[rt-users] "Update Status" and "New messages" feature.

[Stefan Rein]

Hello,

Some isues about this subject while looking at the code of RT 4.0.7.
I didn't find a brief description about this, so I try it myself.

The column "New messages" (UpdateStatus) in a ticket list shows
the arrival of new messages (Replies or Comments) on a ticket. It does not
matter whether the message has been written by a customer or by another RT
user. Only the self-written messages are not counted as new messages.

This "New messages" - attribute applies separately for each RT user.
A new ticket (a ticket creation Transaction) receives no labeling as
"New message".

The "New messages" flag is reset as follows: Click on the posterior part
of the text at the top of the ticket ("There are unread messages on this
ticket (...) jump to the first unread message and mark all messages as seen" )
There is no other way to reset this flag, so the UpdateStatus Column doesn't
make sense without activation ShowUnreadMessageNotifications in the RT Config.

Internal, RT records this information by setting the current user's seen
timestamp of the ticket (in SQL table "Attributes") to the timestamp of the last
transaction of the ticket. 

The "New messages" flag ist fired with the first transaction of type "Comment"
or "Reply", that is newer as the last recorded current user's "seen" timestamp.

Hope everything is correct.

Its difficult to find descriptions about the numerous features of RT.
The RT book is very old. Is there anything else besides requesttracker.Wikia and
bestpractical.com?

Best regards - Steffi.