How do I capture a reporter's name when creating a Service Desk issue via email?

[Sandra Soucie]

When someone emails us we have Service Desk setup to create an issue. It captures the reporter's email, but not the name attached to the email. How can we have that collected within the issue so that we can respond accordingly?

[Cody Stevens · Accepted solution]

Hi @Sandra Soucie 

As far as I know, the simple answer is no. However I can provide a workaround for it.

The way email requests work depends on the "Customer Permissions" you have configured for the project. If you allow anonymous access, anyone without an account can email in and submit a ticket. If you require the user to already be added to the project, then any user who is added is able to send in email requests.

It sounds like you have it configured with anonymous access since the reporter is an email address. When a user who does not have an account emails in, Jira automatically creates an account with the information it has which is the users email address. There is no way for it to know what the persons name for their first ticket. However, since an account is created for them, you can edit their account by following the below path and you can change their name from their email to their actual name.

You must be a Jira Administrator to do this

1. Press "GG" or "." or Click the Settings button
2. Select or type User Management
3. Navigate to Jira Service Desk under "User Management"
4. Find the user you want to rename
5. Select Edit Full Name

I did notice a weird problem in my testing with this. I had to go into the Project Settings < People and I had to remove the user and then re-add them by searching for their name after changing it in the Admin settings. Any tickets sent in from that user after will come in with the correct name.

I know that doesn't solve the issue for their first ticket. If this is an internal service desk, I recommend creating an account for every user so their name will be displayed.

[Sandra Soucie]

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond! Unfortunately, most of our reporters are one-time only so adding their name after the fact won't help with our response. Sounds like this is a limitation that we can't do anything about. 

[Cody Stevens]

Of course Sandra, I am glad I could help! Unfortunately it wasn't the answer you were looking for but if this did resolve your question, I would appreciate it if you marked this as answered. It helps the community know that this is resolved and it tells them which answer resolved it!