Looking for the linear ticket number (id)

[christianf]

I can't seem to find a way to reference the actual ticket by number. I saw the thread about adding the ticket number back to the subject, but this is not what I am looking for.

The ticket number is useful for putting in emails, instant messages, or leaving in the order history notes in e-commerce systems.

Is there a way to view the number and to pull up a ticket by number?

[Hildy]

If you want the actual database id displayed instead of or in addition to the ticket mask (what's called "Ticket ID" at the top of the ticket display page), edit cerb4/plugins/cerberusweb.core/templates/display/index.tpl.php. Lines 12-14 are that first row of data. To add the id, just copy on of those rows and change the reference to $ticket->id.

[christianf]

Thanks Dan.

I have the number displaying now. However, what can I do with the ticket->id once I have it? There is no option in the drop down search. i.e. if someone knows the database id from an email, how can they get to that ticket (search)?

Why the apparent reliance on "Ticket ID" (mask) for agents? I'm sure it is great for proper email threading, however, it is a usability nightmare. Even in a huge ticket system, the database id can easily be repeated verbally or in an email up to 10 million tickets, because it is just like a phone number. Also, the new "Ticket ID" is ill-named as "Ticket Code" or "Ticket Guid" would be better suited for such a monstrous string of characters.

Can we please go back to "Ticket Number" (database id) for the agent's UI, just like the previous versions. I'm fine with dropping it from the customer facing correspondence. However, we need to tell someone "Please look at ticket 15607". Try to doing this with a string like "IJD-11821-666 " is abominable and co$tly by slowing down basic ticket lookup by 20-30 seconds per lookup. Do this several times and you have lost minutes with basic productivity on a single ticket.

I am so confused why WGM continues to drop features that are core to usability, only to add them back after customer outrage.

PS you should be using <strong> instead of <b>

[Hildy]

Christianf,
There are many very good reasons not to default to using sequential ids (several of which are detailed in the article below). If you want to have a simpler mask, that's an easy code change; please see http://cerberusweb.com/kb/article/000015

[christianf]

Dan,

That link talks about linear ID's being an issue for customer facing emails and systems.

PLEASE RE-READ MY CONCERNS.

My issue is with internal (agent) use. The mask hack offers little options to get a reasonable string that can be used for quick relay of information. Linear ID's are also useful because you can also instantly tell the order in which a customer sent in tickets.

Please make the linear ID's available to the agent side. It hurts noone (is not revealed to end customer), costs nothing to implement, and only helps the people that have systems and processes already setup after YEARS of using ticket numbers.

This is completely frustrating, and I am ready to rip my hair out.

[jstanden]

Hey there,

Linear ID's are also useful because you can also instantly tell the order in which a customer sent in tickets

I think that's a bizarre rationalization for adding back incremental IDs. The 'Created' column does the exact same thing much more logically.

You know about 'customize' on the blue bar of a ticket list, right? ;)

However, I have to agree with:
It hurts noone (is not revealed to end customer) [and] costs nothing to implement,

Alright, I just added "ID" as a possible ticket column and search criteria. It won't be a default anywhere, but you can customize your ticket lists. It's revision 486 in Subversion.

[christianf]

The ID in search is a great start but that number is not displayed anywhere That I can find. ID as an option in the bluebar columns would be fabulous. I can hack the ID into the .tpl per that link, however, I would advise using "Mask" everywhere for the mask (currently Mask and ID are intermingled in verbage), so the ticket top looks like:

Team: Support Bucket: Inbox Ticket Mask: TLSI-2588 ID: 10978

Also, the "Advanced Options" -> ( Goto Ticket ) [_______] in 2.7 we used constantly.

Ticket numbers for us are just as important for us as order numbers. We use them a LOT for internal communications, never with the customer.

[jstanden]

Hey there.

In the blue bar click "customize". ID is an option there.

We can consider adding this to the ticket display screen. In the meantime you can just tweak the template in cerb4/templates/display/index.tpl.php

Currently the GUI will let you use IDs or masks interchangeably in the /cerb4/display/MASK-12345 URL.