NAME
RT::Extension::RepeatTicket - Repeat tickets based on schedule
DESCRIPTION
The RepeatTicket extension allows you to set up recurring tickets so new
tickets are automatically created based on a schedule. The new tickets
are populated with the subject and initial content of the original
ticket in the recurrence.
After you activate the plugin by adding it to your RT_SiteConfig.pm
file, all tickets will have a Recurrence tab on the create and edit
pages. To set up a repeating ticket, click the checkbox to "Enable
Recurrence" and fill out the schedule for the new tickets.
New tickets are created when you initially save the recurrence, if new
tickets are needed, and when your daily cron job runs the
rt-repeat-ticket script.
INSTALLATION
perl Makefile.PL
make
make install
May need root permissions
make initdb
Only run this the first time you install this module.
If you run this twice, you may end up with duplicate data in your
database.
If you are upgrading this module, check for upgrading instructions
in case changes need to be made to your database.
Edit your /opt/rt4/etc/RT_SiteConfig.pm
If you are using RT 4.2 or greater, add this line:
Plugin('RT::Extension::RepeatTicket');
For RT 4.0, add this line:
Set(@Plugins, qw(RT::Extension::RepeatTicket));
or add RT::Extension::RepeatTicket to your existing @Plugins line.
Clear your mason cache
rm -rf /opt/rt4/var/mason_data/obj
Add bin/rt-repeat-ticket to the daily cron job.
Restart your webserver
CONFIGURATION
$RepeatTicketCoexistentNumber
The $RepeatTicketCoexistentNumber determines how many tickets can be in
an active status for a recurrence at any time. A value of 1 means one
ticket at a time can be active. New tickets will not be created until
the current active ticket is resolved or set to some other inactive
status. You can also set this value per recurrence, overriding this
config value. The extension default is 1 ticket.
$RepeatTicketLeadTime
The $RepeatTicketLeadTime becomes the ticket Starts value and sets how
far in advance of a ticket's Due date you want the ticket to be created.
This essentially is how long you want to give people to work on the
ticket.
For example, if you create a weekly recurrence scheduled on Mondays and
set the lead time to 7 days, each Monday a ticket will be created with
the Starts date set to that Monday and a Due date of the following
Monday.
The value you set in RT_SiteConfig.pm becomes the system default, but
you can set this value on each ticket as well. The extension default is
14 days.
$RepeatTicketSubjectFormat
By default, repeated tickets will have the same subject as the original
ticket. You can modify this subject by setting a format with the
$RepeatTicketSubjectFormat option. This option accepts formats in the
same form as formats for RT searches. The placeholders take values from
the repeated ticket, not the original ticket, so you can use the format
to help differentiate the subjects in repeated tickets.
For example, if you wanted to put the due date in the subject, you could
set the format to:
Set($RepeatTicketSubjectFormat, '__Due__ __Subject__');
You'll want to use values that you don't expect to change since the
subject won't change if the ticket value (e.g., Due) is changed.
Since this uses RT formats, you can create a custom format by creating a
new RT ColumnMap. You can see the available formats by looking at the
columns available in the Display Columns portlet on the RT ticket search
page.
rt-repeat-ticket
The rt-repeat-ticket utility evaluates all of your repeating tickets and
creates any new tickets that are needed. With no parameters, it runs for
"today" each day. You can also pass a --date value in the form
YYYY-MM-DD to run the script for a specific day.
bin/rt-repeat-ticket --date 2012-07-25
This can be handy if your cron job doesn't run for some reason and you
want to make sure no repeating tickets have been missed. Just go back
and run the script for the days you missed. You can also pass dates in
the future which might be handy if you want to experiment with
recurrences in a test environment.
USAGE
Initial Tickets
The initial ticket you create for a recurrence stores the schedule and
other details for the recurrence. If you need to change the recurrence
in the future, to make it more frequent or less frequent or anything
else, make the changes on the original ticket. To help you find this
initial ticket, which may have been resolved long ago, a custom field is
created on each ticket in the recurrence with link called "Original
Ticket."
When setting up the recurrence, you can use the original ticket as an
actual work ticket. When doing this, you'll need to set the Starts and
Due dates when you create the ticket. Scheduled tickets created
subsequently will set these values based on the recurrence. Resolving
the original ticket does not cancel the recurrence.
Start Value
You can set a Start date for a new recurrence. If you don't, it defaults
to the day you create the recurrence.
Cancelling Recurrences
You can cancel or end a recurrence in two ways:
* Go to the original ticket in the recurrence and uncheck the Enable
Recurrence checkbox.
* Set ending conditions on the recurrence with either a set number of
recurrences or an end date.
Recursive Recurrences
Creating recurrences on recurrences isn't supported and may do strange
things.
FAQ
I'm not seeing new recurrences. Why not?
A few things to check:
* Do you have rt-repeat-tickets scheduled in cron? Is it running?
* Do you have previous tickets still in an active state? Resolve
those tickets or increase the concurrent active tickets value.
* Is it the right day? Remember to subtract the lead time value to
determine the day new tickets should be created.
* If you set a start date and another criteria like day of the
week, the new ticket will be created on the first time that day
of the week occurs after the start date you set (if the start
date isn't on that day of the week).
METHODS
Run( RT::Attribute $attr, DateTime $checkday )
Repeat the ticket if $checkday meets the repeat settings. It also tries
to repeat more to meet config RepeatTicketCoexistentNumber.
Return ids of new created tickets.
Repeat ( RT::Attribute $attr, DateTime $checkday_1, DateTime $checkday_2, ... )
Repeat the ticket for the check days that meet repeat settings.
Return ids of new created tickets.
MaybeRepeatMore ( RT::Attribute $attr )
Try to repeat more tickets to meet the coexistent ticket number.
Return ids of new created tickets.
SetRepeatAttribute ( RT::Ticket $ticket, %args )
Save %args to the ticket's "RepeatTicketSettings" attribute.
Return ( RT::Attribute, UPDATE MESSAGE )
AUTHOR
Best Practical Solutions, LLC <modules@bestpractical.com>
BUGS
All bugs should be reported via email to
L<bug-RT-Extension-RepeatTicket@rt.cpan.org|mailto:bug-RT-Extension-RepeatTicket@rt.cpan.org>
or via the web at
L<rt.cpan.org|http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=RT-Extension-RepeatTicket>.
LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT
This software is Copyright (c) 2014 by Best Practical Solutions
This is free software, licensed under:
The GNU General Public License, Version 2, June 1991