.
  - If you choose the queue you want to search first (beside Queue - is - ) and click Add these terms, then only the default statuses will be listed beside the Status option.
Click Add these terms and search to see the results of your search.
Tip to simplify searching:
- From your Home screen (a.k.a RT at a glance), click on the queue you want to search first (in the Quick Search section on the right side of your screen)
- Then click the Edit Search link at the top of the page
- You will then be in the Query Builder, and the search will be started for you:
  - Queue will be chosen
  - Statuses will be set to new or open or stalled
  - You can then add additional criteria and click Add these terms to see the complete set of search criteria in the Current Search section of the page.
- Finally, click Add these terms and search, to see the results of your search.
Number of tickets found and tickets actually displayed, may not match
- The number of tickets found (displayed at the top as Found 104 tickets) may not match the number of tickets displayed on the screen. You will only see the tickets you have privileges to see, but the system will tell you the total number of tickets found in the database that match your criteria. If you need access to a ticket you cannot see, email rt@uwaterloo.ca for assistance.
TicketSQL is the search syntax RT uses - documentation here

Saving a search

Once you have created a search, you can save it for future use.

If you are viewing the search results, click on the Edit Search link at the top to return to the Query Builder screen.
Review the search criteria in the Current search box at the top right.
Under Saved searches, beside Description:, enter a name for your saved search.
Beside Privacy, you can choose to save the search just for yourself (My saved searches) or for an RT group you belong to (Groupname's saved searches).
Click the Save button to save the search.

Loading a saved search

To use a seach you previously saved:

Search/Tickets/New Search
Under Saved searches, beside Load saved search:, choose the search from the drop down list.
Click Load.
Click Add these terms and Search.

RT Wiki

The Summary has Wiki formatting. Further details in http://search.cpan.org/~cycles/Text-WikiFormat-0.81/lib/Text/WikiFormat.pm

CSCF TWiki

You can refer to RT items within the twiki with the link form [[/RT#nnnnnn]] - which appears as /RT#nnnnnn - and this will link to the appropriate RT item.
Similarly, you can refer to /ST#nnnnnn.
In both cases, note the leading /
You can refer to a transaction in RT with the link form [[/RT#nnnnnn#txn-nnnnnnn]] , e.g. /RT#595008#txn-9927498 . You can get the transaction number using your browser's "Copy link location" on the "#" anchor to the left of each transaction.

Questions and Answers

Q: When you're on a ticket, what's the easiest way to find other tickets by the same requester? A: In the People section, choose the link next to a person to find recent open/closed tickets involving them.
Q: Can the Dashboard email me search results? A: Yes. From https://rt.uwaterloo.ca/Dashboards/ - check under the "Subscription" column for each dashboard.
Q: What is my default Dashboard? A: "logged in as" yellow menu -> settings -> "RT at a glance" is your default home-screen/dashboard.
Q: How do I make sub-items in a different queue? A: In the "Links" section, at the bottom there is a dropdown to create a type of link, in an arbitrary queue you have access to.
Q: How do I make batches of new tickets at once? A: See RT Batch Creation And Edits