There are numerous bugs with the current CT Mail module (aka casetracker_mail) which need attention before we can have a stable release for Drupal 6. Personally I'm not using this aspect of Case Tracker and am looking to replace how this works in future versions. There has been very promising work in mail2web (now "mailcomment") that looks like a much stronger path forward than reworking CT Mail.

I'd like to know:

  1. Is anyone is actually using CT mail successfully right now?
  2. Is anyone willing to work (not fund, but actually work) on the existing CT Mail module to make it stable enough to release?
  3. Are there objections to removing it so we can finally have a stable release of Case Tracker for Drupal 6

Comments

whiteb’s picture

whiteb commented

We make extensive use of it in conjunction with case tracker for notification of initial tickets and for subsequent updates. Obviously we are still on D5. Case Tracker is the only thing holding us back from going to D6 and frankly I am becoming concerned that there isn't a decent migration path due to all of the changes that I have seen. I wonder how much of our history will succesfully migrate and be useful. If there is a reasonable path then CT mail would be required by us. If not...

Having said that, it seems odd to me that something as apparently simple as CT mail would be holding this module up.

omega8cc’s picture

omega8cc commented

AFAIK CT Mail is not rewritten to d6 and just doesn't work at all. We used it in 5.x and honestly, CT without CT Mail would be useless for us. However I don't see any reason to keep the not working CT Mail in the 6.x version of CT, unless someone have plans to rewrite it to 6.x. For example for ubercart we are using standalone uc_ticket which is even simpler, integrated and enough as an incoming mail gateway for simple helpdesk.

[EDIT] Hmm.. I think the uc_ticket should have the 6.x code useful to rewrite CT Mail for 6.x

bribiz’s picture

bribiz commented

What about using the notifications module somehow? It works great and provides many extra capabilities that extend the functionality such as text messaging, digests, etc.

I believe there's an api for it. There's several modules like Organic Groups that have integrated with it. You can subscribe by author, taxonomy term, content type, comments, etc.

My thought is if you could have CT just create subscriptions using the Notifications API and let notifications handle it. Subscriptions could be created by case or project. With some extra code it could restrict access just like organic groups so that only the right people have access to the notifications they are allowed to see.

jmiccolis’s picture

jmiccolis commented

@bribiz, you can already use notifications with Case Tracker. What you described already works, and in fact this is how we do it in Open Atrium.

What's missing, and what CT Mail provides is Case Tracker specific tokens (which I've seen patches for) and incoming email (which I've heard plans for). I've no doubt that a notifications based system will be where we go with Case Tracker long term. But in the short term, we need to decide to update CT Mail, or remove it. Certainly removing CT Mail will make it clear that we want to move forward with notifications support.

zeezhao’s picture

zeezhao commented

Hi. Please what's the latest on this discussion.

I think using notifications & messaging modules will be good. However, I believe it also needs to hook into casetracker so that subscriptions are setup automatically once cases are assigned, with roles and permissions being respected etc.

jmiccolis’s picture

jmiccolis commented
Status: Active » Fixed

Thanks to everyone for their feedback. I've just removed casetracker_mail from the module! This should pave the way for a new approach to email in Case Tracker that leverages the notifications & messaging suite.

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.

ericdfields’s picture

ericdfields commented

I was using CT mail in a test environment and it was working just fine. Drupal 6 too.

Notifications & Messaging can be a good replacement, but right now I don't see any hooks to to fire off a message to the user whom I've assigned a case to.

I can have the assigner autosubscribe to case comments, which does the job of keeping the dialog going via email. But that initial assignee auto-subscribe is the missing link right now.

Thanks for the great work on this module thus far, btw.

bomarmonk’s picture

bomarmonk commented

I tried to use messaging and notifications to achieve e-mail notifications of cases, but alas, these modules required several other modules and ended up causing WSOD. This seems like a complicated way of achieving something that was simple before. Too bad.