Looking for solutions.. Suggestions

RT Users
1

I’ve been trolling this list for awhile now, and for the most part,
everything I could want and even things I didn’t know I needed, have been
offered up by people on the list. That’s fantastic and everyone deserves a
pat on the back.

Lately I have been getting a bit too anxious and I have started tweaking and
fiddling in hopes of learning enough to make changes on my own. duck

I keep hearing of people who have solutions I need to implement, but they
haven’t contirbuted it to the fsck guys because they are worried about
scrutiny and mockery. Some of these people have contributed code to me
directly and for the most part, it’s excelent code and these guys really
should be sharing this stuff with everyone. Since that isn’t going to happen
overnight, and may never happen, I decided to post a few things I’m working
on that might encourage some development or assistance.

  • Making single-click “Resolve” and “Delete” links available everywhere
    (headers/search index/MyQueues/etc) so that we can deal with spam and
    rhetorical requests. This should be stupid-easy and yet I cannot find the
    code for invoking that action.

  • Assigning a higher priority to tickets that come from certain people
    so that we can handle VIP requests. I know most of you use a procmail filter
    that dumps these requests into a separate queue, which is a simple
    workaround, but too messy for my immediate interests.

  • Making a list of who is logged into the RT web pages and perhaps how long
    they have been idle. This would be really handy when collaborating with
    multiple people on a specific task. I could also use it to tell me when it’s
    safe to restart the server. Even better would be a calendar that lets us
    indicate who is scheduled to work and who is the primary point of contact at
    any given moment. We could add the “whoson” info to that calendar page and
    tie it all in together.

  • A simple list-box style ‘Stock Answers’ that avoids the java popup window
    that the original version uses. Using a list-box should be simple but, like
    most things that are easier said than done, I get mason errors when I change
    anything.

I know I’m forgetting a few things but it’s Valentines day over here and I’m
easilly distracted… :wink:

2

|+ - Making a list of who is logged into the RT web pages and perhaps how long
|+ they have been idle. This would be really handy when collaborating with
|+ multiple people on a specific task. I could also use it to tell me when it’s
|+ safe to restart the server. Even better would be a calendar that lets us
|+ indicate who is scheduled to work and who is the primary point of contact at
|+ any given moment. We could add the “whoson” info to that calendar page and
|+ tie it all in together.

I asked about this awhile ago, and after reading looking over the code,
I’m not sure what an ‘easy way’ to approach this would be.

I guess you could have RT either A) write to a file when a user logs in,
and has their login time. When they logout, update this file.

But the problem becomes when cookies and what-not expire, and
what-not. I know within my origization, not many people actually use the
’logoff’ feature, they either A) just shut down their computers, or
B) just close the browser all-together. How could you then track these
users?

Option B would be to have another table in the database, but this still
has the same problems as option A>

3

I believe that, for a modest fee, Jesse will do anything to RT that you
require… :slight_smile:

Greg Smythe
SysAdmin
Intellstat Communications
WA State Resident-----Original Message-----
From: RT2 Troubles [mailto:rt2trouble@morben.ca]
Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2002 12:32 PM
To: rt-users@lists.fsck.com
Subject: [rt-users] Looking for solutions… Suggestions…

I’ve been trolling this list for awhile now, and for the most part,
everything I could want and even things I didn’t know I needed, have been
offered up by people on the list. That’s fantastic and everyone deserves a
pat on the back.

Lately I have been getting a bit too anxious and I have started tweaking and

fiddling in hopes of learning enough to make changes on my own. duck

I keep hearing of people who have solutions I need to implement, but they
haven’t contirbuted it to the fsck guys because they are worried about
scrutiny and mockery. Some of these people have contributed code to me
directly and for the most part, it’s excelent code and these guys really
should be sharing this stuff with everyone. Since that isn’t going to happen

overnight, and may never happen, I decided to post a few things I’m working
on that might encourage some development or assistance.

  • Making single-click “Resolve” and “Delete” links available everywhere
    (headers/search index/MyQueues/etc) so that we can deal with spam and
    rhetorical requests. This should be stupid-easy and yet I cannot find the
    code for invoking that action.

  • Assigning a higher priority to tickets that come from certain people
    so that we can handle VIP requests. I know most of you use a procmail filter

that dumps these requests into a separate queue, which is a simple
workaround, but too messy for my immediate interests.

  • Making a list of who is logged into the RT web pages and perhaps how long
    they have been idle. This would be really handy when collaborating with
    multiple people on a specific task. I could also use it to tell me when it’s

safe to restart the server. Even better would be a calendar that lets us
indicate who is scheduled to work and who is the primary point of contact at

any given moment. We could add the “whoson” info to that calendar page and
tie it all in together.

  • A simple list-box style ‘Stock Answers’ that avoids the java popup window
    that the original version uses. Using a list-box should be simple but, like
    most things that are easier said than done, I get mason errors when I change

anything.

I know I’m forgetting a few things but it’s Valentines day over here and I’m

easilly distracted… :wink:

rt-users mailing list
rt-users@lists.fsck.com
http://lists.fsck.com/mailman/listinfo/rt-users

4

|+ I believe that, for a modest fee, Jesse will do anything to RT that you
|+ require… :slight_smile:

heheh. yes. email sales@bestpractical.com for rates.

-darrin

5

Unfortunately the modest ammounts our organization has to offer Jesse isn’t
enough to make it worth his time to even discuss support issues letalone
approach the issues. We have discussed support with Jesse, and suggested a
few ways to help support RT but I’m afraid the ammount of money we were
suggesting wasn’t remotely interesting compared to what other people are
offering. The good part is that RT does more for us than any free soultion so
if we can’t do everything with RT we’ll just add other software solutions to
the servers to fill in the gaps. There was a fear that we would be forced
towards a much more simple system due to some of the issues we have created
within our RT environment. I think with me contributing some personal time
and the continued support of this list we won’t have to resort to using
simple software that would create more problems in the long run. Also by
trying to implement addons that may increase the value of RT, we are helping
to contribue anyways.

So I apprecaite the suggestion Greg, but we are somewhat forced to find
solutions on our own until we can find a way to return some profit.On February 14, 2002 01:11 pm, you wrote:

I believe that, for a modest fee, Jesse will do anything to RT that you
require… :slight_smile:

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Greg Smythe
SysAdmin
Intellstat Communications
WA State Resident

-----Original Message-----
From: RT2 Troubles [mailto:rt2trouble@morben.ca]
Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2002 12:32 PM
To: rt-users@lists.fsck.com
Subject: [rt-users] Looking for solutions… Suggestions…

I’ve been trolling this list for awhile now, and for the most part,
everything I could want and even things I didn’t know I needed, have been
offered up by people on the list. That’s fantastic and everyone deserves a
pat on the back.

Lately I have been getting a bit too anxious and I have started tweaking
and

fiddling in hopes of learning enough to make changes on my own. duck

I keep hearing of people who have solutions I need to implement, but they
haven’t contirbuted it to the fsck guys because they are worried about
scrutiny and mockery. Some of these people have contributed code to me
directly and for the most part, it’s excelent code and these guys really
should be sharing this stuff with everyone. Since that isn’t going to
happen

overnight, and may never happen, I decided to post a few things I’m working
on that might encourage some development or assistance.

  • Making single-click “Resolve” and “Delete” links available everywhere
    (headers/search index/MyQueues/etc) so that we can deal with spam and
    rhetorical requests. This should be stupid-easy and yet I cannot find the
    code for invoking that action.

  • Assigning a higher priority to tickets that come from certain people
    so that we can handle VIP requests. I know most of you use a procmail
    filter

that dumps these requests into a separate queue, which is a simple
workaround, but too messy for my immediate interests.

  • Making a list of who is logged into the RT web pages and perhaps how long
    they have been idle. This would be really handy when collaborating with
    multiple people on a specific task. I could also use it to tell me when
    it’s

safe to restart the server. Even better would be a calendar that lets us
indicate who is scheduled to work and who is the primary point of contact
at

any given moment. We could add the “whoson” info to that calendar page and
tie it all in together.

  • A simple list-box style ‘Stock Answers’ that avoids the java popup window
    that the original version uses. Using a list-box should be simple but, like
    most things that are easier said than done, I get mason errors when I
    change

anything.

I know I’m forgetting a few things but it’s Valentines day over here and
I’m

easilly distracted… :wink:

rt-users mailing list
rt-users@lists.fsck.com
http://lists.fsck.com/mailman/listinfo/rt-users

6

Hmm… Each authenticated page could write the users name as a file to an
“online” directory no matter what the action is. Every 30 mins a cron job
deletes the files that are too old and in each page/update there’s a script
that looks for the files and displays the list of people online with the last
update time expressed as an idle value. Ofcourse the logoff option would
delete the person’s file immediately.

I have lots of ideas but I’m very much out of my element without PHP ability.
I really need to find a good tutorial on Mason that will get me past the
sadly confused state.On February 14, 2002 12:43 pm, you wrote:

|+ - Making a list of who is logged into the RT web pages and perhaps how
| long + they have been idle. This would be really handy when
| collaborating with + multiple people on a specific task. I could also
| use it to tell me when it’s + safe to restart the server. Even better
| would be a calendar that lets us + indicate who is scheduled to work
| and who is the primary point of contact at + any given moment. We could
| add the “whoson” info to that calendar page and + tie it all in
| together.

I asked about this awhile ago, and after reading looking over the code,
I’m not sure what an ‘easy way’ to approach this would be.

I guess you could have RT either A) write to a file when a user logs in,
and has their login time. When they logout, update this file.

But the problem becomes when cookies and what-not expire, and
what-not. I know within my origization, not many people actually use the
‘logoff’ feature, they either A) just shut down their computers, or
B) just close the browser all-together. How could you then track these
users?

Option B would be to have another table in the database, but this still
has the same problems as option A>

rt-users mailing list
rt-users@lists.fsck.com
http://lists.fsck.com/mailman/listinfo/rt-users

7

I keep hearing of people who have solutions I need to implement, but they
haven’t contirbuted it to the fsck guys because they are worried about
scrutiny and mockery. Some of these people have contributed code to me
directly and for the most part, it’s excelent code and these guys really

I would love to try out some of this code. If you can, please email them to
rob@myinternetplace.net

  • Assigning a higher priority to tickets that come from certain people
    so that we can handle VIP requests. I know most of you use a procmail filter
    that dumps these requests into a separate queue, which is a simple
    workaround, but too messy for my immediate interests.

Is the procmail filter what is too messy, or the separate queue? If the queue
is what is too messy and you feel comfortable with procmail scripts, the
enhanced mailgate has the ability to set priority for you. I bet you could
look at mailgate and enhanced mailgate and add the proper stuff to look at
the from and open the ticket with the proper priority.

  • Making a list of who is logged into the RT web pages and perhaps how long
    they have been idle.

Something which writes to an ‘active’ table with each click of a user, and
then someone could have a ‘watch’ box, whereby each of their own clicks could
show everyone but themselves, and how long it has been since that user last
clicked. You might have to turn off the refresh options on the start page,
or you might find that people are alwyas never more than 5 minutes idle.

This would be really handy when collaborating with multiple people on a
specific task. I could also use it to tell me when it’s safe to restart the
server. Even better would be a calendar that lets us indicate who is
scheduled to work and who is the primary point of contact at any given
moment. We could add the “whoson” info to that calendar page and tie it all
in together.

I think that this is a big job, bigger than the hack that I mentioned above.

  • A simple list-box style ‘Stock Answers’ that avoids the java popup window
    that the original version uses. Using a list-box should be simple but, like
    most things that are easier said than done, I get mason errors when I change
    anything.

I hear you. That mason stuff is boggling my mind. :slight_smile:

rob

8

I would love to try out some of this code. If you can, please email them
to rob@myinternetplace.net

Each person gave me code with a similar disclaimer that it’s for me to try
and “too messy” for contribution. I know it’s hard to separate ego from
effort at times so I respect the decision of the developers. However, if you
reply to some of the people who mention they have found solutions, you will
get piles of code that is actually very usefull and should be public. I must
owe beer and postcards to half the people on this list. :slight_smile:

Is the procmail filter what is too messy, or the separate queue? If the
queue is what is too messy and you feel comfortable with procmail scripts,
the enhanced mailgate has the ability to set priority for you. I bet you
could look at mailgate and enhanced mailgate and add the proper stuff to
look at the from and open the ticket with the proper priority.

The separate Queue was the messy part, we already have a zillion queues and
adding another global queue that everyone has to sort through would not make
me popular. I’ll take a look at the enhanced mailgate, I had no idea it was
capable of assigning priority to tickets.

Something which writes to an ‘active’ table with each click of a user, and
then someone could have a ‘watch’ box, whereby each of their own clicks
could show everyone but themselves, and how long it has been since that
user last clicked. You might have to turn off the refresh options on the
start page, or you might find that people are alwyas never more than 5
minutes idle.

Or just make the auto-refresh action a condition that is passed to the script
so that it is ignored?

This would be really handy when collaborating with multiple people on a
specific task. I could also use it to tell me when it’s safe to restart
the server. Even better would be a calendar that lets us indicate who is
scheduled to work and who is the primary point of contact at any given
moment. We could add the “whoson” info to that calendar page and tie it
all in together.

I think that this is a big job, bigger than the hack that I mentioned
above.

Yes the calendar would almost be a second project in my opinion. Though RT
already has lots of features some people don’t need and it does nothing to
diminish it’s popularity.

  • A simple list-box style ‘Stock Answers’ that avoids the java popup
    window that the original version uses. Using a list-box should be simple
    but, like most things that are easier said than done, I get mason errors
    when I change anything.

I hear you. That mason stuff is boggling my mind. :slight_smile:

rob

The coding is so tight and unlike any of the ‘frilly’ languages I am used
to… Can’t we all just program in Apple Hyperscript ™? duck :slight_smile:

9

I would love to try out some of this code. If you can, please email them
to rob@myinternetplace.net

Each person gave me code with a similar disclaimer that it’s for me to try
and “too messy” for contribution. I know it’s hard to separate ego from
effort at times so I respect the decision of the developers.

Wow, they obviously haven’t seen the code I have been putting on this list,
then, have they? :slight_smile:

The separate Queue was the messy part, we already have a zillion queues and
adding another global queue that everyone has to sort through would not make
me popular. I’ll take a look at the enhanced mailgate, I had no idea it was
capable of assigning priority to tickets.

From the enhanced-mailgate.README:

requestor [+|-]
cc [+|-]
admincc [+|-]
For watcher operations, the operator defaults to +

subject
owner
due
starts
started
resolved
status
final-priority
priority
queue
[+|-]
For keyword selects, the operator defaults to +

Something which writes to an ‘active’ table with each click of a user, and
then someone could have a ‘watch’ box, whereby each of their own clicks
could show everyone but themselves, and how long it has been since that
user last clicked. You might have to turn off the refresh options on the
start page, or you might find that people are alwyas never more than 5
minutes idle.

Or just make the auto-refresh action a condition that is passed to the
script so that it is ignored?

I didn’t know the refresh could do that. What do you do if I am physically
here, but am just watching the queues refresh, not clicking on anything?

rob