JEMHC setting reporter field in Servicedesk for Customers

Adam O'Callagha

By configuring the email settings within the Servicedesk you can automatically create a support ticket for customers (ie users without a JIRA account). When done this way the Reporter field is automatically set as the sender of the email, this allows the customer to create a password for the new account and to view their 'just created' support request direct from a link in the notification email, however if you use JEMHC rather than the Servicedesk inbuilt email interface then JEMHC can create the support ticket and send a customisable notification email back to the sender. This part works fine. However since the support request email comes from a customer (ie no JIRA account) JEMHC sets the reporter field as the default 'JEMHCloud Add-on" user. JEMHC still sends back an automated notification email to the email sender which is fine but the email contains a link to the issue that has just been created and this person doesn't have permissions to view this issue since it is owned by the JEMHCloud user. I can understand that this would work fine for anyone with a JIRA account (as the Reporter field would be set correctly) but if we are talking about Customers and the Reporter field is being set as 'JEMHCloud Add-on" then how can this work?

I have found other articles that talk about this but they all seem to revolve around the requester having a JIRA account, which Customers do not.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Adam

 

Andy Brook

> By configuring the email settings within the Servicedesk you can automatically create a support ticket for customers (ie users without a JIRA account).

They get an account created, its just not got the 'right to use'.

> However since the support request email comes from a customer (ie no JIRA account) JEMHC sets the reporter field as the default 'JEMHCloud Add-on" user. 

Yes, JEMHC doesn't currently support creating user accounts, as JEMH for JIRA Server does. 

> JEMHC still sends back an automated notification email to the email sender which is fine but the email contains a link to the issue that has just been created and this person doesn't have permissions to view this issue since it is owned by the JEMHCloud user. 

Yes, in such a case, you can customize the notification (TemplateSet) to remove the issue links.

> I can understand that this would work fine for anyone with a JIRA account (as the Reporter field would be set correctly) but if we are talking about Customers and the Reporter field is being set as 'JEMHCloud Add-on" then how can this work?

Let me explain some nuances.  JEMHC is a remote addon, using Atlassian Connect to talk to JIRA.  When an issue is created, without a 'known' user associated with the incoming mails sender (I'll come back to this later) , JEMHC will default to using the JEMHCloud Add-on user.  When subsequent comments come in, those comments are also created by the same user.  Now, consider a JIRA account holder (JSD or full JIRA user), when JEMHC creates the issue, it can set the reporter to be that user (reporter is an attribute of the issue) but if you look in the History issue tab, you'll see that the JEMHCloud Add-on is actually creating it.  Whilst that looks ok initially, when comments are made, the comment cannot have the 'reporter' set in this way, and so comments by a JIRA account holder are made by the JEMHCloud Add-on.  Teh inability to act on behalf of a given user is a known limitation of the Atlassian Connect framework and is documented on the JEMHC wiki Common Problems page.  This history and background for this is on Atlassians tracker ( AC-1080 ).

As a result, in this case, there isn't much that can be done right now.

> I have found other articles that talk about this but they all seem to revolve around the requester having a JIRA account, which Customers do not.

As discussed above JSD users do have an account, its just not authorized.  Currently JEMHC requires a user to have been created already, by first registering with JIRACloud.  Dynamically adding users is something JEMHC will do in time, but for the most part, getting users to register first.  I'll see what can be done to speed up getting users auto-created, however its not quite that simple.  Users also need to be listed in the project, from what I've seen so far they get added individually, which seems a bit heavy, so, a group membership needs to be setup, and referred in the Project Roles.

Going back to the setting up of the reporter (at all), currently there is no way in Atlassian Connect to lookup a user from an email address ( AC-1014 ).  JEMHC has a workaround section where additional credentials can be supplied for a user who has the global BROWSE_USERS permission, which JEMHC uses just for user lookup.

Remote Addons face a lot of challenges, what exists now is as best as can be done 'remotely'.  If you want more features / everything now, then converting to JIRA Server and JEMH (for JIRA Server) is a route.  JEMH for JIRA Server has all the user creation / auto-group joining features already.