Email Sequence with using AutoCron

rsclmumbai

osTicket (v1.15.1)
I use AutoCron to fetch emails from my pop3 server.
Use case:

My pop3 server has 2 emails received 10 minutes apart from the same sender in the same thread, on the same date.
Upon downloading, OSTicket does not arrange the latest email by time.
In my observation, the most recent email is above the previous one.

For example,

a client replied to my ticket twice on the same day - once at 10:00 AM & then at 10:15 AM
I login to OSTicket at 11:00 AM
Both emails are downloaded after I login to OST
When viewing, the email sent at 10:00 AM is the bottom most.

Is this a known issue?

ntozier

It sounds like an issue.

To alleviate this issue you could:

use cron every couple minutes.

KevinTheJedi

@rsclmumbai

The messages are supposed to be processed in reverse order (ie. oldest email processed first and latest email processed last):

https://github.com/osTicket/osTicket/blob/65ca4e6f2b05bd1ecea109cc46f91cb1dc9df3a6/include/class.mailfetch.php#L950-L953

I would suspect it's an issue with POP or with the amount of emails you're fetching at a time. POP isn't really a good option anyways, I would recommend switching to IMAP + SSL (should be port 993).

Cheers.

rsclmumbai

KevinTheJedi The number of emails isn't many. I have configured IMAP+SSL (993). I will circle back with the feedback in a few days.
Thanks

rsclmumbai

@KevinTheJedi
Okay, so I setup IMAP+SSL & the issue is still the same.
When I login in the morning, all emails downloaded in OSTicket have the same date and time (the date & time of ticket creation in OST).

Ideally, I would expect the ticket to have the date & time of receipt by my email server. That way I can respond to emails that were received 1st using the First In First Out logic.

Also from a tracking standing point, I can never know when did the sender actually send the email. For example, a ticket creator ()or email sender) will call me and say "can you check my email sent at AA.BB pm - it has the most recent logs" - or if a customer has sent me multiple emails with logs, the most recent one has the latest logs for me to review.
This is just an example to indicate the importance for the email receipt date vs ticket creation date.

I know this can be resolved by using cron based periodic downloading of emails but I have other reasons to not use cron.

Does OST have an option to set the ticket date as the date in email headers?

Thanks

KevinTheJedi

@rsclmumbai

Nope, Ticket Creation Date will always reflect when the Ticket was created; not when your mailbox received the email. You will need to modify the code to accomplish what you are looking for.

Cheers.

rsclmumbai

KevinTheJedi
Cool, thanks for clarifying.

ntozier

You can get it pretty darn close with a low POP/IMAP polling time,
You can get it almost real time using Piping.

rsclmumbai

@ntozier
We get a lot of spam and we want to prevent them from getting into OST. Hence we clean up the Mailbox using pop3 checking tool & then login to OST. This way our OST remains clean.

If I use pop3 polling, then all emails will be downloaded in OSTicket. Hence the need to not ose autocron and download emails only when we are logged in.

ntozier

I can understand the rational. I'm not sure that's the best way to handle it, but to each their own. We run email through a Spam Firewall appliance, and also utilize spam filters from our email provider. I can't remember the last time that we got a spam email in our ticket system. On the rare occasion one gets through, we just delete the ticket.

/wanders off to find something wood to knock on