Question

We have an external ticketing system that is closed (meaning we can't push tickets to it). When a ticket is made in this other system it auto sends a response back via email with all the details of the ticket to confirm it was received.

I would like to be able to parse the email and push the data into FogBugz with the parsed details to the correct Project and Area. Is there any way to leverage the incoming email handlers in FogBugz to do this? I can code up anything needed if there is a way to do this with the API. I am trying to get around doing all the email handling (receiving, deleting, etc) and then using the API to just make the case.

Any suggestions on how I should go about this other than rolling my own custom app that just writes to FogBugz?

Edit: Is there a way I could hook into the email handler of FogBugz?

Example incoming email:

Issue: SCA #6465522 (Oct 30, 2009)
Status: Open
Priority: Routine
Facility: Some Facility Name
Description: Some Process Is Broken
Request Type: Bug
System Affected: Live
Customer Contact: Doe,John (888-555-1234)
Issue Notify: john.doe@someaddress.com (App Name Edits)
Details: Details of the bug would be here.

Edit by Fog Creek:

See this feature request that might cover the need here.

Answer 1

Hi Kelsey,

You should try creating a simple FogBugz plugin if you're using FogBugz 7. The IPluginBugCommit.BugCommitBefore method lets you intercept cases as they're being created, and change their fields (such as project and area). [IPluginBugCommit example] One of the parameters, nBugAction, is a BugAction enumeration which you can check for the value EmailReceive so your plugin only acts on incoming emails.

Answer 2

Well I actually found an easy way to implement this. We are using Exchange 2007 so that made the solution even easier.

Using Exchange 2007 web services, I created a service to poll the folder that receives these incoming emails. It then iterates though the messages and parses out the basic details and using the FogBugz 7 API it creates a new case or closes an existing case.

The hardest part was getting the Exchange 2007 stuff working but once that was done, the FogBugz integration was easy. The FB API is pretty easy to use.

Answer 3

This is possible to do via a plugin, but it is not recommended.

Email is not an authenticated interface. If users wish to perform actions as a FogBugz user, they should use an authenticated interface, such as the web interface or the XML API. If case editing were possible via email, it would open a security hole where a non-user could make changes to a case without permission.