jb-ticket-merge

Copyright (C) 2019-2021 Jeffrey Bostoen

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Video presentation

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSDZ-6ZxKZI

What?

Summary

Merges any sub class of Tickets.

One Ticket is chosen as “target” ticket.
The agent decides which ticket will be kept as main ticket and which ones will be merged into the main ticket.

The attribute types to be merged are:

• AttributeCaseLog - merges case log entries (sorted chronologically!) + possible append/prepend
• AttributeLinkedSet - related work orders, …
• AttributeLinkedSetIndirect - related functional CIs, functional contacts, …

Attachments may be copied to the target ticket.

Options

• specify which attributes can be merged, which ones are merged by default, which ones are always merged (forced), …
• add callers from merged tickets on the related contacts tab of the target ticket.
  • Use case: this allows Notifications to be sent to everyone linked to this Ticket.
• add description from merged tickets as a case log entry (for example in public_log).
• optional: automatically delete the tickets which were merged

New triggers

Trigger On Ticket Merge Source Processed

• Offers access to information about this one source Ticket (excludes target Ticket!)
• Placeholders: current_contact_id, current_contact_friendlyname, current_date, current_time and target_object
• Use case: inform the caller of the source Tickets that their Ticket has been merged with the target Ticket (and give that Ticket’s reference)

Trigger On Ticket Merge Target Processed

• Offers acces to information about the target Ticket only
• Placeholders: current_contact_id, current_contact_friendlyname, current_date, current_time
• Use case: notify caller and now related contacts on target Ticket that Tickets have been merged and others will now receive notifications too.

Work in progress

• perform actions on target object as well as merged objects, similar to Combodo’s User Actions Configurator.
  • on all objects: apply stimulus (so they can be resolved/closed automatically), set attributes, append log entries, …
  • retrofit from target object to merged objects: copy (attributes), copy_head (most recent case log entry)

Out of scope

These are some ideas which will only get implemented after sponsoring these features:

• merge Tickets into new Ticket instead of existing one
• merge different child classes of Tickets into one
• detailed history track (which log entries, linked sets, attachments, … were merged and from which original Ticket?)

Requirements

• iTop extensions
  • jb-framework - a generic framework shared among some of my extensions

Screenshots

Initial ticket A

Initial ticket B

At least two (or more) tickets should be selected in a list overview.
Then the Merge action can be used.

The selection has to be confirmed.

A basic overview allows the agent to choose the target ticket and which info has to be merged.

The resulting ticket in this example contains all info from both tickets.

This action is also logged in the history of the ticket.

Cookbook

PHP:

• how to show custom iTop pages
• how to add a menu item in the Other Actions menu
• how to add custom triggers (Action and EventNotification)
• use built-in iTop methods to obtain attribute list for a class
• use built-in iTop methods to display lists
• use built-in iTop methods to check user rights
• use built-in iTop methods to prevent malicious actions
• use DBObject::Fingerprint() for various tasks: to uniquely identify objects or look for very similar ones or see if attributes changed
• …