[rt-users] RT and Cc: Header Question...

[Robert Lister]

Greetings,

This might be an FAQ, and if so then I apologize. I am not overly familiar 
with RT, but all my googles for the answer have drawn a blank so far.

If somebody could point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it.

Basically, we mostly use RT internally, between departments via both the 
e-mail gateway and the web UI.

The behavior we need is:-

1. When somebody updates something in the Web interface via "Reply" feature, 
   it e-mails that reply to the people on the ticket. This appears to mostly 
   work at the moment.

2. If somebody chooses to follow up via e-mail, however, this is where the 
   fun begins. On a ticket update, the headers that RT adds to that e-mail 
   are something like this (addresses changed to protect the innocent!)

   
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:55:33 +0000
From: Robert Lister via RT <it-projects at rt.linx.net>
Reply-To: it-projects at rt.linx.net
To: fred at linx.net, helpdesk at linx.net
Cc: engineering at linx.net, helpdesk at linx.net, alice at linx.net, lou at linx.net,
        management at linx.net, betty at linx.net
Subject: Re: [rt.linx.net #18788] Contacts Directory Project

It does this because all of those people are either on the ticket, 
or are ticket watchers.

However, when somebody, in their mail client chooses to reply 
to this e-mail, they cannot usually tell which Cc: headers have been added 
by RT, or may have been added by the sender, so, the natural thing to think 
when you receive one of these e-mails and you want to reply, is that all of 
these Cc: headers must have been added for a reason, so the user hits 
"Reply to All"

This sends multiple copies of the e-mail to various lists and has people 
here foaming at the mouth when they get many copies of the same message. 
Take for example "alice at linx.net" who is a watcher on the ticket, and is on 
the mailing lists engineering and management. Alice will receive 6 copies of 
the same ticket update:

1. One sent directly from the e-mail responder to alice at linx.net
2. One sent directly from the e-mail responder by virtue of being on
   the list engineering at linx.net.
3. One sent directly from the e-mail responder by virtue of being on
   the list management at linx.net.

Then, RT will redistribute it again because of the copy sent to 
it-projects at rt.linx.net so Alice will get more messages:-

4. One sent by RT to alice at linx.net.
5. One sent by RT to management at linx.net.
6. One sent by RT to engineering at linx.net.

This also makes it difficult for users to pick out from the headers which 
Cc: headers have been added via RT, and which people are Cc:d but not on the 
ticket (you have to look *carefully* at the *correct copy* of the message!)
It also leads to people thinking they are on tickets when they are not.

It also presents the illusion of control via e-mail that if I want to remove 
a particular Cc: header because I do NOT want them to get a copy of the 
message and then reply, RT just adds the Cc: header anyway and sends it. 
(I think it is generally understood now that this is what RT does after a 
few embarrassing mishaps!)

So, it should either give control, or not, but not add Cc: headers which 
just confuse everything.

Is there a way to get it to just do:-

Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:55:33 +0000
From: Robert Lister via RT <it-projects at rt.linx.net>
Reply-To: it-projects at rt.linx.net
To: IT Projects <it-projects at rt.linx.net>
Subject: Re: [rt.linx.net #18788] Contacts Directory Project

And then maybe add an X-Header or some other footer to the message, so that 
it's possible for users to tell without looking in the web interface, who 
that e-mail was sent to, without actually adding Cc: headers?

Then it will control the number of duplicate messages everyone receives
in various folders by virtue of being on lists.

We tried something a while back, but then RT stopped sending out 
e-mail when somebody updated a ticket via the web interface.

Any thoughts?


Regards,


Rob



-- 
Robert Lister     - London Internet Exchange - http://www.linx.net/
sip:robl at linx.net - inoc-dba:5459*710        - tel: +44 (0)20 7645 3510