Subscription of Dashboard and Outlook

RT Users
1

I spent yesterday going on and on with our project manager about how wonderful the dashboard subscriptions are, and so we set up her RT account to send her a daily dashboard e-mail. However, when she got the e-mail, it looks terrible - in mine, it looks all pretty like the RT home page, but in hers the blue background is overwhelming with every other line in the list as white. I finally concluded that the most likely issue is that she is using Outlook (I am using Mac Mail).

I know Outlook is horrible with html e-mail support, but I’m a bit surprised that this occurred and that I can’t find anything in the archives referencing it. Is there either;

a) A patch that modifies the outgoing e-mail to work with the limited Outlook html support or,
b) A way to send the dashboard e-mails as plain text instead of html?

Thanks!
Jon Baker
Systems Administrator
Church on the Move
1003 N 129th E Ave
Tulsa OK 74116
(918) 234-5656

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This transmission may be confidential and subject to legal privilege. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, you may not review, disclose, print, copy or disseminate this information. If you have received this in error, please reply and notify the sender (only) and delete the message. Unauthorized interception of this e-mail is a violation of federal criminal law.

2

(11/03/24 12:55), Jon Baker wrote:

I spent yesterday going on and on with our project manager about how wonderful the dashboard subscriptions are,

:smiley:

and so we set up her RT account to send her a daily dashboard e-mail. However, when she got the e-mail, it looks terrible - in mine, it looks all pretty like the RT home page, but in hers the blue background is overwhelming with every other line in the list as white. I finally concluded that the most likely issue is that she is using Outlook (I am using Mac Mail).

I know Outlook is horrible with html e-mail support, but I’m a bit surprised that this occurred and that I can’t find anything in the archives referencing it. Is there either;

I’m also surprised this is the first time that has come up.
Unfortunately I don’t have any solution ready for you.

a) A patch that modifies the outgoing e-mail to work with the limited Outlook html support or,

I haven’t seen anything like that.

b) A way to send the dashboard e-mails as plain text instead of html?

I want to add this feature (
Login ) but
unfortunately there’s nothing that converts HTML to plaintext that both
works well and that we can ship with RT.

I even have a branch in the code with everything done except actually
calling whatever function to downgrade HTML to plaintext.

Thanks!

Shawn

3

I spent yesterday going on and on with our project manager about how wonderful the dashboard subscriptions are, and so we set up her RT account to send her a daily dashboard e-mail. However, when she got the e-mail, it looks terrible - in mine, it looks all pretty like the RT home page, but in hers the blue background is overwhelming with every other line in the list as white. I finally concluded that the most likely issue is that she is using Outlook (I am using Mac Mail).

Jon,

It’d be really useful to see a screenshot here as an example of what’s
actually going wrong. Your conclusion is likely correct, but it’d be
good to see the problem to confirm.

Thomas

4

Sure thing, Thomas,

Here’s a screenshot:

http://files.jdavidbaker.com/uploads/3c93e/bdd17f.pngOn Mar 24, 2011, at 12:33 PM, rt-users-request@lists.bestpractical.com wrote:

On 24 Mar 2011 12:55, Jon Baker wrote:

I spent yesterday going on and on with our project manager about how wonderful the dashboard subscriptions are, and so we set up her RT account to send her a daily dashboard e-mail. However, when she got the e-mail, it looks terrible - in mine, it looks all pretty like the RT home page, but in hers the blue background is overwhelming with every other line in the list as white. I finally concluded that the most likely issue is that she is using Outlook (I am using Mac Mail).

Jon,

It’d be really useful to see a screenshot here as an example of what’s
actually going wrong. Your conclusion is likely correct, but it’d be
good to see the problem to confirm.

Thomas

I know Outlook is horrible with html e-mail support, but I’m a bit surprised that this occurred and that I can’t find anything in the archives referencing it. Is there either;

a) A patch that modifies the outgoing e-mail to work with the limited Outlook html support or,
b) A way to send the dashboard e-mails as plain text instead of html?

Thanks!

Jon Baker
Systems Administrator
Church on the Move
1003 N 129th E Ave
Tulsa OK 74116
(918) 234-5656

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This transmission may be confidential and subject to legal privilege. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, you may not review, disclose, print, copy or disseminate this information. If you have received this in error, please reply and notify the sender (only) and delete the message. Unauthorized interception of this e-mail is a violation of federal criminal law.

5

(11/03/24 13:53), Jon Baker wrote:

Sure thing, Thomas,

Here’s a screenshot:

http://files.jdavidbaker.com/uploads/3c93e/bdd17f.png

That looks pretty bad, but is admittedly not as bad as I thought it
would look.

Which version of Outlook is this?

Shawn> On Mar 24, 2011, at 12:33 PM, rt-users-request@lists.bestpractical.com wrote:

On 24 Mar 2011 12:55, Jon Baker wrote:

I spent yesterday going on and on with our project manager about how wonderful the dashboard subscriptions are, and so we set up her RT account to send her a daily dashboard e-mail. However, when she got the e-mail, it looks terrible - in mine, it looks all pretty like the RT home page, but in hers the blue background is overwhelming with every other line in the list as white. I finally concluded that the most likely issue is that she is using Outlook (I am using Mac Mail).

Jon,

It’d be really useful to see a screenshot here as an example of what’s
actually going wrong. Your conclusion is likely correct, but it’d be
good to see the problem to confirm.

Thomas

I know Outlook is horrible with html e-mail support, but I’m a bit surprised that this occurred and that I can’t find anything in the archives referencing it. Is there either;

a) A patch that modifies the outgoing e-mail to work with the limited Outlook html support or,
b) A way to send the dashboard e-mails as plain text instead of html?

Thanks!

6

Thanks for the comments, Andres,

Unfortunately that’s not going to be an acceptable solution, as the reason we’re wanting to use this feature is to make it reeeeeealy easy for this person to see their ticket list. Even having that extra click would defeat what we’re trying to accomplish. Obviously they didn’t notice that message when they opened it initially.

So, is there any way I can send the dashboard as a text-only e-mail? Or a place that I can define how the html code looks myself?On Mar 24, 2011, at 1:37 PM, Andres Bodhert wrote:

Hey John, I found out about that same issue as well. However when I upgraded to Office 2010 on my PC, outlook displays a bar stating that to correctly view this email I should click on it so it can open it up in the browser. Then it looks like it should. Im pretty sure the email isn’t pulling the CSS correctly from the web server or something like that.

Regards,
Andrés

-----Original Message-----
From: rt-users-bounces@lists.bestpractical.com [mailto:rt-users-bounces@lists.bestpractical.com] On Behalf Of Jon Baker
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2011 1:53 PM
To: rt-users@lists.bestpractical.com
Subject: Re: [rt-users] Subscription of Dashboard and Outlook

Sure thing, Thomas,

Here’s a screenshot:

http://files.jdavidbaker.com/uploads/3c93e/bdd17f.png

On Mar 24, 2011, at 12:33 PM, rt-users-request@lists.bestpractical.com wrote:

On 24 Mar 2011 12:55, Jon Baker wrote:

I spent yesterday going on and on with our project manager about how wonderful the dashboard subscriptions are, and so we set up her RT account to send her a daily dashboard e-mail. However, when she got the e-mail, it looks terrible - in mine, it looks all pretty like the RT home page, but in hers the blue background is overwhelming with every other line in the list as white. I finally concluded that the most likely issue is that she is using Outlook (I am using Mac Mail).

Jon,

It’d be really useful to see a screenshot here as an example of what’s
actually going wrong. Your conclusion is likely correct, but it’d be
good to see the problem to confirm.

Thomas

I know Outlook is horrible with html e-mail support, but I’m a bit
surprised that this occurred and that I can’t find anything in the
archives referencing it. Is there either;

a) A patch that modifies the outgoing e-mail to work with the limited
Outlook html support or,
b) A way to send the dashboard e-mails as plain text instead of html?

Thanks!

–
Jon Baker
Systems Administrator
Church on the Move
1003 N 129th E Ave
Tulsa OK 74116
(918) 234-5656

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This transmission may be confidential and subject to legal privilege. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, you may not review, disclose, print, copy or disseminate this information. If you have received this in error, please reply and notify the sender (only) and delete the message. Unauthorized interception of this e-mail is a violation of federal criminal law.

Jon Baker
Systems Administrator
Church on the Move
1003 N 129th E Ave
Tulsa OK 74116
(918) 234-5656

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This transmission may be confidential and subject to legal privilege. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, you may not review, disclose, print, copy or disseminate this information. If you have received this in error, please reply and notify the sender (only) and delete the message. Unauthorized interception of this e-mail is a violation of federal criminal law.

7

Hey John, I found out about that same issue as well. However when I upgraded to Office 2010 on my PC, outlook displays a bar stating that to correctly view this email I should click on it so it can open it up in the browser. Then it looks like it should. Im pretty sure the email isn’t pulling the CSS correctly from the web server or something like that.

Regards,
AndrésFrom: rt-users-bounces@lists.bestpractical.com [mailto:rt-users-bounces@lists.bestpractical.com] On Behalf Of Jon Baker
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2011 1:53 PM
To: rt-users@lists.bestpractical.com
Subject: Re: [rt-users] Subscription of Dashboard and Outlook

Sure thing, Thomas,

Here’s a screenshot:

http://files.jdavidbaker.com/uploads/3c93e/bdd17f.png

8

I agree and want to know a solution as well. My user doesn’t have Office 2010 so they cant even do that even if we wanted to.

Regards,
Andrés Bodhert

Linux Administrator
FlexTrade Systems, Inc.
111 Great Neck Rd. Suite 314
Great Neck, NY 11021
Direct: (516) 304 - 3660
Main: (516) 627 - 8993
Andres.Bodhert@flextrade.com
www.flextrade.comFrom: Jon Baker [mailto:jbaker@wgm.us]
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2011 2:43 PM
To: Andres Bodhert
Cc: rt-users@lists.bestpractical.com
Subject: Re: [rt-users] Subscription of Dashboard and Outlook

Thanks for the comments, Andres,

Unfortunately that’s not going to be an acceptable solution, as the reason we’re wanting to use this feature is to make it reeeeeealy easy for this person to see their ticket list. Even having that extra click would defeat what we’re trying to accomplish. Obviously they didn’t notice that message when they opened it initially.

So, is there any way I can send the dashboard as a text-only e-mail? Or a place that I can define how the html code looks myself?

9

(11/03/24 14:37), Andres Bodhert wrote:

Hey John, I found out about that same issue as well. However when I upgraded to Office 2010 on my PC, outlook displays a bar stating that to correctly view this email I should click on it so it can open it up in the browser. Then it looks like it should. Im pretty sure the email isn’t pulling the CSS correctly from the web server or something like that.

The email is the same regardless of what mail client you’re using. We
inline everything (CSS and images) for you, otherwise you might have to
teach your mail client how to authenticate against your RT server and
that would be a pain in the neck.

The real problem is that Outlook’s rendering engine can’t handle the
complicated HTML and CSS that we use for search results. This is why it
gives you a link to view the page in a browser.

Shawn

10

(11/03/24 14:42), Jon Baker wrote:

Thanks for the comments, Andres,

Unfortunately that’s not going to be an acceptable solution, as the reason we’re wanting to use this feature is to make it reeeeeealy easy for this person to see their ticket list. Even having that extra click would defeat what we’re trying to accomplish. Obviously they didn’t notice that message when they opened it initially.

So, is there any way I can send the dashboard as a text-only e-mail?

As I said in my other reply to you:

"I want to add this feature (
Login ) but
unfortunately there’s nothing that converts HTML to plaintext that both
works well and that we can ship with RT.

“I even have a branch in the code with everything done except actually
calling whatever function to downgrade HTML to plaintext.”

So: no, but I would love it, and I’ve wanted it ever since the first
dashboard email was generated.

Or a place that I can define how the html code looks myself?

Dashboards use RT’s results-as-table templates directly, so you’d have
to look into paring that down.

One hook you get to manipulate this stuff is the config option
@EmailDashboardRemove, which is a list of regular expressions that will
be used to remove content from dashboard email before sending it out.
I’m skeptical that you’ll be able to get something that Outlook will
render well, though.

A coworker pointed out that perhaps removing the blue background might
be good enough.

Shawn

11

How about loading a special css file when you generate the dashboard
email. This css file can be empty by default so you only have to put a
file within the local path where you can tweak the styles.

-ChrisAm 24.03.2011 19:53, schrieb Shawn M Moore:

The email is the same regardless of what mail client you’re using. We
inline everything (CSS and images) for you, otherwise you might have to
teach your mail client how to authenticate against your RT server and
that would be a pain in the neck.

The real problem is that Outlook’s rendering engine can’t handle the
complicated HTML and CSS that we use for search results. This is why it
gives you a link to view the page in a browser.

Shawn

12

(11/03/24 18:02), Christian Loos wrote:

How about loading a special css file when you generate the dashboard
email. This css file can be empty by default so you only have to put a
file within the local path where you can tweak the styles.

You can do this using the Head callback in /Elements/Header. Inspect $m
for the path (/Dashboards/Render.html) and request args (!Preview).

13

I know all about Outlook’s crappy HTML support, and I hate it as much as anyone. Part of my job is to make templates for various HTML e-mail newsletters that have to display well in all e-mail clients. It sucks, but it’s the way it is.

The unfortunate fact of the matter is that Outlook’s user base is large enough to not ignore, and with other e-mail clients that are increasing market share - like Gmail - that throw away all your header styles, I think it would be well worth it to create a dashboard e-mail that is formatted well for all e-mail clients. I love RT and really want it to be the best option out there for what it does, I think the dashboard subscription is an awesome feature and really feel that it can be fixed to work happily in all the e-mail clients.On Mar 24, 2011, at 2:39 PM, rt-users-request@lists.bestpractical.com wrote:

The email is the same regardless of what mail client you’re using. We
inline everything (CSS and images) for you, otherwise you might have to
teach your mail client how to authenticate against your RT server and
that would be a pain in the neck.

The real problem is that Outlook’s rendering engine can’t handle the
complicated HTML and CSS that we use for search results. This is why it
gives you a link to view the page in a browser.

Shawn

Jon Baker
Systems Administrator
Church on the Move
1003 N 129th E Ave
Tulsa OK 74116
(918) 234-5656

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This transmission may be confidential and subject to legal privilege. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, you may not review, disclose, print, copy or disseminate this information. If you have received this in error, please reply and notify the sender (only) and delete the message. Unauthorized interception of this e-mail is a violation of federal criminal law.