NAME

RT::Extension::AwayMode - Automatically hand off tickets while an owner is away

DESCRIPTION

This extension lets any user flag themselves as "away" (on holiday, out of office, ...) on their own Preferences page, optionally scoped to a start and/or end date. While a user's away flag is active, any new reply (Correspond transaction) from someone else on a ticket they own causes the ticket to be reassigned to Nobody, with an internal comment explaining why. Because unowned tickets are visible to the whole queue/team, this ensures tickets aren't silently stuck waiting on someone who is on holiday.

Replies written by the away owner themselves don't trigger the handoff: if they are answering the ticket, they are clearly still working on it, so it stays assigned to them.

While their away flag is active, the user also sees a prominent warning banner on every page of RT, reminding them (and anyone looking over their shoulder) that Away Mode is on.

Users who left on holiday without setting the flag themselves aren't stuck: an administrator can set (or clear) away mode on anyone's behalf from that user's admin page.

RT VERSION

Works with RT 6.0.3.

INSTALLATION

perl Makefile.PL

make

make install

May need root permissions.

make initdb

Only run this the first time you install this module.

If you run this twice, you may end up with duplicate scrips.

Edit your /opt/rt6/etc/RT_SiteConfig.pm

Add this line:

Plugin('RT::Extension::AwayMode');

Clear your mason cache

rm -rf /opt/rt6/var/mason_data/obj

Restart your webserver

CONFIGURATION

Users manage their own away status from Settings -> Away Mode (/Prefs/AwayMode.html): a checkbox to enable away mode, and optional start/end dates. With no dates set, away mode applies for as long as the checkbox stays on. With dates set, away mode is only active while today falls within the (inclusive) start/end range.

Administrators can do the same for any other user from Admin -> Users -> (select a user) -> Settings -> Away Mode (/Admin/Users/AwayMode.html), which is useful when somebody leaves without setting the flag themselves. That page requires the AdminUsers right (on top of the ShowConfigTab right RT already requires for the whole /Admin/ area) and writes exactly the same preference the self-service page does, so the two stay interchangeable.

METHODS

IsAwayForPrefs

Pure logic, independent of RT, so it can be unit tested without an RT installation. Takes the stored AwayMode preference hashref (as produced by the /Prefs/AwayMode.html page: { Enabled => 0|1, StartDate => 'YYYY-MM-DD'|'', EndDate => 'YYYY-MM-DD'|'' }) and an optional "today" in YYYY-MM-DD form (defaults to the current local date). Returns true if away mode is currently active for those preferences.

Both StartDate and EndDate are optional and, when present, are inclusive bounds.

IsUserAway

Takes an RT::User object, loads its AwayMode preference, and returns whether away mode is currently active for that user. Thin wrapper around "IsAwayForPrefs".

AUTHOR

Christian Mehlmauer

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

This is free software, licensed under version 3 of the GNU General Public License.