possible to pass variables to frmNewTicket.aspx?

Idea shared by Thalia Oster - 11/16/2015 at 10:55 PM

Proposed

Hi-

I want to create a link in our email campaign for sending my customers to the frmNewTicket.aspx to create a new ticket if they are having an issue with a particular product. So, I already know WHY they'd click the link.

I need to pass (at least) the subject variable to the form.

Is this possible?

Thanks-

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Employee Replied

11/17/2015 at 8:14 AM

Employee Post

Hello,

This is not possible, but you could make each product its own department. So the user can select which department (aka product) they are having problems with and can submit a different ticket template for the different departments. Or you can have each product be a different 'brand' so when they submit the ticket it will be a department inside that brand, so you would know.

Hope this helps,

Thalia Oster Replied

11/17/2015 at 9:40 AM

Bummer..
Unfortunately, we're already utilizing departments and brands, so those aren't viable options for me.

I found this:
https://portal.smartertools.com/kb/a2501/allow-customers-to-submit-tickets-by-email.aspx

So, I configured our ST's POP settings for the brand and department so that All Users (logged in or not) sending email directly to it would create a ticket. I was thinking that in this way, I could create a link in my campaign that will effectively pass the subject to ST and my agents would see it. (e.g. <a href="mailto: help@mydomain.com?subject=my special subject">Contact Us</a> )

But..I'm getting some errors in my POP logs. (I've changed the mail host and address for security)

00:01:46 Starting POP Import Session
00:01:46 Starting POP import for Customer Service Department
00:01:46 [mail.awebhost.com:help@mydomain.com] Connection to 123.123.123.123:110 succeeded
00:04:49 POP3 Monitor - Detected connection block
00:04:49 POP3 Monitor - Aborting current connection
00:04:49 [mail.awebhost.com:help@mydomain.com] Connection to 123.123.123.123 failed
00:04:49 Exception: System.Threading.ThreadAbortException: Thread was being aborted.
at SmarterTrack.HelperClasses.Email.PopDownloadThread.#QJc()
at SmarterTrack.HelperClasses.Email.PopDownloadThread.#PJc()
00:04:49 Exception: System.Threading.ThreadAbortException: Thread was being aborted.
at SmarterTrack.HelperClasses.Email.PopDownloadThread.#PJc()
00:04:49 POP Thread Terminated
00:04:54 POP3 Monitor - Starting new POP3 thread

What causes a response like this?

User Replied

11/17/2015 at 10:11 AM

Seems like the log Detected connection block happens after we make a call to connect and we havent received a response in 5 minutes. Try going back to your Pop settings and clicking on 'test connection' Ensure you have the right encryption, server port, and other data.

Thalia Oster Replied

11/17/2015 at 11:19 AM

Right...it looks to me like the connection succeeds OK, but after 3-5 minutes of not "receiving" any mail, it "detects" that it is being blocked and gives up...

What I am asking is, what response is the mail server giving that ST interprets as "connection block" ?

When I try to test the connection, it times out and crashes my application, but I verified the settings are all correct.

Could the problem be that the mail server is specifically rejecting mail from a domain, but NOT actually responding with anything?

User Replied

11/17/2015 at 12:57 PM

You are right, it does look like it is connecting. "the Connection to 123.123.123.123 failed" is in a catch block so somehow its return value is getting caught somewhere. Maybe its returning null? or something wrong. Are you using your own mail service? If you have the code you could try logging to see what its returning. I am unable to replicate when using gmail pop. I am not sure if "help@mydomain.com?subject=my special subject" will add a subject? Unless your using webapi's or something?

User Replied

11/17/2015 at 1:29 PM

You could always use a custom field too "Select Product" as a dropdown option when the user submits a ticket? And make it required

Thalia Oster Replied

11/17/2015 at 11:37 PM

I got my mail server situation fixed and POP mails are now auto-generating tickets.

That's a good suggestion, but still not quite right.

In our situation, for example, we are sending a campaign to all of our customers whom we know to have already purchased a particular product from us.

We'll ask something like:
"Some customers have reported a problem with the blah blah blah feature on the yadda yadda yadda product. If you've experienced this, please CLICK HERE to report the issue to us."

So...asking the customer to then specify the product and the problem seems really obtuse.
I think the ability for admins to pass subject and message to the new ticket form would make a really nice feature enhancement for the next version of ST.

Example:
<a href="https://support.mydomain.com/Main/frmNewTicket.aspx?subject=blah%20blah%20blah&message=yadda%20yadda%20yadda">

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