What is Mail2Bug?

Overview

Mail2Bug is a service that allows you to create a bug from an e-mail thread simply by adding a specific recipient to the mail thread. It also keeps the bug up-to-date with information from the mail thread by adding any subsequent replies on the thread as comments to the bug.

Why Mail2Bug?

Simply put, the idea is to reduce friction and effort. Ever been on an e-mail thread where some issue was discussed, when at some point someone asked you to “Please open a bug for this issue”? Mail2Bug tries to reduce the effort associated with that scenario by allowing you to easily create a bug with all the information from the thread with the simple action of adding the relevant alias to the thread. It also keeps the TFS item up to date with any new information from the thread, making sure that information is not lost and is easy to find by looking at the bug

Another common scenario is for support organizations - for automatically creating a ticket for incoming emails, and keeping further communiations on the email thread updated in the ticket.

Key Features

Creates work items from email threads
- Supports MS Team Foundation Server (TFS) and Visual Studio Online (VSO)
Updates the work item with further emails on the original thread, keeping it up to date without requiring manual copying of that information to the item
Adds attachments from the email to the work item (as file attachments)
Default values for work item fields set by the tool administrator
Work item fields can be overridden with a specific value by including special text in the message body
- By specifying an explicit override (i.e. FieldName:FieldValue)
- By using "mnemonics", defined in the config, for commonly overridden fields (e.g. the area path)
- Based on the current date (useful for iteration paths)
Supports Exchange e-mail accounts, including Office365
- Requires EWS to be enabled
- Requires Exchange2010 or newer
Supports Unicode text

Usage

Once Mail2Bug is deployed and configured, just add the appropriate email address to the 'To' or 'Cc' line of an email to have a work item created for the thread.

You can specify an explicit override in the form of ###FieldName:Value simply by putting that text in the body of the email. This will set the specified field to the specified value.
You can specify a mnemonic in the form of @@@mnemonic simply by putting that text in the body of the email. This will set all the relevant fields defined for the mnemonic. Mnemonics are defined in the configuration by the tool administrator.
You can "link" a thread to an existing item by putting a string of the form work item #1234 in the subject or alternatively put a string of the form !!!work item #1234 in the email body
The actual format for specifying overrides, mnemonics, and append-only threads is configurable - the format specified above is the standard default configuration

How to build Mail2Bug