This getting started article will help Administrators to configure their email monitors using the TDAdmin interface. The user must have the TDAdmin access or at least access to a ticketing application as an app administrator to set up only ticketing application monitors.
Overview
TeamDynamix can send email notifications to technicians and end users. By default, the reply-to address for these emails is the person who sent the notification. However, the email service lets you have TeamDynamix receive and process email replies. Additionally, another portion of the email service can create tickets.
The email monitoring service periodically checks a folder in an email account for new messages. When it finds a message, it will create a new ticket with email monitors or process it as a reply to a notification on an existing work item with email replies.
Features
- A built-in email reply service.
- Email monitors for Ticketing Applications.
- Email accounts-users created just for email replies and/or email monitoring.
Where to Find This
This feature appears in the TDAdmin interface.
TDAdmin > Email is where the Replies monitor is configured, and TDAdmin > Applications > [ticketing app] > Email is where ticket creation monitors are configured
Where to Start
The following steps are needed to configure email monitors and email replies:
- Create an email account in your email provider and gather the credentials for that account. Within the email account, define a folder for new items, processed items, and failed items. The inbox can be used for the new items folder. It is recommended to have two email accounts, one for ticket creation and one for replies if you are using comment updating. Otherwise, when a user replies to an email, internal log spamming will take place as each monitor will log the messages it skips.
- Create an email monitor service account user in TDX. This user account will be used to create and update items within TeamDynamix.
- Create an email authentication account which will contain the details of the email account and its credentials.
Creating a Local Account in TDX
The email replies and email monitor services enable your clients to submit and update tickets and tasks via email, rather than by logging in to your client portal. These services are linked to a TeamDynamix user account which is used to create new tickets and tasks or post updates to existing ones.
The type of account you need to create depends on which email service(s) you intend to implement:
- Email Replies require a local User record for handling replies
- Email Monitors (for ticket creation) require a local Service Account record
The local account you create will also appear in a feed or comment in cases where a sender's email address is not already associated with a person – a user or client – in the People application.
If desired, you can reuse the same service account across all your email monitors and email replies, even if those monitors and replies are for different email addresses. The account associated with your email service account does not count against your licensing numbers and is available at no additional cost.
You will need to begin by creating a global security role for the account. You will then need to create a similar role for your Ticketing or Assets/CIs Application, before finally creating the user. You will need to repeat the steps below for any applications with which you intend to use email replies and/or email monitoring, like multiple ticketing applications. When your email service account is in place, you can enable email monitoring and email replies on your ticketing and other applications.
To create a global security role:
- In TDAdmin, click on the Users & Roles link in the left navigation, then click the Security Roles link.
- Click the +New button in the Security Roles Display window.
- In the New Security Role popup window, type Email Service or a similar name in the Name field. This will identify it as a security role specifically for the email service.
- From the License Type dropdown, select Enterprise.
- Enable the following permissions:
- In the All section, select View All Accts/Depts and View All Types.
- In the Issue section, select Update Issues.
- In the Person section, select Create and modify individuals in the People database.
- In the Project Request section, select Always Edit Requests.
- In the Risk section, select Edit Risks.
- In the Task section, select Update Tasks.
- Click the Save button.
To create a similar role for your Ticketing or Assets/CIs Application:
- In TDAdmin, click Applications in the left navigation.
- Click on the name of the application that has email replies and/or email monitoring enabled.
- In the left navigation, click the Security Roles link.
- Click the +New button to create a new security role specifically for the email service.
- In the New Security Role window, type “Email Service” or a similar name in the Name field. This will identify it as a security role specifically for the email service.
- In the License Type dropdown, select Enterprise.
- Under the Ticket section, select The user will be able to update all tickets and ticket tasks regardless of type.
- Click the Save button.
To create the TDX Service Account:
- In TDAdmin, click the Users & Roles > Users in the left navigation.
- Click the +Create button in the Users Display window, then click Create User from the dropdown
- For Email Replies, click Create User
- For Email Monitoring, click Create Service Account
- Enter the following information in the popup window:
- Username – An email address that belongs to your organization's domain, such as email-service@example.edu.
- Security Role – Use the Email Service security role you defined.
- First Name and Last Name – Use a name like Email Service (first name Email, last name Service), because this will sometimes show up in feed entries.
- (User record only) Primary Email, Alert/Notification Email – An email address that belongs to your organization's domain which can be the same as Username.
- Do not set this to the address of an email monitor.
- A no-reply email address is preferred.
- Grant the user access to the below applications:
- Assets/CIs – For Security Role, choose the Email Service role you created.
- People (if you want to allow requestor creation)
- Portfolio Planning
- Project Requests
- Projects/Workspaces
- TDNext
- Your Ticketing Application(s) – For Security Role, choose the Email Service role you created.
- Click Save.
Email Replies
TeamDynamix has a built-in email replies service. If this is turned on, all emails from TeamDynamix will use the same reply-to address.
T o configure email replies, you will need:
- Google, Microsoft, or another mail service provider which supports IMAP using Basic Authentication.
- An email address you control that you want to use for email replies, like td-replies@example.edu.
- A mailbox that receives emails sent to that email address.
- A TeamDynamix user account, often called email service.
For details on configuring email replies, follow the steps in the Configuring Email Replies article.
Email Monitors for Ticketing Applications
Ticketing Applications can have email monitors, each connecting to a mailbox just like the email replies service.
You can use any email address to get email into the mailbox. For example, you could create an email address such as multimedia-help@example.edu that delivers mail to an account named mmhelp, and TeamDynamix would only need to know about the mmhelp account.
You can then define rules for email that's delivered into that mailbox. These rules can set the ticket type and other settings for tickets that are created via messages delivered to the mailbox.
TeamDynamix will need:
- Google, Microsoft, or another mail service provider which supports IMAP using Basic Authentication.
- A mailbox with three folders within it, typically Inbox, Processed, and Unsuccessful
- A TeamDynamix user account, typically the same account used for TeamDynamix email replies
For details on configuring an email monitoring service, follow the steps in the Configuring Email Monitoring article.
Logs
Once your email monitor or email reply monitor is configured, the Log tab will show you logs from the email service, which you can use to verify that the service is running correctly.
The logs tab will contain status updates regarding the monitor. This will allow you to verify that the monitor is processing emails correctly and, in the event that the monitor stops or is deactivated, figure out the issue. For example, you may see that the monitor was unable to log in to your inbox several times in a row indicating the credentials may have changed and were never updated in the settings.
The date range picker allows you to filter based on a desired range. You can use the preset options on the right or click on the desired date(s) to filter.
Keeping Email Streams Separated
When configuring any section of email functionality in your BE it is important to keep each section separated from others. Reusing email addresses for any of the functions is discouraged. There can be any number of errors that might occur if you reuse and email address in your system including potential email loops. If you do setup the full suite of email functions you will want a separate email address for every configuration of:
- Email Reply Monitor - Used for email communications on system elements like tickets, issues, projects, etc.
- Outbound Email Settings - Used for SMTP email sending
- Ticketing Email Monitors - Used to create new tickets from incoming emails
Please note you will also want to make sure to avoid using any of these email address for any user objects in your system.