[rt-users] XML & RT

[Adrian Carter]

Only reason I mention XML is I want to list queue contents per user etc, 
and want to offer re-formating within the shell of the portal system we 
have. Also would be nice to auto-create, check and resolve ticket 
statuses for processes like provisioning.

*shrug*

REST looks like it will do it, but not sure of a good REST / PERL 
interface. or REST/PHP for that matter. Also the REST documentation is.. 
umm.. as far as I can see.. non-existant. Wiki yields nothing, and other 
than using lateral thinking and the Interface directory, theres no 
documentation of the functions.

SOAP seemed doable, since I've done some PHP stuff with SOAP before, and 
the PERL stuff is similar. Once again though, Jesse's SOAP interface was 
written RT 3.0.2 and so dunno about its value against 3.4.2 . if someone 
can enlighten me...

I'm open to suggestions....

Howard Jones wrote:

> Adrian Carter wrote:
>
>> Can anyone point me towards some documentation of RT and XML?
>>
>> I wish to use XML to pull information into a customer management 
>> system and would like to know if there is something more current than 
>> the SOAP interface or if there is docs on the REST interface?
>>
>> Also, can someone point me towards a perl module that they have used 
>> to manipulate RT XML data. is XML::Simple sufficent?
>
>
> Must it be XML? Those three questions together kind of imply that all 
> you really want is any kind of interface, and XML is the trendy way to 
> do it... don't mean to sound rude.
>
> The different perl XML modules vary wildly in what they do - it really 
> really depends on exactly what you need. Do you need to work with an 
> existing DTD, or have files produced to match some existing output 
> (for some program that has a limited parser, say)? XML::Simple is 
> fiddly for that. It's fine for just reading stuff in though, or for 
> when you are the only consumer of your data. I found perl & XML to be 
> pretty frustrating last time I wanted to do something with it, and 
> ended up using VB.net and some XPath stuff which got it done in an 
> hour. YMMV, and it was about a year ago now.
>
> I'd like to know the answer to #2 myself - I think there's a lot that 
> could be done using the REST interface if you could work out how. We 
> have a provisioning database which allows tickets to be created from 
> within it's web interface, and when tickets are closed in RT, the 
> corresponding record in the provisioning database is also updated. 
> That uses the NoAuth mail gateway to submit tickets, and a custom 
> Scrip to update the other way.
>
> In case it's of use to anyone:
>
> In the provisioning DB:
>
> <form target="RT_crosswindow" 
> action="http://www.company.com/rt/REST/1.0/NoAuth/mail-gateway" 
> method="POST">
> <input type=SUBMIT value="Create RT Ticket"><input type=HIDDEN 
> name="queue" value="9">
> <TEXTAREA NAME="message" COLS=70 ROWS=6>From: requestor at customer.co.uk
> Subject: Customer ID xyz
> Queue: broadband
> X-DBReference: 5522545
> </TEXTAREA>
> </form>
>
> (I never did get around to making it a hidden field - the idea was to 
> have just one button).
>
> In RT, for the appropriate queue:
>
> We use Extract Custom Field Values, to put that X-DBReference: header 
> into a Custom Field. Then,
>
> On Create, run the following custom action to tell the PDB that 
> there's a ticket open, and what it's ID is:
>
> if($self->TicketObj->FirstCustomFieldValue('DBReference')  ne "")
> {
>     use LWP::Simple qw(get);
>     my $dbref = $self->TicketObj->FirstCustomFieldValue('DBReference');
>     my $state = $self->TransactionObj->NewValue;
>     my $id = $self->TicketObj->id;
>
> get("http://intranet.company.com/api/update-trouble-ticket.php?NewState=".$state."&DBReference=".$dbref."&TicketID=".$id); 
>
>
> }
>
>
> On Status Change, running the following custom action to tell the PDB 
> that the ticket has closed:
>
> if($self->TicketObj->FirstCustomFieldValue('DBReference')  ne "")
> {
>     use LWP::Simple qw(get);
>     my $dbref = $self->TicketObj->FirstCustomFieldValue('DBReference');
>     my $state = $self->TransactionObj->NewValue;
>     my $id = $self->TicketObj->id;
>
> get("http://intranet.company.com/api/update-trouble-ticket.php?NewState=".$state."&DBReference=".$dbref."&TicketID=".$id); 
>
>
> }
>
> Obviously, there's a PHP script on the other side, that's actually 
> updating the database.
>
> None of which answers your question, but it's maybe slightly useful :-)
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Howard
>
>

-- 
Adrian Carter
Technical Manager
Leading Edge Internet

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