Disable system notifications of self-created tickets for agents

Infos:

  • Used Zammad version: 5.4.1
  • Used Zammad installation type: package
  • Operating system: Debian 11
  • Browser + version: Firefox 102.10.0esr

Expected behavior:

  • When an agent creates a ticket via email (e.g. forwarding a request) he should not get a system notification about the ticket creation.

Actual behavior:

  • If the agent has enabled email notifications for new tickets of which he is the owner, he gets a system notification about the ticket he has just created via email.

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

  • Create a trigger, with the following conditions and actions:
  • Send an email to the mailbox associated with Zammad - you need to be an agent.
  • The ticket will be assigned to you. But you will also get a system notification about the ticket creation, which is not needed.

Background info:

  • Sometimes users send us requests to our personal mailbox (instead of Helpdesk). Therefore, we forward these concerns to Helpdesk.
  • Sometimes when we are on the move and don’t have access to Zammad’s web UI, we (agents) send requests via email to helpdesk.
  • Agents who create tickets via e-mail thus have to take care of the created ticket anyway, which is why it is automatically assigned to the creating agent. But notifications about the ticket I just created via forwarding an email are unnecessary.
  • In the admin settings, there is a function for automatic assignment - however, the agent receives a notification in this case as well. In addition, agents who have activated the notification for unassigned tickets will also receive this notification (the ticket is apparently initially considered unassigned - it is displayed as unassigned in the notification mail).
  • You could just disable the notification in profile :arrow_right: notifications. But then you also wouldn’t get a notification if someone creates a ticket and sets you as the owner.

The main issue is that your agents forward the mail instead of bouncing it.
Forwarding replaces the sender information with the information of the user that forwards the mail - bouncing keeps the original header in tact. Thus Zammad can’t even detect the customer correctly.

If bouncing is no option you have two options:

  • teach your customers that they shouldn’t send to private mailboxes and clearly communicate “they’re deleted unseen - you won’t get help”

    -or- (the more friendlier way)

  • forward the mail to Zammad with the “reply-to” header in place.
    This together with the correct Sender based on Reply-To header setting will set the reply-to content as customer and your issue immediately is solved.

    Also solves the issue of the wrong customer and reply action address being set.

    See: Settings — Zammad documentation

The users should, of course, send the mail to the helpdesk-adress.
But unfortunately we can not force this - also the users still have to get used to it.

Because the agent would be set as the customer I have created a trigger, which changes the customer to a specific customer, if the mail sender is an agent. If this specific customer is used, the ticket attributes state, priority and owner are locked with the help of core workflows. This way the agents are “forced” to correct the customer attribut.

Sometimes the agents send mails via their own mail adress and take helpdesk in copy. This is done, because you don’t want to send Mails with your helpdesk-adress eg. to providers - but you still want your ticket to be up to date. So if I update a ticket I own via mail and have the mail notifications about ticket updates turned on, I will get a notification about my update.

I think this is more of a feature request.

Don’t ignore my second point, it will actually ease some pain in my opinion.
Also it obsoletes the trigger you’re talking about.

We solved that problem by integrating the Exchange Mailboxes of our Agents into Zammad, and chosed the folder /tickets to crawl.

If a customer sends me something that should be a ticket, I just move the mail to that folder. Zammad acts if the customer had used the correct way, creates a ticket for the correct customer and sends him/her a notification.

@MrGeneration Thank you for your reply.
Sorry, I didn’t mentioned it. I’ve tried out the possibility with the “reply-to” header. But I don’t think our agents would do it that way, because they wouldn’t keep it in mind. The result would be a lot of tickets with wrong customer attributes. I would like to avoid that. With the trigger/core workflow option I can force to correct the customer attribute.


Nevertheless the “reply-to” header won’t fix the following:

The subject of such emails contains the ticket hook, of course.


@bur Thanks for the idea. But we have more than 15 agents and because of this I don’t think it’s the way we should do it.

Yes it is some work adding 15 Mailboxes, but should not be more than 15 Minutes if you have an exchange or 365 Server. For us, it is definitively the best way. Even in Outlook Mobile its just 2 Clicks to make a ticket from an email with every correct setting.