When emails is sent with the same subject line, Jira Mail Handler creates new issue every time

[Navid Mohsenian]

Here is the scenario:

I have configured a mail handler in Jira. 

1. When I send an email it creates the initial ticket. When I "reply" to that email (same subject line), it adds it as a comment to the first ticket. This is the correct behaviour.

2. When I send an email it creates the initial ticket. When I send a second email with the same exact subject (but not reply) it will create a new ticket. This is not the correct behaviour.

The difference between the 2 cases above is that in the first case when an email is replied it adds a "Re:" to the subject line. Whereas the second case does not have that.

Any idea why I am experiencing this behaviour in case 2? Issue is that we have a 3rd party application that sends emails to the mail handler and if subject is an exact match we'd like comments to be generated rather than a new ticket. 

Any feedback will be appreciated.

Thanks

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

No, both of those are correct.  The mail handlers are built to comment when they get an email with a key in the summary that they can match to an existing issue, and otherwise create a new issue.  They're not built to de-duplicate because a lot of users don't need or want that, they rely purely on the issue key.

If you want it to assume that the summary of an issue is a unique identifier instead, then you'll need to find or write a handler that will look at it that way.

[Navid Mohsenian]

thanks for the quick response. When you say "key" are you referring to the issue key for example PROJECT-123. Because I do not include any key in the subject line. So not sure how the mail handler will find and match that.

I'd like to know how the Mail Handler differentiates between those 2 scenarios where in scenario 1 the second email has the subject line of "Re: subject line" and in scenario 2 the second email has the same subject line "subject line". 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yes, sorry, Jira jargon - the issue Key is the project-sequence pair that humans see (your project-123), and the "id" is the numeric unique immutable issue-id in the database.

The mail handlers that ship with Jira do not care what the subject line looks like beyond looking for the (first) issue key it finds in the subject.

Imagine you have an issue with a subject of just "cheese", and a key ABC-123.

You can send more emails with subject "cheese", "re: cheese", "something about cheese" - these will all become new issues.

You then send it emails with "gruyere ABC-123", "re: [ABC-123] cheese", "cheddar ABC-123" - all of those contain ABC-123, so they will be added as comments to ABC-123 (assuming you are using the usual "create or comment" type handlers)

[Navid Mohsenian]

That is interesting. But I can say that is not the behaviour I am experiencing. 

We have set up mail handlers for anyone to report an issue by email. Once issue is created the people on the email thread have no prior knowledge of what the key is. Every time someone replies to the email, a comment is added. There is never a record of the key in the email subject yet comments get added as opposed to a new issue being created. 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I would guess that you are using Jira Service Desk there, which has a totally different mail system, and doesn't use the keys at all.  (Nor does it use the subject)

[Srivatsan Aravamudan]

We are too facing the exact situation Navid has mentioned on this thread. Not sure how to approach this problem

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Are you using the service desk mail channel or Jira mail handlers?

[Srivatsan Aravamudan]

Service Desk Mail channel... 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Ok, that treats all emails that do not look like replies as new requests.

[Simon Wong]

I created a similar feature request here: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSDCLOUD-8463.  Feel free to vote it up. 

[Ivan Nicola Sini]

Sorry in your link (@Simong_Wong) is quote another link that is impossible ti reach

https://getsupport.atlassian.com/browse/JST-532736

Can you help me? I'm facing the same problem.

Thanks

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

It's not a "problem", it is expected behaviour.

The support request may get logged as a suggested change to Jira, but if it is, we'll need Simon to tell us what issue was created - we can't see support requests (JST issues) from other organisations.