[rt-users] Tool for canned responses

[Marc Hedlund]

We use RT to track feedback on our site.  We often get frequently asked
questions (despite a FAQ list...) and want to quickly respond to them.  I
wrote a utility to use JavaScript to insert a set of canned responses into
the reply form in RT, and thought it might be useful to others.

It will require a little configuration, which is documented in comments at
the head of the script.  Basically you make a directory of canned
responses, where the first line of each file is a description, and the
rest is the response.  Then run the script, and modify one line of
rt/lib/rt/ui/web/forms.pm to point to the generated JavaScript
file.  That's all it should take.

Let me know if you have suggestions or wind up using this.  Enjoy.

-Marc <marc at popularpower.com>

	     Give your computer something to dream about.    (tm)
		 Popular Power - www.popularpower.com

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#!/usr/bin/perl -w

# cannery - produce a JavaScript file to insert canned responses for RT
# Copyright (c) 2000 Marc Hedlund <marc at popularpower.com> 

###########
# LICENSE #
###########

# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
# WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
# General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
# Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307
# USA

################
# INSTRUCTIONS #
################

# This script auto-generates a JavaScript file (canned.js) to write a
# 'select' pop-up menu into the RT reply form, from which an RT queue
# member can select a canned response to insert into the reply
# textarea.  (See <http://www.fsck.com/projects/rt/> for more about
# RT.)  Canned responses are read from a set of plaintext files in the
# firectory named by $formdir, below.  These files should be written
# so that the first line describes the canned response -- this is the
# line that will be shown in the pop-up menu.  The rest of the file is
# the response itself, which will be inserted into the top of the
# reply textarea.  
#
# Running this script will write the JavaScript file into the $basedir
# directory specified below, which should be a directory in the
# document root of the Web server running RT.  Once that is done,
# insert the following line at line 378 rt/lib/rt/ui/web/forms.pm
# (relative to the rt home directory), just above the textarea tag: 
#
#  <script language=\"JavaScript1.1\" src=\"/etc/rt/canned.js\"></script>
#
# where "/etc/rt/canned.js" points to the file generated by running
# this script, starting at the document root of the Web server.
#
# That's all you should have to do to install canned responses.  When
# you come up with more to add, just drop them in the 'uncanned'
# directory and re-run 'cannery' -- they will be added immediately.
#
# If you have comments or suggestions about this script, please let me
# know.  Thanks!  --Marc Hedlund <marc at popularpower.com>

use strict;
use diagnostics;

my $basedir = "/home/www/in.popularpower.com/etc/rt";
my $formdir = "$basedir/uncanned";

open(INSERT, ">$basedir/canned.js")
    or die "Unable to write to canned.js: $!\n";

print INSERT &header();

opendir(FORMS, "$formdir")
    or die "Unable to read $formdir: $!\n";

my @formletters = grep { $_ ne '.' and $_ ne '..' } readdir FORMS;

closedir FORMS;

my $bodyformat = <<'FORMAT';
~~           "^<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< " +
FORMAT

for (my $idx = 0; $idx < scalar(@formletters); $idx++) {
    my $formfile = $formletters[$idx];

    open(FORM, "$formdir/$formfile")
	or warn "Unable to open $formfile: $!\n";

    my $linecount = '';
    my @formlines = map { 
	if ($_ =~ /\w/) {
	    $linecount++;
	    chomp $_; 
	    $_ =~ s/\"/\\\"/g; 
	    $_ . " ";
        } elsif ($linecount > 1) {
	    '\n\n';
	} else {
            '';
        }
    } <FORM>;
    
    close FORM;

    my $question = shift @formlines;
    my $answer   = join('', @formlines);
    my $formanswer = swrite($bodyformat, $answer);

    $question   =~ s/\s+$//;
    $formanswer =~ s/\s+\"\s\+\s*$/\ \"\ \+/mg;

    print qq(Writing template "$question"...\n);

    print INSERT "new template(\"$formfile\", \"$question\",\n$formanswer\n";
    print INSERT '             "\n\n");' . "\n\n";
}

while (my $line = <DATA>) {
    print INSERT $line;
}

sub swrite {
    my $format = shift;
    $^A = "";
    formline($format, @_);
    return $^A;
}

sub header {
    return <<'HEADER';
/*
 * This file is auto-generated by the "cannery" script.
 * Please don't edit this file -- edit the "cannery" script and
 * re-run it instead.  If you want to enter a new template, just put a
 * new plaintext file in the "formletters" directory, where the first
 * line is the question to be answered, and the rest of the lines are
 * the answer.
 *
 * "cannery" written by Marc Hedlund <marc at popularpower.com>
 */

/*
 * Set up data structures
 */

var questions = new Object();
var answers   = new Object();

/*
 * Build the canned response entries.  These are drawn from the 
 * "uncanned" directory.
 */

HEADER
}

__DATA__
/*
 * This is the closing line that will be inserted at the bottom of
 * every template.
 */

var closing = "Thanks very much for taking the time to write to us!\n\n";

/*
 * Nothing below here should be changed in the usual case -- this is
 * just the 'guts'.  If you do make changes below that you think would
 * be generally useful, let me know!  <marc at popularpower.com>
 */

// Write out the select tag and the embedded option tags.

writeMenu();

// Functions, called above or from the HTML page.

/*
 * Adds an entry to the canned response collection.
 */

function template(key, question, answer) {
  questions[key] = question;
  answers[key]   = answer;
}

/*
 * Writes a menu of canned responses into the current HTML page
 */

function writeMenu() {
  document.writeln('<br><select name="templates" size="1"' +
                   'onChange="insert(document.reply.content, ' +
                   'document.reply.templates)">');
  
  document.writeln('  <option value="none" selected>Select a template...');

  for (var key in questions) {
    document.writeln('  <option value="' + key + '">' + questions[key]);
  }

  document.write("</select>\n\n");
}

/*
 * Inserts a canned response selected by the user into the reply 
 * textarea.
 */

function insert(textarea, select) {
  for (var i = 0; i < select.options.length; i++) {
    var option = select.options[i];
    if (option.selected && option.value != "none") {
      textarea.value =
        answers[option.value] + closing + textarea.value;
    }
  }
}