[rt-users] Import data from another ticketing system

[Hersker, Steve]

> >
> > I'm very new to RT and am hoping to replace our existing commercial help
> > desk ticketing software with RT. But, we've been using this other app
> for
> > almost four years and have 20,000+ tickets in it....I'd hate to walk
away
> from
> > that history and am hoping to find a way to import it into RT.
> 
> What commercial help desk are you speaking of?  It's possible someone
> else has created a migration tool already.  I've inspected the
> database that RT relies on, and I'm sure there are some straight
> forward ways to import that data.  AFAICT, the API allows you to hand
> craft a new script to do just this.  My advisement is be patient, and
> keep a few backups of your existing RT setup on hand.  Sure, you can
> reinstall, but it's easy enough to drop the database, recreate and
> reimport from a previous backup if something goes awry.
> 
> Good luck!  I'd like to know more about this myself.  I have a
> ticketing system I plan to do this with in the near future. (That
> ticket system is from scratch as an inhouse tool however...)

Sorry the response to this was so delayed...had to travel for work, so I've
been out of pocket...

To answer your questions, Scott, we're using Helpstar v8.1 by Helpdesk
Technology. It's not bad - but it's Windows client, has too many features we
don't use and doesn't have some features we do need.

Next up is to see if I can extract the data from Helpstar in a format
useable to import in to RT. I'm fairly sure I can get it moved over to a
mySQL database on the same server as RT. Can anyone point me to some
resources on the RT cli? I've been all over the WIKI and have the Best
Practical Essentials, but I think I'm still missing the big picture...And,
any recommendations on "beginners PERL to access mySQL" would be
appreciated.

Lastly, assuming the worst (that I can't get the data imported), is there a
way I can "seed" the first RT ticket #...if I can at least have my engineers
know that any ticket above 20000 is in RT and anything below is in Helpstar,
they'd at least know where to look.

Thanks!
Steve