Auto incrementing custom field

RT Users
1

I am looking at setting up the “Workflow” example from the wiki
(Request Tracker Wiki). As part of this we
would like to see a station number created. This station number will
look like ws00000 (for a work station), pr00000 (for printers), etc…
I have a few questions (in order of difficulty I think) about this.

  1.   Can RT provide me with a unique, sequential number each time a

“new machine” ticket is opened?

  1.   Can this counter be kept separate between each machine type

(assuming I have a custom field or some other way for RT to know what
type of machine we are adding)?

a. for instance the first 5 printers would be pr00000 - pr00004
and the first 5 work stations would be ws00000 - ws00004

  1.   Is there a way to override this number and have the count start

from that new point?

a. E.g. after installing the above work stations, we find 3 old
machines and rename them to match the new convention. The next time I
open a ticket in RT for a new workstation it should suggest ws00005
which I will override to ws00008. Following work station tickets will
suggest ws00009, 10, etc…

If anyone has any suggestions or problems with the above please let me
know. If I can pull this off it would be a big coup. We are actively
looking at switching to RT and this would go along ways to convincing
the powers that be.

The next problem (one I will be happy if I get) will be trying to
install a recent version on Linux. Maybe it is just me but, RT is not
the simplest thing to install. Actually RT is easy to install it is all
the Perl dependencies, etc… that are giving me fits.

Thanks for your help;

James

James Alspach
Systems Applications Technician

Shasta County Office of Education

1644 Magnolia avenue

Redding, California

96003
jalspach@shastacoe.org mailto:jalspach@shastacoe.org
(530) 225-0293

IT Hotline: 225-0279

hotline@shastacoe.org mailto:hotline@shastacoe.org

2

The next problem (one I will be happy if I get) will be trying to
install a recent version on Linux. Maybe it is just me but, RT is not
the simplest thing to install. Actually RT is easy to install it is
all
the Perl dependencies, etc… that are giving me fits.

I will let someone more experienced with RT answer your first part… as
for this part…

I must say that installing from the Debian repository, and just
following the docs provided with the RT .deb file
(/usr/share/doc/request-tracker3.4/ in my case) was really painless.
the whole dependancy thing was a none issue. (either it came in as part
of the apt-get or the docs told me to do the cpan install)

REALLY the install of RT was a non-issue. If anything choosing the
right hardware was the hardest part :slight_smile: (I should correct that, Once I
impressed the powers-that-be to use RT, the hardware choosing was hard.
During the “proving” stage I just used an older 1.x Ghz desktop system
that was sitting around)

http://gentgeen.homelinux.org

Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem
your own reputation; for 'tis better to be alone then in bad
company. - George Washington, Rules of Civility

3

I think part of my problem may be that I was trying to install a 3.6
version (for purely aesthetic reasons…it looks much cleaner which is
what I want especially while in the “impress and convert the
non-believers” mode.) I was unable to just apt-get this on Sarge
(contrary to what the install doc said) although this could be just due
to how Xen sets up sarge.

Anyway, I will keep looking into this. I did have a 3.4 install that
worked that I installed 3.6 over top of and it mostly works (it
complains about RT::ticket::Reminders being unimplemented but that may
be just due to the version).
If I get the green light to move forward I will start looking into
either a new install or fixing this one…not sure yet.

Anyway, first things first and that is getting the approval to move to
RT.

Thanks;
James

James Alspach
Systems Applications Technician
Shasta County Office of Education

-----Original Message-----
From: rt-users-bounces@lists.bestpractical.com [mailto:rt-users-
bounces@lists.bestpractical.com] On Behalf Of Kevin Squire
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2007 9:47 AM
To: rt-users@lists.bestpractical.com
Subject: Re: [rt-users] Auto incrementing custom field

The next problem (one I will be happy if I get) will be trying to
install a recent version on Linux. Maybe it is just me but, RT is
not
the simplest thing to install. Actually RT is easy to install it is
all
the Perl dependencies, etc… that are giving me fits.

I will let someone more experienced with RT answer your first part…
as
for this part…

I must say that installing from the Debian repository, and just
following the docs provided with the RT .deb file
(/usr/share/doc/request-tracker3.4/ in my case) was really painless.
the whole dependancy thing was a none issue. (either it came in as
part
of the apt-get or the docs told me to do the cpan install)

REALLY the install of RT was a non-issue. If anything choosing the
right hardware was the hardest part :slight_smile: (I should correct that, Once
I
impressed the powers-that-be to use RT, the hardware choosing was
hard.